Infant and Child Development最新文献

The opportunity for language-building interactions, and specifically conversational turn-taking with a caregiver, is a critical foundation for enhancing a child's language development. In this secondary analysis of conversational turns, 89 parent–child dyads who previously completed 1 year of either weekly Music Together (music) or play date (control) classes (intensive intervention phase) were assessed after 1 year of monthly classes (maintenance phase). Conversational turns were coded from parent–child free play interactions conducted in a laboratory environment post maintenance phase (month-24). Results show that participants in the music group had a greater increase in the average number of conversational turns in each episode from baseline to month 24. Participating in music enrichment programs during infancy may benefit parent–child language interactions into toddlerhood.

Children's fuzziness leads to increased variance in the data, data loss, and high dropout rates in developmental studies. This study investigated the importance of 20 factors on the person (child, caregiver, experimenter) and situation (task, method, time, and date) level for the data quality as indicated via the number of valid trials in 11 studies with N = 727 infants and children (aged 5 months to 8 years). A random forest model suggests that the duration of the study, the children's age, and the age, gender, and experience of the experimenters are the most important predictors in explaining differences in children's data quality in this sample of children. Other researchers may consider shortening studies and ensuring extensive training for experimenters to help increase the probability of data retention.

While the relationship between secure attachment and emotion regulation has been extensively investigated, there is relatively little information about the trajectory of emotion regulation in childhood and whether changes in emotion regulation would mediate the relation between mother–child secure attachment and independence. A latent growth mediation model was tested using data from the ‘Kids in Taiwan’, a national longitudinal project on child development and care in Taiwan. All participants (N = 1181, 49.5% boys) are Chinese. The results revealed that (1) the growth trajectory of emotion regulation increased rapidly from age 4 to age 6 in children; (2) the trajectory of emotion regulation mediated the relationship between secure attachment at age 4 and subsequent independence at age 6. These findings provide further evidence that early childhood is a vital period for children's development of emotion regulation, and secure attachment is an important factor in supporting long-term emotion regulation and independence in childhood.

This study explores the impact of menstrual taboos on adolescent girls aged 12–17 in Ghana's Offin River communities, focusing on the Adansi South District and Upper Denkyira East Municipality. Conducted by the Department of Children under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, it aims to assess the socio-economic effects of these taboos and the strategies addressing them. Fieldwork involved key informant interviews with 40 participants, including 30 adolescent girls and 10 community members, government officials and non-government representatives. Participants were selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. The study highlights how menstrual taboos disrupt girls' education by increasing absenteeism, lowering academic performance and restricting their social and economic participation. While boys face no such barriers, girls must navigate cultural restrictions that hinder their mobility and opportunities. To tackle these challenges, interventions such as fact-finding missions, community education, infrastructure development and policy advocacy have been implemented. However, gaps remain, particularly in resource allocation and shifting deep-rooted cultural beliefs. To mitigate these challenges, public education campaigns utilising traditional and religious leaders' influence are essential. Infrastructure improvements, such as building schools and bridges, and policy measures promoting menstrual equity through education and access to sanitary products, are critical. These interventions are key to overcoming menstrual taboos, ensuring gender equity and empowering adolescent girls.

This study explored the concept of “home” amongst 25 Bedouin children (aged 4–6) from unrecognised villages (UVs) in the Naqab/Negev, southern Israel, experiencing harsh living conditions due to ongoing socio-political conflict and the threat of house demolitions, and limited access to basic services. Using drawing activities and interviews, this study investigated children's perceptions of home, revealing it as both a source of protection and risk. Four key themes emerged: (a) the concept of home for Bedouin children; (b) police perceptions and experiences of home demolitions; (c) home as a source of emotional distress; and (d) children's coping mechanisms. Children's narratives revealed a discrepancy between idealised depictions of home in their drawings and the precarious reality of their living conditions, marked by the constant threat of police-enforced demolitions. Despite these challenges, family, rituals, and the environment provided crucial emotional security, with nature and community offering additional safety. These findings underscore the need for culturally sensitive interventions and improved infrastructure, emphasising the importance of incorporating children's perspectives into policy-making that impacts their living conditions.

There is widespread evidence that children display a mutual exclusivity response upon encountering new words. Children displaying this behaviour will select a novel, name-unknown object in response to a novel label, rather than a familiar, name-known object. The mutual exclusivity response has been viewed as a means of fast-mapping vocabulary—enabling the retention of new words with minimal and incidental exposure. Thus, it may play an important role in driving early vocabulary growth. Yet, while the mutual exclusivity response may initially guide the correct choice of a novel word's referent, it does not necessarily result in retention for even brief durations. In this pre-registered meta-analysis, we examined the evidence for the retention of novel noun mappings disambiguated through the mutual exclusivity response. While a large effect size was observed for the mutual exclusivity response, consistent with past research, there was a smaller effect for subsequent retention—which was substantially attenuated by Bayesian publication bias correction. Our findings are consistent with models of word learning in which referent selection is not governed by the same processes underlying referent retention.