Review of Developmental Studies on Children in Infancy, Early, and Middle Childhood:

Abstract

This paper reviewed developmental studies on children in infancy, early, and middle childhood con-ducted over the previous year in Japan. The review covers research papers published in The Japanese Journal of Educational Psychology , The Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology , The Japanese Journal of Psychology , and Japanese Psychological Research from July 2020 to June 2021 , and the poster presentations of The 63 rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology, held in 2021 . After analyzing the overall characteristics of the papers presented at The 63 rd Annual Meeting from the " Development " category, the research papers were categorized into four topics focusing on the social context(s) of child development: (a) studies related to the interpersonal context, (b) studies related to the family context, (c) studies related to the school context, and (d) studies related to the multiple contexts. The findings from the papers are highlighted, and future directions in terms of several perspectives, including research methods, types of participants, and importance of theory, are discussed.