Developmental Psychology最新文献

{"title":"Ancillary cognitive demands impact children's behavior in common possibility reasoning tasks.","authors":"Esra Nur Turan-Küçük, Stephanie Alderete, Fei Xu, Melissa M Kibbe","doi":"10.1037/dev0002258","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002258","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ability to consider multiple, incompatible possibilities supports human decision making, but there is considerable variability in estimates of the age of emergence and development of this ability in young children. What accounts for this variability? We suggest that one major source is task-specific demands on developing cognitive processes that are not solely dedicated to possibility reasoning. In this article, we outline a set of ancillary cognitive demands in a variety of common tasks that are currently used to study young children's possibility reasoning (cups, gumball, slides, branching tube, and playground tasks). We identify five key cognitive demand dimensions-physical reasoning, action planning, working memory, language, and temporal context-and show that these demands can and do impact children's behaviors in tasks designed to examine possibility reasoning. We discuss implications for understanding the cognitive mechanisms driving possibility reasoning and challenges for identifying developmental trajectories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148866615","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":"Risk and protective factors associated with prosocial skills and behavioral difficulties among preschool children: Findings from rural Ghana.","authors":"Sharon Wolf, Ottavia Anna Veroux, Marc H Bornstein, Britta Augsburg, Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Sonya Krutikova","doi":"10.1037/dev0002259","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002259","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This exploratory study examined risk and protective factors of prosocial skills and behavior problems among Ghanaian preschool children in rural Ghana (<i>N</i> = 627; <i>M</i> = 66.3 months, <i>SD</i> = 8.9). We examined whether and how previously identified factors related to social and emotional development in a setting where parental socialization goals and children's opportunities for socialization differ from those in Western settings. We draw on multimodal data collected between 2022 and 2024 to assess associations using cross-sectional regression and longitudinal lagged models, controlling for children's earlier prosocial skills and behavior problems to account for the influence of children's past experiences and unobserved characteristics. Factors spanned three sets of determinants: child (birth order, age, sex, height for age, and weight for age), mother (education, cognitive skills, well-being, relationship conflict and closeness, teaching and discipline practices, and time with child during a typical day), and household (home learning environment, household wealth, and family size). For prosocial skills, cross-sectional analyses identified child age, height for age, less violent home discipline, and maternal mental health problems as protective factors; none remained significant in the lagged models. For problem behaviors, protective factors included mother-child close relationship, nonviolent disciplinary strategies, and mother's time spent with child. Risk factors in both the cross-sectional and lagged models included mother's mental health problems, mother-child conflictual relationship, stimulating activities, and negative parenting styles. In the rural Ghanaian context, prosocial skills may be more developmentally stable or influenced by earlier, unmeasured factors, whereas behavior problems appear more malleable to concurrent inputs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867203","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":"Children's selective trust in technological informants: A meta-analysis.","authors":"Xinyun Cao, Judith H Danovitch, Yu Tong, Fuxing Wang","doi":"10.1037/dev0002252","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002252","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Children increasingly encounter technology as a source of information, yet evidence of whether they trust technological informants more or less than human informants is mixed. The present meta-analysis synthesizes 20 studies (27 experiments; <i>N</i> = 8,772; ages 3-10 years) to examine children's selective trust in technological versus human informants and to identify theoretically motivated moderators of this trust. Across studies, there was no overall preference for technological or human informants. However, substantial heterogeneity emerged. Multivariate metaregression revealed four significant moderators: age, information domain, informant type, and experimental paradigm. Relative to 3-4-year-olds, older children showed greater trust in technological informants. Children trusted technology more for learning about novel words and objects than for learning about humans and biology-related information. Children's trust in repository-based tools (e.g., computers, internet search engines) compared with humans was greater than their trust in conversational agents (e.g., robots, voice assistants) compared with humans. Children in studies using single-informant paradigms favored humans more than those in studies using conflicting-source paradigms. Informant characteristics (e.g., prior accuracy, benevolence) and the type of trust measure (ask vs. endorse) did not reliably moderate effects. Together, these findings suggest that children's trust in technology changes with age and context, and it is best captured by an epistemic-calibration account, although social-communicative cues may still play a role in children's judgments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867078","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":"An exploration of colorism, socioeconomic status, and Colombian adolescents' psychosocial adjustment: Does ethnic-racial identity moderate?","authors":"Mamfatou Baldeh, Stefanie Martinez-Fuentes, Alaysia M Brown, Liliana M Uribe Tirado, Luz Magnolia Tilano Vega, Adriana J Umaña-Taylor","doi":"10.1037/dev0002242","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002242","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Colombia's history of colonization and subjugation of Black and Indigenous peoples has created a socially stratified society where colorism, the favoring of lighter skin tones over darker ones, persists. In such societies, individuals with darker skin are at greater risk for ethnoracial discrimination and poorer psychosocial adjustment. Adolescents must navigate this context while developing their own ethnic-racial identities (ERIs). This tension warrants exploration into their identity development processes and adjustment; however, these ideas have been understudied in the Global South. Importantly, ERI resolution (i.e., a sense of clarity regarding the meaning of one's ERI) is a universal developmental competency that may serve as a source of resilience against ethnoracial discrimination. Socioeconomic status (SES) background may provide an additional buffer. Accordingly, the present study explored the associations among skin tone, peer discrimination, global identity cohesion, and academic engagement among Colombian adolescents (<i>N</i> = 462; <i>M</i>_age = 15.90 years, SD = 1.15; 47% female, 53% male) from a wide range of SES backgrounds. ERI resolution and SES were tested as moderators of these associations. Findings revealed that having a darker skin tone was associated with more frequent experiences of peer discrimination and, in turn, poorer psychosocial adjustment, regardless of SES background. Nevertheless, the promotive and protective nature of ERI resolution was contingent on SES background in some cases. This work illuminates the role of colorism on adolescent ERI and adjustment among Colombian adolescents and adds to the literature on these developmental processes within an understudied context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148866581","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":"Parents' future-oriented practices and adolescents' social adjustment in Chinese urban and rural families.","authors":"Zexi Zhou, Zeyi Shi, Qian Wang, Yang Qu","doi":"10.1037/dev0002241","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002241","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Decades of research, particularly in Western countries, have demonstrated how general parenting practices, such as autonomy support and control, may shape adolescent development. However, equally important is examining culturally specific parenting practices in non-Western contexts. Parental socialization of adolescents' future orientation (i.e., anticipating and planning for long-term goals) represents a culturally embedded practice through which parents convey socially valued life-span expectations. In societies such as China, where long-term planning and perseverance are strongly emphasized, parents' future-oriented practices may play an important role in adolescents' social adjustment. Using a three-wave longitudinal design, this study investigated whether the initial level and changes of Chinese adolescents' perceived parents' future-oriented practices over time predicted their social adjustment, with attention to similarities and differences in urban and rural families. The sample included 722 Chinese adolescents (55% girls; <i>M</i>_age = 12.87 years; 49% rural residents). Data were obtained from adolescents' self-reports and teacher rating. Results showed that urban adolescents reported a greater initial level of parents' future-oriented practices compared to their rural counterparts. In both regions, higher baseline adolescent-perceived parents' future-oriented practices predicted greater adolescents' prosocial leadership and resistance to peer influence over time, even after accounting for parents' autonomy support and psychological control. Moreover, greater increases in adolescent-perceived parents' future-oriented practices predicted greater prosocial leadership over time among urban but not rural adolescents. The findings highlight the unique role of culturally salient parenting practices in shaping adolescents' social adjustment beyond general parenting dimensions, and underscore the importance of considering urban-rural differences when developing the related interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867214","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":"The efficacy of Massage+ on mother-infant synchrony in mothers with childhood adversity: A randomized controlled trial.","authors":"Aleeca F Bell, Ruth Feldman, Edward J Bedrick, Julia M Fisher, C Sue Carter, Evan L MacLean, Stacey R Tecot, Rosemary White-Traut","doi":"10.1037/dev0002255","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002255","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Parent-infant synchrony during social interaction exerts a critical influence on the healthy development of children. There is limited understanding of how synchrony may be influenced by mothers' history of childhood adversity. We evaluated the efficacy of a behavioral intervention, Massage+, on mother-infant synchrony among first-time mothers with childhood adversity. Adult pregnant women with adverse childhood experiences scores of ≥ 2 were enrolled in this longitudinal study. At birth, mothers and their full-term infants (<i>N</i> = 213) were randomized to the Massage+ group or the attention control group learning safe infant care. Mothers performed daily Massage+, which included talking to their infants, moderate touch stroking, looking at, and rocking their infant. At 3 months, mother-infant synchrony was microcoded for gaze, affect, vocalization, and touch from video recordings of a free-play interaction (<i>N</i> = 162). Compared with control dyads, the Massage+ dyads exhibited more co-occurring affect synchrony, touch synchrony, and maternal engagement with high infant arousal synchrony. Massage+ dyads also exhibited more sequential synchrony and faster time-to-first initiation of synchrony. When infants expressed positive arousal, Massage+ dyads were better able to increase the amount of synchrony, coordinate synchrony by mothers immediately responding to their infant's positive cues, and more quickly settle into synchrony. Encouraging positive affect is among the most critical early functions of synchrony. Future research warrants studying long-term benefits of Massage+ when implemented in real-world settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148867249","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":"The development of a parental identity during the transition to parenthood: A psychological resource for first-time parents' well-being.","authors":"Charlotte Schrooyen, Wim Beyers, Bart Soenens","doi":"10.1037/dev0002251","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002251","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The transition to parenthood is a momentous life event that brings about significant changes and profound adjustments in individuals' lives. This period poses challenges for new parents and can increase their vulnerability to mental health problems. Although this transition is an identity-defining episode, surprisingly little research has focused on the development of parental identity during this crucial phase. To address this gap, the present study examined the development of parental identity among first-time mothers and fathers and its longitudinal associations with their own and their partners' psychological well-being. A four-wave longitudinal study was conducted, covering the period from pregnancy to 2 years into parenthood. A total of 288 mother-father couples participated, completing measurements on parental identity commitment, exploration, ruminative exploration, and mental health at each time point. Results showed that parents with high levels or stronger increases in parental identity commitment and with lower levels or stronger decreases in ruminative exploration reported higher levels and stronger increases in life satisfaction and lower levels and stronger decreases in depressive symptoms. The associations between parental identity exploration and mental health outcomes were less pronounced and more inconsistent. Additionally, the study revealed partner effects, indicating that one partner's mental health was also influenced by the other partner's parental identity, with notable differences between mothers and fathers. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of parental identity processes in the well-being of first-time parents. Targeting parental identity in prevention and intervention efforts could prove valuable in enhancing mental health of (future) parents during the transition to parenthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148841847","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":"Integrating digital technologies in shared reading: Effects of conversational agents on adult-child interaction and children's language learning.","authors":"Kathryn Leech, Grace Lin, Dorentina Dedushaj, Ilana Schoenfeld, John Gabrieli","doi":"10.1037/dev0002178","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002178","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>As digital technologies increasingly shape children's early learning experiences, their role in supporting foundational literacy practices, such as shared reading, warrants investigation. The current article examined whether conversational agents (CAs) powered by artificial intelligence can enhance parent-child conversations that extend beyond the text (i.e., extratextual talk) and foster early literacy development. Forty parents and their 4- to 5-year-old children were randomly assigned to either a CA-assisted intervention group or a traditional shared reading (active control) group. Over 1 month, families in both groups read together at home at comparable frequencies. Results showed that CA-assisted reading was associated with increases in two key measures of extratextual talk: parent and child decontextualized language and conversational turn taking. Notably, some of these gains transferred to traditional, non-CA-supported reading contexts. Despite these interactional benefits, no differences were observed between groups on measures of children's early literacy skills at the conclusion of the intervention. These findings suggest that CAs can serve as effective tools for scaffolding parent-child conversation during shared reading. However, further research is needed to optimize CA designs to support long-term language and literacy outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1632-1647"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147677335","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":"Parent personality, child temperament, and digital media: Pathways to language development in early childhood.","authors":"Syakira Wijaya, Sneh Jhaveri, Lynn K Perry, Rachel Barr, Sarah C Kucker","doi":"10.1037/dev0002079","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Over the past decade, children's digital media exposure has increased rapidly, raising concerns about its potential negative impact on language development. While broader family ecology (especially parents) and the context of how media is used are known to matter in shaping children's language development, the roles of parent personality and child temperament in shaping media consumption remain understudied. To address this gap, this study introduces a holistic model examining parent personality, child temperament, and media use as predictors of language development in 2-year-old children, both concurrently and longitudinally. In Study 1, 464 caregivers (<i>n</i>_female = 222) of 17- to 30-month-old monolingual English-speaking children (<i>n</i>_female = 323) were recruited via Cloud Research and Prolific. Caregivers were 76.94% White and had a median education of a 4-year college degree. The study assessed parent personality, child temperament, media use duration, motivations and contexts of media use, and child language outcomes. Study 2 measured a subset of these caregivers (<i>n</i> = 90) 1 year later. Results suggest parent conscientiousness directly impacts children's media use and indirectly impacts vocabulary. The impact of children's negative affect on vocabulary is mediated through their technology use. Educational motivations for using media and presence of joint social context did not moderate media's impact on vocabulary. However, duration of digital media use at 2 years predicted vocabulary 1 year later, regardless of parent personality or child temperament. This study emphasizes the importance of the broader family ecologies, including parent personality and child temperament, as well as longitudinal impacts of media use, calling for more nuanced, context-sensitive guidance over one-size-fits-all recommendations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1576-1592"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12494160/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145214185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digital technology use and associations with children's learning and social interaction: A longitudinal approach.","authors":"Ross D Neville, Elizabeth Al-Jbouri, Sheri Madigan","doi":"10.1037/dev0002153","DOIUrl":"10.1037/dev0002153","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study aimed to identify distinct trajectories of children's digital technology use from ages 3 to 9 years and examine their associations with key aspects of learning and social interaction. Data were drawn from a nationally representative longitudinal cohort of children recruited at birth in 2008 and followed biennially. Latent class growth analysis was used to estimate digital technology use trajectories, and conditional regression analyses assessed associations with standardized measures of reading and attention, as well as parent-reported prosocial behavior and peer relationships. The analytic sample included 9,783 children with data on digital technology use from at least one of the four data collection waves, equally balanced by gender and predominantly identified as White Irish. Four trajectories of digital technology use were identified: stable low use (11%, <i>N</i> = 1,060), low increasing use (35%, <i>N</i> = 3,413), high decreasing use (16%, <i>N</i> = 1,543), and stable high use (38%, <i>N</i> = 3,765). Trajectories characterized by stable high or increasing use were associated with elevated peer relationship problems between ages 3 and 9, as well as lower selective attention and reading outcomes at age 9. Conversely, high decreasing use was associated with a steeper increase in prosocial behaviors across childhood. These correlational findings indicate that sustained or increasing digital technology use co-occurs with less favorable learning and social outcomes, whereas declining use co-occurs with more favorable changes in prosocial behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":48464,"journal":{"name":"Developmental Psychology","volume":" ","pages":"1556-1575"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146229230","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}