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Child Development

Published by Wiley and Society For Research In Child Development

Online ISSN: 1467-8624

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Print ISSN: 0009-3920

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PRISMA diagram of included studies.
Table 3_1 Results of Effect Sizes
Table 3_2 Results of Effect Sizes
The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta‐analysis of universal school‐based SEL interventions

July 2023

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10,284 Reads

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217 Citations

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Michael J. Strambler

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Child Development, the flagship journal of the Society for Research in Child Development, has published articles, essays, reviews, and tutorials on various topics in the field of child development for almost 100 years. We have a wide readership including researchers, theoreticians, child psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, specialists in early childhood education, educational psychologists, and special education teachers.

Recent articles


Sibling‐Focused Family Prevention With Latinx Siblings in Middle Childhood: A Randomized Clinical Trial Spanning the COVID‐19 Pandemic
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June 2025

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This pre‐registered randomized clinical trial examined the efficacy of a prevention program on parenting of siblings and sibling relationships among Latinxs. Participants were 272 sibling dyads (82.9% Mexican) with 5th graders (Mage = 10.63; SD = 0.38; 51.8% female), their younger siblings in 1st to 4th grades (Mage = 8.18; SD = 1.06; 54.8% female), and their caregivers. Families were randomized to Siblings Are Special (SIBS; n = 161) or an alternative academic skills program (n = 111). Data were collected pre‐ and post‐program (2018–2022). Significant effects were detected for sibling‐focused parenting in the expected direction for authoritarian control and non‐intervention in sibling conflicts, but there were no effects for sibling relationship quality. Implications of COVID‐19 and future directions are discussed.


Interaction effect of school outness (L1), student support (L2), and country climate (L3) on bias‐based bullying.
Interaction effect of school outness (L1), school safety (L2), and country climate (L3) on bias‐based bullying.
Interaction effect of school outness (L1), student support (L2), and country climate (L3) on bias‐based cyberbullying.
Interaction effect of school outness (L1) and teacher support (L2) on bias‐based cyberbullying.
Interaction effect of school outness (L1), school safety (L2), and country climate (L3) on bias‐based cyberbullying.
School Outness, Bias‐Based Bullying, and Bias‐Based Cyberbullying Across Europe

This study examined school outness, school climate, and country inclusivity to assess their associations with bias‐based bullying and cyberbullying among sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) in Europe in 2020–2021 (N = 12,764; Mage = 16.07; 69% female; 43% cisgender girls; 31% bisexual). Outness was positively related to bias‐based bullying (β = 0.10, R² = 0.21) and cyberbullying (β = 0.04, R² = 0.15). Interaction results indicate that in less inclusive countries, outness remained significantly associated with both forms of bullying. However, effect sizes were lower when school safety and peer support were high compared to when they were low. In less inclusive countries, school efforts to promote safety and peer support can reduce bullying experiences for out SGMY.


(a) Mediation Conceptual Model: fathers' food parenting practices as mediators between fathers' race/ethnicity and children's diets. (b) Moderation Conceptual Model: fathers' race and ethnicity as moderators of the relation between fathers' food parenting practices and children's diets.
Mediation Path Analysis linking fathers' race and ethnicity to children's diets through food parenting practices. Significant paths (p < 0.05) are presented in the diagram. Unstandardized coefficients are presented for each significant path. Models control for child age and gender. White is the omitted race group.
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Fathers' Food Parenting Practices and Children's Diets

June 2025

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14 Reads

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1 Citation

Racial and ethnic disparities in children's diets are prevalent. Little is known about how fathers' food parenting practices may contribute to these disparities. We examined racial and ethnic variations in food parenting practices and their associations with 2–6‐year‐old children's diets in a cross‐sectional sample of U.S. fathers surveyed in 2021–2023 (N = 1015; 16% Asian, 9% Black, 6% Hispanic, 70% White; Mage = 37 years) using path analysis. Fathers' food parenting practices were significantly associated with children's diets, yet little evidence emerged that fathers' food parenting practices explained racial and ethnic disparities in children's diets. These findings suggest the potential importance of structural constraints on healthy eating (e.g., access to healthy food) among minoritized children beyond fathers' food parenting practices.


Results for the primary model without moderators. All coefficients are standardized and identified with covariates included. In addition to the T1 baseline controls for the mediators and outcomes, other demographic covariates included: Child Age and Gender (at T1) and Family SES (mean of T1, T2, and T3). For clarity, (a) pathways with p > 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in gray dash lines and pathways with p < 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in black solid lines; (b) the relevant coefficients for nonsignificant correlation lines or predicating paths are not reported but available from authors upon request; and (c) the correlation lines and predicting paths involving demographic covariates are not depicted and the relevant coefficients are not reported but available from authors upon request. T1 = Time 1, T2 = Time 2, and T3 = Time 3. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two‐tailed).
Results for the primary model with moderators. All coefficients are standardized and identified with covariates included. In addition to the T1 baseline controls for the mediators and outcomes, other demographic covariates included: Child Age and Gender (at T1) and Family SES (mean of T1, T2, and T3). For clarity, (a) pathways with p > 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in gray dash lines and pathways with p < 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in black solid lines; (b) the relevant coefficients for nonsignificant correlation lines or predicating paths are not reported but are available from authors upon request; and (c) the correlation lines and predicting paths involving demographic covariates are not depicted and the relevant coefficients are not reported but are available from authors upon request. T1 = Time 1, T2 = Time 2, and T3 = Time 3. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two‐tailed). For readers' curiosity, in a separate model (which was constructed on the basis of the model depicted above), we tested the potential moderating roles of reciprocal and authoritarian filial piety in the direct associations between parental social comparison shaming and adolescents' life meaning outcomes. Yet, due to the sparseness and counterintuitive nature of significant results and also to keep the primary analyses coherent and focused, we presented this additional set of analyses in the File S2.
Illustration of the moderating role of child reciprocal filial piety (T1) in the link between parental social comparison shaming (T1) and child satisfaction of need for competence (T2). T1 = Time 1, T2 = Time 2, and T3 = Time 3.
Results for an alternative model demonstrating the directionality and robustness of the hypothesized mediation pathway. All coefficients are standardized and identified with covariates included. In addition to the T1 baseline controls for the mediators and outcomes, other demographic covariates included: Child Age and Gender (at T1) and Family SES (mean of T1, T2, and T3). For clarity, (a) pathways with p > 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in gray dashed lines and pathways with p < 0.05 (two‐tailed) are depicted in black solid lines; (b) the relevant coefficients for nonsignificant correlation lines or predicting paths are not reported but available from authors upon request; and (c) the correlation lines and predicting paths involving demographic covariates are not depicted and the relevant coefficients are not reported but available from authors upon request. T1 = Time 1, T2 = Time 2, and T3 = Time 3. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 (two‐tailed).
Parental Social Comparison Shaming Hinders Chinese Adolescents' Presence of Life Meaning Through Thwarting Satisfaction of Need for Competence, Especially for Those Endorsing Reciprocal Filial Piety

June 2025

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93 Reads

Using three‐wave data from 962 Chinese adolescents (45.1% boys, Mage = 12.369, SD = 0.699 at T1, September 2022), this study examined the link between parental social comparison shaming and adolescents' life meaning, with adolescents' satisfaction of need for competence tested as a mediator and filial piety tested as a moderator. Parental social comparison shaming (T1) was negatively associated with adolescents' presence of life meaning (T3, September 2023, controlling for baseline) through a negative association with adolescents' satisfaction of competence need (T2, March 2023, controlling for baseline). The link between social comparison shaming and satisfaction of competence need was more pronounced among adolescents with higher (versus lower) reciprocal filial piety. The identified indirect effect was also stronger among adolescents with higher (versus lower) reciprocal filial piety.


Electrode layout for whole scalp and regions of interest. Regions of interest are color‐coded as frontal (light blue), central (yellow), temporal (green), and posterior (orange). Whole scalp channels are derived from a combination of the electrodes used for each region and the electrodes marked in dark blue.
Aperiodic fit and slope and offset at each time point across whole scalp.
Developmental trajectories of slope and offset in frontal, central, temporal, and posterior ROIs.
Developmental trajectories for aperiodic slope and offset stratified by sex in whole scalp ROI.
Scatterplots showing the associations of maternal anxiety with whole scalp slope at each age. Associations are significant at Age 3 and Age 7.
Longitudinal Trajectories of Aperiodic EEG Activity in Early to Middle Childhood

Aperiodic electroencephalography (EEG) activity is hypothesized to index biological mechanisms that underpin brain functioning. This longitudinal study characterized the developmental trajectories of the aperiodic slope (i.e., aperiodic exponent) and offset from infancy to 7 years of age in a US community sample (N = 391, 46.5% female, predominantly White; data collection 2013‐2023). The study further examined whether differential developmental trajectories resulted in differential associations between child aperiodic activity and maternal anxiety symptoms. Developmental trajectories for slope and offset were nonlinear and characterized by relative increases in early childhood and a subsequent decrease or stabilization by Age 7, with variation by brain region and sex. Maternal anxiety was negatively associated with slope at 3 years and positively associated with slope at 7 years. Implications for child brain development are discussed.


Schematic autoregressive cross‐lagged panel models with control variables.
Results of the autoregressive cross‐lagged panel models 1 and 2 without controlling for gender, SES, and class type.
Need for Cognition Predicts Academic Interest Development but Not the Other Way Around: A Longitudinal Study of Secondary School Students

June 2025

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62 Reads

Need for cognition (NFC) reflects the tendency to enjoy and engage in cognitive challenges. This study examines the relations between NFC and academic interest among 922 German secondary school students (academic track) assessed four times in Grades 5–7 (initial age M = 10.63, SD = 0.55; 41% female; 90% first language German) in mathematics, German, and English. Data were collected between 2008 and 2012 and were analyzed using autoregressive cross‐lagged panel models. In all domains, NFC positively predicted subsequent academic interest (β = 0.03 to β = 0.17) but interest did not positively predict subsequent NFC. Findings were comparable after controlling for students' achievement, gender, socioeconomic status, and class type. They suggest that NFC is a potential facilitator of the development of academic interest in school.


Random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model testing bidirectional associations among childhood externalizing problems and environmental unpredictability. Standardized coefficients are depicted in the figure. Model Fit χ²(101) = 3.83.90, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.03. N = 4648. Covariates (omitted from figure for brevity) include child sex, race/ethnicity, family income, parental marital status at birth, and city fixed effects. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Childhood Environmental Unpredictability and Adolescent Mental Health and Behavioral Problems

June 2025

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22 Reads

Childhood adversity takes a toll on lifelong health. However, investigations of unpredictability as a form of adversity are lacking. Environmental unpredictability across multiple developmental periods and ecological levels was examined using a multiethnic, longitudinal birth cohort (1998–2000) oversampled for unmarried parents. Data were from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4898 youth at birth; 52% male; 48% Black, 27% Hispanic, 21% White) to examine unpredictability at ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 with later adolescent outcomes. An unpredictability index was associated with age 15 outcomes (N = 3595) including depressive symptoms (β = 0.11), anxiety symptoms (β = 0.08), delinquency (β = 0.13), impulsivity (β = 0.09), heavier weight categories (β = 0.09), and internalizing (β = 0.14), externalizing (β = 0.23), and attention problems (β = 0.16). Findings support unpredictability as a unique form of adversity.


“Here, Let Me Do It for You”: Psychological Consequences of Receiving Direct and Indirect Help in Childhood

June 2025

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21 Reads

What are the psychological consequences of receiving direct and indirect help in childhood? We conducted three preregistered experiments (N = 619, 7–9 years, 80% Dutch, 51% girls, 49% boys, mostly higher socioeconomic status) in the Netherlands (July 2020–July 2022). Children received direct help (correct answer), indirect help (hint), or no help. An internal meta‐analysis showed that children who received help felt less competent, liked the task less, and felt more in need of help. Children who received help also sought fewer challenges (Study 3). Effect sizes were modest. Direct and indirect help had largely similar effects, except that children disliked and misreported receiving direct help more. Thus, despite being well‐intentioned, direct and indirect help can be discouraging.


Study aims. SFP, sensitivity during free‐play task; ST, sensitivity during teaching task.
Teaching Lessons, Learning Words: Mothers' and Fathers' Sensitivity During Teaching Uniquely Mediates Associations Between Early Familial Socioeconomic Risk and Preschoolers' Receptive Language Development

June 2025

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17 Reads

Observed parental sensitivity during a parent–child teaching task and free‐play task was tested as mediators of the association between family socioeconomic risk and child receptive language at 48 months, consistent with family investment theory. Parents (n = 881 mothers; 624 fathers, data collected between 2006‐2008) and their 5‐month‐old children (52% male) were recruited from public health clinics in Norway. Both maternal sensitivity (measured at 24 months) and paternal sensitivity (measured at 36 months) during the teaching task mediated the association between family socioeconomic risk and child language, controlling for sensitivity during free play, which was not significantly associated with child language. Results suggest that both mothers and fathers make meaningful contributions to early language development via sensitive parenting, particularly in the context of teaching‐based interactions.


Experimental procedures and global field power for each experimental condition across two time points.
Developmental trajectories of (A) N1 strength and (B) lateralization to different stimuli across elementary school years estimated by GAMM. The estimated trajectories stacked across conditions are in the upper left corners, and the lines for each condition with individual trajectories are plotted in the rest of the panels.
EEG waves of raw N1 and conditional contrast strength (A) and lateralization (B) accompanied by topographic maps (E). Boxplots for N1 amplitude (C) and lateralization (D) and the significant group‐level contrasts estimated in the LMM models. *pfdr < 0.05; **pfdr < 0.01; ***pfdr < 0.001.
T1 reading skill predicted the (A) longitudinal change of print sensitivity strength, (B) T2 print sensitivity lateralization, and (C) T2 print selectivity lateralization. The beta regression coefficients in all three plots are significant (pfdr < 0.05) The gray ribbons indicate confidence interval. Positive values in plot A indicate decrease of N1 sensitivity (negative). Children from the same family are represented with the same symbols. The intraclass correlation coefficients, are 0.35, 0.27, 0.37 for regression in plot a, b, and c, representing the variance explained by family clustering. The predictions still stand after age is controlled for (Supporting Information).
EEG N1 Specialization to Print in Chinese Primary School Students: Developmental Trajectories, Longitudinal Changes, and Individual Differences

June 2025

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19 Reads

Neural specialization for print can be indexed by the left‐lateralized N1 response as a tuning gradient to visual words, indicated by sensitivity (character vs. visual control) and selectivity (character vs. character‐like stimuli). Forty‐five Chinese children (20 boys) were recorded with EEG twice with a 2‐year interval during a character decision task (T1, 2016‐2017: 7–9 years old; T2, 2018‐2020: 9–11). Character N1 amplitude decreased faster with age (7–11 years) compared to non‐character N1, and character and character‐like N1 became less right‐lateralized. T1 better readers showed more longitudinal decrease of print sensitivity and more left‐lateralized T2 print sensitivity and selectivity. To conclude, reading skill drives functional neural efficiency for processing print, and the left hemisphere may be a linguistically universal neural mechanism for reading development.


Screenshots from Experiment 1. (a) Children were presented with two games, where they had to identify partially‐occluded pictures of animals or objects (counterbalanced across participants). They were first familiarized with the games by playing the top four cards of each game. The easy game (in this example presented to the right) included three very easy‐to‐guess (80% visible) pictures and one difficult‐to‐guess picture (20% picture visible), whereas the difficult game (in this example presented to the left; sides were counterbalanced across participants) included four very difficult‐to‐guess pictures. During the familiarization rounds, the feedback (green tick for a correct answer vs. red cross for an incorrect answer) was displayed under the corresponding cards. The games were not explicitly labeled as easy or difficult by the experimenter to avoid biasing children. After the familiarization phase, we told children that they would eventually be tested on the easy game (Test‐Easy condition), on the difficult game (Test‐Difficult condition), or on a randomly chosen game (Test‐Random condition; conditions manipulated within subjects in counterbalanced order). In the Test‐Easy and Test‐Difficult condition, an emoji below the game they would be tested on provided a memory aid for children. (b) In the Test‐Random condition, the emoji was placed below both games, and the experimenter emphasized that for the time being they could not know in which of the two games they would eventually be tested. We then asked the children to decide which of the two games they wanted to practice before being tested. (c) Practice setup, where children practiced all the 8 images of the game they selected (the difficult game in this example). (d) Test setup, in which children were tested on all 8 images of the game they were assigned to (in this example, the difficult game; note that half children in the Test‐Random condition were eventually tested on the easy game, whereas the other half were eventually tested in the difficult game). At test, a golden or black star below an image indicated a correct or incorrect guess. For each correct answer in the tests children received one sticker, for each incorrect answer they lost one sticker.
Illustration of participants' active practice choices by condition (Test‐Easy, Test‐Difficult, and Test‐Random) in Experiment 1 faceted by age in years (adults as a separate group). Bars represent the percentage of easy (blue) and difficult (orange) active practice choices for each condition. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals.
Illustration of participants' active practice choices, displayed by age (in months, with adults as a separated group on the right) and condition. Dots indicate individual active practice choices in a single game. The three lines are fitted logistic regressions with a 95% confidence interval by condition.
Illustration of the procedure of Experiment 2. Children were presented with two games, in which they had to construct towers using blocks. They first familiarized themselves with each game. The easy game (in this example presented on the right) featured three easy‐to‐assemble cuboid blocks, while the difficult game (in this example presented on the left; sides and colors were counterbalanced across participants) included three oddly shaped and difficult‐to‐build blocks. The order and color of the two games were counterbalanced across participants. After the familiarization phase, we told children that they would eventually be tested on the easy game (Test‐Easy condition), on the difficult game (Test‐Difficult condition), or on a randomly chosen game (Test‐Random condition), and that they could win stickers depending on the height of the tower they built. Children were told that if they managed to build a tower out of three blocks at test, they would win one sticker; if they managed to build a tower out of six blocks, they would win two stickers (indicated with stars). If the tower collapsed, children would not win anything. We then asked the children to decide which of the two games they wanted to practice before being tested. At test, children in the Test‐Easy condition were given 6 easy blocks. Children in the Test‐Difficult condition were given 6 difficult blocks. In the Test‐Random condition, children were given a randomly chosen box containing 6 blocks of either the easy or difficult‐to‐stack blocks. A golden star on the level of three stacked blocks indicated that children won 1 sticker; two golden stars on the level of 6 stacked blocks indicated that children won 2 stickers.
Illustration of participants' active practice choices by condition in Experiment 2. Each bar represents one of three conditions: Test‐Easy, Test‐Difficult, or Test‐Random. The y‐axis shows the percentage of participants' choices between the easy and difficult games. The blue color indicates that participants chose to practice the difficult game, while the orange color indicates participants chose to practice the easy game. The red dotted line indicates the 50% chance level. The error bars extending above and below the bars represent the 95% confidence intervals.
Children Strategically Decide What to Practice

May 2025

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18 Reads

Adjusting practice to different goals and characteristics is key to learning, but its development remains unclear. Across 2 preregistered experiments, 190 4‐to‐8‐year‐olds (106 female; mostly White; data collection: December 2021–September 2022) and 31 adults played an easy and a difficult game, then chose one to practice before a test on either the easy, difficult, or a randomly chosen game. All children adjusted their active practice choices to condition. When the test game was known, they practiced that game. However, when the test game was randomly chosen, only children 6+ and adults practiced the difficult game, while younger children only showed a trending effect. This suggests that the ability to prepare for uncertainty may develop between ages 4 and 6.


Key events from the familiarization and test phases of Study 1. The arrows, text, and speech bubbles shown in the figure serve illustration purposes. They did not appear in the videos shown to the participants.
Proportion of looking time to the hidden object per condition and age group in Study 1's test phase. The dotted black line represents chance (0.5). Red dots and error bars indicate means and standard errors. Box plots represent data quartiles. Gray dots represent individual data points, and colored areas represent data density. Comparisons to chance level by one‐sample t‐tests, and comparisons between conditions by Welch two‐sample t‐tests. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ns: not significant.
Proportion of looking time to the hidden object per phase and age group in Study 1's familiarization phase. The dotted black line represents chance (0.5). Red dots and error bars indicate means and standard errors. Box plots represent data quartiles. Gray dots represent individual data points, and colored areas represent data density. Comparisons to chance levels by one‐sample Wilcoxon tests, and comparisons between measurement phases by Wilcoxon tests for matched pairs. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ns: not significant.
Key events from the warm‐up, familiarization, and test phases of Study 2. The arrows, text, and speech bubbles shown in the figure serve illustration purposes. They did not appear in the videos shown to the participants.
Proportion of looking time to the hidden object per phase, condition, and age group in Study 2. The dotted black line represents chance (0.5). Red dots and error bars indicate means and standard errors. Box plots show data quartiles. Gray dots show individual data points, and colored areas show data density. Comparisons to chance level are made by one‐sample t‐tests and comparisons between conditions are made by Welch two‐sample t‐tests. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ns, not significant.
Infants Assume Questions Serve an Information‐Seeking Function, Link Them to Interrogative Sentences and Differentiate Them From Assertions

May 2025

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35 Reads

Eye‐tracking studies tested the understanding of two types of speech acts (questions and assertions) in 14‐, 18‐, and 30‐month‐olds (N = 280; 149 females; ethnicity data collection forbidden, testing in 2021–2024). Experiments involved objects either hidden or visible for a speaker. By 14 months, when the speaker asked questions, infants focused on hidden objects (rs > 0.31). Infants linked novel labels in interrogative sentences to hidden objects by 18 months and novel labels in declarative sentences to visible objects by 14 months (ds > 0.52). Thus, infants assume questions seek information one is lacking, while assertions share information one has access to. Furthermore, infants connect interrogative sentences to questions and declarative sentences to assertions, showing an understanding of communicative form–function relations.


Path Analysis Model of associations between child exposure to Covid‐related psycho‐social stressors, child internalizing symptoms, and parenting during lockdown. Coefficients presented are standardized parameter estimates. Model fit: χ²(9) = 8.21, p = 0.51; RMSEA = 0.00, CFI = 1.00; SRMR = 0.04. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Simple Slopes of Maternal Stress during Lockdown Moderation Effect. The conditional effect of exposure to Covid‐related psycho‐social stressors was significant only when maternal stress during lockdown was high.
Path Analysis Model of associations between child exposure to Covid‐related psycho‐social stressors, child internalizing symptoms, and maternal sensitive caregiving during infancy. Coefficients presented are standardized parameter estimates. Model fit: χ²(17) = 18.26, p = 0.37; RMSEA = 0.02, CFI = 0.98; SRMR = 0.06. †p < 0.10, *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Simple Slopes of Maternal Sensitive caregiving during Infancy Moderation Effect. The conditional effect of exposure to Covid‐related psycho‐social stressors was significant only when levels of early maternal sensitive caregiving observed in infancy were low.
The Emotional Vaccine: Maternal Caregiving in Infancy Shaped Future Preschoolers' Internalizing Symptoms During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

May 2025

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14 Reads

The present study assessed both concurrent and early influences of the maternal caregiving environment to examine unique contributions of each to variation in children's emotional responses to COVID‐19 pandemic. Preschoolers (3–5 years; M = 4.12, SD = 0.49) previously assessed in infancy, several years prior to pandemic outbreak, were re‐assessed during pandemic‐related nationwide lockdown (N = 200; 50% female; 63.5% secular Jews; 2016; 2021). Maternal stress during lockdown significantly moderated (β = 0.13, p < 0.05) and mediated (β = 0.08, p < 0.05) concurrent associations between preschoolers' dose of exposure (DOE) to COVID‐19 psychosocial stressors and symptoms. Furthermore, maternal sensitive care observed in infancy significantly moderated future associations between preschoolers' DOE and symptoms (β = −0.16, p < 0.05). Longitudinal protective effects of infant care remained significant after controlling for caregiver stress and behavior during the lockdown.


Links Between Child Executive Function and Adjustment: A Three‐Site Study

May 2025

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55 Reads

Cross‐site comparisons indicate that East Asian children typically excel on tests of executive function (EF), but interpreting this contrast is made difficult by both the heavy reliance on testing in school settings and by the scarcity of studies that assess across‐site measurement invariance. Addressing these gaps, our study included remote home‐based assessments of EF for 1002 children (Mage = 5.19 years, SD = 0.51; 49% male) from England, Hong Kong, and mainland China, as well as parental ratings of externalizing and internalizing adjustment problems (data collected between June 2021 and December 2022). The models established partial scalar invariance but did not show clear site differences. Supporting the universal importance of EF for behavioral self‐regulation, EF task performance and parent‐rated externalizing problems showed similar inverse associations across sites.


Developments in Children's Evaluations of and Reasoning About Disability‐Related Accommodations

Children with disabilities often receive accommodations, but teachers rarely explain them to typically‐developing (TD) classmates. How do TD students reason about these accommodations and evaluate their fairness? Five‐, seven‐, and nine‐year‐olds from the United States (N = 122; 50% female; 87.7% white; data collected April 2022 ‐ September 2023) heard stories where a child character with a cognitive or physical disability engaged with a cognitive or physical accommodation. Participants explained why the child engaged in the accommodation and evaluated the accommodation's fairness. Nine‐year‐olds judged accommodations to be significantly fairer than 5‐year‐olds. In their explanations, the oldest children mentioned characters' needs significantly more, whereas the youngest children mentioned characters' motives significantly more. Mentioning characters' needs predicted evaluating accommodations as fairer, and mentioning characters' motives predicted evaluating accommodations as less fair.


Structure of the experiment. We conducted an offset‐design randomized trial with a one‐week pre‐test, a four‐week intervention, and a one‐week post‐test (see the areas highlighted in green). This main study period was followed by four further weeks of study participation to accommodate the offset intervention period (for the control group). The left and right columns indicate the study flow for the manipulation and control groups, respectively. Both groups received the same number of EMA pings and followed identical procedures, except during the intervention period (Weeks 2–5), during which the manipulation group participated in the music enrichment intervention along with their daily EMA pings, while the control group only completed the EMA pings and had no intervention.
Music enrichment increases the frequency of infant‐directed singing. The plots depict responses to two items: “Did you sing to [baby] in the last 2–3 h?”, where “[baby]” was replaced by the infant's name (left panel), asked up to three times per day with response options “Yes” or “No”; and “If you had to guess, how many times did you sing to [baby] yesterday?” (right panel), asked once per day with response options ranging from “1” to “8 or more times”. There was a sharp increase in infant‐directed singing for the manipulation group, but not the control group, as measured by both items; the increase persisted through the full intervention and was maintained in the post‐test week. The tick marks on the x‐axis indicate the study week; Weeks 1 and 6 correspond to pre‐ and post‐test, respectively, while Weeks 2 through 5 span the intervention period. Note that for ease of visualization, here we plot weekly averages (points) and their corresponding standard errors of the mean (error bars), without accounting for temporal autocorrelation in responses over time. As such, the SEM values may be overestimating the precision of each estimate.
Music enrichment alters parent responses to infant fussiness. In each EMA ping, we asked the parent if their infant was fussy in the previous 2–3 h; if they answered “Yes”, then we asked how they attempted to soothe the infant. The left panel illustrates the proportion of responses in the manipulation group for six soothing techniques (of 12 available options; see Text S3). Tick marks indicate the study week; Weeks 1 and 6 correspond to pre‐ and post‐test, respectively, whereas Weeks 2 through 5 span the intervention period. Singing in response to fussiness was the only soothing technique out of 12 that showed a substantive increase in usage from pre‐ to post‐test. This increase was specific to the manipulation group, as shown in the right panel, which rescales the data as a proportion of all responses and averages across the four intervention weeks (Weeks 2–5). In the manipulation group, parents used singing in response to fussiness more than half of the time. The points indicate mean scores across the given week(s) and error bars denote standard errors of the mean.
Music enrichment improves infant mood but not caregiver mood. In each EMA ping, caregivers were asked to report their infant's mood and their own mood during the previous 2–3 h, both on a 100‐point slider anchored at “Very negative” and “Very positive”. We normalized responses within participants to account for individual differences in scale use. While the average mood of infants in the two groups did not differ at pre‐test, it did at post‐test, with significantly more positive mood reports in the manipulation group (left panel). We did not observe the same pattern for caregiver mood (right panel). The half‐violins depict the distributions of weekly mean mood ratings from each of the two groups, weighted by participant. The shaded area in the half‐violins represents kernel density estimates; the boxplots denote the median (horizontal line), 95% confidence interval (notches), and interquartile range (edges of the boxes). The significance stars above the violins denote the between‐groups comparison at a given time point. The horizontal bar denotes the significant group‐by‐time interaction in the time‐series model. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001.
Ecological Momentary Assessment Reveals Causal Effects of Music Enrichment on Infant Mood

May 2025

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17 Reads

Music appears universally in human infancy with self‐evident effects: as many parents know intuitively, infants love to be sung to. The long‐term effects of parental singing remain unclear, however. In an offset‐design exploratory 10‐week randomized trial conducted in 2023 (110 families of young infants, Mage = 3.67 months, 53% female, 73% White), the study manipulated the frequency of infant‐directed singing via a music enrichment intervention. Results, measured by smartphone‐based ecological momentary assessment (EMA), show that infant‐directed singing causes general post‐intervention improvements to infant mood, but not to caregiver mood. The findings show the feasibility of longitudinal EMA (retention: 92%; EMA response rate: 74%) of infants and the potential of longer‐term and higher‐intensity music enrichment interventions to improve health in infancy.


Maternal Sensitivity Predicts Child Attachment in a Non‐Western Context: A 9‐Year Longitudinal Study of Chinese Families

May 2025

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61 Reads

Despite the long‐standing debate over the assumed universality of maternal sensitivity predicting attachment security (i.e., sensitivity hypothesis), few long‐term longitudinal investigations on attachment have been conducted outside the Western context. We leveraged data from a prospective 9‐year longitudinal study of middle‐class families ( N = 356; female = 48.9%) in China to examine if early maternal sensitivity predicts attachment representations in middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity was assessed from lab‐based observed interactions at 14 and 24 months. At 10 years old, children completed the Chinese version of the Attachment Script Assessment. Maternal sensitivity positively predicted the child's attachment representations at age 10 years ( β = 0.20, p < 0.01). These results supported the view that maternal sensitivity is prospectively related to secure attachment across cultures.


Gesture Production Selectively Predicts Language Outcomes in Spanish-English Bilingual Children

May 2025

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3 Reads

This longitudinal study (data collected from 2019 to 2023) examines the relation between Spanish‐English bilingual Latino toddlers' (n=46; F=22; M=24) early gesture production ( Mage =18.67 months; SDage =1.02) and later language skills ( Mage =36.87 months; SDage =0.81). Video recordings at child‐age 18‐months yielded counts of children's speech and gesture production; the latter included gesture words (different meanings) and gesture sentences (gestures‐plus‐speech combinations). Multiple regression analyses revealed that gesture words and sentences at 18 months of age positively predicted word‐ and sentence‐level skills at 36 months of age, respectively, but only in English. These relations held despite controlling for children's speech production. These findings, that early gesture production selectively predicts language outcomes in bilingual children, suggest that gesture production may facilitate language‐specific learning rather than reflecting a global communicative skill.


Combined Language and Code Emergent Literacy Intervention for At-Risk Preschool Children: A Systematic Meta-Analytic Review

May 2025

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25 Reads

This meta‐analytic review explored the characteristics and effectiveness of combined language (e.g., vocabulary) and code (e.g., phonological awareness) interventions, including synergistic intervention effects for at‐risk preschoolers. Data from 29 randomized controlled trials, published before March 2023, reporting on 43 interventions, including 9333 children (4–6 years; 55% male, 45% African American, 30% Hispanic) were included in the meta‐analyses. Composite intervention effects were small: language ( g = 0.11) and code ( g = 0.23). Language and code outcomes were significantly related ( p = 0.032). Interventions equally targeting code and language subskills produced equivalent or greater code and language outcomes than those with an unequal emphasis. Implications for future combined intervention studies are discussed.


Early Vocabulary Acquisition: From Birth Order Effect to Child‐to‐Caregiver Ratio

May 2025

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47 Reads

Growing up with multiple siblings might negatively affect language development. This study examined the associations between birth order, sibling characteristics and parent‐reported vocabulary size in 6163 Norwegian 8‐ to 36‐month‐old children (51.4% female). Results confirmed that birth order was negatively associated with vocabulary, yet exhibited a U‐shaped pattern. A data‐driven measure of “child‐to‐caregiver ratio” in the household was developed, in which old‐enough siblings—females 1–3 years earlier than males—were considered caregivers for their younger siblings. This measure explained variance in vocabulary better than birth order, and indicates sex‐differences in the age at which older siblings contribute to, rather than deplete, available resources. A child‐to‐caregiver ratio might better capture the interplay between language‐learning resources and demands within households.


The parent-child relationship and child shame and guilt: A meta‐analytic systematic review

Empirical findings on the associations of positive and dysfunctional parent–child relationship (PPCR/DPCR) characteristics with child shame, adaptive guilt, and maladaptive guilt were synthesized in six meta-analyses. The 65 included samples yielded 633 effect sizes (Ntotal = 19,144; Mage = 15.24 years; 59.0% female; 67.7% U.S. samples, n = 12,036 with 65% White, 12.3% Hispanic and Latinx, 10.8% Black, 6.3% mixed race, 5.6% Asian American, 0.3% Native American participants). Small positive correlations were found between DPCR and shame (r = .17), DPCR and maladaptive guilt (r = .15), and PPCR and adaptive guilt (r = .14). A small negative correlation was found between PPCR and shame ( r = −.12). Sample and study moderators and sources of bias are investigated and discussed.


Moving Beyond Point in Time Estimates: Using Growth Models to Understand When PreK Convergence Happens, How, and for Which Skills

April 2025

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9 Reads

This study examines associations between enrollment in high‐quality PreK and growth in children's ( N = 422; M age = 5.63 years; 47% female; 15% Asian, 19% Black, 30% White, 31% Hispanic; 5% other or mixed race) academic, executive functioning, and social–emotional skills across kindergarten (2017–2018) and first grade (2018–2019). Associations between PreK enrollment and language and math skills were sustained through first grade. More convergence between PreK enrollees and non‐enrollees in language skills occurred during first grade than kindergarten. Convergence patterns were stronger in math during kindergarten than in first grade. There were no associations between PreK enrollment and executive functioning by spring of first grade; most convergence occurred in first grade. All other associations were null by first grade.


Reconsidering the Typology of Parenting Styles and Its Association With Preschoolers' Development in Chinese Families

April 2025

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27 Reads

Using latent profile analysis, the study examined distinct joint parenting styles among Chinese families with preschoolers (N = 300; 51.7% girls; M age = 55.97 months). This study incorporated maternal and paternal reports on multiple parenting dimensions that covered both Western-and Chinese-emphasized practices. Using data collected between 2017 and 2019 from Shanghai, four joint parenting styles emerged: authoritative (39.3%), moderately supportive (38.0%), strict-affectionate (14.3%), and authoritarian (8.4%). Authoritarian and moderately supportive parenting styles were linked to poorer child outcomes 1.5 years later compared to authoritative parenting. However, there were no significant differences in most child outcomes between authoritative and strict-affectionate parenting. These findings necessitate a reevaluation of the parenting typology and its effects on child development in the Chinese context.


FIGURE 1 | Conceptual model of awareness of inequality and race consciousness development in relation to experiences and forms of discrimination.
Sample descriptives (N = 2645).
Adolescents' Race Consciousness Strengthens Broader Awareness of Societal Inequality

April 2025

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70 Reads

This study examined bidirectional changes in adolescents' awareness of inequality and race consciousness between 2017 and 2018 in the USA and whether discriminatory experiences informed developmental pathways. The sample ( N = 2645; M age = 14.6, SD = 2.14; 56.5% female; > 0.01% transgender and gender diverse) was White (35.8%), Latinx (31.4%), multiple racial and ethnic groups (13.5%), Black (7.3%), and Asian (5.2%). Race consciousness predicted changes in awareness of inequality ( B = 0.31, p < 0.001); awareness of inequality did not predict changes in race consciousness. Social locations and experiences of gender and racial discrimination informed pathways. Providing adolescents with opportunities to explore race and racism may help them reflect on how society is organized in systemically inequitable ways.


Bivariate correlations.
Multilevel models predicting primals from childhood and adolescence experiences.
Predictors of Young Adults' Primal World Beliefs in Eight Countries

April 2025

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342 Reads

Primal world beliefs (“primals”) capture understanding of general characteristics of the world, such as whether the world is Good and Enticing. Children (N=1215, 50% girls), mothers, and fathers from Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States reported neighborhood danger, socioeconomic status, parental warmth, harsh parenting, psychological control, and autonomy granting from ages 8 to 16 years. At age 22 years, original child participants reported their primal world beliefs. Parental warmth during childhood and adolescence significantly predicted Good, Safe, and Enticing world beliefs, but other experiences were only weakly related to primals. We did not find that primals are strongly related to intuitive aspects of the materiality of childhood experiences, which suggests future directions for understanding the origins of primals.


Journal metrics


3.9 (2023)

Journal Impact Factor™


13%

Acceptance rate


9.2 (2023)

CiteScore™


15 days

Submission to first decision


2.018 (2023)

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