Developmental Psychology最新文献

Emotion regulation begins to develop early in childhood and has important implications for optimal development. Individual regulatory factors, such as effortful control and baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (bRSA), have been demonstrated as markers that influence the development of emotion regulation across childhood. The aim of this present study was to examine the stability and the direct and indirect associations of these regulatory factors from early to middle childhood in predicting emotion regulation in late childhood. Children (n = 230) visited the lab when they were 3, 6, and 9 years old. At ages 3 and 6, mothers reported on child effortful control, and bRSA was assessed, and at age 9, mothers reported on child emotion regulation. Using cross lagged path modeling, we demonstrated that both effortful control and bRSA exhibited stability from early to middle childhood. Our results highlighted two distinct longitudinal pathways to emotion regulation: indirect effects of effortful control and bRSA at age 3 on emotion regulation at age 9, mediated through their respective measures at age 6. Cross-lagged mediation paths and alternate models, however, did not support the roles of effortful control and bRSA at age 6 as mediators in the relationship between each other's early measures and later emotion regulation. In other words, neither effortful control nor bRSA at age 6 indirectly predicted emotion regulation at age 9 through each other. These results are discussed in light of their clinical and prevention applications, as well as the developmental trajectories of these regulatory factors across childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation (ED) has strong implications for psychopathology risk. Past research has neglected assessing parenting-specific domains of ED and the transactional nature of these processes in early development. This study tested longitudinal relations among mothers' nonacceptance of their own emotions (ED), mothers' experiential avoidance of their child's emotions (EA), and early manifestations of child ED (negative affect [NA]). Participants were 186 mothers (91.9% White, 95.7% non-Hispanic/Latina) of children (44.6% female, 83.3% White, 93% non-Hispanic/Latinx, diverse socioeconomic status) who participated when children were ages 1 (T1), 2 (T2), and 3 (T3) years. Mothers reported on variables of interest at each time point. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model delineated within- versus between-family effects among variables across time, allowing for a variable-centered examination of both individual differences and bidirectional effects. Regarding the between-family component, ED positively covaried with both EA and NA such that mothers endorsing higher nonacceptance of their emotions tended to also endorse their child's greater NA and greater avoidance of child emotions. Though within-family autoregressive relations trended positively, no stability effects emerged. Within-time point and cross-lagged effects tended to be nonsignificant, with the exception of EA and NA positively covarying at T3, such that when mothers had more stability (less fluctuation) in their EA at child age 3, they also endorsed more stability in their child's NA. Findings also prospectively indicated greater trait-like stability in the maternal versus child emotion traits and in between-family relations relative to within-family processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Early math difficulties can stem from children's failure to link nonsymbolic and symbolic representations of number. Well-designed math games have been consistently shown to help children make this link (Balladares et al., 2024), but research using fingers as numerical representations is more mixed (e.g., Moeller et al., 2011). In the present study, 95 kindergarteners (5-7 years old; estimated demographics based on publicly available data: 81% White; 7% Hispanic/Latinx; 2% Black; 1% Asian/Pacific Islander; 9% multiracial) participated in a 2-week intervention that targeted quantitative skills through one of three approaches to math games: finger-based games, manipulative-based games, or a combination of fingers and manipulatives. There was also a nonmath control group. Across all math-based conditions, children improved significantly from pretest to posttest in measures of early numeracy. This pattern of improvement was moderated by children's initial performance; children performing at or above grade level at pretest derived the most benefit from the manipulative-based games and combined conditions, while their peers who began the study below grade-level performance saw the largest improvements in the finger-based condition. The findings add nuance to a growing literature that seeks to understand the benefits of finger-based activities or numerical games on quantitative skills in 5- to 7-year olds. We underscore the practical and theoretical importance of considering student's baseline understanding of number and argue that fingers are an especially appropriate tool for children who are at the beginning of their numeracy journey, perhaps because they embody the connection between symbolic and nonsymbolic number in a single, pared-down representation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Increases in adolescent loneliness were a significant concern during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. We use longitudinal survey data from the Cannabis Use, Obesity, Mental Health, Physical Activity, Alcohol Use, Smoking, and Sedentary Behavior study from 2017 to 2023 to assess whether increases in loneliness correspond to lockdowns, whether different cohorts differ in the trajectories of loneliness ratings and whether social support and relationships impact the course of loneliness throughout secondary school. We compared linear latent growth models and latent basis growth models of annual repeated measures of loneliness from three 4-year cohorts of Canadian high school students (N = 5,237, female = 3,166, 80.42% White). For the 2017-2021 cohort, a linear model fit best, while nonlinear models were the best fit for the 2018-2022 and 2019-2023 cohorts. Ratings of loneliness were highest at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic across all three cohorts and stabilized in the years following. Growth mixture models identified groups with differing trajectories of loneliness where lowest loneliness was associated with positive relationship quality of family and friends. Overall, the study demonstrated heterogeneity in loneliness trajectories across time between and within cohorts. The patterns were consistent with increases during COVID-19 lockdowns and a return to typical levels as social restrictions eased. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Children born prematurely consistently exhibit deficits on performance-based and caregiver-report measures of executive functioning (EF). As early EF may mediate premature childbirth's impact on neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes, it is important to understand risk factors for EF deficits. Data from a longitudinal prospective cohort study were used to explore the association of brain abnormalities with EF measures in very preterm children (≤32 weeks of age). Participants included 314 very preterm children (M = 69.5, SD = 2.0 months of age; 51.9% male; 71.3% White). Regression analyses evaluated whether the global brain abnormality composite score on magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age was associated with EF performance and caregiver ratings at 5-year corrected age, as well as which specific aspects of regional abnormalities (i.e., white matter, grey matter, cerebellar, and deep nuclear grey matter abnormalities) predicted EF. The global brain abnormality score significantly predicted poorer EF performance but not caregiver-rated EF, independent of known confounders (sex, gestational age, birthweight, social risk, chorioamnionitis, hypertensive disorders, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of pre-maturity, and global developmental delay). Exploratory analyses revealed that cerebellar abnormalities were associated with poorer working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility and spatial working memory, and white matter abnormalities were associated with poorer planning. This study adds to the research showing that brain abnormalities associated with premature birth consistently predict poorer scores on performance-based measures of EF. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging at term-equivalent age may assist with identifying at-risk children when interpreted in the context of other influences on child EF such as family social circumstances and functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Informal math interactions during childhood are related to children's math achievement; thus, there is rising interest in understanding the nature of these interactions. To date, most research on parent-child math talk has used quantitative indicators (e.g., word frequencies) to describe the input children receive. By contrast, the present study took a qualitative approach, using conversation analysis to investigate how parents initiate and sustain conversations during informal math interactions. We examined initiation-response-evaluation sequences within math-related discussions during storybook reading. Transcripts of 41 parents and their children (M_age = 45.76 months, SD = 6.80) in the United States reading a researcher-designed storybook were analyzed. Findings suggest that (a) parents initiate math discussions with various strategies beyond the typical known-answer questions, including the use of proposals and appendor questions, (b) book features shape the nature of the math interactions parents initiate, and (c) parents' strategies to repair children's incorrect responses scaffold math learning by introducing additional information and using multimodal support. These results offer a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how parents structure math-related conversations and the active role children play in these interactions. They also point to the importance of developing intervention strategies that align with the kinds of naturally occurring conversations in parent-child math talk. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Increasing evidence for enhanced cognitive flexibility following early-life caregiving unpredictability indicates that developmental adaptations can occur during early sensitive periods of infant development. However, existing research does not clarify the timing of the developmental window during which unpredictability can shape cognitive outcomes. This study tested the developmental uniqueness of early life versus adolescence to ask whether adaptations can also occur related to unpredictability that occurs in adolescence. Using a longitudinal design that uncouples these developmental periods in a sample enriched for early caregiving unpredictability (N = 197, 105 female, M_age = 9.53 years at Visit 1), cognitive flexibility was assessed across two separate visits, along with two other dimensions of executive function (response inhibition and attentional control). As has been previously observed with early unpredictability, unpredictable caregiving in adolescence was associated with improvements in cognitive flexibility independently from early unpredictability. Findings suggest that adaptations are not limited to early life; they may also occur in adolescence, thereby extending the window of human developmental adaptability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Sleep is a fundamental domain of development and has important implications for other key aspects of adaptation. Little is known about normative changes in sleep across adolescence and emerging adulthood and whether the change is linear or nonlinear. We examined growth trajectories of sleep across 9 years of development and individual differences in trajectories according to participants' race/ethnicity and sex assigned at birth. During each wave, we measured four key actigraphy-derived sleep parameters over 1 week, including duration (number of minutes spent asleep), efficiency (percentage of time scored as sleep), midpoint (preferences for morningness-eveningness), and consistency/variability in duration (night-to-night fluctuations in duration over 1 week). Participants (N = 295, 53% female, 69% European American/White, 30% African American/Black, and 1% biracial) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds completed five waves of data (M_ages at each wave: 15, 16, 17, 22, and 24). We observed a cubic trajectory for sleep duration whereby sleep duration declined across adolescence, increased into emerging adulthood, and declined again from 22 to 24. Consistency/variability in sleep duration also exhibited a cubic trajectory. Nightly fluctuations in sleep duration decreased from 15 to 16, increased from 16 to 22, and decreased again from 22 to 24. We found a quadratic trajectory for sleep midpoint, indicating a progressively greater preference for eveningness. Sleep efficiency exhibited linear growth and improved over time. Differences in trajectories for sleep duration and sleep efficiency emerged based on participants' race and sex. Findings indicated significant changes in the developmental trajectories of four sleep parameters across adolescence and emerging adulthood and underscore the importance of nonlinear assessments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

School success is pivotal for minoritized youth from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve upward social mobility. Using data from the California Families Project, a longitudinal study of 674 Mexican-origin youth living in the United States, the present study examined the association between trajectories of psychiatric disorders from late childhood to adolescence and a wide range of high school outcomes assessed via school records. Psychiatric disorders were examined at different levels of breadth, including individual psychiatric disorders, internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and total symptoms. Results of latent growth curve models showed that youth exhibiting more overall psychiatric symptoms had lower high school grade point averages and achievement test scores, took fewer challenging courses during high school, and were less likely to attend college compared with youth exhibiting fewer symptoms. Counterintuitively, faster increases (or slower decreases) in psychiatric symptoms were associated with more positive school outcomes. These findings were similar for boys and girls and for youth born in the United States and Mexico. Incremental validity analyses showed that temperament levels were more robust predictors of school outcomes than psychiatric disorder levels. Developmentally, changes in temperament and psychiatric disorders independently predicted school outcomes. Overall, temperament levels and slopes had incremental validity over psychiatric disorder levels and slopes, suggesting that temperament may be a better target of intervention efforts to promote school success than psychiatric symptoms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Reciprocity emerges early in development, yet its bidirectional dynamics within parent-child dyads remain underexplored. Here, we examined how children's presence and gender shape parents' reciprocal behavior toward third parties, and in turn, how parental modeling shapes their 4-year olds' reciprocal responses toward others. In a two-phase experiment, 179 Israeli parents (M_age = 38, SD = 5.6) interacted with an adult partner who behaved either cooperatively or selfishly, and in the presence or absence of their child (son or daughter). Subsequently, 174 children (M_age = 4.58, SD = 0.78) responded to a peer partner's similar actions. Parents reciprocated cooperation at high rates regardless of their child's presence or gender (87%), but reciprocated selfishness more with sons present (72%) than with daughters (45%). In turn, children reciprocated selfishness at high rates regardless of their parent's behavior (92%), but aligned with their parent's behavior when interacting with cooperative partners. Together, the findings highlight the context and gender specificity of reciprocity among parents and children: Parents retaliate in kind more when accompanied by sons, whereas children align with their parents only when facing cooperative partners. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).