Physical and mental development patterns of preschool children from ethnic minority groups in Guangxi

The construction of psychological development cohorts for ethnic minority groups, each with their unique historical cultures and traditional customs, offers an appealing direction for future research aimed at establishing large-scale cohorts for brain and intelligence cohorts. The psychological development of preschool children (aged 3 to 6 years) lays the foundation for their lifelong learning and substantially influences their academic achievement, emotional regulation, and social adaptation. Accordingly, this study created a cohort to examine the characteristics of psychological development among minority preschool children in Guangxi. Through online methods, the study employed the Preschool Children Development Assessment Scale to collect data on five domains of psychological development: Exploration and cognition, social behavior and emotions, language and communication skills, aesthetics and performance abilities, and health and physical fitness. The results revealed that the children exhibited higher levels of development in cognition and exploration (median=4.03) and aesthetics and performance (median=4.02) than they did in sociality and emotion (median=3.89), language and communication (median=3.81), and health and physical fitness (median=3.58). Overall, girls exhibited higher levels of development than boys did in language and communication (W=7.58x10(7), P<0.001, Cliff's delta=0.14) and in aesthetics and performance (W=6.55x10(7), P<0.001, Cliff's delta=0.16). Furthermore, the study observed significant grade-level differences in health and physical fitness, with younger classes outperforming middle and older classes (H=4562.91, P<0.001, eta(2)=0.15). Among children from 12 ethnic minority groups, those from the Longsheng Ge, Dahua Yao, and Bama Yao ethnic groups exhibited relatively high levels of psychological development. The study also observed gender differences in the psychological development of preschool children from these ethnic minority backgrounds. In summary, this study demonstrates the characteristics of psychological development among preschool children from ethnic minority groups in Guangxi. It derived preliminary insights into and examined the feasibility of establishing normative models for the brain and cognitive development of preschool children from these groups. This information is crucial for developing ethnic education policies that align with the brain and cognitive development of preschool children from ethnic minority groups.