Infant and Child Development最新文献

It is surprising how little we know about the relationships that matter to emerging adults, and we propose research to bridge that gap. First, we will ask emerging adults to generate a list of the individuals who matter. The list will be submitted via open-ended text that we will code for relationship type. Our first aim is to gain information about the frequency and diversity of relationships that matter to emerging adults. We hypothesise that participants who list more relationships will have better well-being and less loneliness. Second, we will use an adapted version of the Mattering Scale to assess how much specific relationships matter to participants by asking them to focus on five common close relationships (i.e., mother figures, father figures, romantic partners, best friends and closest-in-age sibling). For each relationship that exists for the participant, how much each relationship matters will be measured. We hypothesise that failing to mention a specific relationship in the open-ended portion of the study will be related to lower perceived mattering of that relationship when participants report on mattering. Finally, we hypothesise that when specified relationships matter more to an individual, they will have less loneliness and better well-being.

This study examines the impact of the deviation between parents' educational expectations and children's educational expectations on children's health. This study based on the data from Chinese Family Panel Studies conducted in 2018 and 2020, The participants were 2340 children aged 10–15 years (1310 boys, 1030 girls) in China. We found that when parents' educational expectations are higher than their children's educational expectations, they have a negative impact on children's health status. According to the influence mechanism, the higher the parents' expectations of education are, the greater children's remedial behaviour will be, the less leisure time will be, which will adversely affect children's health. Furthermore, we found that a good parent–child relationship moderated the negative impact of the deviation in parent–child educational expectations on children's health. Therefore, in order to ensure the healthy development of children, it is necessary to resolve the adverse effects of the deviation in parent–child educational expectations by arranging tutoring and leisure time rationally and establishing a good parent–child relationship.

Using a sample of 286 mothers and fathers from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, we tested the associations between the frequency and quality of parents' shared book reading (SBR) with infants aged 9 months, and language skills of infants aged 18 months, and whether infants' attention during SBR at 9 months mediated these associations. Frequency of SBR was parent-report and quality of SBR (i.e., number of reading strategies) and infants' attention were coded from recorded SBR interactions at home. The majority of mothers and fathers reported reading to their 9-month-olds at least weekly, and mothers reported reading, on average, significantly more often than fathers. There was large variability in parents' SBR quality ranging from 0 to 15 strategies per minute, with labelling being the most common. Path analysis showed that mothers' SBR frequency at 9 months was significantly associated with infants' receptive and expressive language skills at 18 months, whereas, SBR quality by either parent was not significant. Infants' attention did not mediate these associations. These findings suggest that early SBR is beneficial for language development and programmes targeting early language development should encourage both mothers and fathers to read often to their infants during the first year.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in many contexts. There is limited scholarship, however, in the fields of Developmental Psychology and Early Childhood Education exploring the implications of generative AI for babies and young children. In this Perspectives piece, we discuss potential use cases, opportunities, and risks for the application of AI in early childhood. Our insights are informed by extensive discussion with stakeholders and by desk research carried out in our roles as academics and analysts in a social innovation foundation. Our aim is to stimulate nuanced and informed discourse on the topic of generative AI in early childhood that can inform innovation in both research and practice.

Increasingly, researchers have operationalized Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)-derived attachment representations as reflecting individual differences in secure base script knowledge (AAI_sbs) – the degree to which individuals show awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes the basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers when in distress. In a series of pre-registered analyses, we used AAI transcripts recently re-coded for AAI_sbs and leveraged a new follow-up assessment of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development cohort at around age 30 years (479 currently partnered participants; 59% female; 82% White/non-Hispanic) to assess and compare the links between AAI_sbs and traditional AAI coding measures at around age 18 years and self-reported romantic relationship quality in adulthood. Higher AAI_sbs predicted better dyadic adjustment scores in adulthood (r = 0.17) and this association remained significant controlling for other AAI-derived coding measures, as well as sociodemographic and cognitive functioning covariates. Findings extend previous evidence pointing to the predictive significance of AAI_sbs for multiple adult functioning domains.

This study utilised the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 561 adoptive children; 57.2% male, 55.3% White), a study of children adopted at birth, to examine heritable (birth parent psychopathology) and prenatal risk (prenatal maternal distress and smoking during pregnancy), infant negative affectivity, adoptive parent over-reactivity and warmth as independent predictors of childhood externalising symptoms. The current study evaluated if: (1) infant negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting are candidate mediators for the effects of heritable and prenatal risk on externalising symptoms and (2) parental warmth weakens the influence of heritable risk, prenatal risk, negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting on externalising symptoms. There were main effects of heritable risk, infant negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting on child externalising symptoms. The study found no support for the hypothesised mediation and moderation effects, suggesting that targeting parental over-reactivity rather than warmth would be more effective in reducing the risk for childhood externalising symptoms.

This study investigated relations between emerging adults' memories of parental acceptance–rejection during childhood and the adults' dispositions towards forgiveness and vengeance, as mediated by psychological (mal)adjustment. South Asian (Pakistani) participants, including 242 (25.6%) men (M_age = 21.69, SD = 2.34) and 704 (74.4%) women (M_age = 21.14, SD = 2.09), responded to the short forms of the maternal and paternal Adult Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaires, the Adult Personality Assessment Questionnaire, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, the Vengeance Scale and a Personal Information Form. Results revealed that memories of both maternal and paternal rejection were correlated with current psychological maladjustment. Paternal rejection amongst women and maternal rejection amongst men predicted the disposition towards vengeance. Maternal acceptance amongst both men and women predicted the disposition towards forgiveness. Paternal acceptance, however, did not predict the disposition towards forgiveness amongst either men or women. Psychological adjustment amongst both men and women mediated relations between maternal and paternal acceptance and the disposition towards forgiveness. However, psychological maladjustment was a significant mediator of the relation between maternal and paternal rejection and the disposition towards vengeance amongst men and women. Implications of the findings and future directions of research are discussed.