Using administrative data on the Chinese National College Entrance Examination, we study how left-digit bias affects college applications. We find strong discontinuities in students' admission outcomes at 10-point thresholds. Students with scores just below multiples of 10 make more conservative college application choices that place them into less selective colleges and majors. In contrast, students who score at or just above multiples of 10 aim and achieve higher but are at greater risk of overshooting. The discontinuity reveals that, despite the educational and labor market consequences, students' self-evaluation based on exam scores is subject to information-processing heuristics.

The literature has shown that cognitive and non-cognitive development before the age of three is associated with children’s levels of development at later ages. However, the extent to which the different pathways of cognitive and non-cognitive development before age three (between 6–12 months and 22–30 months of age) are associated with developmental outcomes at primary school age remains unknown. This study aims to examine this research question using three waves of longitudinal data collected from 1087 children aged 9 to 10 years and their primary caregivers in rural China. Results demonstrated four pathways of cognitive and non-cognitive development between 6–12 months and 22–30 months of age. The four pathways include: “never delayed”, “persistently delayed”, “improving”, or “deteriorating.” Children that experienced either persistently delayed or deteriorating development had lower levels of cognitive and non-cognitive development and performed worse academically than children that were never delayed when they were 9–10 years old. Maternal education attainment, family assets, and whether the child was born prematurely all predicted the child’s entry into different developmental pathways. Findings suggest that early childhood development screening and interventions that aim to facilitate healthy early development among children under three years old are needed for rural China’s young children.

Purpose: Depression is a growing public health concern around the world. For adolescents, depression not only impedes healthy development, but is negatively associated with academic performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevalence of adolescent depressive symptoms in a sample of rural primary and junior high school students. Additionally, we examine various factors to identify subgroups within the sample that may be more vulnerable to depression. Finally, we explore the extent to which depression correlates with academic performance and conduct a series of heterogeneity analyses.

Patients and Methods: We utilize cross-sectional data derived from 30 schools in underdeveloped regions of rural China encompassing primary and junior high school students (n = 1,609).

Results: We find a high prevalence of depression, with 23% and 9% of students experiencing general depression (depression score ≥ 14) and severe depression (depression score ≥ 21), respectively. Female gender, elevated stress and anxiety levels, boarding at school, exposure to bullying, and having depressed caregiver(s) are positively correlated with depressive symptoms, while high social support exhibits a negative association. Importantly, our analyses consistently show a significantly negative link between depression and academic performance, which is measured using standardized math tests. For instance, transitioning from a non-depressed state to a state of general depression (depression score ≥ 14) is linked to a decline of 0.348– 0.406 standard deviations in math scores (p < 0.01). Heterogeneity analyses reveal that this adverse relationship is more pronounced for male students, boarding students, those with lower social support, individuals with more educated mothers, and those with lower family assets.

Conclusion: Our findings underscore the high prevalence of depression in rural schools and the detrimental impact on academic performance. We advocate for the implementation of policies aimed at reducing student depression, particularly within vulnerable populations and subgroups.

Policymakers in China have attempted to improve the quality of rural education by investing in teacher salaries through initiatives like the Rural Teachers Support Plan (RTSP). This study estimates the effects of teacher salary increase on students' educational outcomes in rural China by utilizing the exogenous variations of rural teacher salaries induced by the RTSP. It employs an intensity-based difference-in-differences strategy and panel data from 2010 to 2018 with 3,351 rural children. The findings reveal that an increase in teacher salaries had a significant positive impact on students' examination results. Moreover, the results of mechanism analysis indicate that salary increases could have both quality and quantity effects on students' outcomes by increasing the proportion of highly educated teachers and reducing the student–teacher ratio. Our findings contribute to the discussion on the importance of teacher salary incentives in education production functions and provide insights for other countries undertaking rural education reforms.

Rural girls in China stay in school longer than boys and outperform them in many subjects. This gender gap suggests analogous disparities in early childhood development, a key factor in later educational outcomes. This study examines gender disparities in social-emotional development among 1,301 children aged 18–30 months in rural China. Results indicate that male children trail their female counterparts by 0.18 SD on average on the scale of standardized ASQ:SE score. A large share of the difference is driven by the bottom 10 % of children, where the magnitude of the gender gap (0.34 SD) is 1.9 times larger than at the median (0.19 SD). Demographic characteristics are uncorrelated with the gender gap in heterogeneity analysis, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying observed gender disparities are similar across rural Chinese households.

To examine the association between electronic media exposure and parental language input, Language Environment Analysis technology was used to collect data on electronic media exposure and parental language input in 158 peri-urban and rural households with children aged 18–24 months in southwestern China. The sounds children made and the sounds they heard were quantified. Multiple linear regression and quantile linear regression were used to determine the relationship between electronic media and the outcomes of interest. The results showed that each hour of electronic media exposure was associated with reduced conversational turn count (p < .05) and child vocalization count (p < .05). A large share of the reduction was driven by the higher quantile of children. Reductions associated with electronic exposure were also observed in number of segments and conversational turns. These results may help explain the association between child electronic media exposure and language delay in an under-studied and at-risk population.