Infant and Child Development最新文献

The mental health and well-being of children and adolescents are critical public health concerns globally. This cross-sectional study analysed nationally representative data from the combined 2016–2022 National Survey of Children's Health (n = 239,534) to produce estimates of parent-reported diagnoses of children's anxiety, depression and behavioural or conduct problems, and to examine temporal trends for each condition. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression were used to examine the prevalence of the conditions by sociodemographic characteristics. Among children aged 3–17 years, 8.4% had anxiety, 3.7% had depression and 7.1% had behavioural or conduct problems. Between 2016 and 2022, there were increases in the prevalence of anxiety (6.9%–10.6%), depression (3.1%–4.6%) and behavioural or conduct problems (7.2%–7.5%). Older age and higher poverty were associated with higher odds of each condition, while having private insurance was associated with lower odds. Females had higher odds of anxiety (AOR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.15–1.29) and depression (AOR = 1.48; 95% CI, 1.35–1.61), and lower odds of behavioural or conduct problems (AOR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.41–0.48). Prevention, early intervention and improved access to mental health services are critical to reversing the ongoing trends of increasing prevalence of mental health conditions among children and adolescents.

We introduce Speech Transcriber with Rev AI (STR) - a Python script that allows for easy interfacing with the Rev AI speech transcription service. Recent advancements in technology have led to increased accuracy and affordability of automatic transcription services, making them preferable over the laborious and time-consuming process of manual transcription. STR allows users to take advantage of speech-to-text transcription services to transcribe their own verbal response data. STR is partially tailored to child development researchers utilising the Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts (CHAT) though the code is generic enough to output unformatted transcriptions. STR allows transcription of single words and multi-speaker dialogues in 50+ languages. We describe STR, provide a tutorial for CHAT-formatted transcriptions, describe settings available for customising transcription and conduct a brief analysis of the efficiency and accuracy of transcription. Speech that was transcribed in over half an hour by trained transcribers was transcribed in less than two minutes (with ~90% accuracy) by Rev AI. Considering the additional time needed for error correction and CHAT formatting, we estimate that manual transcription takes twice as long as transcribing with assistance from STR.

The home environment (HE) is one of young children's most proximal and impactful settings. Little research has examined the nature of variability in the HE for children from low-income homes, even as more recent work suggests heterogeneity within economically disadvantaged households. Using a subsample from a larger, longitudinal study, we examined the extent to which differential profiles of the HE of infants from low-income backgrounds could be identified. A latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three profiles of the HE: low responsivity, average HE, and high involvement. These three groups did not differ regarding family characteristics such as parental education, income, or marital status but did differ concerning maternal stress and material support. Specifically, maternal stress and material support were lower in the group with high involvement.

The current study examined the inter-brain coherence (IBC) between 34 dyads of fathers and infants 7–9 months of age using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). We specifically focused on father–infant IBC to broaden the empirical base beyond the mother–infant connections, as the former has received limited attention. There were three conditions: a baseline condition and two task conditions when the infant and the adult participant jointly listened to maternal storytelling in Cantonese in infant-directed speech (IDS) and adult-directed speech (ADS). Father–infant IBC was compared with stranger–infant IBC in the same experimental settings. Our results found that father–infant IBC was greater in the baseline and ADS conditions but not in the IDS condition, compared to stranger–infant IBC. Further, stranger–infant dyads showed greater IBC in the IDS condition than in the ADS condition, with no significance in father–infant IBC between the two speech conditions. These results identified different inter-brain connection mechanisms between the two dyads. The IBC pattern in stranger–infant dyads is driven by neural entrainment to mothers' speech, whereas father–infant IBC is more resistant to mothers' behaviours in the co-presence of both parents.

The development of emotional competence is an important milestone during early childhood. Beyond early experience within the family, the (preschool) classroom is a relevant socialisation context, and both teachers and peers may contribute to children's emotion-related outcomes. Tracking changes in the emotion regulation competence of N = 173 preschool children (age in months: M = 43.3, SD = 6.6, 45% girls) over 6 months, the current study investigated whether and how peers contribute to differences in the development of emotion regulation in preschool classrooms. The research questions were addressed by examining three different kinds of peer groups: Classroom-level peer group, friendship group, and high-status peers (social network centrality). Teachers rated children's emotion regulation competence and empathic co-regulation behaviour—referring to preschoolers' supportive responses to their peers' emotional expressions—at three assessment points. Multilevel growth modelling provided evidence that friendship-group empathic co-regulation (empathy, helping, and comforting behaviour) predicted changes in preschoolers' emotion regulation over time, confirming that friendship groups influence young children's emotional development.