Developmental Psychology最新文献

People spontaneously adjust their emotions to others when they interact. This temporal coupling of emotions is an adaptive process facilitating social bonding. The present study examined differences in coupling patterns during parent-child versus peer interactions in adolescence, a developmental period marked by evolving parent-child dynamics and bond formation with peers. Because adolescents prioritize peer bonding while gradually asserting their autonomy from parental influence, we hypothesized that peer dyads showed stronger coupling than parent-adolescent dyads. Adolescents (age 16) with diverse ethnic backgrounds (N = 615; 50.2% female; 46.8% European American, 31.2% African American, 5.0% Hispanic, 3.0% Asian or Pacific Islander, 2.0% Native American, and 12.0% multiple ethnic backgrounds) participated in two videotaped interaction tasks: one with a parent and one with a self-nominated peer. Parent and peer interactions included discussions on positive and negative topics. Both dyad members' emotions were coded in real time. Cross-recurrence quantification analyses and growth-curve modeling revealed concurrent emotion coupling patterns, with peer dyads showing stronger coupling than parent-adolescent dyads. Moreover, peer dyads showed the most pronounced coupling patterns when they discussed personal problems, while parent-adolescent dyads showed the most pronounced coupling patterns when they discussed the planning of a fun activity. Our findings emphasize the importance of microlevel emotion dynamics in understanding larger scale developmental shifts in relationships during adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Friendships are fundamental to children's social and cognitive development. Previous research has shown that children understand the importance of various aspects of friendship, including prosocial behaviors. However, it is an open question whether children believe that prosocial behaviors should be reciprocated between friends. Across two experiments with 4- to 8-year-old participants (total N = 236), we examined how children weighed the importance of reciprocity and prosociality in friendship formation. Children were asked to predict which of two pairs-one in which both individuals provided prosocial behaviors (the reciprocal pair) and one in which only one individual provided prosocial behaviors (the nonreciprocal pair)-would become better friends. We found that younger children consistently favored the nonreciprocal pair, but with age, children became more likely to choose the reciprocal pair. By age 7, children reliably preferred the reciprocal pair, suggesting that they recognize the importance of reciprocity above and beyond prosociality in friendship formation. These findings shed new light on the theoretical debate on the role of reciprocity in friendship, and suggest that reciprocity may be an important component of children's mature concept of friendship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Early parenthood is shaped by evolving parental behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and well-being embedded within biopsychosocial contexts. In this nationwide longitudinal study, we used latent growth curve modeling to examine how biopsychosocial vulnerability is associated with trajectories of parental experiences among new mothers and fathers during the first 2 years postpartum. Coresiding mothers (N = 2,994) and fathers (N = 2,787) across Canada self-reported various biopsychosocial vulnerabilities (e.g., lower couple relationship quality, lower perceived social support) at a single time point, with most factors collected at 3 weeks postpartum and others at 3 months postpartum. Parents further reported on parental outcomes (e.g., involvement, distress, overreactivity) starting at 3 months postpartum for up to five time points across the first 2 years postpartum. Results showed that vulnerability factors had the strongest and most frequent associations with initial status in parental outcomes, with lower relationship quality and lower perceived social support having the largest effect sizes. These patterns were similar for both mothers and fathers. In contrast, the number and strength of associations with change in parental outcomes over time was smaller. While lower relationship quality and perceived social support were linked to improvements in some parental outcomes over time, high childhood adversity, immigrant background, lower household income, and lower education were associated with less favorable changes in outcomes. These patterns varied between mothers and fathers. Overall, the findings underscore the contribution of biopsychosocial vulnerability in the functioning and well-being of first-time parents, with shared and unique risks for mothers and fathers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

One of the most pervasive human interests is the acquisition of norms surrounding fairness-young children care about equality, enforce it in their behavior, and punish those who do not behave accordingly. Although the fact that children care about fairness is well documented, less is understood about the types of fairness norms that children endorse. In this work, across two studies with preschool-aged children (ages 2.5-6; N = 123), we document a developmental shift toward precision in sharing norms, both in rejecting extreme inequalities (i.e., giving none) and increased endorsement of exact equality (distributing exactly equal amounts). Children's symbolic counting skills (i.e., acquisition of the cardinal principle) predicted this shift across two studies, even when accounting for approximate number acuity and symbolic and nonsymbolic understanding of null sets, although this effect emerged only for children's tolerance of selfish sharing-most forms of generous sharing were tolerated regardless of numerical abilities. Our results suggest a developmental shift from an abstract notion of learning to an increasingly precise notion of equality as children acquire symbolic counting skills. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Maternal responsiveness plays an important role in child development. Event-related potentials can be used to examine neural mechanisms underlying maternal responsivity. Here, associations between neural markers of maternal responsivity and five child development domains-cognitive, language, motor, adaptive behavior, and social-emotional development-were examined in 94 mothers (M_age = 29.19 years; 41% African American, 28% Caucasian, 19% Hispanic or Latina, 4% Asian or Asian American, 7% other or not reported) and their infants (M_age = 7.75 months; 60% female). Child development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Third Edition. Event-related potentials were recorded while mothers viewed infant faces and were used to generate profiles of maternal neural responsiveness. A latent profile analysis was used to examine patterns of maternal event-related potential responses to infant faces. A model with three profiles had the best fit statistics. Maternal profile membership was significantly related to infant social-emotional development such that a profile characterized by an attenuated early response at the N170 amplitude and a faster late response at the P300 latency was associated with increased infant social-emotional development scores. There were no significant associations between maternal profile membership and infant cognitive, language, motor, or adaptive behavior development. Findings support the importance of characterizing neural aspects of maternal responsiveness that may underlie infant social-emotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Racial discrimination experiences (RDEs) are pervasive and prevalent stressors for Black Americans, which occur on a daily basis and are linked with a variety of negative mental health outcomes. This study examines the impact of an individual's daily average (e.g., between-person) and daily fluctuations (e.g., within-person) of RDEs on daily depressive symptoms among 231 Black American adolescents and adults. Reporting higher levels and more fluctuations in daily RDEs was linked with increased depressive symptoms. The impact of daily fluctuations was stronger among Black American adults compared to adolescents. RDEs occur on a daily basis and are harmful for the mental health of Black American adolescents and adults. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The niche-picking principle has been proposed to explain stabilization in personality development and personality continuity in adulthood. The niche-picking principle posits that the reciprocal exchange between people and their environments-person-environment transaction-serves to maintain trait continuity, thereby preserving rank-order stability of trait differences. To date, however, no longitudinal twin study has directly tested whether reciprocal effects between people and their environments contribute to trait continuity in middle and older adulthood. Using a sample of twins from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging, we tested whether the niche-picking principle explained stability of longitudinal within-family differences in neuroticism, extraversion, and openness across two stages of adult development. Genetic simplex models that include a reciprocal effects (i.e., phenotype-environment covariance) parameter were fit to twins' longitudinal data. Results suggest that the niche-picking principle partly explains continuity of neuroticism and openness in middle adulthood whereas it partly explains continuity of neuroticism and extraversion in older adulthood. Stable genetic and unique environmental variance also explained continuity of each trait. Findings partially support lifespan developmental theories that posit that people adapt to and possibly optimize behaviors to sustain existing traits. We discuss the importance of the reciprocal exchange between people and their environments across the lifespan and how these exchanges might shift to support trait continuity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Concern for mianzi, or the social perception of one's prestige and standing in the group, is an important socioemotional experience in Chinese adolescents. This 2-year longitudinal study examined relations between concern for mianzi and adjustment in junior high school students (N = 498; 266 boys), initially in seventh grade (M_age = 13 years), in rural China. Data were obtained from multiple sources including peer assessments, teacher ratings, and school records. The results showed that concern for mianzi positively predicted later sociability and academic achievement and negatively predicted later internalizing problems. Concern for mianzi also positively predicted later aggression and externalizing problems in boys. Aggression positively predicted concern for mianzi, and sociability positively predicted concern for mianzi in girls. The results indicate the developmental significance and the nature of concern for mianzi in rural Chinese context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Reports an error in "Parenting stress, family conflict, and children's behavior problems: The protective role of self-regulation" by Rahmet Akpolat, Francisco Palermo and Sarah E. Killoren (Developmental Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Sep 29, 2025, np; see record 2026-70055-001). In the original article, in Table 4, the third effect below "Moderated effects" is missing both an arrow and the label "Externalizing behavior," and the arrow from "Self-regulation" should point to the arrow between "Family conflict" and "Externalizing behavior." For the fourth effect below "Moderated effects," the arrow from "Self regulation" should point to the arrow between "Family conflict" and "Internalizing behavior." The corrected portion of the table is present in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2026-70055-001). Parenting stress is associated with behavior problems in childhood; however, the mechanisms through which it operates and the factors that weaken its negative effects are not well understood. This study examined the associations between maternal parenting stress during children's toddlerhood and their internalizing and externalizing behavior problems approximately 9 years later, in fifth grade. It also examined the extent to which family conflict mediated those associations and whether children's self-regulation abilities mitigated the negative effects of parenting stress and family conflict. The participants were 2,977 low-income mothers and children (51% boys, 37% European American, 35% African American, and 24% Hispanic) from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Data were gathered across four time points: when children were 14 and 36 months of age, before kindergarten entry, when children were about 5 years old, and in fifth grade, when children were about 10 years old. Family conflict mediated the associations between maternal parenting stress and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. However, the mediated associations varied by children's self-regulation; the links weakened as children's self-regulation abilities increased. The findings highlight the family processes by which maternal parenting stress may be associated with children's internalizing and externalizing behavior outcomes and how self-regulation abilities may reduce the negative impact of parenting stress and family conflict on children's behavior outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Most studies on psychological control (PC) in families assume that parents are the perpetrators, thus focusing on the effects of parental PC on youth's developmental outcomes. Youth might also perpetrate psychologically controlling behaviors toward their parents, however. There is currently limited understanding of the potential longitudinal relationships between parent- and youth-perpetrated PC behaviors. This dyadic longitudinal study examined the between- and within-family associations between mother- and youth-perpetrated PC. Late adolescents and emerging adults in Hong Kong (N = 349; M_ageT1 = 18.20, SD = 1.10; 39.8% male; 99.1% Chinese ethnicity) and their mothers (M_ageT1 = 49.10, SD = 4.82) completed four assessments over a full academic year. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed a positive link between youth- and mother-perpetrated PC at the between-family level. At the within-family level, however, greater youth-perpetrated PC predicted decreases in later mother-perpetrated PC, suggesting that when mothers perceived their children to be more psychologically controlling than usual, youth subsequently reported their mothers as being less psychologically controlling than usual. The opposing valences of the between- versus within-family associations indicate a Simpson's paradox, offering a novel interpretation of manipulative and coercive behaviors in families. This research also represents a departure from a traditional focus on parental perpetration of PC, suggesting that youth might use PC to acquire more power in family interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).