Child development最新文献

Theoretical work has suggested close associations between morphological awareness (MA) and reading skills in Chinese; however, the nature and direction of these time-ordered links are little known. This study examined the interplays of MA and reading skills using a continuous-time modeling approach to three waves of two-year longitudinal data from first- (N = 149; 69 girls) and third-grade (N = 142; 74 girls) Chinese children. Results showed that (a) increases in MA predicted subsequent increases in reading skills (i.e., word-reading accuracy, word-reading fluency, and sentence-reading comprehension) and vice versa, (b) age only moderated the predictive effect of MA on sentence-reading comprehension, and (c) the magnitude of these effects was time-sensitive. The theoretical and educational implications of these findings are discussed.

Gender-typed play may contribute to gender disparities in spatial skills, but evidence of this link is limited. Gender-typed play and mental transformation, an important spatial skill, were studied using age-appropriate and comprehensive measures. Chinese children were tested at 5–6 years and at 11–14 years (N = 210), creating a long-term data set considering bidirectional associations. Play and mental transformation showed moderate to large gender differences. Importantly, boy-typical play positively predicted mental transformation, while girl-typical play negatively predicted it. Results were largely consistent across gender and socioeconomic status and when play was coded by spatialness. They suggest that play is an important socialization experience and illuminates the developmental origins of gender disparities in spatial skills.

Gender-science stereotypes emerge early in childhood, but little is known about the developmental processes by which they arise. The present study tested the hypothesis that language implying scientists are a special and distinct kind of person contributes to the development of gender-science stereotypes, even when it does not communicate stereotypic content. One cross-sectional and two longitudinal studies with racially and geographically diverse children (primarily from the United States; ages 4–5; N = 872, tested 2020–2022) revealed that gender stereotypes about science versus art (a) emerge before elementary school, (b) arise from commonplace identity-emphasizing language, especially among girls, and (c) can be durably disrupted by subtle changes to language. This study identifies a promising way to counteract stereotypes at their roots.

Crime impacts both the immediate victims and has indirect effects on the community. This study examined associations between daily neighborhood crime and actigraphy-assessed sleep outcomes using multilevel modeling. Data were from a longitudinal (14-day) study of 288 adolescents (M_age = 15.27; 70.8% girls, 29.2% boys; 38.9% Asian, 36.8% Hispanic or Latinx, 20.5% Black or African American) in the New York City area in 2014. Residential addresses were geocoded to examine police-recorded crime. Daily neighborhood violent crime was associated with nightly sleep efficiency, but not duration, bedtime, or wake time. Non-violent crime was not associated with any sleep outcomes. This suggests that neighborhood violent crimes are detrimental to the quality, but not quantity or timing, of sleep that adolescents receive that evening.