Developmental Psychology

Bernier, Annie; Beauchamp, Miriam H.; Carlson, Stephanie M.; Lalonde, Gabrielle

doi: 10.1037/dev0000032pmid: 26192039

In light of emerging evidence suggesting that the affective quality of parent–child relationships may relate to individual differences in young children’s executive functioning (EF) skills, the aim of this study was to investigate the prospective associations between attachment security in toddlerhood and children’s EF skills in kindergarten. Mother–child dyads (N = 105) participated in 2 toddlerhood visits in their homes, when children were 15 months and 2 years of age. Mother–child attachment security was assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort during both these visits. When children were in kindergarten (ages 5–6), they were administered a battery of EF tasks, and their teachers completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function to assess children’s EF problems. The results indicated that kindergarteners who were more securely attached to their mothers in toddlerhood showed better performance on all EF tasks, and were considered by their teachers to present fewer EF problems in everyday school situations. These results held above family socioeconomic status (SES) and child age, sex, and general cognitive functioning. The fact that early attachment security uniquely predicted both teacher reports and children’s objective EF task performance suggests that parent–child attachment may be a promising factor to consider in the continuing search for the social antecedents of young children’s EF.

Sodian, Beate; Kristen-Antonow, Susanne

doi: 10.1037/dev0000039pmid: 26192041

Theories of social–cognitive development have attributed a foundational role to declarative joint attention. The present longitudinal study of 83 children, who were assessed on a battery of social–cognitive tasks at multiple measurement points from the age of 12 to 50 months, tested a predictive model of theory of mind (false-belief understanding). Thereby, declarative, but not imperative, point production predicted false-belief understanding at 50 months. Predictive relations, which remained significant beyond the influence of child gender and language abilities, and were unrelated to child temperament and emotion recognition, were not mediated by mirror self-recognition or Level 1 visual perspective taking, which were both related to joint attention. These findings conform to theoretical predictions and provide empirical support for conceptual continuity in the social domain.

Armitage, Emma; Allen, Melissa L.

doi: 10.1037/a0039571pmid: 26192043

Pictures are defined by their creator’s intentions and resemblance to their real world referents. Here we examine whether young children follow a realist route (e.g., focusing on how closely pictures resemble their referents) or intentional route (e.g., focusing on what a picture is intended to represent by its artist) when identifying a picture’s referent. In 3 experiments, we contrasted an artist’s intention with her picture’s appearance to investigate children’s use of appearance and intentional cues. In Experiment 1, children aged 3–4 and 5–6 years (N = 151) were presented with 4 trials of 3-object arrays (e.g., a pink duck, a blue duck, and a teddy). The experimenter photographed or drew 1 of the objects (e.g., blue duck), however, the subsequent picture depicted the referent in grayscale (black and white condition) or the color of its shape-matched object, for example, a pink duck (color change condition). Children were asked 3 questions regarding the identity of the pictures; responses were guided by intentional cues in the black and white condition, but appearance in the color change condition. Experiment 2 confirmed that appearance responses were not due to the artist’s changing knowledge state. Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 with adult participants. Together, these studies show that children and adults are neither strictly realist nor intentional route followers. They are realists until resemblance cues fail, at which point they defer to intentional cues.

Calzo, Jerel P.; Masyn, Katherine E.; Corliss, Heather L.; Scherer, Emily A.; Field, Alison E.; Austin, S. Bryn

doi: 10.1037/dev0000027pmid: 26098578

This study investigates body image concerns and disordered weight- and shape-related behaviors across adolescence and young adulthood in males and how patterns vary by sexual orientation. Participants were 5,388 males from the U.S. national Growing Up Today Study. In 2001, 2003, and 2005 (spanning ages 15–20 years), participants reported sexual orientation, past-year desire for toned/defined muscles and concerns with weight and shape, and past-year binge eating, restrictive dieting, purging (vomiting or laxative use), and use of products to increase muscularity (e.g., creatine, steroids). Latent class analyses identified 2 patterns at ages 15–16 years and 3 patterns at 17–18 and 19–20 years: healthy (all ages; low body image concerns and weight- and shape-related behaviors; 54–74% of observations), muscle-concerned (ages 17–18 and 19–20; relatively high muscularity concern and product use; 18–21% of observations), and lean-concerned (all ages; relatively high weight and shape concern, dieting, and binge eating; 19–28% of observations). Latent transition analyses revealed that sexual minority males (i.e., mostly heterosexual, gay, and bisexual) were more likely than completely heterosexual males to be lean-concerned at ages 17–18 and 19–20 years and to transition to the lean-concerned class from the healthy class. There were no sexual orientation differences in odds of being muscle-concerned. Both heterosexual and sexual minority males are at risk for presenting body image concerns and weight- and shape-related behaviors that may have deleterious health consequences. Results suggest the need for screening for concerns and behaviors related to leanness and muscularity in early adolescence among all males, regardless of sexual orientation.

Gaspard, Hanna; Dicke, Anna-Lena; Flunger, Barbara; Brisson, Brigitte Maria; Häfner, Isabelle; Nagengast, Benjamin; Trautwein, Ulrich

doi: 10.1037/dev0000028pmid: 26192044

Interventions targeting students’ perceived relevance of the learning content have been shown to effectively promote student motivation within science classes (e.g., Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009). Yet, further research is warranted to understand better how such interventions should be designed in order to be successfully implemented in the classroom setting. A cluster randomized controlled study was conducted to test whether ninth-grade students’ value beliefs for mathematics (i.e., intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and cost) could be fostered with relevance interventions in the classroom. Eighty-two classrooms were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 experimental conditions or a waiting control condition. Both experimental groups received a 90-min intervention within the classroom on the relevance of mathematics, consisting of a psychoeducational presentation and relevance-inducing tasks (either writing a text or evaluating interview quotations). Intervention effects were evaluated via self-reports of 1,916 participating students 6 weeks and 5 months after the intervention in the classroom. Both intervention conditions fostered more positive value beliefs among students at both time points. Compared with the control condition, classes in the quotations condition reported higher utility value, attainment value, and intrinsic value, and classes in the text condition reported higher utility value. Thus, stronger effects on students’ value beliefs were found for the quotations condition than for the text condition. When assessing intervention effects separately for females and males, some evidence for stronger effects for females than for males was found.

Oudgenoeg-Paz, Ora; Leseman, Paul P. M.; Volman, M. (Chiel) J. M.

doi: 10.1037/a0039572pmid: 26192037

The embodied-cognition approach views cognition and language as grounded in daily sensorimotor child–environment interactions. Therefore, the attainment of motor milestones is expected to play a role in cognitive–linguistic development. Early attainment of unsupported sitting and independent walking indeed predict better spatial cognition and language at later ages. However, evidence linking these milestones with the development of spatial language and evidence regarding factors that might mediate this relation are scarce. The current study examined whether exploration of spatial-relational object properties (e.g., the possibility of containing or stacking) and exploration of the space through self-locomotion mediate the effect of, respectively, age of sitting and age of walking on spatial cognition and spatial language. Thus, we hypothesized that an earlier age of sitting and walking predicts, respectively, higher levels of spatial-relational object exploration and exploration through self-locomotion, which in turn, predict better spatial cognition and spatial language at later ages. Fifty-nine Dutch children took part in a longitudinal study. A combination of tests, observations, and parental reports was used to measure motor development, exploratory behavior (age 20 months), spatial memory (age 24 months), spatial processing (age 32 months), and spatial language (age 36 months). Results show that attainment of sitting predicted spatial memory and spatial language, but spatial-relational object exploration did not mediate these effects. Attainment of independent walking predicted spatial processing and spatial language, and exploration through self-locomotion (partially) mediated these relations. These findings extend previous work and provide partial support for the hypotheses about the mediating role of exploration.

Stöckel, Tino; Hughes, Charmayne M. L.

doi: 10.1037/a0039506pmid: 26192045

This experiment examined how multiple planning constraints affect grasp posture planning in 6- to 10-year-old children (n = 16 in each group) by manipulating the intended object end-orientation (left end-down, right end-down) and initial precision demands (standard, initial precision) of a bar transport task. Results indicated that grasp posture planning was strongly influenced by multiple planning constraints. During the standard condition the sensitivity toward comfortable final hand postures (end-state comfort) was similar for all age groups in right end-down trials, and corresponded to values reported in adult populations. In contrast, there was an age-related increase in end-state comfort compliance during left end-down trials. During the initial precision condition end-state comfort was similar across all groups for left end-down trials. However, end-state comfort compliance was significantly lower for the 6-year-old children than in all other age groups for right end-down trials. In sum, the ability of children to plan their goal-related movements is influenced by the presence of task-related constraints that increase the overall cognitive demands of the task. The demands associated with selecting the appropriate grasp posture during the most cognitive demanding condition required more cognitive resources than 6- to 10-year-old children possess. Removing the conflict between the goal-directed and habitual systems reduces some of these costs, with data indicating that the ability to integrate multiple planning constraints first emerges at 7 years of age, and improves over the developmental spectrum.

Salthouse, Timothy

doi: 10.1037/dev0000030pmid: 26098579

It is widely recognized that experience with cognitive tests can influence estimates of cognitive change. Prior research has estimated experience effects at the level of groups by comparing the performance of a group of participants tested for the second time with the performance of a different group of participants at the same age tested for the first time. This twice-minus-once-tested method was adapted in the current study to derive estimates of test experience at the level of individual participants. Among the major findings were that experience estimates were smaller at older ages, with measures of vocabulary and speed compared to measures of memory, reasoning, and spatial visualization, and with longer intervals between the first and second occasion. Although relations of overall cognitive ability with test experience effects were weak, there were significant correlations among the experience estimates in different cognitive domains. These results imply that at least in adulthood, simple measures of cognitive change likely underestimate maturational influences on cognitive functioning, and to a greater extent in young adults than in older adults.

Blair, Clancy; Ursache, Alexandra; Mills-Koonce, Roger; Stifter, Cynthia; Voegtline, Kristin; Granger, Douglas A.; ,

doi: 10.1037/dev0000031pmid: 26192038

Cortisol output in response to emotion induction procedures was examined at child age 24 months in a prospective longitudinal sample of 1,292 children and families in predominantly low-income and nonurban communities in two regions of high poverty in the United States. Multilevel analysis indicated that observed emotional reactivity to a mask presentation but not a toy removal procedure interacted with sensitive parenting to predict cortisol levels in children. For children experiencing high levels of sensitive parenting, cortisol output was high among children exhibiting high emotional reactivity and low among children exhibiting low emotional reactivity. For children experiencing low levels of sensitive parenting, cortisol output was unrelated to emotional reactivity.

Campione-Barr, Nicole; Lindell, Anna K.; Giron, Sonia E.; Killoren, Sarah E.; Greer, Kelly Bassett

doi: 10.1037/dev0000036pmid: 26192042

Disclosure, or revealing personal information to others, is important for the development and maintenance of close relationships (Jourard, 1971; Rotenberg, 1995). More recently within developmental psychology, however, the focus has been the study of adolescent disclosure to parents as a means of information management regarding their daily activities. This research assumes that a) disclosure between multiple adolescents and parents within the same family are similar, and b) only information transmitted from adolescents to parents is important for adolescent well-being. Thus, this article presents the findings of 2 within-family studies to investigate differences in the amount and social domain (Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 2002) of youth disclosure to mothers versus siblings, and the influence of disclosure to siblings on relationship quality and youth emotional adjustment. Study 1 utilized 101 sibling dyads with youth ranging in age from 11–21 years, but all siblings living together. Study 2 investigated a sample of 58 sibling dyads in which all first-borns were first-year college students and all second-borns were in high school. All participants completed questionnaire measures to assess study variables. Findings revealed that while youth disclosed more to mothers than siblings, this difference disappears by emerging adulthood, particularly depending on the domain of the issue. Additionally, while greater disclosure among siblings was positive for the quality of the relationship, sibling disclosure was differentially associated with emotional adjustment depending on whether youth were the disclosers or being disclosed to, the domain of the issues disclosed, and the gender composition of the dyad.