NYU Shanghai CASER has successfully completed the Early Childhood Education and Development Study survey (SEEDS) project, partly funded by a subaward from the US National Science Foundation (1756738) via the University of Pennsylvania. The project spanned from May 2021 to July 2024, lasting over three years.

The SEEDS project was initially planned for implementation in Shanghai. However, due to the disruption of the COVID-19, the NYU Shanghai research team quickly adapted to the uncertainties and found an alternative plan to conduct the data collection. Overall, the study successfully surveyed close to 9,000 main caregivers of preschool children aged 2-6 from 52 randomly selected kindergartens, including 416 classes, in three districts representing both central and suburban areas of a comparable city in the Yangtze River Delta, with a completion rate of 84.3%.

Throughout the project, in collaboration with the UPenn research team, CASER organize two research workshops on child development, respectively, on Dec 2, 2022, and Feb 10, 2023. Selected papers presented in the workshops have been recently published in two special issues of the Chinese Sociological Review.

To celebrate the successful completion of the data collection project, the NYU Shanghai CASER research team accepted an invitation from two distinguished professors at UPenn: Emily Hannum, Stanley I. Sheerr Term Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology, and Jere R. Behrman, WR Kenan Jr Professor of Economics & Sociology. The team paid a 3-day visit to the Population Studies Center at University of Pennsylvania from March 27-29, 2024, and participated in the Research Workshop on “Environmental Contexts of Childhood in China”, followed by the close-door meeting on data analyses and preliminary findings from the collaborative research project.

The research themes at CASER encompass education and human development, gender and family, as well as inequality and poverty. A focal point that bridges these themes is the study of early childhood development and inequality. In collaboration with the China Welfare Institute Development Research Center, CASER has released its first joint research achievement: the Blue Book on Chinese Family Education and Child Development. We will continue to explore these issues and share our research findings in the coming years.