Infant and Child Development最新文献

Experimental research on language acquisition and development regularly employs auditory stimuli as part of the methodology. This project analyses the apparent standard practice of using female speakers to produce these experimental materials and the potential consequences of such a practice. To situate the discussion in the current scientific landscape we present a systematic review of published literature between 2017 and 2022 to establish how prevalent this practice is. The review finds a strong bias in favour of female-spoken stimuli across publications in a curated set of nine journals. We discuss this result in light of gender-based workplace inequality, changing caregiver expectations and the reliability of infants' assumed female voice preference. This project seeks to encourage researchers to consider how diversifying the stimuli used in these types of studies would lead to both a more inclusive and representative research landscape, as well as ensure that our research results are generalizable.

Deciding whose words to trust profoundly impacts children's knowledge acquisition. In evaluating informants' trustworthiness, children are attentive to their social dominance. Previous studies have shown that children's trust preferences may differ across cultures based on the dominance of the informant: children in Western cultures prefer to trust in testimony from dominant informants, whereas children in Eastern cultures prefer to trust subordinate informants (Bernard et al., 2016; Charafeddine et al., 2019). We aim to investigate the potential cultural difference in the trust preferences of European American children (in the United States) and Chinese children (in China) from informants of varying levels of dominance, using a more refined method to assess children's trust preferences. We propose that different levels of authoritarianism – advocacies to obey authorities – in Western and Eastern cultures may explain the potential difference in children's selective trust. Specifically, as impacted by societal cultures, Chinese parents may possess a higher level of authoritarianism than European American parents and may place a higher emphasis on obedience in their parenting. Consequently, Chinese children may show stronger trust preferences from subordinate informants over dominant informants than European American children. Our research will offer insights into the potential mechanism underlying children's different learning preferences across cultures.

The current study investigates the role of teacher behaviors in toddlers' executive function development. Teachers' (N = 215) emotional and behavioral support and instructional support were observed through classroom observations when children were 2 years old. Selective attention, verbal short-term memory, and visuospatial working memory of children (N = 876, 48.4% female) were assessed at age 2 (M_age = 28.60 months, SD = 2.83) and 3 (M_age = 42.38 months, SD = 2.47). Teachers' instructional support positively predicted growth in selective attention, but not verbal short-term memory or visuospatial working memory. Teachers' emotional and behavioral support did not predict the growth in executive function measures. Findings have implications for understanding the role of teacher-child interactions in executive function development in toddlerhood.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a very widely used scale in which parents, teachers or the child rate various aspects of the child's well-being. It is widely used in the Western world and is translated into 80+ languages. It is also used in countries that do not classify as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic). However, unlike WEIRD countries, some studies indicate that the psychometric properties of the SDQ when used in non-WEIRD countries are questionable. Therefore, we gave the SDQ to the mothers and teachers of 310 3- to 5-year-olds in urban centres of Turkey and examined its psychometric properties. Turkey is not a WEIRD country because it is not Western, although the participants in our study were well educated, living in an industrialized area, rich relative to others in Turkey (although poor relative to Westerners) and democratic. As such, it is not drastically different from WEIRD countries and our question was whether even relatively small deviations from standard WEIRD criteria could result in questionable psychometric properties for the SDQ.

This study was carried out to develop a measurement tool to determine the readiness of mothers and babies for weaning. At the first stage of the study, a draft of the Readiness for Weaning Scale (RWS) was created. In the second stage, this draft was presented to the opinions of experts (CVI:0.85), and in the third stage, the validity and reliability of RWS were tested by collecting data from the participants (n = 265). Factor analysis was performed to determine the construct validity of RWS. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis, the KMO statistic was found to be 0.802. In the factor analysis, four factors were determined, and these factors explained 60.023% of the total variance as a result of the analysis performed with the varimax vertical rotation technique (Weaning intention, Baby's readiness, Weaning technique, Mother's readiness). The internal consistency coefficient of the scale was found to indicate a quite high level of reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.793).

Health disparities among children living in poverty underscore the importance of identifying risk and protective factors for childhood obesity. By applying a family stress framework with an equity lens, this study aimed to test the differential associations between maternal distress and child body mass index (BMI) in preschool-age children living in low-income families. Pre-intervention data from an obesity prevention randomized controlled trial were used to assess mother-reported parental distress and anthropometry collected from children and mothers in a diverse sample of 450 families enrolled in Head Start. Analyses examined associations between maternal distress and child BMI z-score (BMIz) and moderation by child sex. The sample of children was 49% female, 42% White, 25% Black, 11% Hispanic and 33% had overweight status or obesity. Results indicated higher BMIz for girls compared to boys (β = 0.10, p = 0.03). Child sex modified the association between maternal distress and child BMIz (β = 0.12, p = 0.01). Greater maternal distress was associated with higher BMIz among girls but not boys. Among preschoolers, the maternal distress–BMIz association differed by child sex. Understanding individual differences in how maternal distress relates to childhood obesity may have important implications for obesity prevention efforts.

The present study investigated the relation between social acceptance and school well-being in early childhood. Additionally, it was explored whether this relation depended on gender and age. In total, N = 311 children (aged 4–7) participated. Social acceptance was assessed with a peer nomination method and school wellbeing was measured with a parent questionnaire. Outcomes of hierarchical multiple regression analysis demonstrated a positive relation between social acceptance and school wellbeing. Regarding the role of gender and age, outcomes indicated that social acceptance was related to school wellbeing only for girls (not boys) and only for younger children (not older children). Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The use of creative qualitative research methods in psychology and other disciplines has increased over recent decades to address power imbalances within research and to centre the voices of participants. These considerations are particularly salient when conducting research with historically marginalized groups, including neurodivergent people. However, research foregrounding the first-person perspectives of neurodivergent children is still limited. In this paper, we discuss the application of creative qualitative research methods when conducting research with neurodivergent children with a range of communication and wider skill profiles. The benefits and challenges of each method are considered, drawing on examples from the first phase of an ongoing longitudinal study. Additional considerations for working ethically and respectfully with neurodivergent children are discussed. Readers are encouraged to consider how best to adapt their research protocols when working with neurodivergent children, in order to minimize research hierarchies, build positive relationships, and produce rich and meaningful data.