Early adverse experiences or exposures have a profound impact on neurophysiological, cognitive, and somatic development. Evidence across disciplines uncovers adversity-induced alternations in cortical structures, cognitive functions, and related behavioral manifestations, as well as an energetic trade-off between the brain and body. Based on the life history (LH) framework, the present research aims to explore the adversity-adapted cognitive-behavioral mechanism and investigate the relation between cognitive functioning and somatic energy reserve (i.e., body mass index; BMI). A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was performed with longitudinal self-reported, anthropometric, and task-based data drawn from a cohort of 2,607 8- to 11-year-old youths and their primary caregivers recruited by the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCDSM) study. The results showed that early environmental adversity was positively associated with fast LH behavioral profiles and negatively with cognitive functioning. Moreover, cognitive functioning mediated the relationship between adversity and fast LH behavioral profiles. Additionally, we found that early environmental adversity positively predicted BMI, which was inversely correlated with cognitive functioning. These results revealed an adversity-adapted cognitive-behavioral mechanism and energy-allocation pathways, and add to the existing knowledge of LH trade-off and developmental plasticity.

Public perceptions of the police have profound impact on public–police relations and the effectiveness of policing practices. Previous research on public perceptions of the police has focussed on citizens’ socio-demographic profile (e.g. age, race) and police officers’ visual characteristics (e.g. attire), but scant attention has been paid to the impact of accent. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of accent on perceptions of the police. In a matched-guise experiment, 160 participants rated officers on their police professional and aesthetic traits after listening to their speeches performed in standard Chinese versus Chinese with a regional accent. The results showed that police officers were rated higher on all the traits when they spoke standard Chinese than accented Chinese, and gender may play a moderating role. The present study revealed that accent can be powerful in affecting the public image of the police.

SYNOPSISObjective. For most animals, extrinsic mortality risks drive a fast life history (LH) strategy in which animals disregard risks and accelerate reproduction. Instead of perpetuating mortality driving fast LH, humans have reduced almost all mortality risks in living environments, resulting in a significant slowing of LH. Additionally, humans exhibit invested parenting which entails teaching their young survival or mortality reduction skills. Could parenting provide an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH? Design. Data reported here come from interviews and questionnaires administered to a community sample of 286 rural Chinese parents and their children when the children were on average 7, 8, and 11 years old. Results. Parental acceptance statistically mediates and moderates the longitudinal association between environmental adversities and children's LH. Conclusions. Parenting breaks the species-general contingency between mortality conditions and fast offspring LH strategies and provides an additional pathway to the development and slowing of human LH.

The species-general life history (LH) principle posits that extrinsic morbidity-mortality risks accelerate organisms’ pace of life and promotes fast LH-related traits (e.g., earlier sexual maturation and reproduction). Humans, however, have experienced uniformly decelerated LH due to their evolved abilities and efforts in controlling environmental contingencies. The present study proposes that the reason for the existence of such human-specific deceleration of LH may be rooted in human parenting, hence aims to explore the roles of parenting within the relationships between environmental adversities and children’ LH calibration. The present study used data from the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) reported by 2014 children and their caregivers, and examined the effects of parental investment in calibrating children’s LH behavioral manifestations, as well as in moderating the impacts of environmental harshness and unpredictability on children’ development of LH. The findings showed that parental investment negatively predicts the development of fast LH behavioral profiles in children and moderates the impacts of environmental adversities directly imposed on children. We conclude that human parental investment serves as an important pivot in down-regulating environmental effects on children’s LH calibration, providing an alternative insight into the species-specific deceleration of LH.

Objective:To explore the chain mediating effect of core self-evaluation and social withdrawal on the relationship between peer relationship and depression symptoms of adolescents.Methods:From September 2020 to October 2020, a sample of 1 936 students from grade 4 to grade 9 of different schools completed a cross-section questionnaire survey including the inventory of parent and peer attachment, core self-evaluation scale, child social preference scale-R and depression self-rating scale for children.SPSS 21.0 and SPSS PROCESS macro program were used for data statistics.The statistical methods included analysis of variance, correlation analysis and intermediary effect test.Results:(1) Peer relationship (94.78±17.27) was positively correlated with core self-evaluation (34.14±7.52) ( r=0.50, P<0.01), and negatively correlated with depression (12.21±6.02) and social withdrawal (32.34±11.45) ( r=-0.55, -0.58, both P<0.01). Core self-evaluation was negatively associated with social withdrawal and depression symptoms ( r=-0.48, -0.67, both P<0.01), while social withdrawal and depression was positively correlated ( r=0.54, P<0.01). (2) Peer relationship had a significant direct effect on depression symptoms (the effect value=-0.205, P<0.01). Core self-evaluation and social withdrawal respectively separate mediated the effect of peer relationship on depression symptoms (the effect value=-0.231, -0.088, 95% CI=-0.261--0.202, -0.110--0.068), while the chain mediating effect of the two was significant, and the effect value was -0.025(95% CI=-0.033--0.019). Conclusion:Good peer relationship can lead to higher core self-evaluation and less social withdrawal behaviors in adolescents that serves as buffer from depression.

The present study explored a chain mediation model that links the future work self to psychological well-being through career adaptability and life meaning. In this study, scores from the Future Work Self Scale, the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, the MLQ Scale, and the Psychological Flourishing Scale were validated with a sample of 640 undergraduate students. The results showed that future work self and psychological flourishing were significantly and positively correlated; career adaptability, presence of meaning in life and search for meaning in life played significant mediating effects in the effects of future work self on psychological flourishing respectively; and career adaptability could play a chain mediating role with presence of meaning in life or search for meaning in life between future work self and psychological flourishing respectively. This study explores the antecedents of personal well-being from the perspective of career constructs and provides a theoretical basis for career education and counseling practice.

In recent decades, life history theory (LHT) has provided an important theoretical framework for understanding human individual differences and their developmental processes. The conceptual complexity and multidisciplinary connections involved in the LH research, however, might appear daunting to psychologists whose research might otherwise benefit from the LH perspective. The main purpose of this review, therefore, is to introduce the evolutionary biological backgrounds and basic principles of LHT as well as their applications in developmental psychology. This review is organized into five parts, starting with an overview of key concepts in LHT, which clarifies the relationship among LH strategy, LH-related traits, and the fast-slow paradigm of LH variation. We proceed to review theoretical and empirical work related to four basic LH trade-offs, summarized by an integrated descriptive model of LH trade-offs that shape different LH strategies in humans. We then explain the effects of four aspects of environmental risks (morbidity-mortality threats, competition, resource scarcity, and unpredictability) on human LH strategy. This is followed by a discussion of LH calibration models in evolutionary developmental psychology that explicates the environmentally sensitive developmental processes that contribute to variation and plasticity in LH-related traits and ultimately human LH strategies. Finally, we highlight a few outstanding questions and future directions for LH research in psychology and conclude with why we think it is important that developmental psychology should embrace the LH approach.