British Journal of Developmental Psychology最新文献

Difficulties in emotion regulation have been consistently associated with various psychological difficulties, including anxiety and depression; however, less is known about the directionality of this relationship, particularly in adolescents. In addition, early parent–child attachment quality has been closely linked to the development of emotion regulation. Previous studies have proposed an overarching model in attempt to describe the developmental trajectory of anxiety and depression from early attachment, albeit with several limitations that are discussed in this paper. This study adds to this field of research by investigating the longitudinal associations between emotion dysregulation (ED) and symptoms of anxiety and depression among 534 early adolescents in Singapore over three timepoints in a school year, and the antecedent role of attachment quality on individual differences on these variables. Bidirectional influences were found between ED and anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively, between T1 and T2, but not T2 and T3, at the between- and within-individual levels of analysis. Additionally, attachment anxiety and avoidance were both significantly predictive of individual differences in ED and for both psychological symptoms. The current findings provide preliminary evidence of a mutually reinforcing relationship between ED and symptoms of anxiety and depression in early adolescence, where attachment quality serves as a developmental antecedent that sets these longitudinal associations in motion.

Effective reciprocal communication is a vital component in forming and maintaining social relationships. Peer social play may provide a particularly important context for communicative skill development, as sophisticated negotiation and exchange are required to coordinate play. We focus on connectedness, a property of conversation referring to the topical relation between speakers' turns, to understand how partners coordinate ideas to build a shared play experience. The present study uses a longitudinal secondary analysis approach to drive forward our understanding of the individual and shared influences that contribute to connectedness during peer social play. Using data from a three-wave, longitudinal study of children's play and social relationships during the first 3 years of school in the United Kingdom (https://osf.io/3p4q8/), we coded connectedness from transcripts of video observations of 148 children playing in pairs at wave three (mean age 6.79 years) and model individual differences in language ability, theory of mind, and emotion comprehension from all three waves as potential predictors of connectedness. Our results show substantial dyadic effects on connectedness, but individual differences in socio-cognitive measures were not significant predictors of connectedness. These findings indicate the importance of dyadic and partner effects in children's social interactions and implicate the dyad as an essential focus for future research.

A growing body of research has shown that parent–child math activities predict children's math competence. However, observational studies are limited. This study investigated maternal and paternal scaffolding behaviours in three types of parent–child math activities (i.e., worksheet, game and application activities) and their associations with children's formal and informal math abilities. Ninety-six 5–6-year-olds participated in this study with their mothers and fathers. All children completed three activities with their mothers and three comparable activities with their fathers. Parental scaffolding was coded for each parent–child dyadic activity. Children's formal and informal math abilities were tested individually using the Test of Early Mathematics Ability. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' scaffolding in application activities significantly predicted their children's formal math ability even after controlling for background variables and their scaffoldings in the other two types of math activities. The findings highlight the importance of parent–child application activities in children's math learning.

On standard emotion recognition tasks with relatively long or unlimited stimuli durations, recognition improves as children grow older, whereas older adults are worse than young adults. Crucially, it was unknown (a) how older adults compare to age groups below young adulthood and (b) whether children can recognize emotions at shorter durations, with short durations likely common in real life. We compared emotion recognition in 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, young adults and older adults at very brief durations (50 ms, 250 ms) as well as standard unlimited durations. Eight-year-olds were better than 5-year-olds, young adults than all groups, and there was a striking similarity between 8-year-olds and older adults, providing the first clear indication that older adults' recognition abilities are equivalent to that of an 8-year-old at all durations. Emotion recognition was above chance on all emotions and durations among the three older age groups and on most stimuli for 5-year-olds.

The current study investigates the longitudinal association between grandiose narcissism and multidimensional perfectionism over 2 years in adolescence. We adopted the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept, which differentiates between two aspects of grandiose narcissism. We also considered multiple dimensions of perfectionism, including Socially Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP) and two forms of Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP), namely the tendencies to set high standards of performance (SOP-Striving) and to engage in overly critical self-evaluations (SOP-Critical). The study was conducted in a sample of Italian high school students (n = 331). Concurrent correlations indicated that Admiration was positively related to SOP-Striving and, to a lesser extent, to SOP-Critical and SPP. Rivalry was also positively related to the three perfectionistic dimensions, although correlations were smaller in size than those found for Admiration. Prospective associations between narcissism and perfectionism were analysed using a Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model. Results showed that the predominant direction of effects was from narcissism to perfectionism, particularly from Admiration to SOP-Striving and SPP. Findings were discussed in terms of their implications for the understanding of the narcissism-perfectionism link.

Little is known about the mediating role of adolescent chronic pain in the connection between adolescent parental rejection and psychosocial and physical health (i.e., disease risk) outcomes in young adulthood (YA). To address this gap, the present study tested a model of a successively contingent developmental process that integrates neurophysiological research and the life course developmental perspective. The model included parental rejection and chronic pain in adolescence and depressive symptoms, low education attainment, economic hardship and allostatic load in YA. The study utilized 13 years of prospective data from a nationally representative sample of 11,030 US adolescents. The findings largely supported the hypothesized model. Adolescent chronic pain, as influenced by parental rejection, was associated with depressive symptoms and economic hardship in YA. In addition, parental rejection directly influenced depressive symptoms, education level and economic hardship, all of which, in turn, contributed to greater physical health risk (i.e., allostatic load) in YA. These associations persisted even after controlling for adolescent illness, depressive symptoms, age, sex and race/ethnicity. Multi-group analysis showed that female participants were more vulnerable to stressful parental rejection and socioeconomic difficulties in YA. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

To investigate the contributions of cognitive flexibility, inhibition and number label knowledge to children's numerical equivalence, one hundred and one 3- to 5-year-olds were administered the dimensional change card sorting task, the day-night task and the give-a-number task. The numerical equivalence was assessed with the numerical matching task in three surface similarity conditions. Results showed that, in the high surface similarity condition, cognitive flexibility and label knowledge, rather than inhibition, were significant predictors of children's performance in numerical equivalence. In the low surface similarity and the cross-mapping conditions, only cognitive flexibility, rather than number label knowledge and inhibition, significantly explained the unique variance in numerical equivalence. Besides, cognitive flexibility explained more variation in numerical equivalence in the cross-mapping condition compared with the low surface similarity condition. These findings highlight different roles of cognitive flexibility, inhibition and number label knowledge in numerical equivalence in the three surface similarity conditions.

Few studies have examined how mothering is organized in the first months of infancy, especially regarding risk-related interactions. Person-centred approaches, including latent profile analysis (LPA), add valuable insights about early parenting by identifying distinct profiles of interaction. First, this study aimed to identify profiles of disrupted maternal interaction during the Still-Face Paradigm among 181 mothers and their 3- to 8-month-old infants. Second, the study assessed how each maternal profile was related to infant affect and interactive behaviour. The LPA identified four profiles of maternal interaction: optimal, negative/intrusive, withdrawing and pervasively disrupted. The pervasively disrupted profile, in particular, has not been identified in past research. Each profile was associated with specific aspects of infant affect and behaviour. Recognition of disrupted behavioural profiles among at-risk mothers and infants in the early months could facilitate more precise tailoring of early interventions to the needs of mothers and infants with differing profiles of interactive risk.

Despite evidence indicating that self-esteem (SE) may be considered a precondition to subjective well-being (SWB), there are inconclusive findings regarding its developmental links with SWB. Considering the declines in SWB, the purpose of this study is to examine the developmental changes in SWB and its relationship with SE in early adolescence. The data of 11,231 adolescents aged 11 and 14 years old (50% females) from the Millennium Cohort Study were utilized. Latent mean comparison indicated that SWB declined substantially between 11 and 14 years old in the United Kingdom. Cross-lagged modelling showed that SWB was developmentally unstable and that SE predicted later changes in SWB, whereas SWB did not predict changes in SE. SWB declines in the United Kingdom are mostly linked to less satisfaction with secondary school contexts and peer relationships. In short, SE is an important factor that can contribute to adolescents' SWB. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.