Child Development Perspectives最新文献

The climate crisis encompasses a constellation of risks that threaten human livelihoods, well-being, and survival globally. In this article, we present a new framework based on bioecological and dynamic systems perspectives, and on evidence for conceptualizing how the distinctive dual time frame of both acute (e.g., extreme weather events) and chronic (e.g., ecological degradation) climate change-related risks experienced prenatally and early in life across multiple ecological contexts can threaten human development. We conclude with a call to developmental researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to invest more efforts in understanding and addressing the climate crisis and its developmental consequences to ensure a sustainable future for all.

The sharp rise over the past decade in young children's access to various forms of screen media (e.g., smartphones, tablets, TVs) has posed new and significant challenges to caregivers in managing children's use of this type of media. For caregivers of young children with externalizing behavior problems, managing children's time with screen media is especially important and challenging. In this article, we summarize evidence of bidirectional links between early externalizing behavior problems and unhealthy screen media use in young children and discuss the extent to which prior interventions have responded to the needs of caregivers of children with these problems. We propose a conceptual model for an intervention to promote healthy screen media use for children with externalizing behavior problems that leverages current behavioral parenting interventions.

Antifascists have developed action-oriented principles and practices for collective resistance to fascism. In this article, we discuss antifascism as praxis, which is the nexus of theory and practice through collective reflection and action. Antifascist praxis can inform developmental science at individual and contextual levels of analysis. For the study of individual developmental trajectories, we examine how antifascist praxis can inform research to stop fascist recruitment of youth and counter-recruit youth into liberation movements. For the study of developmental contexts, we use the example of family separation to examine how antifascist praxis can inform research to identify fascist threats and support collective action against fascist violence. We also present next steps for developing a field of scholarship in which communities of developmental scientists engage in antifascist praxis. As developmental scientists, we must see ourselves as part of—not objectively disconnected from—broader mass movements building power against fascism and pursuing liberation for all.

Research on the development of active learning and information search behaviors has been growing rapidly, drawing interest from multiple disciplines, from developmental psychology to cognitive science and artificial intelligence. These different perspectives can open pathways to understanding how preschool-age children grow into adaptive and efficient active learners. However, the lack of a shared vocabulary, operationalizations, and research paradigms has led to limited cross-talk and some conflicting findings. In this article, we advocate for using a shared operationalization of a “good” information-search strategy, as a function of its efficiency and effectiveness within a given ecology, based on the information-theoretic measure of expected information gain and observed behavioral outcomes, respectively. We also discuss factors that should be considered when designing experiments that examine children's information-search competence, specifically, using formal models as performance benchmarks and accounting for children's prior knowledge, assumptions, and self-generated goals.

According to coercion theory (Patterson, 1982, 2016), children's aggression is developed and maintained through transactional processes between parents and their children that unfold over time. The theory provides a model of the behavioral contingencies that explain how parents and children mutually “train” each other to behave in ways that over time increase the likelihood of children's aggression and decrease parents' control over this aggression. Although the theory characterizes the interactions that often lead to dysfunctional family processes and children's aggression, its focus on observable, interpersonal negativity has resulted in research that largely overlooks intraindividual phenomena, such as the internal experiences that drive parents' expressed negativity. In this article, I present empirical and theoretical work that supports an expanded focus of coercion theory to include emotion as an internal mechanism of reinforcement that facilitates and maintains coercive family processes and children's antisocial development.

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.