Background: Early childhood educators are attachment figures for babies and play an important role in emotion socialization. This study aims to analyze the role of educators as emotional socializers and its relationship with infants’ social competence and attachment security, considering various characteristics of educators (age, years of experience, level of knowledge of development and parenting) and the context (day-care center–family communication). Methods: 563 infants attending day-care centers (age: M = 25.98 months SD = 5.41) and their 223 early childhood educators (age: M = 42.61 SD = 11.02) took part in this study. The educators completed: CEESQ—Crèche Educator Emotional Style Questionnaire, Information Sources Questionnaire, two sub-scales of KIDI—Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory, QRS-F—Questionnaire on the Relationship between Services and Families, QPI—Questionnaire on Peer Interactions, and AQS—Attachment-Q-Sort. Results: Results showed that the educator’s coaching style has a relationship with attachment security and social skills and is positively correlated with the educators’ emotional self-efficacy and with the level of communication between day-care centers and families, while the correlation with knowledge of parenting is weak. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of enhancing not only educators’ knowledge about educative strategies, but above all their emotional competence to promote children adaptation to day-care centers.

Research on the effects of nursery school attendance still presents divergent results: a possible explanation is that the effects of child care on development outcomes can be modulated by individual characteristics, such as gender or temperament. In the present study, gender differences in nursery adaptation (evaluated by social skills and behavioural problems) have been explored: participants are 525 toddlers, attending 32 nursery schools with similar levels of quality in a large city in northern Italy. Associations with age of enrolment, hours of attendance and child temperament have also been analyzed. Results indicate that males are more vulnerable than females: spending more time in the nursery increases the risk of behavioural problems in males but not in female, and an early enrolment (under one year of age) results in greater relational skills only for females. Difficult temperamental traits are also associated with behavioural problems with gender-specific aspects. Educational implications are discussed.

The psychosocial adaptation of children born or experiencing their early years during the COVID-19 pandemic remains uncertain. In order to implement prevention strategies, it is, therefore, a priority to deeply analyze children’s mental health in this post-pandemic phase and to identify family risk and protective factors. Indeed, recent studies reveal that children’s emotional distress increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in situations of high parental stress. The study investigates associations between some parental characteristics (coping strategies, parental burnout, resilience, perception of social support, and promotion of children’s social-emotional competence) and children’s emotional symptoms, considering gender differences. A total of 358 parents of children aged 2 to 6 years participated in this study. Regression analyses show that parental burnout is a predictor of emotional symptoms; moreover, for females, higher levels of emotional symptoms are associated with parental maladaptive coping strategies, whereas for males, the parent’s ability to promote children’s emotional competence is a protective factor. Results emphasize the importance of supporting parental well-being as a critical factor in shielding children from the repercussions of adverse situations.

Gli stereotipi di genere condizionano, sin dalla scolarizzazione di base, atteggiamenti, preferenze e impegno nei confronti delle diverse materie scolastiche: quelle scientifiche e tecnologiche vengono etichettate come più confacenti ai maschi, mentre le materie umanistiche sono considerate più "da femmine". Numerosi studi dimostrano che tali stereotipi influenzano le scelte formative e gli esiti scolastici dei ragazzi e delle ragazze e sono responsabili di meccanismi di segregazione formativa e professionale che distinguono nettamente tra percorsi di studio e mestieri adatti agli uomini e alle donne. La letteratura evidenzia inoltre come sia di primaria importanza attuare programmi sociali ed educativi di contrasto alle disuguaglianze di genere nelle opportunità formative e di successo scolastico, sia per i maschi sia per le femmine, come dimostrato dai dati sull'abbandono scolastico e sui giovani Neet.