Child Development Perspectives最新文献

The broaden-and-build theory is a prominent framework in positive psychology that considers positive emotions as essential for people to flourish. The theory does not specify the origins of positive emotions during development, although experiences in the first years of life are considered influential for long-term adjustment and well-being. In this article, we propose a developmental extension of the broaden-and-build theory. This extension identifies belonging as a potential third function of positive emotions in addition to broadening and building. We suggest that positive emotions, inextricably linked to social interactions, play a crucial role in satisfying infants' and young children's fundamental need to belong. The belonging function of positive emotions might pave the way for broaden-and-build processes. Our proposed extended framework provides an opportunity to consider the origins and functions of early positive emotions in the context of social interactions.

¿Qué significa tener una buena educación? En el idioma inglés, cuando se le describe a una persona como alguien con buena educación, generalmente el hablante se refiere al rendimiento académico de esa persona. Sin embargo, en español, cuando se usa esta frase, el hablante se refiere a una persona que, debido a las prácticas de socialización de su familia y su comunidad, ha logrado aprender a ser un miembro responsable de la comunidad, una persona que se esfuerza por colaborar, mostrar solidaridad y ayudar a los demás. ¿La pregunta es, cómo contribuyen las experiencias de aprendizaje social en las culturas latinoamericanas a la buena educación? ¿Y basados en esos datos, qué podemos aprender de manera más general sobre los procesos de socialización para ampliar las teorías del desarrollo humano?

Las culturas humanas varían en el énfasis que le dan a la conducta prosocial, definida como acciones voluntarias que benefician a los demás, como ayudar, compartir, consolar, ser amable y mostrar compasión (Killen y Smetana 2013; Tomasello 2019). En consonancia con el concepto de buena educación, se ha reportado que las comunidades de la región latinoamericana son especialmente prosociales (Díaz-Loving 2019; Kitayama y Salvador 2024; Senft et al. 2021). En estas culturas, el desarrollo de actitudes y conductas prosociales es un objetivo central de la crianza (Carlo et al. 2022; Markus y Kitayama 2010; Rogoff 2003). Por esta razón, examinar a las familias latinoamericanas puede brindar nuevos conocimientos sobre los orígenes, la expresión y la maleabilidad de la prosocialidad humana. Esto se debe a que los objetivos de socialización predominantes en las familias latinoamericanas no son idénticos a los de las familias del Norte Global, las cuales están sobrerrepresentadas en las investigaciones sobre la socialización (García Coll 2020; Singh et al. 2023; White et al. 2018).

En este artículo, integramos investigaciones sobre el desarrollo infantil, la psicología social, y la antropología, realizadas en Centroamérica y Sudamérica, México, el Caribe y la diáspora latinoamericana en Estados Unidos. Proponemos un modelo teórico del surgimiento de un conjunto de valores culturales prosociales durante el desarrollo infantil de estas poblaciones (véase la Figura 1A). A la par describimos algunos de los procesos de socialización con los cuales estos valores prosociales pueden adquirirse (véase la Figura 1B). Al centrarnos en estudios realizados en Latinoamérica destacamos las diversas perspectivas que se pueden obtener al considerar grupos poco estudiados de manera en general en las ciencias sociales, como las comunidades indígenas y transnacionales.

Las niñas y los niños de ascendencia latinoamericana presentan una fuerte tendencia a la prosocialidad. Por ejemplo, ya a los 19 meses, los bebés de ascendenci

Counterfactual reasoning is the ability to reason about how the world might have been if past events or states had been different. It is helpful for making sense of past experiences to create future blueprints. Languages like English apply subjunctive forms to directly mark counterfactual premises. In contrast, Chinese does not apply subjunctive forms and conveys counterfactuality by contextual and semantic cues. These differences in expressing counterfactual premises may influence how children interpret and reason from counterfactual premises, affecting their performance on counterfactual reasoning tasks. In this article, I review both studies of children speaking Chinese, which does not apply subjunctive forms, and studies of children speaking languages that do apply subjunctive forms (e.g., English). In doing so, I suggest how and why the development of counterfactual reasoning may differ across languages. I also make suggestions for studying cross-linguistic variations.

Unlike adults, young children think that many weird and unlikely events are impossible. Existing theories have argued that this developmental shift is driven primarily by age-related changes in knowledge as well as an increasing ability to reflect on one's modal intuitions. However, this intuition + reflection model fails to explain when and why children and adults engage in reflection. In this article, we review research on the development of modal intuitions, and we present a framework for thinking about development that connects intuition and reflection by positing that confidence in one's intuitions plays a key role in explaining age-related and individual differences in children's judgments of possibility.

Maternal mind-mindedness, which examines mothers' representational capacity to treat their children as individuals with their own minds, has traditionally been operationalized by coding mothers' mental state comments to or about their children. Mind-mindedness has been studied predominantly in Western cultures, where it predicts children's social-cognitive developments. However, in many non-Western cultures, mothers do not readily talk about their children's mental states; they may use nonverbal behaviors to manifest their mind-mindedness. Nonverbal behaviors may also be the way mind-mindedness is conveyed to young infants. Theorists have been puzzled by the fact that mind-mindedness in mothers' speech prior to when infants understand language predicts infants' later social-cognitive developments. In this article, I call for mind-mindedness measures to include nonverbal behaviors. Such measures may reveal behaviors involved in communicating mind-mindedness to infants and provide an avenue to equitable investigations of mind-mindedness in diverse cultures, thus advancing the theory and scope of the field.

Understanding childhood socialization across multiple world cultures is important for developing comprehensive and generalizable theories of developmental psychology. Studies suggest that Latin American children show markedly high levels of prosocial behavior. In this article, we theorize that this hyper-prosociality is supported by a particular cluster of “other-oriented” values that are fundamental to Latin American culture—including the values of simpatía, respeto, acomedirse, familismo, and cariño. Based on our review of 60 papers describing studies with more than 12,000 participants, we discuss these values in adult caregivers and examine socialization processes that facilitate the intergenerational transfer of Latin American prosocial values from caregivers to children. The study of Latin American children yields new and important insights into cultural influences on prosocial behavior, while at the same time promoting inclusion and scientific generalizability. Social experiences, which vary by culture, undergird the development of human prosociality.