British Journal of Developmental Psychology最新文献

Source monitoring (SM) refers to attributing sources of information. There are various methods for measuring SM in children. We searched the PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases from their inception to February 24, 2023, to summarize the methods and measures of SM in children, identifying 141 studies. The procedure for the SM tasks encompassed encoding, interval and testing. The encoding tasks were classified into ground-based activities (n = 67), computer-based experiments (n = 42) and mixed methods (n = 34). The testing approaches were categorized into old/new recognition and source discrimination, n-alternative forced-choice, yes/no questions and recall/direct questions. Among 10 commonly used indicators, source-correct, source-incorrect, discrimination score and source accuracy were recommended to present the SM function. We also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of different SM methods in children, providing a reference for researchers to design and select SM measurements that meet their research objectives.

This paper examined British children's (8- to 10-year-olds) and adolescents' (13- to 15-year-olds, N = 340; Female N = 171, 50.3%) expectations, evaluations and reasoning about a bystander peer who challenges the social exclusion of an immigrant or non-immigrant peer by a peer group of non-immigrant students. Participants read a hypothetical scenario in which a peer was excluded from an afterschool club by the peer group. The scenarios were either intergroup or intragroup contexts. Participants' expectations of a peer bystander challenging the social exclusion by the peer group, their perception of how the peer group would evaluate the challenger, and their reasoning around their expectations were measured. Adolescents were less likely to expect a peer bystander to challenge exclusion compared to children. Participants' perceptions of how the group would evaluate the challenger were significantly lower in intergroup compared to intragroup contexts. In intergroup contexts, adolescents with low expectations of challenging favoured group dynamics and group repercussions reasoning over moral reasoning, while children did not use group repercussions reasoning.

Examining mechanisms underlying sex differences in children's play styles, we studied girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) who provide a test of the relative effects of prenatal androgens versus rearing, and of behavioural similarity versus gender identity and cognitions. In this exploratory study, 40 focal children (girls and boys with and without CAH), aged 3-8 years, played for 14 min with a same-sex peer in a task designed to elicit rough-and-tumble play. Time-indexed ratings of positive affect and vigour of activity were evaluated via network mapping for sex-related differences in both levels and play dynamics (temporal relations among behaviours). Results suggest influences of both gender identity-aligned social cognitions and prenatal androgens: there was greater dyadic synchrony between positive affect for girls (regardless of CAH status) than boys, but girls with CAH displayed positive affect levels and directed vigorous peer play dynamics similar to boys.

This research examined how 3-6-year-olds judge appropriate levels of counting games based on a person's ability, desire for learning and degree of difficulty. Study 1 found that 3-year-olds did not consider a character's ability or desire, whereas older children gave high ability characters large number games and low ability characters small number games when the characters wanted to play a manageable game. However, older children gave large number games to characters who wanted to learn counting, regardless of their ability. In Study 2, in addition to a similar developmental change of jointly considering a character's ability and desire, it was found that 5-and 6-year-olds were more sensitive to the degree of difficulty. They were more careful than younger children to choose exceedingly large number games given the character's ability and desire. Implications for children's understanding of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and goal orientation are discussed.

This study investigated whether cognitive function better predicted maths test performance than a clinical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-four drug naïve children (M_age = 101.34 months, SD = 19.39; 30% girls) were recruited from clinical ADHD referral waiting lists. Children underwent assessment of Executive Functions (EF), lower-level cognitive processes, and maths performance. Children were grouped using a categorical approach comprising (1) children with a clinical ADHD diagnosis and (2) children without a diagnosis (i.e., subthreshold ADHD). Secondly, hierarchical cluster analysis generated subgroups of children using EF scores. Children were compared on cognition, maths, and parent-rated symptoms of ADHD and co-occurring difficulties. Children's diagnostic outcomes did not differentiate maths performance. By contrast, EF subgroups generated meaningful cognitive clusters which differentiated maths test scores. This suggests that cognitive patterns of performance, rather than children's diagnostic outcomes, are more informative for identifying meaningful groups with variable maths performance which has implications for remedial support.

The information-seeking behaviour of adults focuses on optimizing the gathering and utilizing information to minimize search costs. In contrast, children tend to engage in information search during decision-making with less consideration for costs. This difference in behaviour is believed to be linked to the development of executive functions. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between executive function and cost-related information-gathering behaviour. We assessed 56 children aged 4–6 years, involving three tasks: an information-gathering task, an inhibitory control and a working memory task. In the information-gathering task, children participated in both non-cost and cost conditions, where they were given the opportunity to freely gather information or incur a cost to acquire information. The findings revealed that children with higher inhibitory control tended to gather less information when a cost was involved. This highlights the important role of inhibitory control in shaping information-seeking behaviour in early childhood.

Family environment, emotion regulation and biological sensitivity have been shown to be associated with adolescents' externalizing problem behaviours. However, findings regarding respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity are mixed and sometimes contradictory. This study aims to clarify the roles of RSA reactivity and anger regulation in the relationship between negative family expressiveness (NFE) and adolescents' externalizing behaviour by measuring RSA reactivity during the Parent–Adolescent Interaction Task (PAIT), designed to simulate a naturalistic negative family environment. In this study, 125 Chinese adolescents (M = 13.95 years, SD = 0.95; 48% male) completed questionnaires assessing negative family expressiveness, anger regulation and externalizing problems. Additionally, we collected electrocardiogram and respiration data during both the resting period and a 10-min PAIT. Results showed that anger regulation mediated the relationship between NFE and externalizing problem behaviours. Moreover, adolescents' RSA reactivity moderated this mediation effect, even after controlling for baseline RSA. Greater RSA suppression potentially indicated greater susceptibility, with the relationship between NFE and anger regulation being more pronounced in adolescents with greater RSA suppression compared to those with lesser RSA suppression. These findings highlight the importance of considering physiological systems, especially within the context of adverse family environments, when studying the relationships with externalizing problems.

Previous studies have focused more on the facilitating effect of nature exposure on positive behavioural consequences. However, less attention has been paid to whether nature exposure can inhibit internalized problem behaviours, such as Internet addiction. Within the framework of the stimuli-organism-response theory, the present study examined the relationship between nature exposure and Internet addiction and investigated the mediating roles of anthropomorphism of nature and awe. In China, we recruited 1469 adolescents (mean age = 13.90 years old, SD = 0.59, 53.2% girls). Mediation analyses indicated that awe partially mediated the relationship between nature exposure and adolescents' Internet addiction. The anthropomorphism of nature and awe served as sequential mediating roles in the relationship between nature exposure and adolescents' Internet addiction. This study provides a nature-based perspective on the prevention and intervention of adolescents' Internet addiction.

Although socioeconomic disadvantage is linked with academic underachievement, many children from low-income backgrounds perform well in school. Which modifiable factors predict this academic resilience? We examine between- and within-person predictors of one important academic metric – mathematics performance – across adolescence in 1715 (796 male, 919 female) youth living in poverty in Ireland, using data from three waves (9, 13, and 17/18 years) of the Growing Up in Ireland study. Using linear mixed models, math performance was worse when adolescents had more socioemotional and behavioural difficulties, more child–parent relationship conflict, parents had lower expectations of the adolescent's educational achievement, and when primary caregivers had less education. Adolescents who had better intellectual self-concept and attended a non-disadvantaged school had greater math performance. This research adds to the growing body of work suggesting academic resilience is dynamic and multisystemic; it provides potential targets at multiple levels to promote such resilience.