This study linked data from two large population monitoring surveys in British Columbia, Canada, (N = 17,181) to examine associations between teacher-rated social-emotional functioning at school entry (age 5) and child self-reported internalizing and wellbeing in Grade 4 (age 9). Latent profile analysis identified seven profiles of early childhood social-emotional functioning based on eight subscales

Prior literature demonstrates a reliable progression of ToM development during early childhood; however, cross-cultural studies have found a different progression of ToM development, and few studies have investigated whether this progression is generalizable to children in poverty. The current study examined ToM development in 106 3- to 5-year-old children enrolled in urban, low-income preschool programs

Studies of contextual variations in the features and effects of children's experiences with agemates have enriched our understanding of the basic functioning of the peer system. They have also expanded our understanding of specificity of developmental processes. Using existing research on contextual variations in peer relations as our point of departure, our “Call for Action” consists of eight “rules”

Are teachers' growth mindsets associated with the development of growth mindsets in their students? We know that teacher growth mindset (TGM) shapes the attributions teachers make about their students' abilities and can lead to assumptions about the role that perceived stable traits play in students' performance; however, to date, research has not focused on the relationship between TGM and the development

LGBQ+ youth (youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or with diverse identities other than straight or heterosexual) contend with unique stressors in the context of their peer relationships. They also access critical support from peers. These circumstances likely influence how LGBQ+ youth navigate and experience their relationships. Nevertheless, research remains limited in its breadth

Families with young children with and without developmental disabilities often create a musically rich home environment. Parent-child music engagement, like singing play songs, is associated with positive outcomes for children, parents, and their relationship. However, little is known about if the home music environment differs across diagnostic groups and if parent-child music engagement relates to

Social-emotional (SE) skills grow rapidly during the preschool years and support children's ability to manage stress and form positive relationships. Yet little research exists on how SE skills develop over time, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We examined the development of prosocial SE skills with four waves of data over three years in a sample of Ghanaian preschoolers (N = 1916;

As articulated by Marc H. Bornstein, the Specificity Principle explains that specific outcomes in human development always involve coaction of specific individuals at specific times in specific places through specific processes. The articles in this Special Issue document contributions to developmental science through theory-predicated and methodologically rigorous and innovative research framed by

Economic disadvantage profoundly impacts children and families. Yet, limited work examines the multileveled processes by which low-income parents’ neighborhood perceptions intersect with their children’s opportunities. Using the Making Connections (MC) longitudinal dataset, a multi-city random-sampled strengths-based study of predominately low-income households, we examine how parents’ perceptions

The Social Information Processing (SIP) theory and the Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Agency were integrated to investigate the associations between SIP and bullying, guilt, and moral disengagement. Participants were 341 children and early adolescents (Mage = 11.14). Two social exclusion vignettes were administered to assess three SIP steps (step 2: Attribution of hostile intent; step 3: Selection

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly related to parental behaviors and the quality of parent-child interactions. We examined whether through maternal behaviors, SES is linked to joint attention (JA), an important form of parent-child interactions predicting language development. At 12 months, 50 mother-infant dyads were video-recorded during 5-min free play. We coded for maternal behaviors (sensitivity

Young children are aware of ethnicity-race, yet the field lacks measures to assess ethnic-racial identity (ERI) in early childhood. Thus, the goals of the current study were: (a) to describe three adapted measures that can be used to assess aspects of Mexican-heritage children's ERI (i.e., attitudes, centrality, and knowledge), and (b) to test the psychometric properties of each measure among 182 five-year-old

Background television distracts and disrupts the productivity of young children's play, but little is known about how different types of television programming affect attentional control and task performance in this age group. This was the goal of the current project. 115 preschoolers were given tasks to complete while an adult- or child-directed television program played in the periphery, and no program

The Specificity Principle provides a framework for understanding the diversity of human experience in ways that are essential to forwarding developmental science. This special issue exemplifies just some of the ways in which the Specificity Principle can be applied to improve our theory, method, measurement, and application of developmental science to improve human lives. This commentary situates the

During typical childhood interactions with screen-media, input is dominated by visual signals, with a likely reduction in haptic, proprioceptive, and fine motor domains. We present the first study to investigate sensorimotor skills in a detailed manner, using a two-year longitudinal design on a sample of 117 preschool children. We measured screen-time and sensorimotor development in a differentiated

The Specificity Principle in Adoption asserts that specific setting conditions for adoption of specific adoptees born to specific birth parents and adopted by specific adoptive parents at specific times moderate specific domains in all members of the adoption tetrad by specific processes. Understanding adoption depends critically upon what is studied in whom, how, and when. This article defines, explains

We systematically examined situation-specific shyness in adolescence and inspected the relations between situation-specific shyness and multiple aspects of adjustment. Adolescents (N = 492) from an urban school in China participated in the study during 7th (T1) and 8th (T2) grades. Adolescents self-reported their situation-specific shyness using a new measure of hypothetical scenarios, and their general

This randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of an elementary school service-learning program, Connect Science (CS), on classroom practices and students' science achievement, civic engagement, and social skills. Fourth grade teachers were enrolled into intervention versus control conditions resulting in 41 classrooms (20 intervention) with 868 students (423 intervention). Intervention group

Contemporary discussions around gender roles, stereotypes, and play highlight the need for updated research on the influences of children's early play experiences and learning (Weisgram, 2018). Different types of play relate to different skills and vary by gender, such as spatial play and spatial skill (Jirout & Newcombe, 2015; Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995), and very little is known about gender and

The present study examined differences in student–teacher relationship quality and engagement with schoolwork between boys from regular education and boys from special education for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We also investigated whether the strength of associations between student–teacher relationship quality and engagement differed across boys from regular and special education

The goals of this study were to examine the longitudinal relations between school readiness and reading and math achievement and to test if these relations were moderated by temperament. The sample included socio-economically and ethnically diverse twins (N = 551). Parents reported on school readiness when children were five years old. Teachers reported on temperament (effortful control, anger, and

Despite theoretical propositions regarding the transactional interplay between depressive symptoms and friendship experiences (e.g., Coyne, 1976), few studies have tested interpersonal theories of depression in adolescence. The current study used cross-lagged panel models to test longitudina, reciprocal associations of adolescents' depressive symptoms with self- and friend-reported positive friendship

This paper is a call for empirical research, and theory development, that focuses on the peer relationships of children and adolescents who experience forced displacement. During the last decade, an escalating humanitarian crisis has developed with historic levels of involuntary migration occurring across the world. The extant research on youth who become refugees or internally displaced has primarily

This study examined commonalities and specificities of the Five Cs Model of positive youth development (PYD) in 15-year-old youth samples across the U.S. and Taiwan. The full battery of the Five Cs measure (78 items) were administered to both samples. The Five Cs model was identified and partial metric and partial scalar measurement invariance was established between the two samples using bi-factor

Evidence from a growing body of observational and experimental studies indicates that parent math talk is a key input supporting early mathematical thinking. Very little research, however, has been dedicated to understanding parenting or family correlates of math talk. In the present study, we examined relations between parents' number talk and their management language (i.e., the extent to which parents

The aim of this study is to identify the transactional pathways among maternal authoritative parenting, children's self-esteem, and approach coping strategies (i.e., problem solving coping and social support seeking coping). We collected three waves of data over three years from N = 888 Chinese children (50.3% girls; Mage = 9.83 years, SDage = 1.28 years at Time 1). Children reported their self-esteem

Experimental studies on parent-youth disagreements have revealed the potential socialization advantages of favoring parental constraints with strong problem-constraint links (i.e., logical consequences) over constraints with weak problem-constraint links (e.g., mild punishments). In this study, we extended this line of research by examining the relation between youth perceptions of their parents' actual

Previous studies have often compared and contrasted differences among media presentations, including traditional storybooks and videos and their potential for incidental word learning among preschoolers. Studies have shown that children learn words from a variety of media, and that repetition is an important source for incidental learning. Yet, to date, little is known about how repeated presentations

Literature on parental emotion socialization does not capture the complexity of parents' emotion-related behaviors with variable-centered approaches that aggregate parent behaviors. To provide a contextually grounded portrayal of parental ES, utilizing a person-centered approach, we identified profiles of mothers' responses to their young adolescents' emotions and examined adolescent outcomes in a

This study examined the longitudinal relation between math attitudes and math anxiety in first grade (Mage = 6 years, 10 months) and mathematics achievement in fourth grade (Mage = 9 years, 11 months) for 155 Black and Latinx children. Multi-group structural equation modeling showed an inverse relation between math attitudes and math anxiety in first grade for boys and girls. Although there were no

The present study examined the moderating effects of social sensitivity in the relations between cybervictimization and school and psychological adjustment in Chinese children. Participants were 577 elementary school students in fifth and sixth grades (287 boys; Mage = 11 years) in Sichuan, China. Self-report data were collected on cybervictimization, social sensitivity, and psychological adjustment

We tested an easy-to-implement, theoretically-grounded Buddy Up intervention designed to help preschoolers engage with diverse peers. Using naturalistic observation procedures, independent observers coded children’s (N = 137) peer experiences in preschool classrooms. Findings revealed an intervention effect on time spent with peers for boys only, such that boys in the intervention condition maintained

Two salient domains of acculturative stress, bicultural stress and English competency pressures, were examined as predictors of academic well-being, including grades, educational expectations, and academic identity over a one-year period using a heterogeneous sample of 329 Latinx youth (MTime1age = 13.67, SD = 0.57; 51% boys). The buffering effects of coping and school belonging were tested along with

We discuss Bornstein's (2017) specificity principle as a codification of the larger systems-oriented zeitgeist currently dominant in developmental science and the implications that accommodating specificity has for applied research. We illustrate the importance of specificity by analyzing coded videos obtained as part of an evaluation of animal-assisted interventions implemented in the context of a

Daily diary studies allow for examining the day-to-day dynamic experiences of biculturalism. The present study used a 12-day daily diary dataset collected with 873 Hispanic college students. Our goal was to (a) identify two distinct forms of dynamic daily processes of linguistic biculturalism (bicultural levels and bicultural fluctuations) and (b) examine the mediating role of bicultural levels and

Researchers and evaluators interested in positive youth development (PYD) programs seek to understand what works for what youth in what ways. Typically, measurement and analysis are framed by ergodic theorems, which assume homogeneity of individuals and stationarity in individuals' developmental pathways. However, such commonality (homogeneity and stationarity) does not characterize all developmental

When interacting with one another, bilingual caregivers and their young bilingual children can switch from one language to another to convey emotion and information in meaningful ways. The Specificity Principle (Bornstein, 2017) states that specific setting conditions affect specific outcomes in specific ways in specific individuals at specific times. Here we tested three constituents of the Specificity

The relationships between screen media use and hot and cool executive functioning (EF) and inattention/hyperactivity during the preschool years were assessed using data from mothers, fathers and children (N = 3787) participating in the Growing Up in New Zealand study. Patterns of screen time (i.e., whether children exceeded 2 hr of screen time at 2 and 4 years), content of screen media (adult-directed

Emerging research shows there is substantial heterogeneity in the English and Spanish language and literacy proficiencies of dual language learners (DLLs) in U.S. preschools. This work is extended in this paper by examining within-group variability in 320 Spanish-English speaking DLLs' cognitive, linguistic, literacy, and mathematics skills at the end of prekindergarten (M = 5.22 years old). Using

Although self-control tends to increase through late adolescence, there are individual differences in patterns of growth. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate change in self-control across students’ first year of college (N = 569, Mage = 18.03; 70.3% female; 89.6% White), and whether attachment to parents predicted this change when controlling for personality and demographic variables. Self-control

Three cultural comparisons address specificities and commonalities in the acculturation of infant behaviors and maternal parenting practices. Immigrant Japanese, Korean, and South American families were compared to nonmigrant families in their respective cultures of origin (Japan, South Korea, and South America) and their single common culture of destination (United States). Altogether, 13 infant behaviors

This longitudinal study investigated whether and, if so, how executive functions predict English reading comprehension development among Spanish-English bilingual adolescents. Students (N = 116) were followed from Grade 6 (age 11) through Grade 8 (age 13) and their cognitive (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, attention shifting), linguistic, and reading skills were assessed annually. Growth

A focus on intraindividual change and person-specific pathways is a necessary starting point for developmental science inquiries. However, research often relies on ergodicity-based assumptions about group averages and other variable-centered approaches. Using ideas associated with relational developmental systems metatheory, such as the Bornstein Specificity Principle, we re-examine the ergodicity

Early care and education (ECE) programs can support resilience among children with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Yet children impacted by ACEs often experience challenges in ECE. To guide interventions to support school-readiness, a better understanding of engagement and development in ECE among children with ACEs is needed. The current study employed multiple methods (observation, teacher-report

Abstract “Take The Best” is a fast and frugal strategy that requires focus upon the most important information dimensions when making decisions, and the ability to ignore other, less crucial factors. Two studies are used to investigate whether children take up the Take The Best heuristic following child-friendly strategy prompting. The results show that children aged nine (Study 1, N = 65) and 12 (Study

Abstract This longitudinal investigation tested a theoretically-specified model of the etiology and developmental consequences of parent-child role confusion, wherein there is a deterioration of generational boundaries such that the parent looks to their child to meet the parent's own needs for comfort or support. Employing a diverse sample of 250 female caregiver-child dyads (50% female and 46% Latinx

Abstract This study used a story-telling task to examine 112 Chinese children's (M = 8.37 years, range: 5 to 13.25 years) prosocial behavior toward Chinese and White members harmed intentionally by another story character or accidentally. Children rewarded story characters with stickers following each story. Overall, there was an in-group bias such that children were more prosocial (awarded more stickers)

Abstract The association between parent personality and parenting has been established in the literature; however, the mechanisms explaining this relationship remain poorly understood. In the current study, we examined associations between maternal personality and maternal insensitive behaviors through causal attributions about infant distress. Primiparous mothers (N = 259) reported maternal personality

Abstract Despite the racial achievement gap, many Black adolescent boys excel in school. Academic socialization is one way that parents can contribute to these youths' success. However, only a few studies have examined the specific ways that Black parents support their sons' high achievement. To address this gap, we used a multi-wave, multi-informant, mixed-method design to examine the conversations

Abstract The current article presents an introduction to the special issue on the development of boys and young men of color in challenging environments. The articles in this special issue, collectively, highlight how boys and young men of color successfully adapt to adverse environments, and in particular, how the unique demands of various inhibiting contexts may shape adaptive behaviors. By exploring

Abstract This cross-sectional study is based on the survey responses of 134 volunteer court-appointed advocates (M = 52.44 years) who have been assigned a foster youth in middle or high school. The study aimed to (1) explore advocates' life goals for foster youth, (2) validate a scale of informal mentoring practices by adapting scales of shared and non-shared agency, and (3) test a model by which generative

Adolescent exposure to violence (ETV) is associated with multiple negative health outcomes. Despite evidence linking adolescent ETV with later experiences of physical, sexual and psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization, more longitudinal evidence is needed, and potential explanatory mechanisms should be tested. We examine data collected over 17 years to analyze the mediating effects

Deficits in inferring others' mental states, that is, theory of mind (ToM), and in regulating one's behavior, relating to executive function (EF), are risk factors for conduct problems in childhood, but these interrelations have scarcely been examined while simultaneously controlling for ADHD symptoms. This study assessed EF (inhibition, working memory updating, set shifting) as well as ToM (affective

Two studies explore how explanations that contain mechanistic information can influence 4- and 5-year-old children's subsequent learning. In Study 1 (N = 56) children participated in a science task with their parents across five phases: (a) exploration phase, (b) parent explanation questions, (c) familiar phase, (d) novel extension phase, and (e) child recall. Parents' use of explations containing

Abstract Caregivers' use of decontextualized language (DL), language that is abstract or removed from the here and now, supports preschool-aged children's language, cognitive, and social-cognitive development. Studies comparing caregiver-child DL across cultures have focused primarily on one type of DL—past narratives. Very few studies have examined cross-cultural similarities and differences in talk

Abstract The role of fathers in the lives of young men has been explored extensively in the literature (Perry, 2017; Alleyne-Green, Grinnell-Davis, Clark, & Cryer-Coupet, 2015; Coley & Medeiros, 2007). However, Black fathers, and particularly those of boys who live in adverse circumstances, are often perceived as being uninvolved or without direct influence on the day-to-day functioning of their sons

Abstract Around the globe, governments are experimenting with lowering the voting age to 16-years-old as a way to turn around recent declines in civic participation. However, one concern is that younger voters will be more susceptible to parental and community influence. We used voter records from two U.S. states to explore stability and change in partisan identifications as a function of age in order

Abstract This commentary summarizes themes in a special issue published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology on political development. Papers range in method and disciplinary lens, offering unique insight on diverse youth's political development, and the role that diverse contexts play in shaping these processes. Building on a tradition of youth development research that challenges deficit

Abstract This study investigated the mediation and moderation roles of classroom peer norms (CPNs) on the associations of teacher support with student aggression and academic engagement across the first year of middle school (fall and spring of sixth grade). Students (N = 312; 49% females) were from 32 classrooms in three schools. Data included peer-nominated aggression (overt, relational) and self-reported

Abstract Maternal responsivity is important to caregiving, reflecting a mother's capacity to initiate prompt behavioural responses to infant's cues, supporting the infant's own regulatory development. There is limited research examining cognitive and affective processes, including working memory and emotion regulation, in the context of maternal responsivity to infant distress. Therefore, we examined