Child Development Perspectives最新文献

Loneliness becomes more prevalent as youth transition from childhood into adolescence. A key underlying process may be the puberty-related increase in biological stress reactivity, which can alter social behavior and elicit conflict or social withdrawal (fight-or-flight behaviors) in some youth, but increase prosocial (tend-and-befriend) responses in others. In this article, we propose an integrative theoretical model that identifies the social, personality, and biological characteristics underlying individual differences in social–behavioral responses to stress. This model posits a vicious cycle whereby youth who respond to stress with fight-or-flight tendencies develop increasing and chronic levels of loneliness across adolescence, whereas youth who display tend-and-befriend behaviors may be buffered from these consequences. Based on research supporting this model, we propose multiple avenues for intervention to curtail the prevalence of loneliness in adolescence by targeting key factors involved in its development: social relationships, personality, and stress-induced behavioral and biological changes.

Most children first enter social groups of peers in preschool. In this context, children use movement as a social tool, resulting in distinctive proximity patterns in space and synchrony with others over time. However, the social implications of children's movements with peers in space and time are difficult to determine due to the difficulty of acquiring reliable data during natural interactions. In this article, we review research demonstrating that proximity and synchrony are important indicators of affiliation among preschoolers and highlight challenges in this line of research. We then argue for the advantages of using wearable sensor technology and machine learning analytics to quantify social movement. This technological and analytical advancement provides an unprecedented view of complex social interactions among preschoolers in natural settings, and can help integrate young children's movements with others in space and time into a coherent interaction framework.

It is well established that parent–child dyadic synchrony (e.g., mutual emotions, behaviors) can support development across cognitive and socioemotional domains. The advent of simultaneous two-brain hyperscanning (i.e., measuring the brain activity of two individuals at the same time) allows further insight into dyadic neural synchrony. In this article, we review 16 recent studies of naturalistic, parent–child brain-to-brain synchrony, finding relations with the nature of interactions (collaborative vs. competitive, parent vs. stranger), proximal social cues (gaze, affect, touch, and reciprocity), child-level variables (irritability, self-regulation), and environmental factors (parental stress, family cohesion, and adversity). We then discuss how neural synchrony may provide a biological mechanism for refining broader theories on the developmental benefits of dyadic synchrony. We also highlight critical areas for future study, including examining synchrony trajectories longitudinally, including more diverse participants and interaction contexts, and studying caregivers beyond mothers (e.g., other family members, teachers). We conclude that neural synchrony is an exciting and important window into understanding how caregiver–child dyadic synchrony supports children's social and cognitive development.

Across development, young children reason about why social inequities exist. However, when left to their own devices, young children might engage in internal thinking, reasoning that the inequity is simply a justified disparity explained by features internal to social groups (e.g., genetics, intellect, abilities, values). Internal thinking could lead them to support and reinforce the inequity (e.g., by blaming the disadvantaged). In contrast, structural thinking, which appeals to relatively stable features external to social groups (e.g., environments, policies, economic systems), could lead to more prosocial outcomes (e.g., support for social interventions). While researchers have examined adolescents' and adults' structural thinking about social inequities, in this article, we review recent research that suggests that even children as young as 5 can engage in structural thinking. We conclude with suggestions for future studies, particularly research related to how to foster young children's structural thinking in the context of real-world social inequities.

Within a sociohistorical context of racism-related physical and emotional threats, Black families in the United States have developed sources of resilience to promote children's safety and positive development. Yet research on Black family resilience has rarely been integrated into one of the most influential theories of child development: attachment theory. In this article, we propose specific ways that attachment scholars can learn from research on Black family resilience to enrich models of parent–child relationships, focusing on three sources of resilience: culturally specific parental protections (e.g., “The Talk,” preparation for bias), extended caregiving networks (e.g., natural mentors, fictive kin, spiritual community), and racial-ethnic identity development (e.g., racial pride messages to protect against social denigration). We argue that including insights from research on the resilience of Black children and families in the face of racism-related threats across generations can substantially advance current understanding of caregiving, attachment, and positive child development in context.

Young children's early math experiences are culturally situated, occurring in the context of everyday family interactions and routines. Yet, we know little about the math experiences in culturally and linguistically minoritized families, including those from Latine communities. In this article, we provide the first review of research on family math in the homes of young Latine children in the United States. We identify shared patterns and inconsistencies across studies on family math cognitions and math practices, and their relations with children's outcomes. We argue for the need to use a sociocultural lens to examine and understand family math, and offer recommendations that center families' experiences to generate foundational knowledge, capture within-group variation, and use more flexible and culturally relevant measures.