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A systematic review of qualitative studies was conducted to explore how parents perceive sleep quality in their infants aged 0–24 months and the factors that influence these perceptions. A systematic search of the databases Scopus, Embase, Cinahl, PsycInfo and MEDLINE, was undertaken to identify eligible peer‐reviewed studies published between 2006–2021. Ten papers met inclusion criteria and were subsequently included in the review. Evaluation of papers with the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist classified papers as weak, moderate or strong, with half considered strong. Thematic synthesis identified one superordinate theme, culture, and five interrelated subordinate themes regarding how parents perceive their infant's sleep and the factors that may influence these perceptions. These themes were: (1) Infants physical and emotional comfort; (2) Beliefs regarding safety; (3) Parental and familial wellbeing; (4) Perceived degree of infant agency; (5) Influence of external beliefs and opinions. The findings from this review may assist practitioners in providing parents with personalized and culturally sensitive information regarding infant sleep and may also inform antenatal and early intervention practices, subsequently minimizing parental distress regarding infant sleep patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open science practices, such as pre‐registration and data sharing, increase transparency and may improve the replicability of developmental science. However, developmental science has lagged behind other fields in implementing open science practices. This lag may arise from unique challenges and considerations of longitudinal research. In this paper, preliminary guidelines are provided for adapting open science practices to longitudinal research to facilitate researchers' use of these practices. The guidelines propose a serial and modular approach to registration that includes an initial pre‐registration of the methods and focal hypotheses of the longitudinal study, along with subsequent pre‐ or co‐registered questions, hypotheses, and analysis plans associated with specific papers. Researchers are encouraged to share their research materials and relevant data with associated papers and to report sufficient information for replicability. In addition, there should be careful consideration of requirements regarding the timing of data sharing, to avoid disincentivizing longitudinal research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to articles published within the issue is presented in which the editor discusses topics on infant research, digital diet, and the violation of expectation paradigm.

This paper argues for a person‐centered approach in developmental science and presents theoretical and empirical techniques to help shift the focus to the individual. The need for a person‐centered approach is urgent, because of widespread nonergodicity in developmental psychology: traditional between‐individual, group‐level statistics often cannot be used to understand individuals over time. Evidence for nonergodicity has been gathered in domains such as personality, emotions, identity, performance and intelligence. This highlights a mismatch between our typical research methods—group‐level analyses—and a core aim of developmental science: understanding the development of individuals. The implications are profound. Without insights into within‐individual processes, our understanding of development remains incomplete and perhaps even incorrect, which could hinder the design of effective interventions. Many of our developmental theories might need to be adjusted to accurately capture individual‐level development. The theory of complex dynamic systems and person‐centered simulations offer promising avenues to do this. In addition, many promising person‐centered analysis techniques, that typically use long time series of data, are available to enhance our understanding of individual‐level development. Together, these person‐centered theoretical and empirical tools have the potential to help shift developmental science towards an understanding of development that genuinely reflects individual processes. Highlights: The problem of nonergodicity in psychological science is widespread, this highlights a need for a person‐centered approach to development.Creating individual‐level theoretical models is a difficult challenge, but complex dynamic systems theory and simulations can help.Person‐centered analytical techniques presented in this paper can answer questions on individual development, by investigating the shape of individual trajectories, within‐individual dynamics and nonlinear developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become increasingly apparent that publishing research on child development from certain countries is especially challenging. These countries have been referred to collectively as the Majority World, the Global South, non‐WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, and Democratic), or low‐ and middle‐income countries. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to these persistent challenges, and provide constructive recommendations to contribute to better representation of children from these countries in child development research. In this paper, we outline the history of publication bias in developmental science, and issues of generalization of research from these countries and hence where it 'fits' in terms of publishing. The importance of explaining context is highlighted, including for research on measurement child development outcomes, and attention is drawn to the vicious publication‐funding cycle that further exacerbates the challenges of publishing this research. Specific recommendations are made to assist child development journals achieve their stated goals of creating a more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and global field of child development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories are the vehicle of cumulative knowledge acquisition. At this time, however, many (developmental) psychological theories are insufficiently precise to derive testable hypotheses. This limits the advancement of our principled understanding of development. This problem cannot be resolved by improving the way deductive (confirmatory) research is conducted (e.g., through preregistration and replication), because theory formation requires inductive (exploratory) research. This paper argues that machine learning can help advance theory formation in (developmental) psychology, because it enables rigorous exploration of patterns in data. The paper discusses specific advantages of machine learning, explains core methodological concepts, introduces relevant methods, and describes how data‐driven insights are consolidated into theory. Machine learning automates exploration, and incorporates checks and balances to ensure generalizable results. It can assist in phenomenon detection and offers a more holistic understanding of the phenomena associated with an outcome or process of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been relentless debate as to whether dyslexia is a gift, and specifically, if dyslexics are more creative than the average person, despite established research evidence that there is no difference in creativity between those with and without dyslexia. With this paper, I outline that this conversation is not that simple, and one must consider society's view of disability and the developmental experience of growing up in a society that devalues dyslexic people. I conclude by positing that while dyslexia is not a gift, it is a part of neurodiversity. Highlights: This paper describes the nuances as to why, while dyslexia is not a gift, it is not that simple.As dyslexics develop, they exist within an ableist society that devalues people who are struggling readers, disabled, and neurodivergent.Dyslexia does not need to come with special gifts in order for dyslexics to hold value in society. Dyslexics are part of neurodiversity, and neurodiversity is valued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The target paper proposes six solutions to increase the reliability of infant research, with expected benefits for robustness and replicability. In this commentary, I highlight that signal detection theory can help the framing of reliability issues, and that reliability does not address the core problem of internal validity. The relative merits and challenges of the six solutions are reviewed. A seventh solution is proposed to address the validity issue that remained overlooked. The lack of general theories about the infant mind is probably the biggest obstacle to progress in the field. Instead of whether questions, asking how questions should be at the forefront of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights Online surveys provide many benefits for researchers but are vulnerable to fraudulent responders that threaten data quality. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of current detection strategies after noting patterns in our data. We systematically reviewed responses (N = 180) from parenting studies utilizing two online platforms. Respondents were categorized as accepted (n = 45) or fraudulent (n = 135), and responses on standardized measures were examined to determine if fraudulent scores differed. Accepted participants were predominately female (98.4%) and White (67.9%). Average caregiver age was 40.61 (SD = 7.37) on Qualtrics and 59.88 (SD = 6.01) on REDCap. The majority of fraudulent responders reported being female (62.1%) and White (80.6%), with average caregiver ages of 37.83 (SD = 7.35) for Qualtrics and 56.16 (SD = 8.86) for REDCap. Fraudulent responders had significantly higher median scores on measures of caregiver distress (rDASS = 0.21) and child behavioural problems (rCBCL = 0.33). Previously recommended strategies were insufficient at preventing and identifying fraudulent responders. Recommendations for improving these strategies are discussed. The current paper includes experiences using multiple strategies to detect fraudulent responders in two online parenting studies. Improvements to previously recommended strategies and an example review form are included to aid researchers in detecting fraudulent responders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint attention (JA) is the purposeful coordination of an individual's focus of attention with that of another and begins to develop within the first year of life. Delayed, or atypically developing, JA is an early behavioural sign of many developmental disabilities and so assessing JA in infancy can improve our understanding of trajectories of typical and atypical development. This scoping review identified the most common methods for assessing JA in the first year of life. Methods of JA were divided into qualitative and quantitative categories. Out of an identified 13,898 articles, 106 were selected after a robust search of four databases. Frequent methods used were eye‐tracking, electroencephalography, behavioural coding, and the Early Social Communication Scale (ECSC). These methods were used to assess JA in typically and atypically developing infants in the first year of life. This study provides a comprehensive review of the past and current state of measurement of JA in the literature, the strengths and limitations of the measures used, and the next steps to consider for researchers interested in investigating JA to strengthen this field going forwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's early experiences have potential to shape their development through early childhood, middle childhood, and into adolescence. Family structure at birth and material hardship may offer insight into how children's health and well‐being are shaped within their family of origin. The current paper examined (a) the association between family structure at birth and material hardship 1‐year post‐birth and (b) the differential impact of race on the associations between family structure and material hardship. We further explored the association between family structure and material hardship on self‐reported health in (a) middle childhood and (b) adolescence. Using the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing dataset, an ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and structural equation path models (SEM) were used to examine associations between family structure, material hardship, and health outcomes (body mass index [BMI], anxiety, and suicidal ideation). Results indicated that family structure predicted material hardship at 1‐year until maternal characteristics were taken into account. Race/ethnicity did not moderate the association. Also, family structure at birth was indirectly associated with youth anxiety through material hardship but did not account for BMI or sucidical ideation. Social supports and state policies should prioritize maternal health access and ensure families are able to meet their basic needs to mitigate children's health risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of creative qualitative research methods in psychology and other disciplines has increased over recent decades to address power imbalances within research and to centre the voices of participants. These considerations are particularly salient when conducting research with historically marginalized groups, including neurodivergent people. However, research foregrounding the first‐person perspectives of neurodivergent children is still limited. In this paper, we discuss the application of creative qualitative research methods when conducting research with neurodivergent children with a range of communication and wider skill profiles. The benefits and challenges of each method are considered, drawing on examples from the first phase of an ongoing longitudinal study. Additional considerations for working ethically and respectfully with neurodivergent children are discussed. Readers are encouraged to consider how best to adapt their research protocols when working with neurodivergent children, in order to minimize research hierarchies, build positive relationships, and produce rich and meaningful data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A parent has immense control over the experiences of their offspring. Given that personality is associated with important life outcomes—mediated through decision‐making processes—it is likely that parental personality impacts their child's life outcomes. While "compensatory" influences from another person have been identified in romantic partners, the impact of parent's personality on their child's outcomes has not been thoroughly examined. Using a response surface analysis approach, we will look at the associations of adolescent personality with the personality of their parents for the prediction of adolescent outcomes (Ndyads = 9395). Parent personality predicted outcomes for their child above and beyond their child's traits. There were few instances of child–parent personality interactions, suggesting the mechanisms linking child and parent traits to child outcomes are largely independent. Findings suggest parents' personalities offer a unique influence on the outcomes for children while they develop and navigate through adolescence. Highlights: This paper investigated if parental Big Five personality traits predicted outcomes for their child in adolescence, above and beyond the child's own traits.Response surface analyses indicated that parent personality does predict outcomes for their adolescent child, with few interaction or similarity effects emerging.These findings suggest the Big Five traits of parents are impactful in the child and parent relationship and can uniquely influence outcomes for the child above and beyond their own traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to systematically review the measures used to assess infant self‐regulation during the first 12 months of life. This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analysis statement protocol. From 235 selected papers, 79 provided information on behavioural and physiological measures to assess infant self‐regulation during the first 12 months of life. Thirty‐six behavioural (30 observational and 6 parent‐report) and five physiological different measures were identified. Studies with a longitudinal design, comprising larger samples, and aiming to assess infant self‐regulation later in infancy, mostly used behavioural measures than physiological measures. Studies comprising lower samples and aiming to assess infant self‐regulation earlier in infancy, mostly used observational than parent‐reported measures. Studies targeting younger infants used physiological measures and studies targeting older infants used behavioural measures, with observational measures used with younger infants and parental‐reported measures used with older infants during the first year of life. When measuring self‐regulation is important to consider infant's age, to fit the measurement procedures with the self‐regulation development level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some media have suggested that many youths who have previously completed a gender transition are "detransitioning". Their experience is often framed around the idea of regrets but rare are the articles that provide a nuanced examination of their journey. This article presents the perspectives of youths who have detransitioned or discontinued a transition regarding their experiences and feelings on their journey from transition to detransition. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 20 youths between the age of 16 and 25 years who were recruited on social media and who transitioned and detransitioned or discontinued their transition. Data were analysed according to thematic analysis. Regrets and feelings of satisfaction can both coexist. The processes of transition and discontinuation or detransition appear to be non‐linear and participants do not necessarily return to a cisgender identity. Ambiguous loss theory is applied to frame youth experiences and feelings and to suggest way forward for intervention. Highlights: This paper examines the experiences and feelings of youth on their journey from transition to detransition.Their journey is experienced as non‐linear, and often comprised mixed feelings and experiences about transition and detransition steps.Ambiguous loss theory allows a nuanced understanding of feelings and experiences of their journey from transition to detransition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental science benefits from a rich tradition of conceptual frameworks, such as Relational Developmental Systems metatheory, that seek to understand the individual ⇔ context relations that promote thriving across the lifespan. However, there are substantive methodological challenges associated with capturing individual‐level and contextual variables, let alone the dynamics between them. These challenges have encouraged the perpetuation of simple models that focus on either individuals or their contexts alone, or as parallel processes with little attention to the dynamics of the relations. In this paper, we engage in cross‐disciplinary dialogue between developmental and personality science (adding to recent work being done by those in personality development) and highlight the benefits that developmental science can reap by adopting several recent advancements in dynamic personality theory and the methods used to test them. In addition, we discuss what personality science might gain from applying a developmental lens to their research questions. Such integration may also help personality scientists better understand how developmental theory can complement their methods for understanding the development of individual differences over time. Ultimately, the two fields can use their similar missions of understanding the development of individual differences in order to support one another in pursuing good science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper presents an overview of the workflow of the Working Memory, Cognition and Development (WomCogDev) lab at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, as an example of how Open Science principles can be applied in a developmental psychology lab. We describe the importance and challenges of applying Open Science practices in developmental research and detail each step of our workflow from research design to dissemination. We provide examples and give emphasis to steps that typically receive little attention but that may hold promise for application in other labs (namely, project design, data collection and data analysis). Finally, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our workflow and summarize the main takeaways for other labs. By 'opening up' our lab's workflow, we want to encourage other labs to incorporate the aspects that they like into their own workflows and to share their own processes for the continued benefit of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several existing instruments measure development in the content and complexity of young children's self‐knowledge, but few measure development in the process of self‐reflection. This study aimed to provide a cross‐sectional replication and longitudinal extension of the self‐concept questionnaire (SCQ), exploring the factor structure and developmental onset patterns proposed in the original paper. We collected parental reports and conceptually replicated the factor structure of the SCQ for 199 participants aged between 14 and 54 months using confirmatory factor analysis. Our data suggest that autonomy first develops at ~14–17 months, followed by self‐recognition at ~18–21 months, and self‐description/evaluation and emotional response to wrongdoing at ~26–30 months. Contrary to the original scale, we did not find a clear developmental distinction between the onsets of cognitive and emotional self‐evaluation. We can conclude that the SCQ factor structure is conceptually replicable and sensitive to developments in the self‐system across infancy to early childhood. The SCQ may, therefore, offer a useful alternative or addition to the widely used mirror mark test of self‐recognition when measuring the development of self‐reflective abilities in young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few issues are more important to developmental scientists than understanding and elucidating mechanisms of developmental change. There are good reasons for this. For example, understanding how developmental change is produced allows developmental researchers to go beyond studying at what age an ability emerges to understanding the underlying processes by which those abilities develop in the first place. Yet, despite their importance, the term mechanism is not well understood. This lack of understanding is problematic because researchers and theorists can disagree and debate about what does and does not 'count' as mechanism research, which can slow scientific progress. Given this issue, this paper has three broad aims. The first aim was to provide a clear definition for one kind of developmental mechanism, namely, developmental mechanisms of cognitive change. The second aim is to provide a concrete example of a developmental mechanism and discuss how it works in detail, from start to finish. The third aim is to challenge the field to be more explicit about how their proposed developmental mechanisms work to ensure scientific progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotion regulation is a principal task of early development. The failure to develop effective emotion regulation skills is associated with behavioural, academic, psychological and socioemotional difficulties. Although researchers have studied emotion regulation for decades, work on emotion dysregulation—defined as the inability to maintain emotional control, engage with the environment or recover from distress in a developmentally appropriate manner—is rare and there are discrepancies in its conceptualisation among very young samples. While some scientists refer to emotion dysregulation as if it were a discrete concept, it may be more accurately depicted as a multidimensional system of developmental processes. The National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) is a framework that allows researchers to track dysfunction across multiple areas of analysis and may be an ideal system for exploring the multidimensional nature of infant emotion dysregulation. In this paper, we draw on empirical studies to describe how the RDoC framework can be used to support studies of emotion dysregulation in infancy. This proposed model can also serve as a roadmap for future researchers to follow to generate the evidence base for a multidimensional conceptualisation of infant emotion dysregulation and its underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical findings and theorizations of both imitation and selective trust offer different views on and interpretations of children's social learning mechanisms. The imitation literature provides ample documentation of children's behavioural patterns in the acquisition of socially appropriate norms and practices. The selective trust literature provides insights into children's cognitive processes of choosing credible informants and what information to learn in future interactions. In this paper, we place together findings from both fields and note that they share analogically similar theoretical underpinnings and offer explanations that are complementary to each other. We contend that children's imitative tendency may be due to their selection of in‐group members as cultural experts, who serve as reliable sources of conventional information. Moving forward, we note the importance of evaluating individual differences and cultural factors to provide a more holistic understanding of universality and variation in children's social learning mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint rhythmic activities are known to be able to enhance prosociality in both adults and children. A large body of research shows that rhythmic coordination could promote bonding and increase prosocial behaviours such as helping, cooperating and sharing, suggesting that rhythmic interaction could be an effective tool to promote children's prosocial development. Nevertheless, the mechanism underlying the prosocial effects of rhythmic activities remains under debate. In this brief paper, we review a selection of literature that examines this mechanism from the perspective of interpersonal coordination, discussing the roles mimicry, synchrony, coordination and shared intentionality play in the process. In the end, we provide recommendations for future work to advance our understanding of the effects of rhythmic interaction on prosociality and future practice to improve children's prosocial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent expansion of research on children's understanding of others' minds (or 'theory of mind', ToM) into middle childhood provides fresh opportunities to consider its origins and consequences. In this paper, we propose that, in addition to supporting children's social interactions, individual differences in ToM benefit academic achievement, in particular, reading comprehension and scientific reasoning. Furthermore, we argue that the school and classroom context can influence individual differences in ToM and its ongoing development in middle childhood. We suggest future directions for research to test these claims, which will provide a new perspective on the consequences of ToM and test the developmental continuity of socio‐cultural accounts of mindreading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany and continental Europe, more broadly, race and ethnicity are concepts that are not widely used and are increasingly erased from the legislation. Nevertheless, race and ethnicity are still used as social markers and often merely replaced with other terms (e.g., cultural background). The goal of this paper is threefold. First, we point to the danger of treating race and ethnicity as essentialist categories, which is still common in developmental science research. Second, we want to outline specific problems that occur when doing research on ethnicity and race with children and adolescents in the European race‐mute context. Third, we suggest that future research ought to focus more on constructions of Whiteness and reproduction of power differences among ethnic majority populations. In doing so, we draw on examples from our own research on ethnic‐racial identity and ethnic‐racial socialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In acquiring a native language, the input children receive, to an unneglectable extent, shapes the rate of acquisition and the ultimate achievement. This in turn has cascading effects on many aspects of later development, including but not limited to language. Providing optimal input for early language development, therefore, is of major interest to scientists, parents, and educators. This thought paper highlights two less‐discussed factors in the formula of optimal input—the balance between input quantity and quality, and the timing of input provision. Correspondingly, two points are made: first, given significant limitations in processing abilities in early development, increased quality is sometimes achieved via decreased quantity; second, endowed with a sleep‐mediated memory consolidation system, input provision should consider "sleep" as a reference point in timing. Both points boil down to a central theme that nurture (i.e., input) should be tailored to suit nature; in particular, optimal input should take best advantage of the endowments provided by our nature (e.g., sleep to consolidate memory) and to circumvent the limitations set by nature (e.g., processing limitations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honesty is an important value that children acquire through socialization. To date, the socialization process by which children learn to behave honestly remains relatively unexamined. Researchers may have left this area of research relatively unexamined because there is no framework to understand how parents socialize honesty and lie‐telling in their children. As such, we suggest that the domains‐of‐socialization approach, which organizes the socialization process into various domains based on different aspects of the caregiver‐child relationship, may provide such a framework. Using this framework, researchers can operationalize vague parenting variables and identify gaps in the research, allowing them to investigate the relationship between socialization and developmental trajectories of honesty and lie‐telling tendencies more thoroughly. In this paper, we review the literature on factors influencing children's lie‐telling and honesty in relation to the five domains to demonstrate the applicability of the domains‐of‐socialization framework to research on the socialization of honesty. We also provide recommendations for future research on the socialization of honesty using a domain‐specific approach, which will contribute to our understanding of how children develop into normative or problematic liars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about influences on gender typicality. To address this issue, the present study examined developmental antecedents of preadolescents' gender typicality. Using a longitudinal multi‐method design, we investigated the prospective associations between the quality of parent–child relationships in childhood and preadolescents' subsequent gender typicality. It was hypothesized that feelings of gender typicality would be positively related to quality of relationship with the corresponding‐gender parent. Sixty‐eight families (40 girls) participated in two home visits. The quality of mother–child and father–child relationships was assessed by observation at age 7 and youths reported on their gender typicality at 11 years. Results indicated that girls who had higher‐quality relationships with their mother at age 7 felt more similar to other girls 4 years later. This finding suggests that mother–child relationships might be a contributing factor in the development of girls' gender typicality. Highlights: This paper examines the role that parents play in their children's gender typicality development.The results revealed that parent–child relationships were associated with subsequent gender typicality in girls but not in boys.Girls who had higher‐quality relationships with their mother at age 7 felt more similar to other girls 4 years later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the efficacy of the Cool Little Kids program implemented for parents of temperamentally inhibited Hong Kong Chinese preschool-aged children. This early intervention program was designed to help inhibited children alleviate shy and anxious behaviors in social situations by training parents on adaptive parenting skills. Parents of 57 inhibited children (mean age = 3.91, 35 boys) were randomly assigned to an intervention group and a waitlist control group. Children were assessed by teachers on Chinese shyness, social initiative, and internalizing problems before and after the intervention to evaluate the program effects. As hypothesized, relative to the control group, children from the intervention group reduced significantly with a large effect size detected (Cohen's f = .40) in anxious shyness but not regulated shyness. However, the same children did not significantly improve on social initiative with peers nor decrease in internalizing problems. These results were discussed with some plausible explanations. The randomized controlled trial supported wider dissemination of this preventive intervention for alleviating anxious shyness in early childhood. The positive parental receptivity also demonstrated the feasibility of a larger-scale implementation. A future community-wide program rollout for Chinese families in Hong Kong is warranted. Highlights This paper investigates if parenting intervention can help reduce anxious shyness among Hong Kong Chinese children., A randomized controlled trial evidenced the efficacy of the Cool Little Kids program in alleviating Chinese children's shyness., Wider dissemination of this early intervention program in the Hong Kong Chinese community is supported by this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationships among the quality and quantity of parent-child shared book reading (SBR) engagements and children's reading and mathematics outcomes in preschool. Additionally, we explore how child and family characteristics predict the quality and quantity of SBR. Quantity was measured using parental reports of the frequency of SBR. Quality was measured by observational protocols evaluating for questioning, vocabulary, and discussion depth. A structural equation model was estimated using data from a nationally representative sample of 700 children living in the United States from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth cohort. Results indicated that the quality of book reading was associated with children's mathematics outcomes, and the quantity was associated with reading outcomes controlling for contextual variables. Socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity, and children's age predicted the quality and quantity of book reading experiences. These findings indicate that frequent exposure to high-quality book reading may positively impact children's mathematics and reading development, but that variation in SBR exists. SBR is a common practice among many parents; helping parents understand the multiple benefits of the practice may further increase the frequency and quality of the engagement. Implications for research and practice are addressed. Highlights This paper describes the relationship between parental book reading practices, mathematics, and reading outcomes., Structural equation models reveal relationships between the quantity of book reading and children's reading outcomes, as well as the quality of book reading and children's mathematics outcomes., High-quality book reading may positively impact academic achievement in multiple domains, but results may vary based on contextual factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented in which author discusses requirements for articles related to cognitive and social development during the prenatal. Topics discussed include focus on the reproducibility and robustness of the claims in the original article via re-analyses; rise in value of non-empirical scholarship through open science movement; and importance of methodological pluralism and opennes in empirical research.

While child development is well‐recognized as a complex process which could hardly be decomposed into separate lines or domains in contemporary psychological theories, the decomposition approach is widely used in empirical studies. Based on the cultural‐historical theory, this study argues for adopting the unit of analysis as a way to bridge this gap, and finds "role adjustment" as a suitable unit to analyse child development during the transition to school. The case of a 5‐year‐old second‐generation Chinese Australian child's transition to school (with a total of 34 h of observation and 5 h of interview) is presented to verify its feasibility and to illustrate how it could be achieved in a research practice. The case study demonstrates that a child's role adjustment is in essence a process of transforming his/her role system, during which his/her major roles, the relation of the major roles, as well as his/her role‐taking patterns change as a whole, and by tracing a child's role adjustment trajectory, how the child is learning and developing, what difficulties he/she encounter, and why these difficulties appear become clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic review was conducted to gain a more nuanced understanding of similarities and distinctions across countries in the development of executive functions (EF). The review includes 26 studies, with child and adolescent participants, that were published between 2006 and 2018. Both similarities and differences within developmental patterns of EF are identified across different countries. Across countries, bilingual children are shown to outperform their monolingual peers. Task improvement with age is not consistently reported in all studies, with no linear effects apparent in children from developing countries or regions. Gender differences on EF measures also vary between countries. Girls perform better than boys on EF tasks and parent and teacher ratings of EF in both Western and East Asian samples. Yet, in Iran and Tanzania, boys receive higher EF scores. From preschool age through adolescence, East Asians outperform Western counterparts on direct assessment measures of EF. However, strong discrepancies can be found between measures of direct EF assessment and parent and teacher ratings of children's EF. Chinese parents rate their children's EF as lower compared with parents from other countries. The role of contextual factors explaining differences in EF development is discussed. Highlights: This paper presents the first systematic review on the topic of cross‐national variation in children's EF development.A clearly defined conceptual framework regarding EF facets and analysis of a wide age span underpin this review.From preschool age through adolescence, East‐Asian children outperform their Western counterparts on direct assessment measures of EF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents commentary on perspectives in developmental science on how to synthesize existing data into cumulative knowledge with opinions or perspectives pieces. Topics include prioritized work from researchers doing work with marginalized populations, most of whom come from marginalized backgrounds; and sought broad diversity with respect to geographic region, career stage, and substantive interests.

All analysis‐based suggestions for improving infant research are limited by the quality and quantity of data that infant research methods can produce. In this commentary, I expand on Byers‐Heinlein et al. (2022)'s call for methodological innovation by discussing in more detail how we as a field can improve and encourage the improvement of our methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infant research is often underpowered, undermining the robustness and replicability of our findings. Improving the reliability of infant studies offers a solution for increasing statistical power independent of sample size. Here, we discuss two senses of the term reliability in the context of infant research: reliable (large) effects and reliable measures. We examine the circumstances under which effects are strongest and measures are most reliable and use synthetic datasets to illustrate the relationship between effect size, measurement reliability, and statistical power. We then present six concrete solutions for more reliable infant research: (a) routinely estimating and reporting the effect size and measurement reliability of infant tasks, (b) selecting the best measurement tool, (c) developing better infant paradigms, (d) collecting more data points per infant, (e) excluding unreliable data from the analysis, and (f) conducting more sophisticated data analyses. Deeper consideration of measurement in infant research will improve our ability to study infant development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative health effects of cigarette smoking during pregnancy (SDP) on the foetus are well known. Despite previous reports of poor cognitive performance in offspring exposed to SDP, few studies specifically consider language outcomes according to maternal smoking. In this study, we systematically review the literature to assess the relationships between SDP and child language. Of the 14 studies reviewed, 13 (93%) reported significant associations between maternal smoking or exposure and language outcomes. Despite this consistent association, only 8 of the 13 studies reporting associations (62%) concluded direct relationships between exposure and outcome. The remaining studies suggested that the relationship between smoking and language could be explained by factors such as maternal IQ, socioeconomic status (SES) and parental age. Future studies should apply careful study designs allowing for confounding factors across child, parental, environmental and genetic influences. Our review suggests that smoking cessation is likely to positively affect child language outcomes. Highlights: Does maternal smoking during or exposure to smoking during pregnancy affect the language outcomes in exposed offspring?A systematic review of the literature highlighted consistent negative effects of smoking or smoke exposure during pregnancy on language outcomes.Exposure to SDP is associated with language. Mothers must be educated regarding the effects of tobacco smoking on language outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study investigated the strategies used by family members as allies during naturalistic polyadic family conflicts (i.e., involving at least three family members). Thirty‐nine families with two children (aged 4 and 6 years) were observed in the home setting. Employing transcripts of their interactions, emergent coding revealed five strategies used by allies: (a) social rule understanding, (b) control, (c) informational, (d) simple (e.g., dismissive), and (e) elaborate (e.g., proposals). Overall, both parents and children used control and informational strategies most often. Parents used each of the five strategies more often than both children, but control and informational strategies were predominant. Similarly, when older siblings assumed the ally role, they preferred control strategies, whereas younger siblings used informational strategies most frequently. The results emphasize the role of family members as allies during conflicts at home and are discussed in relation to parents' and children's cognitive awareness and learning of such strategies. Highlights: This paper examines the strategies employed by family members as allies during naturalistic polyadic conflicts (i.e., involving three or more family members). Families were observed at home. Parents and children preferred control and informational strategies, suggesting a social learning component during conflicts. Children's involvement as allies highlights their awareness of alliances and the diverse array of strategies associated with this role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: From an early age, most children choose to play with toys typed to their own gender. In order to identify variables that predict toy preference, we conducted a meta‐analysis of observational studies of the free selection of toys by boys and girls aged between 1 and 8 years. From an initial pool of 1788 papers, 16 studies (787 boys and 813 girls) met our inclusion criteria. We found that boys played with male‐typed toys more than girls did (Cohen's d = 1.03, p < .0001) and girls played with female‐typed toys more than boys did (Cohen's d = −0.91, p < .0001). Meta‐regression showed no significant effect of presence of an adult, study context, geographical location of the study, publication date, child's age, or the inclusion of gender‐neutral toys. However, further analysis of data for boys and girls separately revealed that older boys played more with male‐typed toys relative to female‐typed toys than did younger boys (β = .68, p < .0001). Additionally, an effect of the length of time since study publication was found: girls played more with female‐typed toys in earlier studies than in later studies (β = .70, p < .0001), whereas boys played more with male‐typed toys (β = .46, p < .05) in earlier studies than in more recent studies. Boys also played with male‐typed toys less when observed in the home than in a laboratory (β = −.46, p < .05). Findings are discussed in terms of possible contributions of environmental influences and age‐related changes in boys' and girls' toy preferences. Highlights: Gender differences in toy choice exist and appear to be the product of both innate and social forces. Despite methodological variation in the choice and number of toys offered, context of testing, and age of child, the consistency in finding sex differences in children's preferences for toys typed to their own gender indicates the strength of this phenomenon and the likelihood that has a biological origin. The time playing with male‐typed toys increased as boys got older, but the same pattern was not found in girls; this indicates that stereotypical social effects may persist longer for boys or that there is a stronger biological predisposition for certain play styles in boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Emotional availability (EA) characterizes a warm, close relationship between caregiver and child. We compared patterns (clusters) of EA on risk factors, including those for borderline personality disorder (BPD). We sampled 70 children aged 4 to 7 years from low socio‐economic backgrounds: 51% of whose mothers had BPD. We coded filmed interactions for EA: mothers' sensitivity, structuring, non‐intrusiveness, non‐hostility, and children's responsiveness to, and involvement of, mothers. We additionally coded children's over‐responsiveness and over‐involvement. Using person‐centred analyses, we identified four clusters: high functioning, low functioning, asynchronous (mothers above average on two of four dimensions and children below), and below average. Mothers in the low‐functioning cluster had lower income, less social support, more of the borderline feature of negative relationships, and more depression than did mothers in the high‐functioning cluster. The children in the low‐functioning group had more risk factors for BPD (physical abuse, neglect, and separation from, or loss of caregivers, and negative narrative representations of the mother–child relationship in their stories) than did children in the high‐functioning group. The asynchronous group included older girls who were over‐responsive and over‐involving with their mothers in an apparent role reversal. Interventions targeting emotional availability may provide a buffer for children facing cumulative risks and help prevent psychopathology. Highlights: This paper investigated how mother‐child emotional availability (warmth and closeness) relates to risk factors for borderline personality disorder, including mother‐child role reversal. In filmed mother‐child interactions, low emotional availability was associated with risk for borderline personality disorder and role reversal was more likely for older girls. Findings support the cumulative risk hypothesis and may inform interventions to improve mother‐child emotional availability to prevent the development of psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caregivers' narrative elaborations have been consistently shown to relate to language, literacy, and cognitive skills in children. However, research with Latinos yields mixed findings in terms of how much caregivers elaborate and the benefits of elaborations for Latino children's development, especially within booksharing contexts. Moreover, little research has investigated whether and how children elaborate, and whether individual differences among children's narrative elaborations are related to changes in maternal elaborations over time. The current longitudinal study describes specific types of elaborations used by children and mothers and examines reciprocal relations between children's and mothers' elaborations over 1 year (at child age 3 and child age 4), in a sample of 45 Mexican immigrant mothers and their preschool-aged children. Maternal elaborations positively related to children's narrative development only when subtypes of elaborations were considered, but not when considering the frequency of elaborations more broadly. Moreover, children's elaborations at age 3 were differentially associated with specific maternal elaborations a year later. Findings underscore the need to examine narrative elaborations at a nuanced level in Latino populations. Highlights This paper examines the specific ways in which Latino dyads elaborate during booksharing interactions, Dyads were video recorded sharing a wordless picture book at two time points over 1 year. Findings suggest that specific elaboration types, namely, dyadic forms of responses and requests, are most important for the development of concurrent narrative skills, even though they are the least frequently used in this context, We conclude that the investigation of narrative elaborations needs to be approached at a more nuanced level when studying Latino populations, as there are various roles taken and behaviors expected when changing the narrative context. These findings have implications for the development of culturally appropriate interventions targeted at enhancing booksharing practices with Latino groups [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 2010-2011 ( n = 11,000), this study examined the developmental outcomes of 5-year-old children in multigrade classrooms (combined prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms serving 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) compared with those of 5-year-olds attending kindergarten-only classrooms serving primarily 5-year-olds. Results from regression and propensity score analyses revealed that 5-year-old children who attended multigrade classrooms with prekindergarteners made smaller gains in math and literacy skills and demonstrated less optimal executive function at the end of the school year than children who attended kindergarten-only classrooms. Classroom-level factors largely explained the differences in children's academic achievement but did not consistently explain differences in their executive functioning. No consistent differences emerged for children's social-behavioral development. Highlights This paper examines the implications of multigrade kindergarten classrooms for 5-year-olds' school success and the mechanisms through which these classrooms affect children., Five-year-olds who attended multigrade classrooms demonstrate smaller gains in academics and exhibit less optimal executive function, which was partially explained by classroom-level factors., When possible, the implementation of multigrade kindergarten classrooms may need to be re-evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the kinds of biological properties that children aged 3-6 years attribute to animals, plants, and artifacts by administering a property attribution task and eliciting explanations for the resulting property attributions. Findings indicated that, from the age of 3 years, children more frequently attribute properties to animals than they do to plants or artifacts. Moreover, attributions increased with age for animals, decreased for artifacts, and remained constant for plants. Concerning the conceptual development of animals and plants, results showed that the properties subtending children's initial conceptualization of animals are movement and nutrition, followed by growth, backed up by perceptual, biological, and categorical explanations. By contrast, for plants, the properties are growth and then movement, backed up by perceptual and biological arguments. These findings provide some support for the idea that both conceptual information and perceptual cues influence children's conceptual development. Highlights This paper compares children's understanding of animals, plants, and artifacts between 3 and 6 years, in terms of property attributions and the spontaneous explanations of these objects., With a property attribution task, children more frequently attribute properties to animals than they do to plants or artifacts., Findings suggest that both conceptual information and perceptual cues influence children's conceptual development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to clarify the process of knowledge acquisition by examining why people tend to misattribute others' activities as their own after having interacted with them. In Study 1, an experiment was conducted with 4-year-old children allocated to 2 groups: one group of children interacted with an adult, and the other group interacted with a peer. The latter group was further divided into 2 subgroups on the basis of the strength of children's friendships (high intimacy vs. low intimacy). Children in the low intimacy condition demonstrated more misattributions and greater knowledge acquisition. Study 2 focused on interactions and revealed that knowledge acquisition was influenced by the nature of children's interactions, which depended on the strength of their friendships. Those in the low intimacy condition (i.e., weaker friendships) provided their peers with appropriate support sufficient to complete a task but did not unilaterally complete tasks for their peers. These results suggest that misattribution occurs when individuals actively participate in interactions with others, and that new knowledge is acquired as they internalize the knowledge of others. Highlights This paper examined the role of 'error bias' (a tendency to mistakenly attribute others' activities to oneself more often than attributing one's own activities to others) in knowledge acquisition., Error bias occurred in child-child pairs with low intimacy more often than in adult-child pairs, as the level of intimacy leads to differences in attitudes to taking part in interactions., The findings suggest that although intimacy is useful for starting active interactions with others, meaningful interactions that lead to knowledge acquisition are developed through an individual's recognition of appropriate ways of interacting with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the growing body of research on parents' beliefs and practices, relatively little is known about the relations between parents' knowledge of children's development, home-based activities, and children's early reading and math skills. This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to examine the differences in Asian, Black, Latino, and White children's early reading and math skills at kindergarten entry and whether parents' knowledge of children's development and home-based activities mediate the relation. Parents' knowledge of children's development was assessed when children were 9 months. Home-based activities, including home literacy and enrichment, were assessed when children were preschool age. Asian and White children started kindergarten with significantly higher reading and math scores than Black or Latino children. There also were significant differences across groups in the frequency of engagement in home literacy and enrichment activities. Associations between race/ethnicity and reading/math scores were mediated by parents' knowledge of children's development and home literacy activities. Discussion addresses the importance of parents' knowledge of educationally relevant activities and how to engage in such activities to foster children's reading and math skills and to close racial/ethnic gaps. Highlights This paper examined racial/ethnic difference in children's reading and math skills in kindergarten and explores whether parents' knowledge of children's development and home-based activities mediate the relation between race/ethnicity and children's reading and math skills., By using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort, this study found that there were systematic racial/ethnic differences in parents' knowledge of children's development, home-based activities, and children's reading and math skills at the start of kindergarten., Parents' knowledge of children's development and home-based activities were found to mediate the association between race/ethnicity and children's reading and math skills for all groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental science poses some of the most profound problems in all of science and some of the most difficult ones. Because the answers are so important to human health and well‐being, it's essential that researchers do everything possible to accelerate discovery and promote reproducibility and rigour. In this essay, we argue that fully embracing open practices—especially data and materials sharing—will achieve the goals of making developmental science more rigorous, robust, and impactful while simultaneously accelerating discovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to examine the reliability, stability, and convergent and predictive validity of the newly developed Maternal Responsiveness Questionnaire (MRQ). Participants were 224 first-time mothers. Mothers completed the MRQ when their infants were 6 and 14 months old. Convergent validity was examined in relation to mother-reported personality, depressive symptoms, and emotion socialization practices and observed maternal sensitivity. Predictive validity was examined in relation to mother-reported child behaviour problems and social competence, infant attachment security assessed via the Strange Situation, and observed child dysregulation. Three MRQ factors emerged based on exploratory factor analysis and were confirmed via confirmatory factor analysis: responsiveness, non-responsiveness, and delayed responsiveness. All three scales demonstrated good internal consistency reliability and significant stability from 6 months to 14 months. Consistent evidence emerged for convergent and predictive validity of the non-responsiveness subscale, but not the other subscales. The potential utility of the non-responsiveness subscale of the MRQ is discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concordance of mind-mindedness across descriptions of different people and construct validity by examining associations between mind-mindedness and psychological mindedness. Mothers of preschoolers ( N = 103) completed online questionnaires assessing attachment style, psychological mindedness and mind-mindedness via three written descriptions (child, partner/close friend and a famous person), which were used to derive two scores (frequency and proportional) for mental state descriptors. Frequency scores for mind-minded comments were significantly correlated for child and partner descriptions. Famous person scores (frequency and proportional) were significantly lower than child and partner scores, further supporting specificity to relationship closeness. Mind-mindedness scores (frequency and proportional) were positively related to an interest in the psychological processes of oneself and others (psychological mindedness) but not associated with attachment style. This study supports the proposition that mind-mindedness is an orientation to mental states particular to close relationships and that mind-mindedness is linked to a broader capacity for self-awareness (psychological mindedness). Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaze is one of the first and most important means of communication and coordination in parent-infant dyads. In the present paper we used a novel method, designed to discover patterns in time-series, to investigate the dynamics of gaze in dyads and its developmental change. Using a longitudinal corpus of natural interactions, mutual mother-infant gaze was coded when the infants were 3, 6, and 8 months old and subjected to recurrence analysis. The cross-recurrence profiles obtained for the three time points show systematic differences: While the engagement in mutual gaze decreases with age, the behaviour becomes more tightly coupled as a more regular temporal structure emerges. We suggest that this stronger interdependency of gaze behaviour may indicate the development of a social feedback loop enabling engagement in interaction. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social-emotional comprehension involves encoding, interpreting, and reasoning about social-emotional information, and self-regulating. This study examined the mediating pathways through which social-emotional comprehension and social behaviour are related to academic outcomes in two ethnically and socioeconomically heterogeneous samples totaling 340 elementary-aged children. In both samples, social-emotional comprehension, teacher report of social behaviour, and academic outcomes were measured in a single school year. In both samples, structural equation models showed that the relationship between social-emotional comprehension and reading was mediated by socially skilled behaviour. In one sample, but not the other, the relationship between social-emotional comprehension and math was mediated by socially skilled behaviour. This paper advances our understanding of the mechanisms through which social-emotional factors are associated with academic outcomes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing speed is a component of general intelligence and an indicator of learning potential. There is a need for robust measures of mental speed based on contemporary theoretical developments. The current study addressed this need by proposing a mental speed test for children aged 60 to 96 months (5 to 8 years) and examining its psychometric properties. The test included indicators of perceptual speed, memory speed, reasoning speed, and fluency‐flexibility speed presented through nonverbal items administered individually using touchscreen tablets. After establishing gender non‐bias and concurrent validity with a contemporary intelligence test (i.e., ASIS, r =.59) with 107 children, the next administration included 373 children. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with subtest scores revealed a single‐factor structure accounting for 45% of the total variance. Additional data from 212 children were used to assess structural validity and gender bias, which showed acceptable goodness of fit, providing evidence of the validity and reliability of the new measure for further use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]