The first years of life comprise a critical period for social-emotional development that has implications for lifelong outcomes. One factor that is thought to impact infant socialemotional development is parenting behavior and practices, such as reading to, singing to, and playing with their child. In this study we examine the situation of parenting practices and infant social-emotional development among a sample of 1,350 infants aged 18-30 months in rural Shaanxi Province, China. Our results show that few parents engage in positive parenting behaviors and social-emotional developmental delays are prevalent among our sample. Our multivariate analysis finds that this high prevalence of social-emotional delay is correlated with this lack of positive parenting behavior. Descriptive analysis suggests that the deficit of positive parenting behaviors may be related to a lack of reliable information on parenting. We suggest that the Chinese government take steps to improve access to information on parenting practices in order to improve the developmental outcomes of infants and young children in rural areas.

Keywords: parenting; social-emotional; infant development; rural China