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

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

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

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

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

“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 2,

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 children)

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) with

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 during

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, rules

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 conditional

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

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 about

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. As Black

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 to assess

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 frameworks

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

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 associations

Political engagement may be associated with wellbeing among college students in complex ways. The present study examines the associations between six forms of political engagement (activism, expressive political behaviors, traditional political behaviors, political groups, student leadership, and cultural/ethnic organizations) and multiple wellbeing outcomes among college students (N = 10,824) across

This timely special issue on political development broadens the empirical conversation around how adolescents are engaging politically and civically, what factors shape their involvement, how their involvement impacts their wellbeing, and how to engage diverse populations of youth in the political system. From the perspectives of critical consciousness and sociopolitical development, we reflect on

Career choice is an important challenge in adolescence. Relevance interventions may be an option for promoting career choices because students reflect on the usefulness of the learning content for their future careers. We investigated whether a relevance intervention focusing on the usefulness of math for students' lives and careers could promote several precursors of their career choices. Seventy-eight

The ability to regulate negative emotions plays a central role in children's psychosocial (mal-)adjustment. As different contextual demands require the utilization of different strategies, the development of a large and diverse repertoire of emotion regulation (ER) strategies is an important developmental task. This two-wave longitudinal study with 101 preschoolers (wave 1: 3–6 years, M = 5.19, SD = 0

Despite the significance of teacher–student relationships during the early years of school, questions remain about its long-term importance and whether the timing and variability of relationship quality matter. To address these gaps, data from the NICHD SECCYD were used to determine whether teacher-student relationships between kindergarten and sixth grade were associated with the achievement, social-behavior

Emotion socialization influences adolescent emotional adjustment. Friendships provide a venue for emotion socialization, yet little research has compared emotion socialization processes with parents versus friends and how they correspond to adolescent outcomes. The present study examined parent and friend socialization of negative emotions in relation to adolescents' emotional coherence, emotion regulation

Despite evidence that insensitive parenting is associated with later academic achievement, few studies have evaluated mechanisms that may account for these effects. This study utilized a diverse sample of child-caregiver dyads (N = 245, 50.2% male, 46.5% Latinx) to evaluate a sequential mediation model from observations of female caregivers' insensitive parenting behaviors at age 4 to children's maternal

Social-information processing (SIP) theory is a well-established framework for understanding the cognitive processes that underlie children’s social competence and has been linked to maladaptive outcomes, especially aggression. The current study examines preschool executive control, higher-order cognitive functions controlling attention and goal-oriented behavior, as a predictor of subsequent SIP abilities

While children generally prefer equal distributions of resources, we know little about the contextual and individual variability in these preferences. The present work examined experimental manipulations and associations between individual differences in empathy and parental teaching of “just world beliefs”, and children's perceptions of, and reactions to, unequal distributions. Children (aged 5–8

Critical reflection and spirituality have been linked to the positive development of high achieving youth of color; however, little research has explored how these strengths function in predicting positive youth development (PYD) across adolescence. In addition, scant research has considered how contextual resources such as mentoring might moderate the impact of these strengths. We examined the relations

Guided by the sociocultural theory of human development, this study aims to mediate the monolithic categorization of young Latino boys' school readiness transition patterns using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) dataset. Three patterns of transitions were unveiled using a person-centered approach: (1) Consistent Learner, (2) Struggling Learner, and (3) Declining High Achiever

A panel study of high school seniors during the 2006 midterm elections (N = 567) shows a striking pattern of Democratic youth thriving when exposed to counter-attitudinal climates. Democratic adolescents were more likely to disagree and listen to opponents if they lived in conservative counties compared with Democratic youth living in liberal counties. We infer that Democratic identity is distinguished

Executive functioning (EF) in early childhood predicts both concurrent and future academic achievement. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the potential pathways through which this might occur. The present study compared two models through which EF might plausibly predict academic outcomes 1 year later. Structural equation modelling analyses were conducted on a longitudinal dataset from 176

Early adversity and trauma for youth of color may lead to disconnection but also to efforts to heal and to cope. Young Black men in particular can build safe relational spaces while struggling with real daily risks to their health and well-being. In this analysis of thirty life history interviews in two youth development programs, we examined how young Black men searched for safe residence and relational

Deep-seated structural racism in the U.S. has been thrown into bold relief by the racially disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 and a series of highly visible police murders of Black Americans. Longstanding and intergenerational economic inequalities have been laid bare by the ensuing economic recession. This special issue's focus on how people critique, challenge, negotiate and change inequities is

This study examined differences in civic beliefs and efficacy for youth living in rural or city contexts and from higher or lower socioeconomic homes. Youth (N = 1847; 88.6% White; 56% female; Mage = 15.72) from a rural town (46.1%) and a mid-sized city (53.9%) completed questionnaires assessing civic beliefs (should, obligation, respect judgments) for community service, standard political, and social

The present study aimed to test the direct and moderating roles of gratitude on Latino adolescent mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction). Further, informed by the stress process framework, the present study tested the direct associations between several social stressors and resources (i.e., perceived discrimination, positive parenting, and peer social support) and Latino adolescent

Drawing on semi-structured interviews, participant observations, surveys, and voting records, this mixed-methods study investigates Latinx youths' political socialization and grassroots organizing efforts in a conservative, anti-immigrant regional context. This investigation makes three contributions. First, findings suggest that under hostile political contexts, vertical (adult-to-youth) forms of