The Relationship Between Early Childhood Education Attendance and Mathematics Academic Performance Among Female Middle School Students from Rural Areas in China

This study examined the relationship between early childhood education (ECE) attendance and standardized mathematics academic performance among seventh-grade female students with agricultural hukou in China. Using secondary data from the 2013-2014 baseline China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), the study adopted an observational, ex post facto cross-sectional design. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to improve comparability between ECE-attending and ECE-non-attending students on observed student and family background covariates. After 1:1 nearest-neighbour matching with a caliper of 0.03, 872 students (436 matched pairs) were retained. The reported Mann-Whitney U test showed a statistically significant difference in mathematics performance between the groups (U = 104,651.50, p = .010), with a small effect-size statistic (r = .087). The ECE-attending group had the higher mean rank. The findings indicate a small positive association between ECE attendance and later mathematics performance but do not establish causality. The study highlights the relevance of equitable access to quality ECE for educational opportunity and SDG Target 4.2 while emphasizing the need for stronger longitudinal and matched-sample analyses.