Infant and Child Development最新文献

This study used naturalistic audio–visual recordings from early care and education (ECE) settings to examine the associations between toddlers' (76 toddlers, 40 female, M _age = 32.94 months, SD = 4.92 months) multimodal emotion expressions and emotion-related vocalizations with contingent teacher interventions. Findings indicated a correspondence between multimodal emotion expressions and emotion-related vocalizations, such that screams and yells corresponded with anger expressions, and cries corresponded with sadness expressions. Time series analysis indicated that toddlers' emotion vocalizations significantly predicted subsequent contingent teacher interventions. Specifically, toddlers' multimodal sadness expressions with vocalizations increased the likelihood of evoking a contingent teacher response seven times more than other emotions and vocalizations. Implications for multimodal emotion correspondences, emotion dynamics, and toddlers' distress expressions are discussed.

Children comprehend iconic gestures relatively later than deictic gestures. Previous research with English-learning children indicated that they could comprehend iconic gestures at 26 months, a pattern whose extension to other languages is not yet known. The present study examined Turkish-learning children's iconic gesture comprehension and its relation to their receptive vocabulary knowledge. Turkish-learning children between the ages of 22- and 30-month-olds (N = 92, M = 25.6 months, SD = 1.6; 51 girls) completed a gesture comprehension task in which they were asked to choose the correct picture that matched the experimenter's speech and iconic gestures. They were also administered a standardized receptive vocabulary test. Children's performance in the gesture comprehension task increased with age, which was also related to their receptive vocabulary knowledge. When children were categorized into younger and older age groups based on the median age (i.e., 26 months—the age at which iconic gesture comprehension was present for English-learning children), only the older group performed at chance level in the task. At the same time, receptive vocabulary was positively related to gesture comprehension for younger but not older children. These findings suggest a shift in iconic gesture comprehension at around 26 months and indicate a possible link between receptive vocabulary knowledge and iconic gesture comprehension, particularly for children younger than 26 months.

As a development-enhancing or a risk-promoting environment, coparenting may shape the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and infant regulatory capacity. This study aimed to analyse the moderator role of coparenting cooperation and conflict in the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and infant regulatory capacity at 3 months. The sample comprised 103 primiparous couples (N = 206 parents) and their 3-month-old infants (53.7% female). Mothers reported on depressive symptoms at the first trimester of pregnancy, and both parents reported on coparenting, and infant regulatory capacity at 2 weeks and 3 months postpartum. Higher levels of maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and higher levels of coparenting conflict reported by parents at 2 weeks postpartum were associated with lower infant regulatory capacity at 3 months. Coparenting conflict at 2 weeks postpartum accentuated the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and infant regulatory capacity at 3 months. The results support a view of coparenting conflict as a risk-promoting environment that can accentuate the association between maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and infant regulatory capacity. Infants in families with mothers with elevated prenatal depressive symptoms and with high levels of coparenting conflict may be at high risk of low regulatory capacity.

This study investigated the potential influences of administration context on the measurement of child skills. The Brief Observation of Social-Communication Change (BOSCC) was administered at two time points to preschool-aged children with autism in two contexts: (1) at school by trained research staff and (2) at home by the parent. Participants were of ages 3–5 years (M = 4.27 years) old with a confirmed diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Of the 13 participants (nine male), eight were White, three Asian, one Black and one White/Black; all identified as non-Hispanic. The social-communication and Core total scores yield similar information in both contexts, but Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors and Other Abnormal Behavior subscales scores were not related. These results underscore the importance of purposeful selection of measures and their administration context.

Children with elevated behavioural inhibition (BI) show context-inappropriate fear and dysregulated RSA across stressor tasks. However, few studies have examined dynamic RSA within tasks and relations to parent and child anxiety. Using piecewise growth modelling and multimethod baseline data from an intervention study of 151 3.5–5-year-old children and their parents, we examined relations between child social anxiety (SA), parent anxiety and their interaction in predicting children's RSA across social stressor tasks (e.g. learning about unfamiliar peers, Trier Social Stress). Within the sample, 49.63% of children were reported to be White, non-Hispanic/Latine (n = 67), 22% multiracial (n = 31), 14.81% Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 20) and 12.59% Black/African-American (n = 17). Furthermore, 64.44% of the parents were reported to be White, non-Hispanic/Latine (n = 87), 20% Asian/Pacific Islander (n = 27), 13.33% Black/African-American (n = 18) and 2.22% multiracial (n = 3). Children showed differentiated RSA reactivity and recovery within an anticipatory social learning task based on their level of clinically appraised SA. Relations between child SA and RSA across tasks was moderated by parent anxiety, specifically for dyads matched in anxiety. Findings provide support for the potential influence of both child and parent anxiety on children's parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses across specific self-regulatory tasks.

Perspective taking and cognitive flexibility are important abilities for navigating our everyday lives. In this longitudinal study with 108 children (61 girls, mostly White), we investigated the developmental relation between Level 1 perspective taking at 27 months of age and Level 2 perspective taking at 52 months of age as well as relations to cognitive flexibility at 52 months of age. We found that early perspective taking was significantly related to later, more complex perspective taking abilities as well as to cognitive flexibility. This highlights the importance of early perspective taking abilities for later perspective understanding and flexible cognition.

Although the benefits of the close relationship between parent and teacher to child development are widely recognized, it's still unclear how the parent–teacher relationship affects Chinese pupils' school attitudes. The study aimed to investigate this question with a nuanced approach by focusing on the components of the parent–teacher relationship and exploring the moderation of students' perceptions of academic performance. Data were from 1755 fifth graders (M _age = 12.19, 51.3% girls) and their mothers (M _age = 41.38) in a two-wave longitudinal dataset. Parents' reports of parent-initiated contact, teacher-initiated contact, the quality of the parent–teacher relationship, and students' perceptions of school attitudes and academic performance were analysed by multiple regression models. In terms of the main effect, parent–teacher relationship quality was negatively associated with school avoidance. In terms of the moderation effects, parent-initiated contact was negatively associated with students' school liking who had low academic perceptions, and the relationship quality was positively associated with students' school liking who had high academic perceptions. The findings provide insights into promoting pupils' school psychological adjustment from the perspective of home–school collaboration in the Chinese context.