Social Development最新文献

Social-emotional competence is critical to children's social and school success, prompting interest in understanding factors that promote these skills prior to elementary-school. Cognitive stimulation (e.g., reading, playing) is related to preschool children's social outcomes; However, few studies have examined these associations earlier, or determined whether interventions that encourage cognitive stimulation may enhance children's early social-emotional competencies either directly, or through impact on these behaviors. The present study examined whether cognitive stimulation in infancy predicted social competence in toddlerhood and the impact of a positive parenting intervention on these child outcomes. Mother-infant dyads in the Smart Beginnings (SB) RCT (primarily Hispanic/Latino or Black and from low-income backgrounds) were randomly assigned to treatment or control. SB integrates universal primary prevention in pediatric primary care (PlayReadVIP); and targeted/secondary prevention through home visiting (Family Check-Up). Mothers' cognitive stimulation at 6 months significantly predicted children's social-emotional competence at 24 months. Although there was no direct effect of SB on children's social-emotional competence, there was an indirect effect on children's social competence through maternal cognitive stimulation. Findings suggest that associations between cognitive stimulation and children's social-emotional competence emerge earlier than previously shown, and that positive parenting interventions can support early social-emotional competence through impact on cognitive stimulation.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02459327.

Given established associations between children's sleep and many outcomes, and the theorized relations between sleep and school functioning, the goal of this study was to examine the relations between children's actigraphy-assessed sleep and school engagement. We used data from a diverse sample of twins (N = 710; Analytic N = 599; M _age = 8.52; 51% female; 57% Non-Hispanic White/European American; 25% Hispanic/Latino; 32% at or near the poverty line) to test our predictions. Measures of sleep included actigraphy-based sleep efficiency, sleep duration hours, and sleep duration variability. Teachers reported on children's participation, school liking, and school avoidance, and parents reported on SES. Moderation analyses revealed negative relations between sleep efficiency (and duration hours) and school avoidance for low, but not high SES families, and the positive relation between sleep efficiency and participation was strongest for children from low SES families. For girls, but not boys, sleep efficiency and sleep duration hours were negatively related to school avoidance, whereas sleep variability was positively related to school avoidance. Sleep efficiency and duration hours were positively related to school liking whereas duration variability was negatively related to school liking. These findings provide novel insight into children's sleep and their classroom engagement and highlight the particular importance of sleep for low SES families and girls.

Adolescent self-control is predictive of many outcomes (e.g., educational, financial, and interpersonal) during adolescence and into adulthood. Despite its importance, few studies report on associations between parental self-control and adolescent self-control, and no studies have considered how these associations may be domain-specific (e.g., teens and parents' self-control are correlated for health behaviors but not for leisure activities). The current study examined how parents' general and domain-specific self-control were related to their adolescent children's self-control. The study included 213 adolescents (M _age = 15.65, SD = 0.49; 53.5% girls) and at least one of their parents (184 = mother-figures; 67 = father-figures) from the Appalachian region of the United States who each reported on general and domain-specific self-control. Results indicated that mothers' general self-control was related to teens reporting higher concurrent general self-control, but fathers' health self-control was related to teens' reports of lower general self-control. Mothers' and fathers' health-related self-control were also related to their teens' concurrent health self-control. When examining teen self-control six months later, mothers' work self-control predicted higher teen academic self-control, mothers' general self-control predicted higher teen health self-control, and fathers' general self-control predicted higher teen money self-control. This study provides novel evidence to support both general and domain-specific models of self-control and suggests domain specificity may be essential to better understand how youth self-control develops.

The importance of the parent-child relationship during early childhood (i.e., 0-5 years) on children's socioemotional functioning has been extensively documented in the literature. However, limited work has examined the degree to which dyadic features of the parent-child relationship changes over the course of early childhood and whether growth in these features relate to children's functioning. The present study aimed to address this limitation by examining change trajectories of dyadic affective mutuality and mutual enjoyment during the first 2 years of life and whether these trajectories were associated with child problem behavior at age four. The sample was comprised of 374 low-income, infant-mother dyads recruited for an efficacy trial of a tiered parenting program designed to promote school readiness. Affective mutuality and mutual enjoyment were assessed via coded interaction tasks between mothers and their infants at 6, 18, and 24 months. Mothers reported on children's internalizing and externalizing problem behavior at 48 months. Results from latent growth curve analysis revealed dyads' affective mutuality significantly increased, and mutual enjoyment significantly decreased, from 6 to 24 months. Initial levels and positive change in affective mutuality from 6 to 24 months were both negatively associated with child internalizing problems, but not externalizing problems, at 48 months. These findings emphasize the importance of conducting work that conceptualizes the dyad as the unit of study and explores how changes in the parent-child relationship may themselves be important indicators for children's future functioning.

High-quality forms of contact, such as cross-group play and friendships, have been identified as particularly effective for promoting positive beliefs toward outgroup peers. Relations between children's cross-group play experiences and their beliefs about peers' math and science competencies and high-status occupational prospects have not yet been examined. Understanding these relations is important given that children from minoritized groups continue to face exclusion and bias in these domains. The present study examined the associations between children's (N = 983, M _age = 9.64, SD _age = .89) reported cross-group play experiences and their math and science competency beliefs and high-status occupation expectations about girls and Black peers. Results revealed that, for majority group participants (i.e., boys and White children), higher levels of cross-group play were associated with significantly higher beliefs and expectations for girls and Black peers. Further, results demonstrated contexts in which higher levels of cross-group play were positively associated with girls' and Black children's beliefs and expectations for their own groups. Together, these findings advance theory and research on the benefits of cross-group contact in childhood by highlighting novel outcomes to which cross-group contact is positively related, as well as by showing that children from both minoritized and majority status groups stand to benefit from cross-group contact.

This study examined patterns of father involvement among 2,040 unmarried non-Hispanic Black fathers (M = 25.27 years; SD = 6.51 years) with low income, and their associations with young children's (age 3 years; 50.34% girls) social-emotional functioning. Latent profile analysis revealed four father involvement profiles: high involvement (50.60%); non-resident, moderate involvement (18.09%); highly engaged, but low cognitive stimulation (25.49%); and non-resident, very low involvement (3.82%). Children of highly involved Black fathers exhibited optimal social-emotional functioning compared to children of fathers in the other profiles. Children of fathers in the highly engaged, but low cognitive stimulation profile showed poorer social-emotional functioning. Our findings showed that Black fathering is a diverse experience with much heterogeneity, suggesting the need for fatherhood programs responsive to different fathering profiles.

This study examined the relation between interparental conflict and cortisol recovery, with child temperamental negative affectivity as the moderator. Children (n = 118) ages 9 to 11 years observed an argument between their parents in the lab and provided saliva samples for cortisol assays. Children also reported levels of interparental conflict, and mothers reported their child's negative affectivity. Results showed that youths with high levels of negative affectivity experienced less cortisol recovery as interparental conflict levels increased. Further, demonstrating some support for differential susceptibility, youths with higher levels of negative affectivity exhibited less recovery at high levels of parental conflict but greater recovery at low levels of parental conflict, compared to peers with lower scores on negative affectivity. We also found that children with low levels of negative affectivity exhibited greater recovery as rates of interparental conflict increased. In summary, this study sheds light on sources of variability in cortisol recovery as it relates to interparental disharmony.