The "China Family Nurturing Environment Index" is released, using big data to drive the development of family education | Environment | China

As the most important micro ecological environment that affects the physical and mental development of adolescents, the family plays a crucial role in the growth process of children. Therefore, family education has become an important cornerstone for building the future of society. However, with the rapid changes in society and the diversification of family structures, family education in China is facing new challenges and opportunities.

Under this trend, various sectors of society, including the education sector, are striving to explore an effective way to improve the quality of family education and thereby enhance family happiness.

On July 14, 2023, led by the Shanghai Education Association and the China Education Thirty Forum, a seminar on the new paradigm of family education and the inaugural ceremony of the "China Family Nurturing Environment Index" were held. Experts jointly explored scientific and efficient student care solutions that are in line with the current situation of education in China, helping to improve the growth environment and educational quality of students, and truly practicing the educational concept of family school community collaborative education.

"Our traditional family education model has been unable to adapt to the rapidly changing social environment and the growth needs of children." Yin Houqing, president of the Shanghai Education Society, said that family education, as an important part of education, bears the important responsibility of cultivating the next generation and inheriting social values. "We urgently need to explore new family education paradigms and combine digital research results. Update to adapt to the development of the times and the requirements of children's overall growth."

Family education needs more scientific and professional guidance

In China, family education has always been a key focus in the field of education. From the first introduction of the concept of "family education" in the "Provisional Regulations for Kindergartens" issued by the Ministry of Education in 1952 to the official implementation of the "Family Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China" in January last year, the country has invested a large amount of manpower and material resources to improve the quality of family education for a full 70 years.

However, the results are sometimes not satisfactory. In the observation of Ma Guochuan, Secretary General of the China Education Thirty Forum, family anxiety in China has become the norm, "but there are still more students who have not been noticed and are still being 'devastated' by their families."

Why is the problem of family education so difficult to solve? Where exactly are the pain points?

"The biggest problem with family education today is to stay away from life." Sun Yunxiao, Vice President of the China Family Education Association, said that family education is essentially life education, and family education guidance services must be based on life education. Only by returning and creating a better life can family education be the most suitable for children's growth, and it can provide the most favorable foundation for school education and social education.

And He Meilong, the director of the Minhang District Education Bureau in Shanghai, also has a deep understanding of this: "In recent years, there has been a high incidence of school suspensions, dropouts, and suicide in primary and secondary schools. Children who have problems are often accompanied by deficiencies and deficiencies in family education."

In response to the above-mentioned problems, Ma Guochuan believes that attention should be paid to the professional development of family education. "I hope that educators, psychologists, behaviorists, clinicians, etc. can participate together, starting from the'upstream' of family education, and in the family Create a good atmosphere to prevent children from constantly 'down '."

China Family Parenting Environment Index First Release

So, where should scientific guidance come from?

After years of theoretical and practical accumulation, Shanghai Wenxiang Laboratory officially released the "China Family Nurturing Environment Index" at the seminar.

The so-called Chinese Family Nurturing Environment Index is an indicator system used to evaluate the family nurturing environment. It examines multiple indicators such as parental parenting style, family atmosphere, and the resources children receive from the family, reflecting the growth conditions and support level of children in the family environment. The release of the index provides a strong theoretical basis for the development of family education work.

The index shows that the four main reasons for parental anxiety in China are academic performance, personal safety, independent living, and social interaction. Among them, academic performance accounted for the highest proportion, reaching 79%.

In terms of family education methods, strict deterrence, time planning, emotional manipulation, and regulatory control are the four commonly used methods. Among them, strict deterrence accounts for 72%.

"This is the first time in China that a million level collection of data on family parenting environment has been completed," said Chen Binbin, Director of the Department of Psychology at Fudan University. The index helps to reveal the changing trends, problems, and challenges of China's family parenting environment, triggering social attention and reflection on family education.

The release of the index has sparked Yin Houqing's thinking, "In the future, it can provide data decision-making support for government regulatory departments to carry out family education guidance work, and can also provide scientific, accurate, and efficient solutions and action suggestions for the collaborative education of the entire society."

Frontline educators also have high expectations for the involvement of scientific digital platforms in the field of family education. "To better carry out student care work, we must rely on the support of digitization, informatization, and big data. Speak with data and make more scientific and reasonable educational decisions," said Zhong Wenchuan, Director of the Nanhai District Education Bureau in Foshan City.

New Paradigm and Exploration of Family Court Education

As Chen Binbin said, the release of the index is based on solid practical data.

In the experience sharing section of the benchmark area for student care work at the seminar, Wen introduced to the laboratory that in early 2021, it collaborated with Pudong New Area to launch the "Xiangyun Project" family education project. Currently, it has covered nearly 800 schools in the entire region and more than 400000 families have completed evaluations.

In addition, the Wenxiang Laboratory has also supported the "Quancheng Youai · Runxin" initiative in Jiangyin City, Jiangsu Province. So far, more than 200000 families have learned about their parenting environment through the Wenxiang Student Care Solution, and students have been effectively cared for nearly 900000 times.

"This is what the new paradigm of family education should look like." Ma Guochuan said that with the continuous innovation of technology, educators need to learn to use the latest educational scientific research results, combined with cutting-edge digital technology, "to use artificial intelligence and big data to promote the development of family education, and provide more comprehensive and personalized educational support for children."

At the end of the seminar, Ma Guochuan also proposed to collaborate with the Wenxiang Laboratory to develop a compilation plan for the "2024 China Family Education Blue Book", which will focus on the index and analysis of family nurturing environment.

Ma Guochuan hopes that through the Blue Book, society, the education industry, and families can enhance their new understanding of family education. "The future of family education is that we need to make every child brave enough to be an ordinary person."