Representation of Sustainability Competencies in Early Childhood STEM/STEAM Research: Systematic Review

Early childhood STEM/STEAM studies often report problem solving, creativity, collaboration, inquiry, and participation, but these outcomes are not necessarily evidence of sustainability competence. This systematic review mapped sustainability-related representation across 142 empirical studies published from 2021 to 3 August 2026. The corrected initial search of five databases retained 79 studies. A complementary update used the same databases and search backbone, adding early-childhood synonyms and a parallel explicit-sustainability block, and contributed 63 studies. Framework-guided synthesis distinguished child competencies/outcomes from contextual, pedagogical, practice, and policy indicators and classified study-level representation as General (G), Contextualized (C), or Explicit (E). Seventy-five studies were General only, 47 Contextualized, and 20 Explicit. Cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes were common but usually general, whereas environmental and cultural/social codes were less frequent and more often contextualized or explicit. A sensitivity set of 86 studies meeting four or five applicable Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) criteria retained the near-balanced G versus C/E pattern (41 vs. 45). Because the review mapped representation rather than intervention effects, the findings support a qualified, not automatic, connection between early childhood STEM/STEAM and sustainability education.