Fraulein Retanal,Elena G Bakker,Elora Wales,Jean-Francois Bureau,Jo-Anne LeFevre,Helena P Osana,Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk,Erin A Maloney
{"title":"Children's perceptions of parents' math attitude moderate the relation between parents' math anxiety and children's math anxiety.","authors":"Fraulein Retanal,Elena G Bakker,Elora Wales,Jean-Francois Bureau,Jo-Anne LeFevre,Helena P Osana,Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk,Erin A Maloney","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag121","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag121","url":null,"abstract":"Do children's perception of their parents' math attitudes contribute to their own math anxiety? From 2023 to 2024, one hundred and six parent (53.8% White, 76.4% Mothers) child (Mage = 8.75, 49.1% White, 54.7% Female) dyads in Canada reported their own math anxiety and children additionally reported their perception of parents' math enjoyment. Higher parental math anxiety predicted lower perceived parent math enjoyment, especially for girls. Children's perception of their parents' math enjoyment also moderated the relation between parents' and children's math anxiety. These findings reveal children's perception of parental math attitude as a novel social mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of math anxiety and identify a link between gender differences in math anxiety and the development of children's emotional awareness.","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148408576","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":"Two systems, two timelines: Computational evidence for dissociable development in inhibitory control across childhood and adolescence.","authors":"Tongyi Zhang, Yajie Gong, Xin Zhao","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag107","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study examined inhibitory control development across two samples of Chinese children: a cross-sectional (n = 1,122; 45.5% female; 91.9% Han; Mage=12.42 years, range: 6.0-18.7 years) with 6-month longitudinal follow-up and independent validation sample (n = 1,026; 45.1% female; 90.8% Han; Mage=12.44 years, range: 6.1-18.8 years). Generalized additive models applied to Stroop and Go/No-Go tasks revealed four-phase nonlinear developmental trajectories. Response inhibition stabilized by 13.4 years, while interference inhibition developed until 15.8 years. Hierarchical drift diffusion modeling indicated that interference inhibition development was associated with enhanced information accumulation (drift rate), whereas response inhibition development was associated with response bias adjustment (starting point), with shared processing speed improvements-a dissociation emerging across development. These findings support a decision-computational framework for understanding inhibitory control development.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148403856","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":"Unraveling the longitudinal relations between math reasoning and reading: The contributions of reading comprehension, word reading, and reading speed.","authors":"Di Zhang,Kerry Lee","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag120","url":null,"abstract":"Despite extensive discussion on the relation between math and reading, few studies have explored how fundamental math and reading abilities contribute to each other's development. This study investigated the relations between math reasoning and three reading-related measures (i.e., reading comprehension, word reading, and reading speed). Using a cohort-sequential design that spanned kindergarten to grade 9, 673 children from four cohorts (Mage = 5.67, 7.81, 10.03, and 12.28) were assessed annually over 4 years. A random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed that within-person deviations in math reasoning predicted deviations in reading comprehension and reading speed, but not word reading. These findings underscore the unidirectional influence of math reasoning on specific reading abilities at key developmental stages, with no reciprocal relationships observed.","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":"77 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148400993","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}
Yingjia Wan, Dannuo Lyu, Liqi Zhu, Craig G Chambers
{"title":"Young children use conversational timing as a cue for prosocial commitment.","authors":"Yingjia Wan, Dannuo Lyu, Liqi Zhu, Craig G Chambers","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag126","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Turn-taking in conversation entails periods of silence between talkers. Adults use the duration of these inter-turn intervals (ITIs) to draw inferences about the speaker. This study explores the emergence of these abilities in young children (104 Chinese children, 41-77 months, 44 female, 2025). Children watched cartoon vignettes in which a cartoon character requested help from two friends whose respective responses followed either a short (600 ms) or long (4,000 ms) delay. Children then judged the responders' willingness to help and stated which character they preferred. As age increased, children were more likely to judge slow responders as less willing and less preferable, (OR = 1.86-1.99), reaching above-chance levels around 51 months for willingness to help (OR = 2.12) and 53 months for friend preference (OR = 1.92). Interestingly, all children could distinguish fast from slow responses on an independent ITI discrimination task (OR = 11.14), suggesting younger children readily perceived timing differences but were unable to incorporate them into social inferences. Further, ITI-based inferences were unrelated to rhythmic ability but were predicted by Theory of Mind performance. These findings benchmark children's sensitivities to conversational timing in early social cognitive development, highlighting the role of emerging Theory of Mind abilities.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148389873","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}
Natalie Christner, Marina Kammermeier, Anja Kaßecker, Markus Paulus
{"title":"Developmental pathways of infant helping toward caregivers and unfamiliar adults: A longitudinal study.","authors":"Natalie Christner, Marina Kammermeier, Anja Kaßecker, Markus Paulus","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag022","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag022","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Infants help caregivers and unfamiliar others by their first birthday. Yet, developmental pathways leading to helping are largely unknown. This longitudinal study (6, 10, 14 months) investigated the association of caregiver-child interaction quality, motor development, action anticipation, and caregiver encouragement and modeling with helping (N = 118, 49 female, mostly White, European, data collection 2020-2022). Path models showed that helping the mother was related to motor development and maternal modeling, while helping the experimenter was related to motor development, action anticipation, and maternal interaction quality. This study provides novel evidence for a developmental systems approach to helping, emphasizing that early helping behavior is shaped by the caregiver-child interaction and interwoven with both motor and social development.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1038-1054"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147927132","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}
Steven J Holochwost, Jennifer L Coffman, Amber E Westover, Nicholas J Wagner, Robert C Carr, Cathi B Propper
{"title":"Associations between social engagement and parasympathetic activity in the early childhood education classroom.","authors":"Steven J Holochwost, Jennifer L Coffman, Amber E Westover, Nicholas J Wagner, Robert C Carr, Cathi B Propper","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag039","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag039","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The current study examined associations between the quality of children's social interactions with their teachers and peers and their concurrent parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in the early education classroom. Data were collected from 80 children (Mage = 4.91 years, 50% female, 50% White). The quality of children's social interaction with their teachers and peers was assessed across five sessions using the inCLASS while changes in children's parasympathetic activity were tracked. Analyses revealed that children increased PNS activity during sessions in which they interacted more positively with their teachers, whereas they decreased activity during sessions in which they interacted more positively with their peers. Children who interacted more positively with their peers across sessions also exhibited larger cross-session reductions in parasympathetic tone.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1159-1172"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147509923","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":"The developmental change of infants' comparison between small and large sets.","authors":"Yi Mou, Xi Yao, Jieling Wu, Sijia Zhao","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag041","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag041","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Infants can compare large (>3) and small (≤3) numerosities but face difficulty with cross-boundary comparisons (e.g., 1 vs. 4). This study examined 312 Chinese infants (11-24 months; 141 girls, data collection: 2022-2025) by using a forced-choice task to investigate when and how they overcome this challenge. Success emerged at 15 months for 1 vs. 4 (1:4 ratio). Older infants succeeded with the same (2 vs. 8) and smaller ratios (2 vs. 6; 1:3), but even at 24 months struggled with 2 vs. 4 (1:2). Performance was unrelated to vocabulary size, suggesting that cross-boundary success is independent from language development. These findings highlight the engagement of nonverbal approximate number processing for both small and large numerosities.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1173-1182"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147764117","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}
Jordan S Berne, Brian A Jacob, Tareena Musaddiq, Anna Shapiro, Christina Weiland
{"title":"Impacts of Michigan Transitional Kindergarten through third grade.","authors":"Jordan S Berne, Brian A Jacob, Tareena Musaddiq, Anna Shapiro, Christina Weiland","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag075","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag075","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transitional Kindergarten (TK) is a relatively new and under-researched model of early childhood education. Using data from Michigan TK, this study examines impacts for children (50% female, 78% White, 9% Black, 7% Hispanic) who enrolled at age 4 in 2014-2015 and 2018-2019 using a regression discontinuity design. Michigan TK improved kindergarten readiness (0.9 SD, N = 1,943) and third-grade math scores (0.2-0.3 SD, N = 15,680). It had no impact on ever being placed in special education from kindergarten through second grade, but it did cause earlier entry into special education in kindergarten (N = 15,704). Our findings add to the larger evidence base on early education programs and contribute substantially to the evidence base on TK specifically.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1348-1365"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147811510","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":"Cognitive predictors of equity-based social evaluation: Dissociation between proportional reasoning and cognitive control.","authors":"Rui Zhang, Michelle A Hurst, Nadia Chernyak","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag050","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag050","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Young children understand principles of fairness, including merit, equality, and charity. However, equity, which considers starting opportunities, is less explored. In a pre-registered study with 96 children aged 5-7 (55 girls, 41 boys; 33% Asian, 43% White; data collected in the United States between 2019 and 2023), we explored two potential cognitive mechanisms of equity-based fairness: proportional reasoning and cognitive control. While proportional reasoning was associated with evaluating more positively those with lower starting opportunities, cognitive control increased the likelihood of identifying the nicer individual in trials that did not call for equity reasoning. Our findings suggest a developmental trend in how children use relational information to evaluate generosity and are discussed in light of how cognitive skills influence social behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1055-1067"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147986819","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":"The typical and atypical development of dynamic self-regulation and coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia in mothers and children across early childhood.","authors":"Jianing Sun, Longfeng Li, Sy-Miin Chow, Erika Lunkenheimer","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag033","DOIUrl":"10.1093/chidev/aacag033","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We examined the development of mother-child dynamic self-regulation and coregulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) from ages 3 to 4, and variations by harsh parenting. RSA was collected from at-risk mother-preschooler dyads during a challenging task (N = 129; 53% female; 63.6% White; 24.8% Latinx; collected 2013-2017). Across development, lower-risk mothers showed increased RSA self-regulation inertia and decreased mother-led RSA coregulation with children, supporting the theory that parents externally regulate young children, which weakens as children develop regulatory skills. Conversely, harsher mothers showed increased mother-led RSA coregulation and their children showed increased RSA self-regulation inertia (implying less flexibility), suggesting children of harsher mothers experience increasing physiological regulatory difficulties and receive or need greater external regulation from mothers across early childhood.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1086-1102"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2026-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13056354/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147509878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}