Child Development Perspectives最新文献

In the United States, most mothers work during pregnancy. Yet, until the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in 2022, pregnant employees did not have a right to reasonable accommodations to work under safe conditions. This law is expected to increase employment among pregnant women, making it critical to understand the effects of work during pregnancy on health and the potential benefits of the law. Because the prenatal period has long-lasting consequences for health, employment during pregnancy can affect children's health and development in childhood and beyond. In this article, we review theory and empirical evidence on the effects of work during pregnancy on maternal and infant health. We propose a conceptual framework that outlines the pathways through which work during pregnancy affects health, discuss policies that are expected to affect work during pregnancy and health and conclude with priorities for future research.

Happiness is one of the most important parenting goals in today's modern society. To promote a happy childhood, we need to understand what happiness means to children. Contrary to the view that young children may equate happiness with satisfying material desires and experiencing simple pleasures, in this article, I review recent developmental research showing that (1) even young children have a sophisticated understanding about the role of desire satisfaction in happiness, (2) they perceive happiness as contingent on moral goodness, and (3) they experience happiness from performing morally good behaviors. Together, the findings suggest that for children, happiness means more than feeling good about satisfying material desires and experiencing simple pleasures; it also means being good to oneself and others. This research deepens our understanding of children's emotional cognition and experience, elucidates the nature and origins of happiness, and has significant implications for fostering a happy childhood and beyond.

Early childhood is characterized by rapid increases in both motor skills and executive function skills. Rather than simply codeveloping, the development of motor and executive function skills may be linked causally. In this article, we introduce corticomuscular coherence as a paradigm for psychologists interested in testing mechanistic questions about the potentially causal association between motor and executive function skill development in early childhood. We also consider the broader implications of this work for informing typical and atypical development.

The first years of life are critical for language development. Numerous studies indicate that actively participating in music creates a neural processing advantage in brain regions that support language development. Nevertheless, shared social characteristics between music and language may also play a role in explaining the benefits of music engagement during infancy for language development. The causal effects of a social learning pathway explaining the relation between music and language development in infants have not been fully elucidated. In this article, we posit that music enrichment programs indirectly benefit language development through enhanced parental responsiveness, an aspect of high-quality parent–infant interactions. We summarize research on parent–child music enrichment classes and early language development. We also provide a narrative review and conceptual model of relevant research to support how parental responsiveness may partly explain the association between participating in music enrichment programs during infancy and benefits to early language development.

Social gaming—online gameplay involving digital interactions with others—is a common form of social media use among adolescents. Research on this topic has neglected the social aspect of gaming and the potential role of social gaming in adolescent development. In this article, we define social gaming, drawing on interdisciplinary theories to clarify how it is both similar to and distinct from the app-based social media platforms that have received more research attention. We outline how social gaming may be uniquely rewarding and influential for adolescents, given three key features of adolescent development: peer relationships, identity development, and neurobiological development. We address how individual differences—including those related to social identities, neurobiology, and pre-existing social skills—may shape social gaming experiences and related outcomes. We conclude with a call for more work on how social gaming influences adolescent development and an agenda for researchers.

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI) is an important psychological construct that can have significant implications for individuals' positive development and adjustment. The multifaceted nature of ERI has been well documented, and scholars have identified clear distinctions between process and content dimensions of ERI. ERI affect is among the most widely studied dimensions of ERI. In this article, I revisit the theoretical and empirical foundations on which the conceptualization and measurement of ERI affect have been grounded, and present findings that suggest that distinctions between positive and negative affect are necessary. I also draw on social identity and emotion science theories to explain the patterns of findings for positive and negative affect and offer suggestions for future theorizing and empirical work on ERI affect. Finally, I offer recommendations for revised interpretations of prior work, more refined measurement approaches for future work, and increased attention to the practice-based implications of research on ERI affect.

Interest in two-generation approaches to improve the developmental outcomes of children and their caregivers and the economic well-being of families has increased amid persistent child and family poverty worldwide. Grounded in a dual developmental science perspective and the theory of linked lives, these approaches maximize developmental potential by addressing the interrelated educational, economic, and developmental needs of children and their caregivers. They offer coordinated, aligned, and simultaneous services for at least two generations in the same family. In this article, we propose that from a global perspective, two-generation approaches that harness synergies among children and their caregivers are likely to be more effective than single-generation approaches in alleviating poverty and improving human development. We identify five models in different geographic regions of the world that promote the development of young children (0–6 years), the education and livelihood of their caregivers, and the well-being of both, which we group by type of program: quality child care, early childhood development + nonformal education for parents, and cash transfers + parenting. We close with a call for more research on two-generation programs and policies globally.

Prediction error plays a pivotal role in theories of learning, including theories of language acquisition and use. Researchers have investigated whether and under which conditions children, like adults, use prediction to facilitate language comprehension at different levels of linguistic representation. However, many aspects of the reciprocal relation between prediction error and the development of language learning remain unclear. In this article, we review studies in language development that can inform us about the role of prediction error in updating, learning, and retrieving linguistic information. We argue that the study of individual differences in linguistic and cognitive skills will help the field understand more thoroughly whether, when, and why prediction aids language learning, and whether prediction error necessarily results in language learning and retrieval from memory. We close with a discussion of the needs and challenges for researchers to answer these questions.

Values serve as guiding principles, motivating specific behaviors, and actions. Peers spend a considerable amount of time together, thus offering a unique platform for the acquisition and development of values. During adolescence, a stage of life when youth are actively defining their identities, peers emerge as vital social agents, contributing significantly to the process of value formation. In this article, I examine the ways peers contribute to the development of youth's values, with a focus on basic personal values theory. This theory sheds light on how and why peers play a role in shaping the values of adolescents. It examines the phenomenon of similarity in peer values (values similarity) and explores how factors such as gender, age, and culture act as potential moderators in the relation between peers' and youth's values similarity. I conclude by summarizing key insights and proposing directions for research.

A robust literature is developing around how the stress of discrimination is implicated in individual- and group-level sleep disturbances, and how these disturbances contribute to the development of population-level sleep disparities over time. Although discrimination can be based on many individual and intersecting biases, like gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, and education, in this article, we focus on discrimination rooted in ethnicity and race because of the well-founded documentation of disparities in sleep by race. Focusing primarily on adolescence and young adulthood, we integrate research linking ethnic and racial discrimination to sleep across a variety of methods and developmental time spans, ending with reflections on interventions. In so doing, we seek to advance research and encourage conversations that cross-fertilize collaborations between those with interests in discrimination, sleep, and population-level health equity.