Early development is characterized by elevated exploration-children prefer novel options over known, rewarding ones. Two hypotheses have been proposed to explain this tendency: One posits that children are intrinsically motivated to seek information and use novelty as a proxy for information gain, while the other suggests that perceptual novelty alone, independent of information, drives exploration. To examine the two hypotheses, we designed a four-armed bandit task with four choice options, one of which was more informative than the rest. Participants were 60 4-year-olds (29 girls, 31 boys), 68 5- to 6-year-olds (33 girls, 35 boys), and 73 adults (52 females, 20 males, and 1 reported "neither"). The results showed that across all age groups, the most informative option was rarely chosen. Adults clearly favored the most rewarding option, while 4-year-olds' decisions were influenced by both reward and perceptual novelty, with 5- to 6-year-olds falling in between (i.e., chose the most rewarding option more, and the novel option less than 4-year-olds, but chose the most rewarding option less, and the novel option more than adults). The findings provide strong evidence that young children's exploration is driven by perceptual novelty rather than a quest for information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Far transfer-the application of learning across distant domains-remains elusive in intervention research, and even when it is found, its mechanisms remain unclear or unexplored. This study analyzes data from the model of reading engagement, a sustained content literacy intervention implemented in Grades 1-3 that demonstrated positive treatment effects on both near-transfer reading and far-transfer math outcomes in a prior study. Here, we extend the original analysis to examine the potential mechanisms of the far transfer effects previously observed on math. Latent mediation analysis shows that approximately 50% of the treatment effect on Grade 4 math is explained by Grade 3 reading, leaving the remainder attributable to other factors. The indirect effects on math are driven by broad standardized reading measures rather than narrower content-specific reading comprehension or background knowledge, suggesting that interventions targeting broad, cross-disciplinary skills may be most effective for supporting far transfer. Results are robust to high levels of unobserved confounding, alternative mediators representing reading engagement and social-emotional learning, and alternative model specifications. We conclude with a discussion of how the appropriate methodological choices for assessing transfer depend on intervention characteristics and substantive research questions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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; Mage = 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).
This exploratory study examined risk and protective factors of prosocial skills and behavior problems among Ghanaian preschool children in rural Ghana (N = 627; M = 66.3 months, SD = 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).
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 (N = 462; Mage = 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).
Identifying and quantifying early markers of socioemotional skills, particularly within the first few years of life, remains a challenge in developmental research. This study examines whether infant resting electroencephalography (theta, alpha, beta, gamma, as well as the theta-beta ratio) at 1 month of age prospectively predicts socioemotional behavioral problems at 12 and 24 months. Data from 185 sociodemographically diverse mother-infant dyads (53.51% female; 38.92% White; 44.32% Hispanic) were included in the analysis. Results indicated that whole-brain resting brain function at 1 month of age did not significantly predict socioemotional behavioral problems at 12 months of age; however, higher whole-brain relative theta and lower whole-brain relative alpha at 1 month significantly predicted more socioemotional behavioral problems by 24 months of age. Exploratory analyses examining regional brain activity are also presented. Together, these findings suggest that resting brain activity at 1 month of age may be an early indicator of later socioemotional behavioral problems in a diverse, nonclinical sample. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
For some Black American adolescents, the chronic stress associated with structural racism may divert resources supporting executive functioning. For other Black American adolescents, those exposed to structural racism may experience increased executive functioning as they recalibrate their behaviors and cognitions to adapt to challenging conditions. This heterogeneity in the association between structural racism and executive functioning may reflect differences in pubertal timing. Specifically, youth's pubertal timing may condition how structural racism is associated with their executive functioning. Thus, we posed two research questions: Is structural racism associated with Black American adolescents' executive functioning, and does adolescents' pubertal timing moderate the association between structural racism and their executive functioning? To test these questions, we used cross-sectional data as part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which included 1,744 Black American early adolescents (ages 9-10; 50% female, 50% male) nested across 1,498 families and 17 states. Cluster-robust regression models accounting for family- and state-level clustering illustrated that no significant relation emerged between structural racism and executive functioning. When pubertal timing moderated this association, differential associations emerged between structural racism and executive functioning. Structural racism was associated with lower executive functioning among youth with decelerated pubertal timing and higher executive functioning among youth with extremely accelerated pubertal timing. This heightened executive functioning reflects a compensatory and taxing response to adverse environments rather than a developmental benefit. Findings challenge deficit portrayals of Black American adolescents and suggest interventions should target structural racism rather than rely on individual adaptations to racism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
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 (N = 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 (N = 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).
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; N = 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).
This mixed methods study is the first to investigate how nonschool peer networks are structured and facilitated in Asian American immigrant families. Using data from 212 Chinese American and 169 Korean American mothers of preschool-aged children, quantitative analyses revealed patterns in peer network characteristics across groups. Chinese families facilitated peer connections through extracurricular activities and neighborhood-based contacts more often than Korean families, whereas Korean families relied on church- and kin-based networks more frequently than Chinese families. Longitudinal multigroup regression analyses further showed that specific parent-facilitated peer network features, such as peer age composition and children's roles as hosts, predicted children's sociability in school 6 months later. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses identified six themes reflecting mothers' motivations and barriers in facilitating early peer contacts. Mothers in both groups emphasized the importance of peer interactions for children's social skill development and family closeness; while Chinese mothers highlighted children's happiness and enjoyment more often than Korean mothers, Korean mothers emphasized moral development and appropriate social conduct more frequently than Chinese mothers. By integrating longitudinal quantitative analyses with qualitative insights and comparing two major Asian American subgroups, this study extended developmental theories of socialization into nonschool peer contexts and underscored the importance of culturally responsive family- and community-based efforts to support immigrant children's social development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Children's ability to recognize, evaluate, and respond to discrimination is a critical component of their social and moral development that undergoes significant development throughout early and middle childhood. The present study identified and tested a novel developmental mechanism underlying this development: theory of prejudiced mind (ToPM)-defined as the ability to recognize when people have mental states about social groups (e.g., biased attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudicial feelings) that differ from one's own. Children (N = 155; 3-8 years old; 81 girls, 74 boys; 13.5% Asian, 17.4% Black, 14.2% Hispanic/Latine, 44.5% White, 7.1% multiracial, and 3.3% did not specify) completed a series of modified theory of mind tasks that were specifically designed to assess children's understanding that other people can hold biases (ToPM Diverse Social Preferences), false beliefs (ToPM False Beliefs About Social Groups), and prejudicial feelings (ToPM Hidden Prejudices) about groups, using a novel groups paradigm. We then examined how children's performance on these tasks predicted their evaluation and responses to discrimination in a separate task using a different set of novel groups. We found that, when separately controlling for age and traditional theory of mind performance, children with more advanced ToPM capacities were more likely to recognize discrimination, attribute the discrimination to the discriminator (instead of the marginalized group), and judge the discrimination as unfair. Thus, these findings suggest that children's ability to identify others' mental states about social groups (ToPM) plays a crucial role in helping them recognize, evaluate, and respond to the discrimination they witness in their daily lives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Attention regulation is foundational to early development and underpins the emergence of executive function. The present study draws on the Learning by Observing and Pitching In framework to investigate how Bangladeshi parents in a resource-constrained urban community scaffold infants' attention and emerging executive function. To contextualize Bangladeshi parent-infant interactions, we included a descriptive comparison with families of mid-socioeconomic status from Boston, United States. We coded parent-infant interactions at 12 months along two dimensions of parental scaffolding (modality: elicitation of verbal or nonverbal attentional engagement; shared engagement: following or redirecting) and characterized infants' joint-attention initiation and response. Within the Bangladeshi cohort, infants' attention orienting was assessed using a disengagement eye-tracking paradigm, and working memory and inhibition at 24 months were measured using the Spin-the-Pots and Glitter Wand tasks. The findings indicate that Bangladeshi parents elicited more nonverbal engagement and redirected more often than U.S. parents and Bangladeshi infants more often initiated joint attention nonverbally and less often verbally than U.S. infants. Within the Bangladeshi cohort, parental elicitation of nonverbal engagement positively related to 12-month attention orienting. Parental following at 12 months positively predicted 24-month working memory, and parental redirecting positively predicted 24-month inhibition. These findings extend the Learning by Observing and Pitching In framework to a developmental period and cultural context in which it has not previously been examined and underscore that the developmental implications of scaffolding practices depend on the cultural ecology in which they unfold. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
The developmental processes underlying in-group-favoring math stereotypes (i.e., beliefs that favor one's own gender over another gender in math ability) and their associated motivational benefits in adolescence remain understudied. Guided by developmental intergroup theory and situated expectancy-value theory, the present study examined (a) the reciprocal relations between in-group-favoring math stereotypes and perceived math teacher support; (b) their associations with math motivational outcomes (i.e., math expectancies, math identity, and math grade point average); and (c) gender differences in these associations among adolescents within each of four largest racial/ethnic groups in the United States (i.e., Asian, Black, Latine, and White). Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (N = 18,419; Mage = 14.53, SD = 0.63 in nineth grade), we found that Asian and White girls' female-favoring math stereotypes and their perceived math teacher support reinforced one another from early to late adolescence, but not among other groups. In-group-favoring math stereotypes positively predicted math motivational beliefs among boys across all racial/ethnic groups, but only among Black and White girls. These stereotypes indirectly predicted math grade point average (GPA) via motivational beliefs only for White adolescents. Findings suggest that gender differences in the development of in-group-favoring math stereotypes and the benefits of stereotype lift are not the same across race/ethnicity. Rather, gender norms that vary across different racial/ethnic groups may shape who develops and benefits from in-group-favoring math stereotypes, underscoring the need to consider intersectionality to better capture motivational processes in real-world contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
In trying to motivate college students toward career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), many scholars and policy-makers focus on promoting students' course- or field-related motivation. However, STEM fields each contain dozens of careers, the nuances of which are not often discussed during STEM coursework itself. Further, many students change career plans while remaining highly motivated for studying particular STEM courses or fields. In order to understand career plan development, it may be important to understand the development of college students' career-specific motivation and how career motivational beliefs uniquely relate to STEM participation. The present study examined the development of course and career-related motivation, side by side across one semester, in a group of 738 college physics students. Results showed that (a) course and career motivation were empirically distinct, (b) course and career motivation developed mostly separately from one another across one semester of college, (c) course motivation was more strongly associated with students' final physics grades, whereas career motivation was more strongly associated with career satisfaction and certainty, and (d) there were unique gender differences in career motivation compared to course motivation. Together, findings suggest that course motivation and career motivation likely develop along separate, though interrelated, pathways during college, each of which uniquely contributes to different aspects of STEM career persistence (foundational knowledge and skills, vs. career-specific exploration). In order to foster STEM participation and equity, scholars and educators should complement course-focused motivational supports with supports for career motivational development across college. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Infants begin understanding words within their first year, but few studies have investigated how accurately infants this young represent words' phonological forms during comprehension. This study tested English-learning infants aged 6-8, 9-11, and 12-14 months in an internet-based language-guided-looking task probing recognition of correct pronunciations and initial-consonant mispronunciations of words (n = 97; 48% female; 80% White, 10% Black, 5% multiracial, 4% Asian; Mage = 10.4 months; tested 2021-2023). The two older groups recognized correct pronunciations. Mispronunciation reduced target fixation in 9- to 11-month olds, an effect that was nonsignificant (p = .057) when including all items but significant for items with balanced salience (odds ratio = 1.51). Twelve- to 14-month olds consistently fixated targets less when hearing mispronunciations (odds ratio = 1.59). These findings set a lower bound on how vague early word representations could be and are consistent with phonologically accurate encoding of at least some words before the first birthday. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Early childhood provides the foundation for subsequent learning and development in the early grades. One foundational set of skills involves executive function, those learning-related competencies developing between 3 and 6 years that help children persist, pay attention, and monitor their learning. An increasing number of young children experience formal education prior to kindergarten as more states fund prekindergarten (Pre-K) programs housed in the public schools. This study aimed to understand specific aspects of Pre-K classrooms that contribute to the development of children's executive function skills. We examined aspects of the classroom organization as well as specific experiences children had within major activities of the day. Further, the study tested whether responses to these classroom factors varied by children's executive function skills. Using a behavioral count system, we observed 1,103 children (Mage 54.5 months) for a full day at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year in 80 public school Pre-K classrooms where the primary enrollment criterion was eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch. A battery of direct assessments measured executive function skills at the beginning and end of Pre-K. Results suggest that children who participate with higher levels of involvement in goal-directed and social tasks made larger executive function gains, and these interactions are especially true for children who enter Pre-K with lower executive function skills. When teachers created more engaging teacher-led activities, with opportunities for social interactions, all children's executive function skills benefited, especially those with lower entering skills. Implications for Pre-K instruction are provided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Instrumental rationality dictates that goals should be completed efficiently rather than inefficiently. Here, we examined how young children come to use efficiency to evaluate how well goals are completed. Across a series of experiments, we showed children aged 3-7 (total N = 618; 48% female and 52% male; tested in a predominantly White region) scenarios where pairs of agents approached objects using paths that varied in length and efficiency, and then asked children which agent did a better job. In Experiments 1A and 1B, children aged 3 and 4 evaluated the agents using path length, but not efficiency. In Experiments 2A, 2B, and 3, children used path length to assess which agent did a better job from around age 4. But children only used efficiency from age 5 or later. These findings suggest that children's explicit judgments are not guided by the norm for efficiency, and Experiment 4 provides evidence that this late development is not an artifact of methodological problems. This developmental pattern might arise from limits in children's ability to make counterfactual judgments about what agents could have done. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Worldwide, children from less affluent backgrounds suffer from more stressful life events and greater distress compared with those from wealthier backgrounds. Despite these stark disparities, how a sufferer's wealth status influences perceptions of their distress is an understudied yet important question. The present research explored early intuitions regarding the connection between wealth and psychological pain in 4- to 9-year-old children. In Study 1 (N = 122), children saw two gender-matched White children who varied in their wealth status but experienced identical stressful events. Children perceived the low-wealth individuals as more distressed than their affluent counterparts, and this tendency increased as children grew older. Study 2 (N = 120, preregistered) extended this to judgments of Black individuals' psychological pain. Children's tendency to attribute greater distress to the less wealthy was predicted by their belief that the less wealthy have less control over their lives. Study 3 (N = 144, preregistered) provided a causal test of this mechanism. Information about an individual's control in life rendered their wealth status irrelevant, such that children perceived the less wealthy as experiencing more distress only when the less wealthy had lower control in life. Across all three studies, children's wealth-based pain perceptions prompted greater sympathy and increased support for individuals with less wealth compared with those with more wealth. These findings advance our understanding of the early beliefs children hold about wealth status and psychological pain, revealing its development, underlying mechanism, and potential impact on subsequent social support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Bilingual children are often reported to demonstrate stronger executive function than monolinguals, but less is known about how bilingual experience shapes its development during early childhood. This study analyzed a nationally representative sample of 18,174 children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, kindergarten class of 2010-2011, modeling executive function growth from kindergarten through fifth grade across four groups with varying bilingual experiences. Multilevel and multiple regression analyses showed that being bilingual was associated with enhanced working memory but not cognitive flexibility or inhibitory control. The working memory advantage was not moderated by the age of second language acquisition or the degree of cross-linguistic similarities. These findings shed light on the specificity and generalizability of the effects of bilingual experience on executive function in early childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Parents ask questions to guide children's learning, and their question use has been linked to children's early math development. However, little is known about the role of children's own question asking in math learning and whether these associations may vary across cultural contexts. This study examined how both parents' and children's question asking relate to early math skills in two samples shaped by distinct socialization and educational contexts. Ninety-two 4-year-old children (52% female) and their parents from urban regions in China (n = 41) and the United States (n = 51) were observed during puzzle play, and children completed math assessments. Across question form, function, style, and content, we observed differences in parent questioning between the two samples: Parents in the American sample tended to ask scaffolding questions to engage children in collaborative problem solving, while parents in the Chinese sample more often adopted a structured pedagogical style, using guidance questions to steer children toward efficient task completion. Children's question-asking behaviors were comparable across the two samples, suggesting shared expression of epistemic curiosity. We observed both differences and similarities between the two samples in the associations between questioning and math skills: Parent scaffolding questions were positively associated with children's math performance in the Chinese sample, but not in the American sample, while children's own math-related questioning was positively related to math skills in both samples. These findings contribute to a growing understanding of how adult-child interactions support early learning and highlight the need to consider both cultural context and child agency in fostering early math development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
