Hongqing Yao , Jing Fang , Ruibo Xie , Xiaoyue Wang , Die Wang , Weijian Li , Wan Ding
{"title":"Negative automatic thoughts, gratitude, and subjective happiness in Chinese children: A cross-lagged panel analysis","authors":"Hongqing Yao , Jing Fang , Ruibo Xie , Xiaoyue Wang , Die Wang , Weijian Li , Wan Ding","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101832","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101832","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gratitude is a complex socioemotional construct that emerges during early childhood and undergoes developmental changes over time. This study aims to investigate the bidirectional relationships between negative automatic thoughts (NATs), gratitude, and subjective happiness among Chinese children. Additionally, we explored the mediating role of gratitude in the association between NATs and subjective happiness. A sample of 972 Chinese children (<em>M</em><sub><em>age</em></sub> = 9.60 years at baseline) completed assessments of NATs, gratitude, and subjective happiness at three different time points with six-month intervals. The findings revealed that gratitude significantly predicted subsequent levels of NATs and subjective happiness, while NATs also had a direct impact on subsequent levels of gratitude and subjective happiness. Moreover, subjective happiness at time 2 was found to significantly predict levels of gratitude and NATs only at time 3. Importantly, our results demonstrated that gratitude played a crucial mediating role in the relationship between NATs and subjective happiness across time. These novel findings contribute to our comprehensive understanding of how gratitude contributes to holistic development in children, providing valuable scientific evidence for positive development among Chinese children.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101832"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144522726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Esther J. Calzada , Roushanac Partovi , Rebecca M.B. White , Kathleen M. Roche
{"title":"Pathways linking ethnic marginalization to Latino/a youth's academic success via depressive symptoms","authors":"Esther J. Calzada , Roushanac Partovi , Rebecca M.B. White , Kathleen M. Roche","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101840","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101840","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study examined how two forms of marginalization – peer ethnic-racial discrimination and mothers' immigration-related stressors - were associated with changes in adolescents' grade point average by way of changes in adolescent depressive symptoms. A secondary aim was to examine <em>familismo</em> as a moderator mitigating marginalization's harmful effects on depressive symptoms. Data derived from a longitudinal study of 547 mother-adolescent dyads in suburban Atlanta, GA (<em>M</em><sub><em>age</em></sub> = 13.31 years old; 55.4 % girls; 10.4 % first-generation immigrants; 65.3 % second-generation immigrants; 24.3 % later generation immigrants). Most youth participants identified as only Latino/a (42 %) or Latino/a and White (31 %). Results showed that immigration-related stressors were associated with increases in adolescents' depressive symptoms, which in turn, was associated with poorer academic performance two years later. <em>Familismo</em> did not moderate any associations. Findings underscore the harmful effects of marginalizing experiences on Latino/a adolescents' adjustment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101840"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144665820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Priscilla Goble , Sarah M. Blalock , Cambrian Nauman , Toria Flynn , Pond Ezra , Sarah Moreno , Emma Sharber
{"title":"Play therapy in preschool: Promoting teacher empathy and strengthening child-teacher bonds","authors":"Priscilla Goble , Sarah M. Blalock , Cambrian Nauman , Toria Flynn , Pond Ezra , Sarah Moreno , Emma Sharber","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101838","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101838","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A quasi-experimental design was used to examine a play therapy intervention (CTRT: Child Teacher Relationship Training) aimed to improve children's behavior, the quality of teacher-child relationships, and teacher's empathy. Participants included 18 teachers and 175 preschool children. Classrooms were assigned to CTRT, time-control, or business-as-usual conditions. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a main effect of intervention condition for teacher empathy but not for child behavior and teacher-child relationship quality. CTRT teachers demonstrated improvements in empathic interactions. Follow-up analyses revealed that the effects of children's initial levels of behavior problems on post-intervention outcomes were moderated by intervention condition. Participation in the CTRT condition buffered the deleterious effects of initial behavior problems on later teacher-child relationship quality. Researchers concluded that this study provides preliminary evidence that CTRT may be effective in building teacher empathy and teacher-child closeness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101838"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144633240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
María Valcárcel Jiménez , Jörg-Henrik Heine , Tina Schiele , Anna Mues , Frank Niklas
{"title":"The role of parental attitudes, home literacy environment, and migration background in preschool children's emergent literacy skills","authors":"María Valcárcel Jiménez , Jörg-Henrik Heine , Tina Schiele , Anna Mues , Frank Niklas","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101830","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101830","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Developing proficient literacy skills is important for school success. This study examined the link between parental attitudes towards reading and preschool children's emergent literacy skills in German, focusing on children with and without migration background. It explored whether the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) mediated this relation while controlling for child age, sex, cognitive skills, and family socioeconomic status. The study involved 500 children (<em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 60.97 months) assessed three times across a year. The results showed that parental attitudes towards reading influenced emergent literacy skills only through the HLE. Migration background had an indirect effect, with the HLE mediating its impact on literacy development. These findings highlight the critical role of the HLE in fostering literacy skills, provide a plausible explanation for individual differences in German emergent literacy skills for children with and without migration background, and suggest that interventions targeting parental attitudes and HLE may effectively support literacy development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101830"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144522940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Using machine learning algorithms to predict students' general self-efficacy in PISA 2018","authors":"Bin Tan , Hao-Yue Jin , Maria Cutumisu","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101828","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101828","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Self-efficacy is a critical psychological construct that exerts a positive impact on students' learning experiences and global well-being. Previous studies explored the factors related to the development and variation of students' self-efficacy, but they only focused on a limited set of predictors. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors affecting self-efficacy, it is necessary to build a predictive model based on a large number of predictors using a data-driven approach. Therefore, guided by socio-ecological theory, we categorized 256 candidate predictors from the PISA 2018 student and school questionnaires in five levels of socio-ecological systems. We then used two machine learning algorithms, Lasso and XGBoost, to predict self-efficacy of 612,004 students aged 15 to 16 years from 79 countries and regions. The results showed that XGBoost outperformed Lasso. We then extracted feature importance from the best-performing XGBoost model to rank the features both overall and within each level of the socio-ecological systems. The analysis revealed that individual-level attributes such as mastery goal orientation, meaning of life, and positive emotions were the most important predictors of self-efficacy. Other significant contextual factors included parents' emotional support, home possessions, and school climate factors (e.g., cooperation climate). Furthermore, self-efficacy varied significantly across countries. This study advances our understanding of self-efficacy by identifying the important predictors from different levels of socio-ecological perspectives. The results suggest that self-efficacy is a composite outcome shaped by a myriad of influences spanning from individual factors to broader socio-ecological perspectives.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101828"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144490398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Socioemotional well-being and literacy in Syrian refugee children: Long-term outcomes post-resettlement","authors":"Sara Qadoumi , Henry Brice , Brooke Wortsman , Angela Capani , Raabya Rashad , Mandana Jafarian , Hassan Abdulrasul , Sherry Wu , Kaja Jasińska","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101826","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101826","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many refugee children face challenges that negatively affect behavioral and academic outcomes post-resettlement. The present study explored socioemotional well-being (SEWB) and language and literacy skills in Syrian refugee children (<em>N</em> = 65, <em>M</em><sub>age</sub> = 13.53) in the longer-term (1–13 years) after resettlement in Canada. SEWB was assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire. Language and literacy skills were assessed with a comprehensive battery of standardized measures. Refugee children and youth displayed low SEWB, specifically internalizing behavior. Participants displayed difficulties in all language and literacy skills. Low SEWB, specifically internalizing behavior, was found to be significantly related to poor word reading, phonological awareness and passage comprehension. Children with less internalizing behavior showed better passage comprehension with more time spent in Canada; generally, time in Canada since resettlement was related to better vocabulary and passage comprehension. Our findings demonstrate a relation between SEWB and academic outcomes and show the importance of interventions that bolster not only academics but the mental health needs of target populations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101826"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144490397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Raychel Barkin , Gillian E. Grose , Neela Krishnasamy , Nicole R. Scalise , Geetha B. Ramani
{"title":"Helping hands: Encouraging parent-child gestures during informal mathematics activities","authors":"Raychel Barkin , Gillian E. Grose , Neela Krishnasamy , Nicole R. Scalise , Geetha B. Ramani","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101827","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101827","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Families' math-related talk can promote children's early math learning. However, less is known about how families use nonverbal communication, specifically hand gestures, during math activities and whether families provided information about math-related gestures might differ in their gesture use compared to families not provided information on gestures. Parents (96 % mothers; majority high household income and education) and their 3- to 5-year-old children (<em>N</em> = 51; 65 % Female; 63 % White) were randomly assigned to either watch a brief video on how using math gestures or how talking during play can support learning. Afterward, dyads read a number book and played a board game. Among dyads in the gesture condition, children used more gestures and parents used a higher proportion of higher-level math gestures (e.g., cardinality, arithmetic) than those in the talk condition. Results suggest that children's gesture usage and the mathematical content in parents' gestures during math activities may be malleable.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101827"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144490399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Trajectories of early adolescents' psychological factors and academic outcomes: Three-year longitudinal study","authors":"Cheyeon Ha, Christina Cipriano","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101831","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101831","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The purpose of this longitudinal study is to explore how psychological factors in early adolescence predict subsequent academic achievement. Through secondary analyses, we analyzed the Korean Longitudinal Educational Study (KELS) national data collected from a cohort of 7234 students over a three-year period (i.e., 5th through 7th grades) on three psychological variables (i.e., self-management, social awareness, and academic stress) and academic achievement (i.e., standardized literacy and math tests). We analyzed longitudinal data focusing on between- and within-individual variation using the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) methods. The findings support that early adolescent learners' psychological factors and academic development are deeply interconnected, and results suggest that explicit social-emotional developmental support could positively contribute to student academic success in early adolescence from a developmental perspective.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101831"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144331056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lynn Fainsilber Katz , Suzanne E.U. Kerns , Kyrill Gurtovenko , Dave Pasalich , Natalie Goulter , Shannon Dorsey , Michael D. Pullmann , Alexis Dawson , Liana R. Galtieri , Robert J. McMahon
{"title":"Integrating parent management training and emotion coaching for young children with callous-unemotional traits","authors":"Lynn Fainsilber Katz , Suzanne E.U. Kerns , Kyrill Gurtovenko , Dave Pasalich , Natalie Goulter , Shannon Dorsey , Michael D. Pullmann , Alexis Dawson , Liana R. Galtieri , Robert J. McMahon","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101808","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101808","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Children with conduct problems and elevated callous-unemotional (CU) traits show poor prognosis. We describe a new parenting intervention that combines a behaviorally focused parenting management training intervention (i.e., “Helping the Noncompliant Child” [HNC]; McMahon & Forehand, 2003) with an emotion coaching (EC) intervention (Katz et al., 2020) for young children (3–7 years) with conduct problems and elevated CU traits. The new integrated intervention (HNC-EC) targets the emotional deficits and parenting difficulties in this subgroup of children with conduct problems. Because the two interventions have different theoretical orientations, several conceptually based decisions were made during treatment development to facilitate integration. We describe the emotional and parenting processes targeted by the combined HNC-EC intervention, provide an overview of its content, and describe decision points where differences between basic principles of HNC and EC were addressed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101808"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144322736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ryan J. Persram , Melissa Commisso , William M. Bukowski
{"title":"Family functioning and youth adjustment: The role of sibling and friend security","authors":"Ryan J. Persram , Melissa Commisso , William M. Bukowski","doi":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study examined the extent to which specific facets of family functioning were associated with adolescents' internalizing difficulties and the moderating effect of relationship security with a sibling and a best friend. This two-wave longitudinal study included 335 adolescents (<em>M</em> = 10.86, <em>SD</em> = 0.73) who completed a series of questionnaires on sibling and best friend security, as well as internalizing difficulties. Parents completed a measure on family functioning, which included two balanced scales (i.e., cohesion, flexibility) and four unbalanced scales (i.e., chaos, rigidity, enmeshment, disengagement). Results indicated that family chaos at T1 predicted increased depressed affect at T2. Additionally, cohesion predicted less depressed affect when sibling security was high. Chaos predicted greater depressed affect when friendship security was low or average. These findings provide support for the need to consider the specific familial and relational experiences that account for adolescents' social and emotional well-being.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48168,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology","volume":"99 ","pages":"Article 101829"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144313223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}