British Journal of Developmental Psychology最新文献

Self-control development in children and adolescents is shaped by both genetic and environmental influences, yet little is known about how these factors interact across developmental stages. This two-wave longitudinal study investigated the interplay between the DRD2 gene rs1799732 polymorphism and negative parenting in predicting self-control among 9-14-year-olds, with a focus on differences between childhood and adolescence. Results revealed that the effects of negative parenting on self-control were concentrated in childhood (ages 9-11) and varied by genotype. Children with the GG allele were more vulnerable to negative parenting, exhibiting reduced self-control, whereas those carrying the T allele (TT/TG) demonstrated enhanced self-control under similar conditions, suggesting a possible 'training' effect. These findings highlight childhood as a critical period of environmental sensitivity and underscore the need for personalized parenting strategies that account for genetic differences. Limitations include the study's restricted developmental window, the exclusion of positive parenting and other family subsystems, and the need for replication using multi-wave designs and broader samples. The results provide novel insights into gene-environment interactions and offer practical guidance for targeted interventions to foster self-control in youth.

Given the lack of evidence, we cannot definitively determine the relationship between attachment networks and problematic mobile phone use, hindering effective intervention strategies. Therefore, a three-wave longitudinal study was designed to explore the heterogeneity of parent-child attachment networks using latent profile analysis (LPA) and random intercept latent transition analysis (RI-LTA). Participants included 2116 adolescents (ages 14-21; 53.8% girls). Results identified five stable parent-child attachment network profiles, each showing moderate but decreasing stability. Notably, adolescents who were grouped into an attachment network characterized by secure maternal attachment but insecure paternal attachment, similar to those in attachment networks with both insecure maternal and paternal attachment, scored higher levels of problematic mobile phone use than those who were grouped into attachment networks with both secure maternal and paternal attachment. Our findings fill empirical gaps and provide strong evidence supporting attachment-based interventions to reduce problematic mobile phone use.

This study investigates whether children's trust in information sources is influenced by the groomed or ungroomed appearance of an individual and whether age affects this decision-making process. A total of 662 children aged 4–10 from kindergarten, second grade and fourth grade participated. Children viewed photos of identical twins labelled as groomed or ungroomed, then watched videos where these individuals named unfamiliar shapes. Results showed that children across all age groups significantly preferred the groomed individual. Analysis of their explanations revealed that kindergarteners relied more on appearance-based justifications compared with older children. From second grade onward, children increasingly shifted towards accuracy- and skill-based explanations, even without direct evidence of competence. This developmental trend suggests that as children's language and reasoning abilities improve, they begin to provide more epistemic justifications rather than relying on superficial cues. Overall, the findings indicate that appearance strongly affects children's epistemic trust decisions throughout early and middle childhood. The study highlights the importance of educational practices that help children critically evaluate information sources based on reliability and competence rather than external appearance.

Relations between children's motor skills and internalizing problems are poorly understood. The environmental stress hypothesis (ESH), originally developed for motor-impaired children, may provide understanding, yet has been scarcely examined in typically developing children. Therefore, we examined: (1) relations between children's motor skills and internalizing problems; (2) the role of secondary stressors, specifically interpersonal conflicts and externalizing problems; and (3) the role of personal resources, namely, prosocial behaviour and social self-efficacy (SSE). About 1154 Dutch primary school children (mean age 9.0 years, 50.0% boys) participated. Multilevel structural equation models showed that children's motor skills were related to internalizing problems, with a weak indirect relation via interpersonal conflicts. SSE had a weak indirect relation with internalizing problems. Prosocial skills (personal resource) and externalizing problems (secondary stressor) did not mediate relations between motor skills and internalizing problems. The ESH seemed applicable in typically developing children, although relations were weaker than for motor-impaired children.

Previous studies have found that increased cognitive load during a task might result in the use of ‘easier’ motor strategies that nevertheless achieve task goals. Here, we investigated the influence of cognitive load on bimanual or unimanual strategy use in preschoolers, through a combination of secondary data analysis and new empirical data. Experiment 1 investigated block-stacking strategies under high, medium and low cognitive load tasks in 3-year-olds and showed that 3-year-olds demonstrated significantly more unimanual strategy use in the high cognitive load task. Experiment 2 investigated (i) whether this effect persisted across preschool years and (ii) whether it was modulated by differences in executive function abilities. There was no age effect in motor strategy use under high cognitive load from 3 to 5 years of age. However, individual differences in inhibitory control and working memory use were significantly associated with differences in unimanual strategy use. These results are interpreted as evidence for a cognitive/action trade-off in which higher cognitive demands result in the adjustment of motor strategies such as use of unimanual stacking instead of bimanual coordination in preschoolers.

In the present study, 43 Italian school-age children (age range = 7–14 years, 16 females) with (N = 19) and without DD (N = 24) were presented with pairs of visual displays separated by varying interstimulus intervals and performed either a temporal integration or segregation task despite an identical visual input. Children with DD had lower accuracy and slower RTs for longer temporal intervals. Additionally, efficiency (combined accuracy and speed trade-off) increased as a function of age only in the DD group, most markedly for the integration condition. Results suggest that visual temporal processing deficits in DD may depend on short-term/working memory liability as well as the existence of possibly differentiated developmental trajectories for integration and segregation abilities.

Using structural equation modelling (SEM), this study tested whether parental monetary investments (PMI) and parental time investment (PTI) mediate the effects of family income (FI) on primary math achievement (PMA) in a sample of Bangladeshi children (N = 760, 52% boys, M = 9.1 Years, SD = 3.3 at baseline), studying over 24 months. In doing so, the background variables (fourth-grade math scores, child's age, and sex) were controlled in the model. The results from SEM suggested that fewer PMIs in children's math stimulating materials and fewer PTIs in children's at-home math practices partially mediated the association between lower-FI and poor PMA. Although PTI had a greater amount of variance (15%) in the associations of lower-FI with lower-PMA as compared to PMIs (11%), the full model explained 25% of the variance in the lower-FI and lower-PMA link with control variables. Future directions for policy and research are discussed.

Context affects human memory. Similarities between learning and retrieval environments facilitate memory, whereas dissimilarities disrupt memory. However, it is unclear whether the type of information being learned is relevant. In this experiment, we explored whether 2-year-olds demonstrate different patterns of context-dependent memory for category-relevant and category-irrelevant facts. Children (N = 48) were exposed to unfamiliar objects in consistent (match condition) or variable (multiple condition) contexts across training and test trials. Objects were paired with category-relevant (e.g. ‘This is used to play with cats.’) or category-irrelevant (e.g. ‘This looks like the one the cat stepped on.’) facts. Children's memory for facts was assessed immediately following training and after a 10-min delay. Context affected memory differently for each type of fact. For category-irrelevant facts, there was no significant context effect immediately or after a delay. For category-relevant facts, a context condition difference was present after a delay. Results suggest that the effect of category relevance of information may influence when context affects learning.

Extensive research has examined empathy in autistic people; this has largely been conducted by asking autistic participants to complete measures and engage in experimental procedures or by consulting with close relatives. To the best of our knowledge, this study is one of the first to seek the views of autistic participants on their self-perceived empathic capacity. In this case, empathy was explored within a wider context of self-concept. The study recruited 100 participants who were asked to complete 10 statements about themselves. Subsequently, participants were asked to rate their self-perceived empathy on a scale of 1–10, providing justification for this. Autistic and non-autistic participants made a comparable proportion of references to numerous psychological traits. However, non-autistic participants made a higher proportion of references to being happy, friendly and caring. Autistic participants gave lower self-ratings of empathy compared to non-autistic participants; however, the thematic analysis showed that both groups felt they had cognitive and affective empathic capacity, with nuanced differences between the groups. This paper highlights the importance of involving autistic voices in research about their empathic capacity and self-concept, identifying nuance in the autistic experience that has been generally overlooked in previous research.

This study investigates the network structure and interconnections of social–emotional skills among high-achieving 10- and 15-year-old students. Using cross-sectional data from the 2019 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Survey on Social and Emotional Skills, we identified central skills and examined how these skills interacted within the networks of the two age cohorts. The sample included 7731 10-year-olds and 7430 15-year-olds from 10 cities across nine countries. Empathy and cooperation were identified as the most central skills in the network of high-achieving 10-year-olds, while cooperation uniquely remained central among 15-year-olds. We also observed denser and more integrated network structures in adolescence. These findings highlight the importance of central skills, particularly cooperation and empathy, in fostering social–emotional competence through developmentally tailored educational programmes.