Journal of Genetic Psychology最新文献

Shyness in childhood has been linked to socio-emotional difficulties such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness. On the contrary, positivity (i.e., a personal tendency to see oneself, life, and future in a positive light) has been described as a protective factor. Given the challenges experienced by children during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., closure of school and confinement), we aimed to test the potential protective role of positivity and how it may link child shyness and indices of internalizing problems (i.e., anxiety, depression, loneliness) during the first wave of the pandemic. Participants were N = 236 children (M_age = 9.25 years, SD = 1.20) from Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the three worst-hit countries in Europe when the data were collected (April-June, 2020). Children completed online self-evaluation scales to assess temperamental shyness, positivity, and indices of internalizing problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from a multivariate regression analysis revealed significant interaction effects between shyness and positivity in the prediction of outcome variables. Follow-up simple slope analyses indicated that shyness was positively related to depression only among children with lower levels of positivity. The study highlights the role of children's positivity in buffering the pernicious link between shyness and their negative feelings during the pandemic. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The present study aimed to examine the moderating role of the quality of the relationship between children and their teachers (i.e., closeness and conflict), in children's unsociability and play behaviors (i.e., reticent behavior, social play). Participants were 211 three- to six-year-old children (M = 64.08 months, SD = 10.92, 94 girls, 117 boys). Mothers reported their unsociability; teachers reported teacher-child relationships and children's play behaviors. Results showed that close teacher-child relationships moderated the association between unsociability and social play in children (buffering effect). Teacher-child conflict exacerbated the relations between unsociability and reticent behavior. Findings show that teacher-child closeness is effective in revealing social play behaviors of unsociable children. Teachers can improve their relationship with unsociable children to provide nurturing social play behavior.

Studies have shown that when listening to speech sounds that express different emotions through prosodic and lexical content, adults tend to judge a speaker's emotion based on prosody, while young children tend to judge a speaker's emotion based on lexical content. This study examined three factors that can help 3- to 5-year-old children overcome their lexical bias and use prosody to judge a speaker's emotion. The results showed that an understanding of the usefulness of prosody to infer emotion from speech influenced young children's tendency to focus on prosody, and that only children with well-developed executive functions could judge a speaker's emotions by focusing on prosody-to the extent that they could read emotions from it. To achieve this, in addition to understanding, children needed to switch their attention away from lexical content and read emotions from prosody.

According to socioemotional selectivity theory, motivation influences emotion regulation. Grit is a motivation orientation defined by the passionate pursuit of long-term goals. We conducted two studies to determine the relation between facets of grit and two emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. In Study 1, we examined the relation between these variables in college students (20-24 year olds), and Study 2 focused on community adults (25-72 year olds). Facets of grit were assessed using the Short Grit Scale and habitual use of emotion regulation strategies was assessed using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. We combined data from both studies and conducted regression analyses to examine the role of each facet of grit, participant's age, and the interaction between age and facets of grit in the habitual use of either reappraisal or suppression as strategies to regulate emotions. The regression analyses revealed that both facets of grit were positively associated with reappraisal regardless of age. However, the facets of grit differed in their associations with expressive suppression. Grit-Consistency was negatively associated with expressive suppression, regardless of age. But, a significant interaction effect with participant's age emerged for Grit-Perseverance. Specifically, Grit-Perseverance was positively associated with expressive suppression only in individuals below the age of 31. Overall, the data suggest that the relations between facets of grit and habitual use of emotion regulation strategy may vary with age. Additionally, our work indicates adults with high levels of grit may experience healthy emotional functioning, particularly later in adulthood.

Positive peer relationships are important for children's prosocial development, yet the mechanisms that explain how peers contribute to prosocial outcomes during the preschool and early school years remain understudied. The present study used a prospective longitudinal design to examine whether children's degree of trust in others mediated the association between prior peer relationship quality and later prosocial behavior in a Canadian sample (N = 150; T1 M_age= 4.53 years, 50% female). Primary caregivers (84% mothers) reported on children's peer relationship quality (at age 4), trust in others (ages 4 and 5), and prosocial behavior (ages 4 and 6). Controlling for initial levels of trust and prosocial behavior at age 4, longitudinal path modeling indicated that higher quality peer relationships directly predicted relative increases in trust at age 5. In turn, increased trust at age 5 predicted relative increases in prosocial behavior at age 6. Consistent with longitudinal mediation, the indirect effect of peer relationship quality on later prosocial behavior via trust was also significant. Sensitivity analyses further indicated that these effects held over and above the potential confounding influence of parental warmth and externalizing behavioral problems (assessed at age 6). Programs designed to promote prosocial skills in early childhood may benefit from an increased emphasis on building and maintaining children's interpersonal trust.

This study investigated the links between reflection, sympathy, and reparative behavior in an ethnically diverse sample of 4-, 6- and 8-year-old children from Canada (N = 752). Primary caregivers responded to questionnaires assessing their children's reflection, sympathy, and reparative behaviors. The links between these variables were examined using structural equation modeling. In accordance with our hypotheses, children's reflection and sympathy were both related to reparation. We did not, however, find any interaction between reflection and sympathy in relation to reparation. These findings suggest that the pathways to reparative behavior through reflection (a cognitive capacity) and sympathy (an affective capacity) are independent. We discuss these findings in relation to the differential roles of cognitive and affective processes in promoting reparative behavior.