Early social and emotional development is foundational for children’s health, education, well-being, and later adjustment in society. It is also a cornerstone of positive psychology—the exploration of human flourishing at an individual, community, and societal level. Habitual explanatory styles (e.g., mindsets and optimistic thinking) have an impact on human well-being and development and are often acquired during early childhood. These explanatory styles may be influenced by regular interactions with significant adults outside of the family setting. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between optimism, mindsets, and well-being of children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) contexts. This scoping review systematically explores and maps out the literature on optimism, growth mindsets, and positive psychology with young children in ECEC. It identifies literature reporting qualitatively or quantitatively on theory or programs and interventions including optimism, growth mindset, and positive psychology in young children, reporting or implying a mechanism of change for the well-being of young children, and published between 1995 and 2021.

This review concerns how quality in ECEC is thematized and examined in Norwegian research published in 2010–2021. The review contributes to developing relevant professional knowledge and insight into what quality in ECEC is, should be or can be. A systematic scoping review includes 97 empirical studies of quality in the Norwegian ECEC context. The results show an increase in studies addressing quality after the year 2017. Most studies use interviews and observations, i.e., qualitative data. Research based on quantitative studies mainly applies to questionnaires, whereas multi-method designs occur with the third greatest frequency. The majority of the studies are descriptive or explore relationships. A few studies concern method development, interventions or reviews of the literature. ECEC staff and ECEC teachers are the most common informants. Two-thirds of the studies included were published in English, and only one-third were published in Norwegian. Thematically, process quality emerges as the most studied dimension of quality, dominated by investigating the aspect of staff–child interactions. About one-third of the studies investigate structural quality, with most attention paid to the physical environment and the organization of the ECEC provisions. Less research is directed at result (outcome) quality and curriculum quality. This overview contributes to increased knowledge about how quality is understood and used in research, as an essential prerequisite for creating a safe and sound everyday life for children in ECEC.

This paper examines how staff and parents in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Norway collaborate on provisions to promote peer relationships as a prerequisite for inclusion. Data were collected through interviews with parents and staff in four different ECEC settings. The results show that parents and staff collaborate mainly through daily dialog about the child and the child’s interaction in the pick-up and drop-off situations. This dialog is about how the child is doing socially in ECEC. The collaboration also occurs by facilitating shared meeting places where parents, staff, and children are present, usually gathered around an activity. It is about creating a community to get to know each other better. A third form of collaboration is based on staff and parents having a shared understanding and interest in a common focus on promoting peer relationships by supporting children’s social skills and inclusion. The findings show an interest in focusing on the community. However, there is a lack of basic common strategies and systems for promoting relationships between children to create an on-ramp for inclusion. One implication of these findings’ emphasis is the need for further dialog about how staff and parents can promote peer relationships.