Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Class of 2011 (n = 14,370; 51% Male; 51% White; 14% Black; 25% Hispanic; 4% Asian; and 6% Other), this study examined the cumulative, timing-specific, and enduring associations between student–teacher relationships in the United States and a broad range of student outcomes. Student–teacher conflict and closeness were consistently associated

Social skills are dynamic developmental constructs typically measured using assessments developed via cross-sectional methods. The measurement model of derivatives (MMOD), a factor analytic approach targeting individual growth trajectories, was used to evaluate the longitudinal factor structure of the Social Skills Improvement System—Rating Scales (SSIS-RS) teacher form with a sample of 1320 first

Adults readily coordinate on temporary pacts about how to refer to things in conversation. Young children are also capable of forming pacts with peers given appropriate experimenter intervention. Here, we investigate whether parents may spontaneously provide a similar kind of scaffolding with U.S. children in a director–matcher task (N = 201, 49% female; ages 4, 6, 8). In Experiment 1, we show that

Changes in family life related to globalization may include reduction in the collaborativeness observed in many Indigenous American communities. The present study examined longitudinal changes and continuities in collaboration in a Guatemalan Maya community experiencing rapid globalization. Fluid collaboration was widespread 3 decades ago among triads of mothers and 1‐ to 6‐year‐olds in 24 Mayan families

Few studies have focused on off‐reserve Indigenous children and families. This nationally representative, cross‐sectional study (data collected from 2006 to 2007) examined Indigenous‐ and non‐Indigenous‐specific determinants associated with positive socioemotional and behavioral well‐being among First Nations children living off‐reserve in Canada. The parents or other caregivers of 2990 two‐to‐five‐year‐old

Children raised in chaotic households show affect dysregulation during later childhood. To understand why, we took day‐long home recordings using microphones and autonomic monitors from 74 12‐month‐old infant–caregiver dyads (40% male, 60% white, data collected between 2018 and 2021). Caregivers in low‐Confusion Hubbub And Order Scale (chaos) households responded to negative affect infant vocalizations

A focus on positive child development among Indigenous children has largely been absent from developmental science. In this special section of Child Development, we sought to address continuing inequity in representation and valuing Indigenous knowledge and voices by soliciting articles that identified cultural and strengths‐based factors Indigenous children, youth, and families cultivate and leverage

The ability to compare plays a key role in how humans learn, but words that describe relations between objects, like comparisons, are difficult to learn. We examined how children learn size comparison words, and how their interpretations of these change across development. One‐hundred‐and‐forty children in England (36–107 months; 68 girls; majority White) were asked to build block structures that were

Indigenous populations, including American Indians, Alaska Natives, First Nations, and other first peoples worldwide, have been largely overlooked in child development research. This commentary examines how Indigenous relationality intersects with developmental science, advocating for a shift from human exceptionalism to an interconnected relationality among people, land, and more‐than‐human beings

All children navigate the world by searching for information in their sociocultural contexts (e.g., schools, media, laws) to make sense of their experiences and potential futures. In doing so, Native children, however, must contend with the legacy and ongoing oppression of their Peoples, communities, and ways of being. In this manuscript, we highlight how sociocultural contexts stemming from settler

Little is known about how discrimination contributes to health behaviors in childhood. We examined the association between children's exposure to discrimination and their snacking behavior in a sample of youth of color (N = 164, Mage = 11.5 years, 49% female, 60% Black, 40% Hispanic/Latinx). We also explored whether children's body mass index (BMI) or sleepiness moderated the association between discrimination

This study investigated 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds' (N = 64, 37 girls, 62.5% White, data collected between 2021‐2022) ability to use probabilistic information gleaned through active search to appropriately change or maintain expectations. In an online fishing game, children first learned that one of two ponds was good for catching fish. During a subsequent testing phase, children searched the ponds for fish

Extensive evidence documents negative consequences of adversity for children's development. Here, we extend such work by looking beyond average effects to consider variation in susceptibility to both threat and deprivation in terms of cognitive and social–emotional development, using an influence‐statistic methodology. Data come from the ongoing Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N =

This study examined the role of parental involvement in the home learning environment in the association between parental mental health and child cognitive performance. In a sample of 174 three‐ to five‐year‐old children (52% female, 97% White, 7% Hispanic, 2019–2022), playful activities moderated the relation between parental general depression and child verbal reasoning and acquired verbal knowledge

Infants differ in their level of eye movement control, which at the extreme could be linked to autism. We assessed eye movements in 450 twins (225 pairs, 57% monozygotic, 46% female, aged 5–6 months) using the gap‐overlap eye‐tracking task. Shorter latency in the gap condition was associated with having more parent‐rated autistic traits at 2 years. Latency across the task's three conditions was primarily

The usage of high‐quality learning applications (apps) at home may increase children's mathematical and literacy competencies. This approach was tested in a family intervention study. Intervention families (n = 302) in two German cohorts (N = 500; M (SD)age = 61.0 (4.6) months; n♀ = 302) received tablets with newly developed learning apps focusing either on mathematical or literacy learning for every‐day

Most cognitive training programs are adaptive, despite limited direct evidence that this maximizes children's outcomes. This randomized controlled trial evaluated working memory training with difficulty of activities presented using adaptive, self‐select, or stepwise compared with an active control. At baseline, immediately, and 6‐months post‐intervention, 201 Australian primary school children (101

This study explored young children's mental health trajectories during the pandemic (May 2020 to April 2021) as well as associations with family functioning (i.e., cohesion, conflict, chaos, and routines) using data reported by 204 parents (children Mage 5.49; 45% girls, 90% White). Children's internalizing problems decreased early on with the onset of the pandemic, but then leveled off, while no change

Speech‐in‐noise perception is consistently reported to be impaired in learning disorders, which stresses the importance of documenting its developmental course in young children. In this cross‐sectional study, ninety children (41 females, 5.5–11.6 years old) and nineteen normal‐hearing adults (15 females, 20–30 years old) were tested with a newly developed closed‐set speech perception in babble‐noise

To address the widespread mental health crisis facing adolescent girls, this study examined whether a growth emotion mindset lesson can enhance emotional competence. During 2018–2022, adolescent girls (Mage = 15.68 years; 66.3% White) were randomized to a growth mindset (E‐MIND; N = 81) or brain education (control; N = 82) lesson, completed the Trier Social Stressor Test, and reported on various aspects

Recent studies suggest that cognateness boosts bilingual lexical acquisition. This study proposes an account in which language co‐activation accelerates accumulation of word‐learning instances across languages. This account predicts a larger cognate facilitation for words in the lower‐exposure language than in the higher‐exposure language, as the former receive co‐activation from their translations

Children's foundational mathematical skills are critical for future academic attainment. While home mathematical activities (HMAs) have been proposed to support these skills, the extent to which engaging in them supports mathematical skills remains unclear. This preregistered systematic review and multilevel meta‐analysis identified 351 effect sizes from 72 samples in 20 countries, exploring the relation

This study examines paternal and maternal sensitivity as predictors of toddlers' attachment security in two naturalistic contexts. Seventy‐three mostly White middle‐class families participated between 2015 and 2019 when children (49.3% girls) were approximately 29.48 months old. Each child–parent dyad completed a home and playground visit. Findings revealed paternal and maternal sensitivity were significantly

This study examined long‐term mediating effects of the smalltalk parenting intervention on children's effortful control at school age (7.5 years; 2016–2018). In 2010–2012, parents (96% female) of toddlers (N = 1201; aged 12–36 months; 52% female) were randomly assigned to either: standard playgroup, smalltalk playgroup (group‐only), or smalltalk playgroup with additional home coaching (smalltalk plus)

This study examines when the vocabulary knowledge of Japanese heritage speakers (HSs; N = 427, Mage = 9.96, female = 213) begins to diverge from monolingual counterparts (N = 136, Mage = 6.69, female = 65) and what factors explain individual differences in HS development. Vocabulary of HSs began to diverge from 5.61 years and this difference lasted until they were young adults. We also administered

While most research focused on empathic responses to negative emotions, little is known about empathy to positive emotions. We aimed to bridge this gap by examining infants' and children's empathic responses to distress and happiness, while differentiating between cognitive and emotional empathy. We conducted three studies with N = 119 3‐month‐old infants; N = 169 10‐19 months‐old infants; and N =

The longitudinal relation between toddlers' behaviors in uncertain situations (e.g., information seeking, hesitation) and preschoolers' uncertainty monitoring was investigated (between 2014 and 2019 in Northern California; Time 1: N = 183, M = 28.99 months, 53% female, 67.8% White; Time 2: N = 159, M = 41.64 months, 52.2% female). Eye movements and response latencies were recorded as children identified

Using functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning methodology, this study investigated whether parent emotional support moderated the relation between parent–child interbrain synchrony and interaction quality (via behavioral observation and child‐report), controlling for individual emotional distress. Eighty‐eight parent–child dyads (96.6% Han ethnicity), including a school‐age child

This study examined children's self-assessment of their prosociality, relative to average peers, in situations where the recipient is described as “needy” versus “not needy” (at a school of average socioeconomic level in south Israel; N = 158; aged 6–12 years; 51% males, December–May 2021). The results show that older children exhibited the better-than-average (BTA) effect by seeing themselves as more

This comprehensive longitudinal study explored for the first time the interrelations between neonatal brainstem abnormalities, focused attention (FA), and learning—following a preterm cohort (N = 175; 46.3% female; predominantly White) from birth (2003–2006) to 17 years. The findings indicated that FA during early childhood was associated with language outcomes in toddlerhood (n = 131) and academic

Our study on 328 five‐ to six‐year‐old kindergarteners (mainly White European living in France, 152 girls) shows that children who do not count on their fingers and undergo finger counting training exhibit drastic improvement in their addition skills from pre‐test to post‐test (i.e., accuracy from 37.3% to 77.1%) compared to a passive control group (39.6% to 47.8%) (p < .001, = .15). This result was

Cyr, E. N., Kroeper, K. M., Bergsieker, H. B., Dennehy, T. C., Logel, C., Steele, J. R., … Spencer, S. J. (2024). Girls are good at STEM: Opening minds and providing evidence reduces boys' stereotyping of girls' STEM ability. Child Development, 95(2), 636–647. In Table 2, two non-focal covariate labels (“Site” and “Year”) were reversed. Row 3 should say “Year” and Row 4 should say “Site (F)”. No intervention-related

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This study tests whether developments in self‐knowledge and autobiographical memory across early to late childhood are related. Self‐descriptions and autobiographical memory reports were collected from 379 three‐ to eleven‐year‐old predominantly white Scottish children, Mage = 90.3 months, SD = 31.1, 54% female. Episodic memory was measured in an enactment task involving recall and source monitoring

This research examined the link between persistence and cheating in 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children (2021–2022, N = 200, 100 boys; Mage = 4.85 years; all middle‐class Han Chinese). Study 1 used a challenging game to measure whether children would cheat when they were allowed to play the game unsupervised. Results indicated that children's situational, but not trait, persistence negatively correlated with

Little is known about language development after late‐to‐moderate premature birth, the most significant part of prematurity worldwide. We examined minimal‐pair word‐learning skills in 18 eighteen‐month‐old healthy full‐term (mean gestational age [GA] at birth = 39.6 weeks; 7 males; 100% Caucasian) and 18 healthy late‐to‐moderate preterm infants (mean GA at birth 33.7 weeks; 11 males; 100% Caucasian)

Humans are driven by an intrinsic motivation to learn, but the developmental origins of curiosity‐driven exploration remain unclear. We investigated the computational principles guiding 4‐year‐old children's exploration during a touchscreen game (N = 102, F = 49, M = 53, primarily white and middle‐class, data collected in the Netherlands from 2021–2023). Children guessed the location of characters

This study examined the influence of linguistic input on the development of productive and receptive skills across three fundamental language domains: lexico‐semantics, syntax, and phonology. Seventy‐one (35 female) Basque‐Spanish bilingual children were assessed at three time points (Fall 2018, Summer 2019, Winter 2021), between 4 and 6 years of age, by specifically examining language knowledge and

Autism spectrum condition (ASC) is characterized by atypical attention to eyes and faces, but the onset and impact of these atypicalities remain unclear. This prospective longitudinal study examined face perception in infants who develop ASC (N = 22, female = 5, 100% White) compared with typically developing infants (N = 131, female = 65, 55.6% White), tracking social-cognitive and ASC development

Object exploration is considered a driver of motor, cognitive, and social development. However, little is known about how early childhood education and care settings facilitate object exploration. This study examined if children's exploration of objects during free play was facilitated by the use of particular spatial components (floor, tables, and activity centers) and types of play (solitary, social

Religious decline, often observed among North American Christian youth, may not apply universally. We examined this and whether religiosity is associated with well‐being, risk behavior, cultural values, and acculturation among 4080 Muslim and Christian adolescents aged 15–22 in Germany. Utilizing seven waves from the CILS4EU project and a person‐oriented analytical approach, we identified different

Parents' judgment of their children's cognitive ability is important for providing adequate learning environments. This study examined parents' judgment accuracy with 2346 children (M = 8.94 years; 48.3% girls) and their parents (1283 mothers, 426 fathers, and 637 parental pairs). The data were collected between September 2012 and February 2014 in Germany. Latent regression analyses were conducted

How does one assess developmental change when the measures themselves change with development? Most developmental studies of word learning use either looking (infants) or pointing (preschoolers and older). With little empirical evidence of the relationship between the two measures, developmental change is difficult to assess. This paper analyzes 914 pointing, looking children (451 female, varied ethnicities

This study examined how proximal and distal familial stressors influenced the real‐time, dynamic individual and dyadic regulation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in mother–preschooler and father–preschooler interactions in at‐risk families (N = 94, Mage = 3.03 years, 47% males, 77% White, 20% Latinx, data collected 2013–2017). Proximal stressors were operationalized as changing task demands (baseline

This longitudinal study examined age‐ and gender‐related differences in autobiographical memory about the COVID‐19 pandemic lockdowns and whether the content of these memories predicted psychological adjustment over time. A sample of 247 students (Mage = 11.94, range 8–16 years, 51.4% female, 85.4% White) was recruited from public and private schools in Denmark and assessed three times from June 2020

Preterm birth poses a major public health challenge, with significant and heterogeneous developmental impacts. Latent profile analysis was applied to the National Institutes of Health Toolbox performance of 1891 healthy prematurely born children from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study (970 boys, 921 girls; 10.00 ± 0.61 years; 1.3% Asian, 13.7% Black, 17.5% Hispanic, 57.0% White, 10

Children in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately at risk of not meeting their developmental potential. Parental discipline can promote and hinder child outcomes; however, little research examines how discipline interacts with contextual factors to predict child outcomes in LMICs. Using data from 208,156 households with children between 36 and 59 months (50.5% male) across

This study investigated trajectories of ethnic discrimination experiences in school, diversity climates as contextual antecedents, and school adjustment as outcome. Latent‐Growth‐Mixture‐Models of repeated self‐reported discrimination over 3 years (2012–2015) by 1445 ethnically‐minoritized adolescents of Turkish and Moroccan background in 70 Belgian schools (52.6% boys, Mage = 15.07) revealed four

Longitudinal study of associations between family‐level emotion socialization and adolescent adjustment is limited. When American children (53.5% girls) were in second grade (N = 213; Mage = 7.98; data collected 2002–2003), mothers and fathers (79.8% of mothers and 74.2% of fathers were White) reported on their reactions to children's emotions; in seventh, eighth, and ninth grade (Mage = 13.03, 14

This study used latent transition analysis to examine the stability and change in perceived threats in youth's primary social contexts—neighborhoods, schools, and families—and associations with emotional and behavioral problems when youth transitioned from childhood to adolescence. The sample included 8208 racially and ethnically diverse youth enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development

We explored whether urban American Indian (AI) caregivers who maintained a strong sense of cultural connectedness buffered their children from the negative effects of stress on mental health. A community sample of 161 urban AI children (91 girls) ages 8–15 years (M = 11.20 years) and their primary caregivers participated between 2016 and 2017. Caregiver cultural connectedness moderated associations

This study investigated familial attachment‐based processes in middle childhood, using 788 families (50.6% boys; 84.4% White), assessed six times from 4.5 years old to Grade 6. An adapted Random Intercept Cross‐Lagged Panel Model revealed between‐family associations among couple emotional intimacy, relationships with both parents, and child social skills (β = .18–.66). Within‐family increases in child

This study aimed to examine the associations between child temperament and trajectories of the three dimensions of the student–teacher relationship (Closeness, Conflict, and Dependency) during elementary school. Latent class growth analyses conducted among 744 French‐Canadian students recruited between 2008 and 2010 (46.8% girls; Mage = 8.39; 90.9% White; 49.7% with externalizing behavior problems)

This study investigated whether infants encode better the features of a briefly occluded object if its movements are specified simultaneously by vision and audition than if they are not (data collected: 2017–2019). Experiment 1 showed that 10‐month‐old infants (N = 39, 22 females, White‐English) notice changes in the visual pattern on the object irrespective of the stimulation received (spatiotemporally

Data from three NIH Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program cohorts that collected the HOME-Infant-Toddler (HOME-IT age 0–3 years) version were used to examine the reliability of a brief scale of caregiver support and cognitive stimulation. Participants with HOME-IT data (N = 2518) were included in this analysis. Mean child age at HOME-IT assessment was 1.51 years, 48% of children

This study explores the effects of the two‐generation program CareerAdvance—which combines education and training for parents in healthcare with Head Start for children—on children's academic, language, mathematics, and inhibitory control followed for 3 years. The sample (collected in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2011 to 2018) includes 147 children in the CareerAdvance group and 139 children in a matched comparison

This study examined gene–environment correlation (rGE) in intellectual and academic development in 561 U.S.‐based adoptees (57% male; 56% non‐Latinx White, 19% multiracial, 13% Black or African American, 11% Latinx) and their birth and adoptive parents between 2003 and 2017. Birth mother intellectual and academic performance predicted adoptive mother warmth at child age 6 (β = .14, p = .038) and 7

This 5‐year longitudinal study examined whether high mathematics achievers in primary school had cognitive advantages before entering formal education. High mathematics achievement was defined as performing above Pc 90 in Grades 1 and 3. The predominantly White sample (Mage in preschool: 64 months) included 31 high achievers (12 girls) and 114 average achievers (63 girls). We measured children's early

This study extends the analytic approach conducted by Watts et al. (2018) to examine the long‐term predictive validity of delay of gratification. Participants (n = 702; 83% White, 46% male) completed the Marshmallow Test at 54 months (1995–1996) and survey measures at age 26 (2017–2018). Using a preregistered analysis, Marshmallow Test performance was not strongly predictive of adult achievement, health

Using data from a nationally representative sample of 5‐year‐olds in the Growing Up in Ireland study (N = 9001, 51% male), this research investigated the role of factors in the neighborhood environment on levels of active outdoor play in young children. Primary caregivers (98% mothers; 81% Irish) responded to questions regarding their child's levels of active outdoor play (e.g., chasing) and their