Developmental Psychology最新文献

Childhood community violence exposure (CVE) is longitudinally associated with later aggression, but questions remain regarding how CVE influences different forms (i.e., physical and relational) and functions (i.e., proactive and reactive) of aggression. Additionally, the moderating influence of children's autonomic nervous system reactivity to fear on associations between CVE and aggression subtypes remains unclear. The present study investigated the joint role of CVE and autonomic nervous system reactivity to fear at age 7 in the development of aggression subtypes across 5 years in a diverse community sample of 197 children (50% assigned female, 46% Latine). Results indicated CVE was longitudinally related to greater reactive physical aggression among boys exhibiting parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) inhibition but lower reactive physical aggression among boys exhibiting PNS activation. Conversely, CVE predicted greater proactive relational aggression for girls exhibiting sympathetic nervous system (SNS) inhibition but not for girls exhibiting SNS activation. Several interactions among CVE, SNS reactivity, and PNS reactivity also emerged. CVE was longitudinally associated with greater proactive relational aggression among boys exhibiting coactivation (i.e., increases in SNS and PNS activation) and with lower proactive relational aggression among boys with reciprocal SNS activation (i.e., SNS activation with PNS inhibition). In contrast, CVE was linked to greater reactive physical aggression among girls with reciprocal SNS activation and with lower reactive physical aggression among girls with coinhibition (i.e., SNS inhibition with PNS inhibition). These findings suggest distinct pathways from CVE to aggression based on gender and autonomic nervous system reactivity, highlighting the need for targeted, context-sensitive interventions that address both environmental and physiological factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Latinx youth and their parents can experience cultural stress-a constellation of interrelated stressors Latinx youth and parents experience based on racism, xenophobia, and the navigation of bicultural contexts. Notably, cultural stress Latinx youth and parents experience can compromise the emotional (i.e., depressive symptoms and self-esteem) and behavioral (i.e., aggressive behavior, alcohol and tobacco use) well-being of youth. However, not all Latinx youth are adversely affected by cultural stress they or their parents experience, suggesting the presence of protective resiliency processes. Latinx immigrant youth, in particular, are thought to possess cognitive motivational resilience such as hope that may protect them from the adverse effects of cultural stress. Accordingly, in this longitudinal study, we investigated whether adolescent hope (increases in and initial levels of hope) buffered against the adverse effects of youth and parent cultural stress on youths' emotional (depressive symptoms and self-esteem) and behavioral (aggressive behavior, tobacco and alcohol use) well-being. Recent immigrant Latinx adolescents (M_age = 14.51; 47% girls) and parents (M_age = 41.09; 74% mothers; N = 302) completed measures of the above constructs. The adolescent hope intercept and slope predicted more favorable youth well-being outcomes. Adolescent hope appeared to buffer against the negative effects of youth and parent cultural stress when cultural stress levels were low and hope reached above-average levels. Hope also appeared to exacerbate the negative effects of youth and parent cultural stress on youth well-being outcomes when cultural stress levels were high and hope was above average. We discuss implications for future research and preventive interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Temperament is closely linked to externalizing problems during adolescence, but the possible interrelationships between them remain unresolved. Reinforcement sensitivity theory proposes that sensitivity to reward modulated by the behavioral activation system (BAS), and sensitivity to punishment modulated by the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), influence how certain kinds of reinforcements shape adolescents' behaviors. A study by Ramer et al. (2024) observed that higher levels of reward sensitivity (BAS) were associated with later increases in oppositional problems, and that elevated oppositional problems were associated with subsequent increases in BAS. In addition, lower levels of punishment sensitivity (BIS) were associated with later conduct problems, and higher levels of conduct problems were associated with subsequent decreases in BIS sensitivity. This study is a replication of Ramer et al., using a comparable Norwegian nonclinical sample of preadolescents (N = 2,147) with five annual measurement occasions. Participants were 9 years at the first data collection, with 49% girls and 94% nonimmigrants. Latent curve models with structured residuals were used to examine the reciprocal relationships between BIS/BAS and oppositional and conduct problems. We replicated associations between increased BAS sensitivity and subsequent increases in oppositional problems (i.e., vulnerability effect), and increased conduct problems with subsequent decreases in BIS sensitivity (i.e., scar effect). This could indicate that oppositional and conduct problems are influenced by different temperamental dispositions. We did not replicate oppositional problems influencing BAS sensitivity or BIS sensitivity influencing conduct problems. We discuss potential explanations for similarities and differences in results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Learning to walk-like learning any motor skill-requires practice. But what are the critical components of infants' natural practice regimen? Traditionally, researchers focus on practicing the target behavior (e.g., days since walk onset, number of steps/hr). However, part of what makes skills truly functional is the ability to enter the task space (here, transitions from nonupright to upright postures), produce and pause the target behavior (transitions between standing and walking), and use the behavior in varied contexts (e.g., walking from one surface to another and from one place to another). Thus, we expanded the concept of practice to include moment-to-moment, self-generated transitions that require rapid adaptations to ever-changing affordances. During 2 hr of spontaneous home activities, regardless of age, infants (13-, 18-, and 23-month-olds, N = 12 per age; half girls, half boys; 72% White, 28% Black, Asian, or mixed race; 83% non-Hispanic, 17% Hispanic; 94.4% college educated; living in urban city) generated immense numbers of transitions/hr (total M = 642, range = 153-1,179). Infants accumulated such large numbers of transitions for three reasons: (1) Infants continually pushed their limits; (2) bouts of walking, standing, sitting, and crawling were frequent (e.g., M = 206.2 walking bouts/hr) but brief in duration (e.g., M = 2.1 s per bout of walking); and (3) infants repeatedly revisited surfaces and places, regardless of home size and layout. Transitions are a unique form of variability that promote skill acquisition via practice adapting ongoing behaviors to variations in posture, tasks, and features of the environment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental science has accumulated considerable evidence that by 2 to 3 years of age, children begin to appreciate the obligatory nature of different social norms and distinguish between moral and conventional transgressions. However, little is known about the early ontogenetic trajectories of normative stances in the moral and conventional domains. Theoretical considerations point to three open questions: (1) Do young children's reactions toward transgressions of moral and conventional norms show increasing differentiation over this age period? (2) To which extent are young children's moral and conventional stances longitudinally stable? (3) Do early moral and conventional stances relate to each other in development? This longitudinal study presented 2.5-year-olds and 3.5-year-olds (N = 93, 45 females, predominantly White, mostly middle to high socioeconomic status) with the same established moral (i.e., harming others, destroying others' property) and conventional (i.e., sorting objects incorrectly) transgressions enacted by puppet characters. Children's spontaneous protest behavior and acceptability judgments were recorded. The relation between 2.5-year-olds' moral and conventional judgment (r = .78) decreased in 3.5-year-olds (r = .30). Moral protest (β = 0.403), but not conventional protest (β = 0.130), showed longitudinal stability. Conventional judgment of 2.5-year-olds related to 3.5-year-olds' moral judgment (β = 0.480). These findings demonstrate that young children's reactions toward moral and conventional transgressions show signs of differentiation regarding acceptability judgments and signs of stability regarding moral, but not conventional, protest behavior. This supports theoretical notions suggesting increasing differentiation and stability as central developmental processes in young children's emerging appreciation for social norms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescents' ethnic-racial identity, including their beliefs about their ethnic-racial group, are shaped by their social contexts. One important ethnic-racial identity belief is public regard, which reflects adolescents' perceptions of their ethnic-racial group's social standing; however, limited research explores how school-based forces inform ethnoracially minoritized adolescents' public regard. Accordingly, the present study examined the interrelations among school discrimination, school belonging, and public regard over the course of a school year among Black, Asian American, and Latine adolescents (n = 2,060; M_age = 15.91, 46% boys, 54% girls or another gender). Findings suggested that across the three ethnic-racial groups, higher beginning-of-year school belonging was associated with higher public regard over the course of the school year, whereas higher beginning-of-year school discrimination was associated with lower public regard over the course of the school year. Drawing on an ecological systems framing, we also explored whether these relations were bidirectional, and we found that higher beginning-of-year public regard was associated with higher school belonging over the course of the school year, but beginning-of-year public regard was not associated with later reports of school discrimination. We did not find differences in the strength or significance of any of these relations across ethnic-racial groups. Our findings highlight the important role of school contextual factors in the evolving ethnic-racial identity beliefs of adolescents from ethnoracially minoritized backgrounds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Social health, having an adequate quantity and quality of social relationships, is essential for well-being but understudied during adolescence compared to adulthood. We sought to identify patterns and predictors of social health by characterizing peer relationships among 10,050 adolescents (10-13 years old, 4,815 girls, 53.68% non-Hispanic White) in Year 2 of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. To characterize social health profiles, we applied latent profile analysis on peer variables collected in Year 2: number of friends (close, general), aggression, victimization, relationships with prosocial and rule-breaking peers, and support. We then assessed whether loneliness (baseline, Year 2), family conflict (baseline, Year 2), and participant sex predicted profile membership. Fit indices supported a three-class solution: a "selective" class (∼60% of the sample) characterized by values below sample means but within population norms across variables (e.g., number of friends), a "robust" class (∼30%) characterized by high numbers of friends, and a "concerning" class (∼10%) characterized by high levels of peer aggression and victimization. Lonely adolescents were more likely to be in the concerning group and less likely to be in the robust group. Youth with more family conflict and boys were more likely to be in the concerning group; girls were more likely to be in the selective group. These findings reveal profiles of peer relationships in a large representative sample, providing a template for characterizing social health as adolescents begin to build intimate peer relationships. The results also highlight individual differences in social health profiles, which can inform targets to improve adolescent social health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Exposure to socioeconomic risk factors is associated with heightened social and behavioral difficulties in children. Yet, little is known about how cumulative socioeconomic disadvantages affect the development of social-behavioral difficulties, that is, whether the differences in such difficulties between socioeconomic risk groups change over time. It is also empirically unexplored whether specific parenting behaviors mediate the associations between cumulative socioeconomic risk and the changes in social-behavioral difficulties. Drawing on a latent growth curve analysis of data from the German National Educational Panel Study-Starting Cohort 1 (N = 1,842/1,881), this study examined developmental trajectories and group differences in the development of various social-behavioral difficulties (peer problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and conduct problems) for 5- to 9-year-olds growing up with different numbers of socioeconomic disadvantages (i.e., parents' low education level, low income, and migration background). Furthermore, parents' early socioemotional sensitivity in parent-child interaction and their disciplinary parenting behaviors were modeled as mediators linking cumulative socioeconomic risk and the development of children's social-behavioral difficulties. Results showed that the significant gaps between different socioeconomic risk groups at age 5 remained consistent over time for peer problems and hyperactivity/inattention, but converged for conduct problems. Different parenting behaviors partially mediated the effect of cumulative socioeconomic risk on the initial levels, but not on the development of children's social-behavioral difficulties. Practical implications for early prevention programs are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Guided by developmental psychopathology and evolutionary developmental psychology models, the aim of the present study was to investigate the role of executive functioning (EF) in associations between neighborhood harshness and adolescent internalizing symptomology, for youth who both were and were not exposed to child maltreatment. Data were obtained from a sample of 234 children (52.3% male; 59.2% Black/African American, 12.4% White, 9.2% Latine/Hispanic, 13.7% biracial or multiracial, 5.6% other race) who were recruited from an urban region to participate in a longitudinal study beginning at, approximately, 4 years old. The present study included data collected at age 9 and age 11 timepoints. Child maltreatment data were coded from Child Protective Services records. Results showed that child maltreatment occurring birth through early adolescence was not directly associated with adolescents' EF. EF moderated the association between harsh neighborhood contexts and prospective internalizing symptomology for adolescents with and without exposure to child maltreatment. In addition, the pattern of results was significantly different for adolescents with and without maltreatment exposure. Lower EF scores were associated with fewer internalizing symptoms for adolescents with maltreatment exposure who were living in harsh neighborhoods. Moderation results differed by type of EF task. Overall, findings underscore the need to approach research on early life adversity and the development of psychopathology from an adaptation-based perspective, and to consider the impact of neighborhood context on the development of internalizing psychopathology during adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The transition to primary school is a critical period when individual differences in children's behavioral adjustment become increasingly evident and predict long-term academic and psychosocial outcomes. This study sought to understand the interplay between two aspects of family functioning-family routines and aggressive parenting behaviors-in predicting children's externalizing problems from preschool to the first grade and to test whether at-risk patterns of the two factors were related to lower parental cognitive flexibility. Based on three waves of data from a prospective longitudinal study of rural families in the United States (N = 999), results of mixed-effect models suggested that children from households with higher levels of routines were reported by parents as showing lower levels of behavior problems, but such between-person associations were weakened if parents engaged in more aggressive parenting behaviors. Aggressive parenting also moderated within-person associations between family routines and parent-reported child attention problems, such that the risk for increasing attention deficit and hyperactive disorder symptoms at waves of relatively lower routines was exacerbated when parents were concurrently engaging in more aggressive parenting. Parents with better cognitive flexibility, which supports the ability to shift across and effectively manage various demands, were less likely to engage in aggressive parenting behaviors while maintaining more stable family routines. The findings highlight the benefits of maintaining a structured and organized, yet not harshly reactive, home environment for mitigating the risk of externalizing problems during the transition to school. Attention is also warranted to parental cognitive skills that may help sustain such contexts and thus support children's behavioral adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).