Infant and Child Development最新文献

The study was a cross-sectional online inquiry that utilised a convergent parallel design for data collection and analysis. A semi-structured questionnaire and a key informant interview guide were used to collect data from children under the age of 18. A total of 385 children, comprised of 188 boys and 197 girls aged 10–17, took part in the survey, whereas 59 children were involved in the personal interviews (PIs). Using the Six Stages of Play Theory, this paper examined the prevalence of children's participation in recreational activities during Ghana's COVID-19 lockdown, the types of recreational activities children participated in, the reasons for children not participating in recreational activities, and how the COVID-19 lockdown affected children's recreation. The results show that seven in ten children engaged in recreational activities, with participation being higher among females than males. The pandemic lockdown impacted children's capacity to enjoy unrestricted play. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has been declared officially over, the paper recommends using the current study's findings as a foundation and a guide for future events involving children's participation in leisure and recreation under similar confinement conditions.

Child temperament is a predictor of non-verbal ability (i.e., thinking and problem-solving skills that do not fundamentally require verbal language production and comprehension). Given that temperament scores might vary depending on whether the reporter is a parent or a teacher, this study analyzes (a) whether those reports are different and (b) how each report predicts child non-verbal ability in a non-western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (non-WEIRD) sample. The Matrix subtest of KABC-II (a non-verbal ability task widely used in non-WEIRD contexts) was administered to 85 Argentinian children (47 girls, 38 boys) aged 4–5 years, from middle-to-low socioeconomic status homes. Also, the Child Behaviour Questionnaire-Very Short Form (CBQ-VSF) was administered to obtain temperament reports from parents and teachers. Factors from parents' and teachers' reports did not correlate. Only factors including items from the effortful control dimension from teachers' reports predicted Matrix total score with a small effect size (partial η² = 0.10). Instead, the parents' report did not predict non-verbal ability. Our results provide infrequent data from non-WEIRD low-SES populations and underscore the unique and predictive validity of teachers' perspectives in clarifying the connections between child temperament and nonverbal ability.

Previous research has demonstrated early-emerging gender associations with musical instruments. We investigated whether pitch, loudness and size affect gender-instrument associations in older (M_age = 9.37 years, N = 57) and younger (M_age = 7.73 years, N = 63) children (approximately even gender split, mostly North American), as well as American undergraduates (M_age = 19.57 years, N = 50). Participants selected whether a girl or boy character should play fictional instruments with different pitch (high/low), volume (loud/soft) and size (large/small). Children were more likely to select boy characters for low- than high-pitched instruments (60% vs. 44%), as were adult undergraduates (79% vs. 54%). Older boys were also more likely to select boy characters for loud than soft instruments (68% vs. 52%). Size had no effect for any group. Results suggest pitch and loudness impact gender-instrument associations, and that gender associations are not restricted to gender-instrument pairings children have former experience with.

Children develop cooperative behaviours within culturally specific social environments from an early age. This exploratory study analysed cooperation between siblings in two different cultural contexts: Yurakaré Indigenous community in Bolivia (N = 22; M_age = 5.31 years; 59.1% female) and urban Poland (N = 24; M_age = 4.86 years; 45.8% female). Mixed-age sibling dyads participated in a tower-building task designed to evaluate cooperative behaviours, focusing on verbal communication, attention management, and cooperation dynamics. Yurakaré siblings more often engaged in complementary actions and jointly built tower levels, whereas Polish siblings tended to construct levels individually and used approximately three times more verbal communication. The groups also differed in their attention management characteristics. Across both groups, fewer attentional shifts during the task were associated with older age. Although the sample size is small, this study provides novel insights into culture-specific cooperation and proposes new research procedures and hypotheses for future investigation.

Motherhood represents a significant phenomenon in the lives of many women, exerting influence not only on their personal experiences but also on the developmental processes of their children. The perception and meaning of motherhood can vary widely across different cultural contexts. This study aims to investigate Turkish mothers' perspectives on the role of motherhood through a phenomenological approach. The research involved a study group of 40 mothers residing in the city centre of Ankara, Türkiye, with infants aged 0 to 36 months. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews using interview forms developed by the researchers. The collected data were subjected to content analysis and categorised accordingly. Findings reveal that Turkish mothers experience both positive and negative emotions concurrently regarding motherhood. Mothers viewed motherhood as a source of happiness; conversely, a prevalent concern among the participants was the fear of losing their babies. The participants noted significant changes in their lives due to motherhood. Furthermore, it was observed that families played a crucial supportive role for mothers in adapting to these changes during both prenatal and postnatal periods. The study suggests that motherhood, a biologically inherent aspect specific to women, is often perceived as a role laden with societal pressures and challenges. This perception is influenced by societal expectations and the roles imposed on women. Therefore, it is essential to provide comprehensive support to mothers throughout the prenatal and postnatal periods to address these challenges effectively.

Historical events change the socio-cultural and political contexts that Latinx gay men live in, shaping generational differences in external support, comfort being out, experiences of stigma, and the impacts of and response to minority stress over time. The stigma Latinx gay fathers face is informed by racial and xenophobic prejudice they encounter as Latinx individuals and negative attitudes towards their parenting abilities as gay men. To better understand the lives of Latinx gay fathers, we employed a life course perspective to explore their pathways to parenthood, experiences and avoidance of stigma, helpfulness of social relationships, and their comfort being out. Eighty-six Latinx gay fathers (M_age = 46.03 years, SD = 10.50, range = 21–74) from 47 US states participated. Most identified as white, Hispanic (88.4%), while others identified as Black/African American and Hispanic (8.1%), Multiracial (2.3%), or Hispanic, non-white (1.2%). The average income level was approximately US $75,000–$80,000. Over half of participants' first and second children were genetically related to them. Participants reported low frequencies of sexuality-based stigma and even lower levels of stigma avoidance, as well as relatively high levels of comfort being publicly out and helpfulness of social relationships. Generational differences between Latinx gay fathers in the AIDS-1 (born 1950–1969) and AIDS-2 generations (born 1970–1980s) were salient, signifying the importance of historical context in understanding this population.