Children’s have the right to express themselves and to have their voices considered in decision-making (United Nations, 1989). Children’s participation, considered most meaningful when rooted in their everyday lives, is recommended from the earliest years and described as an indicator of early childhood education (ECE) settings’ quality (Sheridan, 2007, United Nations, 1989). Moreover, participation is considered an investment in children’s development and well-being (Council of Europe, 2017; Sandseter & Seland, 2016). However, little is known on how and under which mechanisms, teacher practices and teacher-child interactions are associated with children’s socio-emotional development. Aiming to fill in these gaps, we conducted two studies, aiming to investigate associations between (a) self-reported and observed ECE teachers’ participation practices, observed teacher-child interactions, and children’s self-concept and social skills, mediated by children’s perceptions of participation, and (b) observed ECE teachers’ participation practices, observed teacher-child interactions, and the quality of children’s friendships, moderated by dosage. Participants were 336 children (163 boys), aged between 42 and 76 months (M = 60.14, SD = 7.86), from 58 ECE classrooms in the Lisbon area, Portugal, and their lead teachers. Multilevel mediation and moderation analysis, respectively, were performed. The main findings suggest (i) positive associations between observed participation practices and children’s self-concept, mediated by children’s perceptions of participation; (ii) positive associations between observed teacher-child interactions’ quality and the quality of children’s friendships (involvement), moderated by dosage, and (iii) negative, significant associations between observed participation practices and the quality of children’s friendships (conflict), moderated by dosage. Important implications will be discussed, for research, practice, and policymaking.

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Child participation,early childhood education,participation practices,teacher-child interactions’ quality,socio-emotional development