A scoping study of early childhood research in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries for improved well-being worldwide through collaboration and knowledge transfer / ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Research evidence strongly supports the influence of quality nutrition, cognitive stimulation and nurturing care on the extent that a child reaches full development. Reaching developmental milestones results in positive outcomes for individual health and well-being as well as communal stability and prosperity. Interventions to improve early childhood development are not a recent concept; however, the interaction of one early childhood development outcome on others form a complex, often interdependent, relationship. The complexity of a child's development also includes the child's family, home environment, community and national context. The complex and dynamic setting for implementing early childhood interventions requires more than efficiency or knowledge. It requires patience, cultural competency and a compassion to engage and support a child's family, society and nation. Interventions that are effective in multiple cultures or can be scaled up to a regional or global level are rare and usually focus on one aspect of early childhood development (ECD), like protein intake to prevent stunting. Context does matter, and ECD research is dispersed over vastly different political systems and often focused on specific people groups or subcultures. The scope and intensity of ECD research in the world has not been described and is often unknown to English-speaking researchers who are not personally connected by relationship or literacy to other languages and cultures. PURPOSE: The purpose of this scoping study is to answer the research question: "What is being researched related to early childhood development interventions with children six years old and younger in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries?” A scoping study of published, peer-reviewed literature on interventions in early childhood development in English, Spanish and Portuguese was performed to understand the concepts in research on early childhood development (ECD). The thesis presents interventions in early childhood development and their usage in Mexico, Central and South America in particular and also in Europe and Africa because of the Spanish and Portuguese languages spoken there. The thesis highlights risk factors, assessment tools and interventions from peer-reviewed research providing a scope of ECD interventions for this world area. SEARCH METHODS
: Databases searched were related to global health, health sciences, nursing and allied health, psychology and education. They were Global Health, Embase, Medline with PubMed e-ahead of print, PsycInfo, CINAHL, ERIC, LILACS and IBECS. The search strategy and data collection was guided by the research question to be thorough and methodical. Exclusion criteria were utilized to screen more than seven hundred articles to retrieve eighty-six articles that included the correct populations, relevant countries, ECD interventions and early childhood outcomes. FINDINGS: Macro and micro-context risk factors in early childhood development were highlighted across the literature. They were lower maternal education, informal maternal employment, larger household size, lower wealth index and rural residence. Findings related to child or home-centered interventions revealed varied but some positive outcomes in national programmes in Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Colombia and Portugal. The research across all countries in literature found positive impact on early childhood development from age-dependent nutrition, higher socio-economic status and education in mothers, stimulating parent-child interactions and nurturing home environment. CONCLUSIONS: 
While a scoping study of ECD provides an overview of the work happening and of the relevant key concepts, the eighty-six included studies can hardly be considered representative of all childhood development interventions being implemented or researched. Some state or national governments and non-government organizations implement early childhood interventions without publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. Many more interventions are not evaluated or monitored. Increased collaboration and networking between researchers and countries is needed. Necessary partnerships between educators, researchers and policy-makers based on national strengths across the globe can facilitate better sharing of knowledge and assessment of appropriate interventions for a population's needs. Further monitoring, evaluation and publishing of interventions in this region of the world is required. M.Sc. Thesis - Brandon James Chapman; McMaster University - Global Health / Thesis / Master of Science (MS) / Development during the earliest years of life includes physical, mental and social development. This thesis is a study on the research for early childhood development in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries and describes what is happening with a global health perspective. The thesis discusses how research can impact knowledge and what is done to support and improve development for children, their families and their country.

Diese Arbeit untersucht den Einfluss von Kultur und Sprache auf die Nutzung des Internets. Drei Hauptgebiete wurden bearbeitet: (1) Der Einfluss von Kultur und Sprache auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich der Darstellung von Informationen und Nutzung von Suchoptionen; (2) Der Einfluss von Kultur auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich des Inhaltes von Websiteinformationen; (3) Der Einfluss von Sprache auf die Nutzerzufriedenheit und Sprache als Informationszugangsbarriere Daten aus Logfile-Analysen, Onlinebefragungen und experimentellen Untersuchungen bildeten die Auswertungsgrundlage für die Überprüfung der 33 Hypothesen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass kulturspezifische Denkmuster mit Navigationsmusters und Nutzung von Suchoptionen korrelieren. Der Einfluss von Kultur auf Nutzerpräferenzen bezüglich des Inhaltes von Websiteinformationen erwies sich als weniger eindeutig. Aus den Untersuchungen zum Einfluss von Sprache ging hervor, dass Sprache Web¬sitezugriff und –nutzung beeinflusst. Die Daten zeigen, dass signifikant weniger L1-Nutzer als L2-Nutzer auf eine Website zugreifen. Dies lässt sich zum einem mit dem sprachbedingten kognitiven Aufwand erklären als auch mit der Tatsache, dass Websites unterschiedlicher Sprachen weniger miteinander verlinkt sind als Websites gleicher Sprachen. Im Hinblick auf die Nutzung von Suchoptionen zeigte sich, dass L2 Nutzer mit geringem themenspezifischen Wissen sich signifikant von L1 Nutzern unterscheiden. Schließlich lassen die Ergebnisse auch darauf schließen, dass Zufriedenheit der Nutzer einer Website einerseits mit Sprachfähigkeiten der Nutzer und andererseits mit der wahrgenommenen Menge muttersprachlichen Angebots im Internet korreliert. / This thesis analyses the impact of culture and language on Internet use. Three main areas were investigated: (1) the impact of culture and language on preferences for information presentation and search options, (2) the impact of culture on the need for specific website content, and (3) language as a barrier to information access and as a determinant of website satisfaction. In order to test the 33 hypotheses, data was gathered by means of logfile analyses, online surveys, and laboratory studies. It was concluded that culture clearly correlated with patterns of navigation behaviour and the use of search options. In contrast, results concerning the impact of culture on the need for website content were less conclusive. Results concerning language, showed that significantly fewer L1 users than L2 users accessed a website. This can be explained with language related cognitive effort as well as with the fact the websites of different languages are less linked than websites of the same language. With regard to search option use, a strong mediation effect of domain knowledge was found. Furthermore, results revealed correlations between user satisfaction and language proficiency, as well as between satisfaction and the perceived amount of native language information online.