Developmental Review最新文献

Although research has documented the link between classroom climate and children’s learning, evidence about whether and how classroom characteristics are linked to academic and psychological outcomes remains equivocal. This study used a meta-analytic approach to synthesize existing research with the goal of determining (a) the extent to which classroom climate as a multidimensional construct was associated with youth’s academic, behavioral, and socioemotional outcomes from kindergarten to high school and (b) whether the relations between classroom climate and youth’s outcomes differed by dimensions of classroom climate, study design, and child characteristics. Analysis included 61 studies (679 effect sizes and 73,824 participants) published between 2000 and 2016. The results showed that overall classroom climate had small-to-medium positive associations with social competence, motivation and engagement, and academic achievement and small negative associations with socioemotional distress and externalizing behaviors. Moderator analyses revealed that the negative association between classroom climate and socioemotional distress varied by classroom climate dimensions, with socioemotional support being the strongest. The strength of the associations between classroom climate and youth’s outcomes also differed by measurement of classroom climate and study design, though the patterns of the associations were mostly consistent.

Impairments related to figurative language understanding have been considered to be one of the diagnostic and defining features of autism. Metaphor comprehension and production in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as compared to typically developing (TD) individuals have been investigated for around thirty years, generally showing an overall advantage for TD groups. We present a preregistered systematic review and meta-analysis including a total of 15 studies that fulfilled our set of inclusion criteria (notably, ASD and TD groups matched in chronological age and verbal- or full-scale IQ). Along with accuracy, we also analyzed group differences in reaction time in the studies that reported them. The results revealed a medium-to-large group difference favoring TD over ASD groups based on accuracy measures, as well as a similar overall advantage for TD groups based on reaction times. There was reliable heterogeneity in effect sizes for group differences in accuracy, which was mostly explained by the effect of verbal intelligence, with differences in metaphor processing being smaller for participants with better verbal skills. Some of the variation in effect sizes may also be attributed to differences in types of metaphor processing tasks. We also evaluated the quality of the studies included in the meta-analysis, and the evidence relating to the potential presence of publication bias.

The formation of early regulatory behavior during the first years is an important developmental task and predictive for self-regulatory abilities in later life. Although parental behavior is thought to be highly influential in this developmental trajectory, associations between infant regulatory behavior and parental behavior have been diverse. The current paper systematically reviews the empirical research on the relationship between behavioral indicators of infant regulation–temperamental characteristics, sleeping, crying, feeding–and parental behavior during the first two years of life. After screening 4254 articles obtained from Web of Science and PsycINFO, 107 studies were included in the systematic review. The studies fell short of integrating negative parental behavior, paternal variables and further demographic information into the research and did not reveal consistent findings. However, the studies indicated a positive relationship between parental behavior and infant regulation with differences according to age and measurement method. It appears that the use of semi-structured methods to measure infant regulation is most appropriate during the first year of life, whereas the use of structured measures is more advisable during the second year of life. In contrast, parental reports measuring infant regulation failed to show significant findings with parenting behavior at any given time. The association was more powerful when infant regulation was predicted by parental behavior than vice versa. However, the number of studies regarding the latter direction was limited. This review, thus, underlines the importance of using different measurement methods according to age, and discusses the ways to improve future research.

Objective

One of the most challenging issues in the pediatric obsessive–compulsive (OC) disorder field is to differentiate pathological OC symptoms from the phenotypically similar normative rituals/routines that characterize normal childhood development. Given their similarities, it can be questioned whether both constructs reflect two qualitatively distinct behavioral expressions of different etiological factors or rather reflect two diverse manifestations of one single continuum (cfr. the continuity hypothesis).

Method

This paper aims to improve our understanding of the relation between normative childhood rituals/routines and OC symptoms in two ways. First, the continuity hypothesis was investigated by systematically reviewing current evidence on this association, using various databases (Web of Science Core Collection, MEDLINE/PubMed, and SciELO Citation Index) from 1950 until February 1, 2019 (registration number: CRD42019121293). Second, based on this systematic review, an integrative conceptual model was developed describing this relation from different perspectives on sources of influence.

Results

The literature search initially revealed 2122 hits, with 114 full-texts being assessed for eligibility. After applying several selection criteria, 18 studies were included in the review. The results generally support the continuity hypothesis and reveal important etiological factors at different levels of behavioral analysis, including the phenotypic (anxiety), neurobiological and genetic level. Also age and the presence of other disorders appeared to be important factors in evaluating the level of normality.

Conclusion

We provide a conceptual framework to inform future research aimed at improving the understanding of the relationship between normative rituals/routines and pathological OC symptoms. Conceptual implications are discussed and clinical recommendations are given to improve early identification and differentiation.

The association between poverty and the activity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis in early childhood is well established. Both ecological and transactional theories suggest that one way in which poverty may influence children’s HPA-axis activity is through its effects on parents’ behaviors, and over the past three decades a substantial literature has accumulated indicating that variations in these behaviors are associated with individual differences in young children’s HPA-axis activity. More recent research suggests that non-parental caregiving behaviors are associated with HPA-axis activity in early childhood as well. Here we systematically review the literature on the association between both parental and non-parental caregiving behaviors in the context of poverty and the activity of the HPA-axis in early childhood. We conclude by noting commonalities across these two literatures and their implications for future research.

The sustaining environments hypothesis refers to the popular idea, stemming from theories in developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology, that the long-term success of early educational interventions is contingent on the quality of the subsequent learning environment. Several studies have investigated whether specific kindergarten classroom and other elementary school factors account for patterns of persistence and fadeout of early educational interventions. These analyses focus on the statistical interaction between an early educational intervention – usually whether the child attended preschool – and several measures of the quality of the subsequent educational environment. The key prediction of the sustaining environments hypothesis is a positive interaction between these two variables. To quantify the strength of the evidence for such effects, we meta-analyze existing studies that have attempted to estimate interactions between preschool and later educational quality in the United States. We then attempt to establish the consistency of the direction and a plausible range of estimates of the interaction between preschool attendance and subsequent educational quality by using a specification curve analysis in a large, nationally representative dataset that has been used in several recent studies of the sustaining environments hypothesis. The meta-analysis yields small positive interaction estimates ranging from approximately 0.00 to 0.04, depending on the specification. The specification curve analyses yield interaction estimates of approximately 0. Results suggest that the current mix of methods used to test the sustaining environments hypothesis cannot reliably detect realistically sized effects. Our recommendations are to combine large sample sizes with strong causal identification strategies, and to study combinations of interventions that have a strong probability of showing large main effects.

The present paper explores the potential utility of Opportunity-Propensity (O-P) frameworks for explaining multiple developmental outcomes such as individual and group differences in the development of academic skills, language skills, and social skills. To illustrate the approach, the author summarizes the historical development of the O-P framework and describes several of the most important findings related to academic skills. It is argued that some of these findings, if verified in RCTs, challenge the assumptions of policymakers and could provide an explanation as to why so many educational reforms have not been successful in closing the achievement gap. The concluding section focuses on describing next steps in theory development that could eventually lead to the creation of intervention strategies that could be more likely to be successful than prior attempts, and provides suggestions for further research to (a) identify additional predictors of achievement, (b) develop more precise assessments of constructs, (c) more fully explore the mechanisms by which variables such as socio-economic status have their effects, and (d) develop O-P analyses of other developmental outcomes.

We use mental files theory to provide an integral theory of children’s diverse dual naming problems and why these problems are overcome when children pass the false belief test. When an object is encountered under different appearances or given different verbal labels, two distinct representations (mental files) may be deployed for that single object. The resulting files refer to the same object but capture different perspectives on the object. Such coreferential files can thus be used to represent people’s differing perspectives (e.g., belief). Typically the existence of different files indicates the existence of two separate objects. To mark that only a single object is involved, coreferential files need to be linked. Development of the ability to link files provides a powerful developmental explanation for success on dual labelling and perspective tasks at the same age, around 4 years: processing identity statements, overcoming mutual exclusivity (accepting different labels for an object), visual perspective taking, and understanding differences of belief. Mental files also provide a new framework for understanding conceptual pacts and their relation to mutual exclusivity in children and adults.