Promoting Emotional Development of Early Childhood on Buddhist Psychology Principles

Abstract

Early childhood is a critical period for foundational emotional development that significantly impacts lifelong growth. Buddhist psychology, a wisdom tradition accumulated over 2,500 years since the Buddha's time, contains principles and concepts that can be effectively applied to promote emotional development in early childhood. This academic article aims to study and analyze Buddhist psychology concepts related to early childhood emotional development, synthesize relevant research and theories, and propose an integrated model for promoting emotional development based on Buddhist psychology. This study employs documentary analysis and synthesis of concepts from diverse secondary sources, including academic research, religious documents, and reports from international organizations published between 2020-2024, totaling 52 documents. The research findings reveal that Buddhist psychology principles applicable to promoting emotional development in early childhood comprise four main dimensions: mindfulness, loving-kindness, wisdom, and concentration. Integrating these principles into age-appropriate learning activities promotes the development of emotional management skills, self and others' emotional awareness, positive relationship building, and social adaptation. This article proposes a Five-Dimensional Integrated Model for promoting emotional development in early childhood, covering dimensions of self-awareness development, loving-kindness and compassion development, emotional intelligence development, mindfulness and concentration practice, and positive environment creation. This model can be applied in educational and family contexts to sustainably promote emotional development in early childhood.