{"title":"Correction: Impact of children's language ability on self-report assessment of mental health: Testing measurement invariance using moderated non-linear factor analysis.","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag184","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag184","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149073658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Finding happiness: Young children recognize that goals shape happiness in the face of simple preferences.","authors":"Lingyan Hu, Douglas A Frye, Fan Yang","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag180","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag180","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>What does happiness mean to children? While it may seem obvious that fulfilling desires and preferences matters, they often conflict with personal goals. Three preregistered studies with U.S. 4- to 9-year-olds (N = 307; 54% female; 59% White; tested in 2023-2025) found that in conflict situations, children considered goals both when attributing happiness (Studies 1 and 2) and evaluating happiness beliefs (Study 3) (ds = 0.36-1.49). The effect of goals went beyond simpler forms of inner conflict (Study 2), and children's goal-oriented responses predicted healthier food choices (Studies 2 and 3). These findings suggest that even young children view goal fulfillment as a meaningful source of happiness, offering insights into how to foster a happy childhood.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149080003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cameron E Hall, Matthew Tsui, Valerie Teng, Andrew S Baron
{"title":"Children's explanations for success shape implicit bias.","authors":"Cameron E Hall, Matthew Tsui, Valerie Teng, Andrew S Baron","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag178","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children's social preferences often mirror societal hierarchies, favoring higher-status and more successful groups. How children explain why some groups succeed while others do not may contribute to the development of these preferences. Attributing disparities to internal factors, such as effort or ability, risks instilling bias, whereas recognizing structural differences in access to opportunity may mitigate it. Across two studies, we examined children's reasoning about internal and structural explanations for a novel group disparity and whether these explanations impacted their social evaluations. In Study 1 (N = 155, ages 3-8; 64% White, 27% East Asian), children rated internal and structural explanations as similarly plausible, but by age 6, preferred structural explanations when outcomes were shaped by unequal access to opportunity and internal explanations when opportunities were equal (d = 0.33). In Study 2 (N = 289, ages 5-10; 52% White, 37% East Asian), children who favored internal explanations showed implicit success bias, whereas those who prioritized structural explanations showed no such bias, driven primarily by reduced positivity toward the successful group (d = 0.27). These findings suggest that how children explain inequality may shape their implicit attitudes toward success in ways that can either reinforce or disrupt social hierarchies.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149079965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Justified overstep: Children endorse caregivers' paternalistic decisions despite recognizing negative feelings.","authors":"Dylan Morrow, Fan Yang","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag165","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag165","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Autonomy is a fundamental psychological need, yet parents often override it for children's own good--practicing paternalism. Do children see this as morally justified? In three preregistered studies, U.S. children aged 4-9 (N = 413; 51% female; 61% White) by default reacted more positively to caregivers' pro-autonomy decisions than to anti-autonomy decisions. However, when anti-autonomy decisions benefited them (Study 1), or another child acting out of ignorance (soft paternalism; Study 2) or deliberation (hard paternalism; Study 3), children judged such decisions to be fair and justified, despite recognizing that pro-autonomy decisions would make them feel better. These findings reveal an early moral appreciation of caregiver paternalism, which may serve as an important social-cognitive mechanism that makes children receptive to parental guidance.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149036642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhaoying Chen, Chang Liu, Leslie D Leve, Daniel S Shaw, Misaki N Natsuaki, Jenae M Neiderhiser, Jody M Ganiban
{"title":"The pathway to effortful control in adolescence: The role of parental personality, family environment, and genetic factors.","authors":"Zhaoying Chen, Chang Liu, Leslie D Leve, Daniel S Shaw, Misaki N Natsuaki, Jenae M Neiderhiser, Jody M Ganiban","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag177","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag177","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Effortful control (EC) is the ability to intentionally inhibit a dominant response in service of goals. The intergenerational transmission of EC might represent a dynamic interaction between genetic and environmental factors, while few studies have explored this relationship in adolescence. We used a longitudinal adoption design to investigate the contributions of theoretically relevant and heritable family factors to EC from childhood to adolescence. Participants (N = 495; 42% female; 56% White) were from the Early Growth and Development Study, which began in 2002. Children's heritable predisposition was indexed by Birth Mothers' (BM) self-reported EC at 5 months. Primary and Secondary Adoptive Parents (AP1, AP2) reported their perceptions of home order/routines, parenting stress, and the APs' own EC at 4.5 years. Child EC was assessed via AP1 and AP2 reports at age 4.5 and by adolescent self-report at age 11. We found that AP1 and AP2 EC positively predicted home order/routines, which in turn predicted higher child EC at 4.5 and 11 years. AP2's EC negatively predicted parenting stress at age 4.5. Although these findings do not rule out genetic influences, they underscore the role of the home environment and distinct caregiver pathways in the intergenerational transmission of EC.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149036632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Daily and family profiles of adolescent-mother-father perceived interparental interactions and family members' sleep: A multi-reporter multilevel study.","authors":"Yingnan Jin, Mengya Xia","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag168","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Grounded in family systems theory, this study aimed to understand how adolescent-mother-father perceived interparental positivity and interparental negativity related to each family member's sleep quality and duration. Using 30-day daily reports from adolescents (Mage = 14.75, 38.3% female, 59.81% white), mothers (Magee = 41.76, 64.49% white), and fathers (Magee = 44.04, 61.68% white) in 107 U.S. families, multilevel latent profile analyses, run separately for interparental positivity and negativity, identified daily- and family-profiles of adolescent-mother-father perceptions. Results revealed 6 day-level and six family-level profiles over time of adolescent-mother-father perceived interparental positivity, and 5 day-level and five family-level profiles of interparental negativity. We identified both similar and mixed daily adolescent-mother-father perceptions, and both stable and fluctuated family patterns over time. Stable, high adolescent-mother-father perceived interparental positivity predicted better sleep outcomes, with variations across family members: mothers' sleep aligned with family's collective perception of interparental positivity, whereas adolescents' and fathers' sleep linked to mixed or lower-than-expected interparental positivity. Minimal adolescent-mother-father perceived interparental negativity was associated with the best sleep outcomes at both levels, whereas mixed daily perceptions and family fluctuation predicted everyone's poorest sleep quality. Findings highlight the importance of integrating family members' perceptions of interparental interactions at both the daily and family levels over time for studying sleep.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149015914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Developmental change in acquiring overhearable words from naturalistic contexts.","authors":"Yuchen Jin, Ruthe Foushee, Kennedy Casey, Marisa Casillas","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag127","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Overhearable speech constitutes over half of children's language exposure, but its role in language development remains underexplored. This study compares children's recognition of words that parents reported as primarily overhearable to children (i.e., \"high-overheardness\" words) with words that parents reported as primarily directed to children (i.e., \"low-overheardness\" words). We tested 79 predominantly White and mixed-race US English-learning children at 18, 24, and 30 months (data collection period: 2023.12-2024.04). We then re-tested the 18-month-olds at 24 months (N = 21). Results showed that children aged 24 and 30 months, but not 18 months, recognized the high-overheardness words. The gap between high- and low-overheardness word recognition at 18 months was narrower for children with larger vocabularies at 24 months. Vocabulary expansion via overhearing before age two may thus only be evident in more linguistically advanced children.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149015855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Positive development and adaptation in Asian children: Introduction to the special section.","authors":"Qing Zhou, Florrie Fei-Yin Ng, Qi Wang","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag176","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149001017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music listening and young children's mood and behavior: The parents as home DJs study.","authors":"Eun Cho, Peter Miksza, Beatriz Ilari","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag173","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Using an experience sampling method (ESM), this study examined how parents incorporated music listening into daily routines and its perceived effects on children's mood and behavior. Parents (N = 562; 98% mothers; 79% White; 96% affiliated with an early childhood music program) of children aged 0-5 years completed a sign-up survey and a 7-day ESM protocol in 2021. Music listening was ubiquitous in family life, often used for entertainment and emotion regulation. In over 75% of episodes, parents reported noticeable-mostly positive-changes in their children. Mixed-effects models showed stronger effects when children liked the music and it was less familiar as well as when the children were already demonstrating active behavior and the music was more energetic and pleasant.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149069217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Emma Verhoeven, Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz, Merel van Witteloostuijn, Elma Blom, Rebecca M Kuiper
{"title":"The relation between parental language mixing and children's vocabulary outcomes: An evidence synthesis.","authors":"Emma Verhoeven, Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz, Merel van Witteloostuijn, Elma Blom, Rebecca M Kuiper","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag102","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Seven studies (total n = 541) have investigated the relation between parental language mixing and bilingual children's (0-10-year-olds) vocabulary outcomes with different research designs. Parental language mixing was either positively, negatively, or not related to children's vocabulary outcomes. Their evidence is aggregated via a novel meta-analytic approach, the GORIC evidence synthesis. Evidence syntheses were conducted for expressive and receptive vocabulary in the majority and minority language. The combined evidence shows that parental language mixing is not related to bilingual children's expressive vocabulary, or to their receptive vocabulary in the minority language. There is a negative relation between parental language mixing and children's receptive vocabulary outcomes in the majority language that ranges from a negligible to small effect size.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148975919","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}