This survey considered three key themes related to preparation for school education during early childhood which influences studying and daily life from elementary school onwards; namely, "daily habits," "attitudes of learning to learn," and "hiragana/numeracy/logical thinking."
"Perseverance" is one of the five abilities constituting "attitudes of learning to learn" and is measured through four items; namely, 'can take on challenges without giving up easily,' 'can try different ways to achieve goals even when things don't turn out as anticipated,' 'can complete activities once they are started' and 'can confidently attempt anything they decide to do.'
* See Figure 1 for details on each of the five abilities.

• Daily habits: General habits necessary for daily life such as daily schedule, eating, greeting people and cleaning up.


• Attitudes of learning to learn: Consists of five abilities--"curiosity," "self-assertion," "collaborative skills," "self-restraint" and "perseverance" such as expressing one's own opinion, listening to what others say and taking on challenges.


• Hiragana/numeracy/logical thinking: Consists of four abilities--"hiragana," "numeracy," "language" and "classification skills" which influence studying at the elementary school stage, such as reading and writing hiragana (Japanese syllabary) and numbers, or logical thinking.

1. Children who have higher levels of "perseverance" such as 'can take on challenges without giving up easily' during early childhood tend to continue to have higher levels of learning attitudes including 'studies without being told to do so by adults' as well as "perseverance" during the lower grades of elementary school (i.e., first to third grade).
*Children who have acquired higher levels of "perseverance" such as 'can take on challenges without giving up easily' and 'can try different ways to achieve goals even when things don't turn out as anticipated' during early childhood tend to be able to 'think and try to solve problems by themselves if they encounter difficulties in the course of their study' and study 'without being told to do so by adults' during the lower grades of elementary school (Figures 2 and 3).

2. Children who have acquired learning attitudes and "perseverance" during the lower grades of elementary school have higher language and logical thinking skills in fourth grade.
*Proactive learning attitudes such as 'studies without being told to do so by adults,' and higher levels of "perseverance" such as 'can take on challenges without giving up easily' during the lower grades of elementary school lead to higher language and logical thinking skills including 'can take notes in an organized manner' and 'can use their own words to describe things in a logical manner, so others can understand' in fourth grade. (See Figures 4 and 5.)

3. With regards to parental involvement, the attitude to respect the child's motivation and the encouragement of thinking (i.e., encouraging them to think for themselves) influences "perseverance" from early childhood to the elementary school period.
*From analyzing how "perseverance" from early childhood to the elementary school period is influenced by parental involvement, results revealed that it was influenced by attitude toward childrearing such as respecting the child's motivation and encouraging thinking. (See Figures 6 and 7.) In addition, no difference was detected between whether parents were working or not, and whether the child had gone to kindergarten or a day-care center. (See Figures 8 and 9.)

[Discussion on Survey Results]
The seven-year multi-round survey revealed that "perseverance" fostered during early childhood constitutes the foundation upon which children acquire proactive learning attitudes and "perseverance" during the lower grades of elementary school, which in turn leads to language and logical thinking skills in the upper grades of elementary school (i.e., fourth grade). It is taken into consideration in the "Course of Study for Kindergarten," "Guidelines for Nursery Care at Day Nursery" and "Course of Study for Elementary School" that children should learn proactively, interactively and deeply. Also, language and logical thinking skills are basic abilities necessary for understanding school subjects, and are valuable for fourth graders who begin more abstract and deep learning. One can argue that the survey results reaffirmed the importance of "perseverance" as a component of "attitudes of learning to learn" during early childhood which serves as a foundation for learning in elementary school.

As for the relationship between parental involvement and children's development, the results revealed that parent's attitude toward childrearing influenced the child's growth regardless of the mother's employment situation or whether the child went to a day-care center or kindergarten. Involvement consisting of respecting what children want to do and encouraging thinking fosters children's perseverance, and leads to language and logical thinking skills in elementary school. In order to acquire proactive learning attitudes and learning methods in the future society where rapid changes are expected, it is most likely necessary to enrich the environment surrounding children including such involvements by adults, and to ensure opportunities for children to think proactively.

Prior studies have revealed that "perseverance" can be acquired from elementary school onwards. Going forward, we plan to examine in detail the development of children after they enter elementary school as well.