Substantial research has aimed to characterise and measure early childhood education and care (ECEC) quality. However, heterogeneity in measures, methods and contexts across studies has made it difficult to reconcile the inconsistent associations reported between quality dimensions and child outcomes. While there is broad consensus that early interactions and experiences may be most strongly and directly influential to children’s developmental progress, attempts to identify aspects of quality interactions that relate most highly to child outcomes have tended to focus on particular measures and/or contexts. The aim of this systematical review was to reconcile the available evidence on associations of dimensions of quality interactions in formal ECEC settings (adult–child interactions and associated context and content) with the outcomes of children aged 3–5 years. Uniquely, this review examined how rates of significance differed by measure, country and study characteristics (e.g. sample, study design, risk of bias) – providing nuanced insights on quality indicators that most reliably account for children’s developmental progress. Seven databases were searched for the years 2000–2022, yielding 90 studies reporting 870 associations of interaction quality with various child development and educational outcomes. Results indicated little evidence for global ECEC quality indices (e.g. those integrating process quality indicators with structural elements) relating to child outcomes. The consistency in patterns of association improved for some dimensions of interaction quality (e.g. supporting play), with other dimensions showing low support even when they aligned with the outcome (e.g. instructional support with cognitive-academic outcomes). By providing an overview and reconciliation of evidence on the child-level associations in ECEC quality, across diverse measures and contexts, this review raises important questions of current ECEC quality assumptions and practices.

大量研究旨在描述和衡量幼儿教育和保育 (ECEC) 的质量。然而，各研究的测量、方法和背景的异质性使得很难协调质量维度和儿童结局之间报告的不一致关联。尽管人们普遍认为早期互动和经历可能对儿童的发展进步具有最强烈和最直接的影响，但试图确定与儿童结果最相关的优质互动方面往往侧重于特定的措施和/或背景。本次系统评价的目的是协调正式 ECEC 环境中质量互动维度（成人与儿童互动以及相关背景和内容）与 3-5 岁儿童结局之间关联的现有证据。独特的是，本综述研究了显着性比率如何因测量、国家和研究特征（例如样本、研究设计、偏倚风险）而异，从而提供了关于最可靠地解释儿童发育进步的质量指标的细致入微的见解。检索了 2000 年至 2022 年期间的 7 个数据库，得出 90 项研究，报告了互动质量与各种儿童发展和教育成果之间的 870 种关联。结果表明，全球幼儿保育质量指数（例如将过程质量指标与结构要素相结合的指数）与儿童结局相关的证据很少。交互质量的某些维度（例如支持游戏）的关联模式的一致性有所改善，而其他维度即使与结果一致（例如与认知学术结果的教学支持），也显示出较低的支持度。通过提供跨不同衡量标准和背景的儿童层面 ECEC 质量关联证据的概述和调和，本次审查提出了当前 ECEC 质量假设和实践的重要问题。