Developmental Psychology

Monachino, Alexa D.; Hernandez, Alexis; Morales, Isaac; Keil, Andreas; Morales, Santiago

doi: 10.1037/dev0002066pmid: 40875319

Attention bias to threat is considered an adaptive cognitive phenomenon that is associated with developmental and psychopathological outcomes across the lifespan. However, investigations into the development of attention bias to threat in infancy have produced mixed results. Steady-state visual evoked potentials provide a robust measure of visual cortex processing and attention by capturing brain entrainment to the rhythmic flicker of visual stimuli. This investigation leveraged a novel steady-state visual evoked potential task to examine attention bias to threat via affective expressions and its changes with age within the first 2 years of life. Infants (N = 118, Mage = 9.21 months; rangeage = 3–22 months; 57.61% female) viewed a series of affective face pairs (neutral with happy, fearful, or angry) in which one face flickered at 6 Hz and the other at 7.5 Hz, while their brain activity was measured with electroencephalography. Infants’ frequency-tagged brain responses were larger to fearful faces, above all other expressions, consistent with the presence of an attention bias to threat in infancy. Affect-biased attention did not change with age. Furthermore, the presence of an attention bias toward fear was found prior to the literature-suggested age of 7 months. This study demonstrated the utility of using a robust and novel measure of attention, steady-state visual evoked potentials, to examine attention bias to threat and its development during infancy.

Jurkat, Solveig; Gutknecht-Stöhr, Amelie Charlotte; Kärtner, Joscha

doi: 10.1037/dev0001746pmid: 38722583

Verbal attention guidance is assumed to be an important cultural tool contributing to the development of culture-specific visual attention styles in childhood. We used a training approach to test whether verbal attention guidance in a 10 day app-based training that accentuates either analytic or holistic processing has the power to produce enduring effects on 6- to 7-year-old urban German children’s (N = 42, 22 female, 20 male) attention in a picture description task, a single-choice recognition task and a change blindness task. Results indicate that verbal attention guidance is effective in influencing children’s attention styles across indicators. These findings provide convergent evidence for the assumption that verbal attention guidance plays a central role in the long-term socialization of attention styles.

Ramirez, Bethany K.; Edgar, Elizabeth V.; Todd, James Torrence; Bahrick, Lorraine E.

doi: 10.1037/dev0002017pmid: 40638287

Individual differences in child temperament predict socioemotional skills, academic achievement, and psychopathology in middle to late childhood. However, early predictors of child temperament remain understudied. Here, we investigate the role of multisensory attention skills (sustained attention, intersensory matching, and shifting/disengaging) and social competence in infants and toddlers as early predictors of child temperament (effortful control, negative affect, and surgency). Although much of the research on social competence and temperament has focused on individual differences, until now, there were no individual difference measures appropriate for assessing attention to multisensory events. The Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol is a newly developed measure that assesses fine-grained individual differences in multisensory attention skills in preverbal infants and children. As part of a larger longitudinal study, 101 children received the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol at 12 and 18 months (attention skills), the Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment at 18 months (social competence), and the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire at 48 months (temperament). We found evidence that infant attention to both social and nonsocial events indirectly predicted childhood effortful control (a dimension of temperament) through social competence in toddlerhood. For social events, better sustained attention and slower disengaging of attention predicted social competence, which, in turn, predicted effortful control. For nonsocial events, better sustained attention predicted social competence, which, in turn, predicted effortful control. Findings highlight the importance of infant attention to audiovisual events for fostering social competence and temperament development.

Thiele, Maleen; Gredebäck, Gustaf; Haun, Daniel B. M.

doi: 10.1037/dev0002055pmid: 40892583

Decades of research have highlighted the important role of joint attention in early cultural learning. However, most previous studies focused on a limited range of joint attention settings involving the learner’s first-person participation in joint visual attention, characterized by eye contact and triadic gaze following. This has created an incomplete picture, tending to neglect the diversity in which infants experience social connectedness in their daily lives. To deepen our understanding of the multifaceted nature of joint attention, this study investigated infants’ object memory in previously unexplored joint attention contexts, including physical cues of togetherness within observed interactions. Nine- and 18-month-old German infants participated in an object encoding task featuring videos of two people looking at an object. The videos varied in the presence and combination of mutual eye contact and mutual touch in physical proximity. After each video, the familiarized object reappeared next to a novel object. Infants’ looking time preference for the novel object was used as a measure of their prior encoding of the familiarized object. Eighteen-month-olds demonstrated superior encoding in all conditions involving interpersonal connectedness, expressed through eye contact, proximal touch, or a combination of both. In contrast, 9-month-olds’ object encoding was only enhanced in the presence of eye contact, regardless of proximal touch. These findings demonstrate a developmental refinement from a primary reliance on visual cues to a more comprehensive understanding of third-party jointness incorporating a broader range of cues. Joint attention is a highly flexible social learning mechanism, capable of operating in diverse social environments.

Kızıldere, Erim; Nelson, Christian M.; Casasola, Marianella; Graf Estes, Katharine; Oakes, Lisa M.

doi: 10.1037/dev0002068pmid: 40892576

We asked how caregivers use spatial language and deictic gestures, in addition to object labeling, with their infants during spatial play, and how such spatial multimodal input scaffolds infants’ in-the-moment attention. Forty-nine North American middle-class racially and ethnically diverse caregivers (four fathers, 45 mothers; 51% White and not Hispanic) and their 9-month-old infants (15 girls, 34 boys; 43% White and not Hispanic) played with a puzzle while wearing head-mounted eye trackers. Results showed that caregivers’ speech with spatial words or objects labels extended the duration of infants’ looking at the puzzle, compared to looking accompanied by utterances without such words. Notably, the combination of spatial and labeling language was more effective than either type alone. Furthermore, infants’ attention was longer when caregivers used deictic gestures (e.g., pointing) compared to when they did not use these gestures, highlighting the support of multimodal communication. Together these results add to our understanding of how the content of caregivers’ speech, and not simply the presence of speech, along with deictic gestures may shape infants’ attention in real time.

Zainal, Nur Hani; Garthwaite, Benjamin; Rajendra, Sarah Josephine; Van Doren, Natalia

doi: 10.1037/dev0001993pmid: 40489174

Although it is well-established that child abuse precedes and predicts poorer executive functioning (EF), the potential mechanisms are not well understood. We thus used counterfactual mediation analysis to test how perceived control (lower personal mastery or higher perceived uncontrollability) mediated maternal or paternal child abuse, predicting lower future EF scores. Community adults from two separate samples (N = 3,291 and 2,550 in Samples 1 and 2) completed a retrospective parental child abuse self-report at Time 1 (T1), a trait-level perceived control self-report at T2, and performance EF tests at T3. Time intervals spanned approximately 6 months and 9 years in Samples 1 and 2. Stronger T1 maternal and paternal child abuse consistently predicted higher T2 uncontrollability (Cohen’s d = 0.232–1.175), which then predicted lower T3 EF scores (d = −0.411 to −0.244). Higher uncontrollability consistently mediated the effect of higher maternal and paternal child abuse predicting poorer EF scores (d = −0.229 to −0.164). Although mastery mediated the effect of maternal, but not paternal, abuse on future EF in Sample 1, this mediation effect did not survive in Sample 2. Sensitivity analyses testing for nonlinearities and adjusting for age and the predictor–mediator interaction implied similar findings in both samples. Uncontrollability, instead of mastery, might be a key mechanism accounting for the pathway from early-life parental abuse to EF outcomes. Assessing and targeting perceived uncontrollability and EF and harnessing precision medicine approaches in prevention programs and treatments might optimize psychotherapies for individuals exposed to child abuse.

Allen, Brian; Wamser, Rachel

doi: 10.1037/dev0002046pmid: 40758289

Preteen children with problematic sexual behavior (PSB) are a poorly understood group, and etiological examinations typically focus on cross-sectional associations. Using the Longitudinal Studies in Child Abuse and Neglect (n = 1,354) data set, a hypothesized mediational model was tested that examined whether problems with self-regulation at age 6 predicted PSB at age 8 while accounting for the impact of child sexual abuse and/or child physical abuse occurring prior to age 6. Using structural equation modeling, the defined mediational model was largely supported, with both child sexual abuse and physical abuse prior to age 6 predicting problems with self-regulation at age 6, which in turn predicted PSB at age 8. This mediational relationship operated similarly across two different conceptualizations of PSB, one that was general and included a variety of behaviors and one that was restricted only to interpersonally intrusive types of behavior. Early physical abuse continued to predict age 8 PSB after controlling for self-regulation across both models; however, early child sexual abuse continued to predict only intrusive types of behavior. These results are discussed in the context of advancing etiological research and our understanding of PSB among preteen children.

Poteat, V. Paul; Richburg, Abigail; Day, Jack; Finch, Emily K.; Calzo, Jerel P.; Marx, Robert A.; Lipkin, Arthur; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu

doi: 10.1037/dev0002024pmid: 40658586

Inclusive school policies and youth advocacy could promote well-being and positive development among youth of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Utilizing three waves of data over a 6-month period, we tested a three-level multilevel model on the extent to which youth’s advocacy in gender-sexuality alliances (GSAs; school clubs affirming youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or with other expansive sexual orientations or gender identities [LGBTQ+]) and attending schools that more thoroughly implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices were associated with youth’s self-worth. Participants were 627 youth (87% LGBQ+ youth, 45% transgender or nonbinary youth, 48% youth of color, Mage = 15.13) in 51 GSAs. Youth who reported greater involvement in advocacy over the 6-month period reported greater self-worth than others. There was also a contextual effect at the GSA level: Youth in GSAs whose members collectively reported greater advocacy reported even greater self-worth, beyond what was associated with a youth’s own advocacy. Furthermore, GSA members in schools that more thoroughly implemented LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices reported greater self-worth over the study period. The findings highlight the importance of youth and school efforts to affirm the dignity and worth of LGBTQ+ young people.

Layland, Eric K.; Diaz, José E.; Parra, Luis A.; Berglund, Patricia; Kipke, Michele D.; Bray, Bethany C.

doi: 10.1037/dev0001968pmid: 40310181

The present study investigated whether the patterns of intersectional stigma experiences were associated with differences in the developmental, parallel trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms across the transition to adulthood among Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx cisgender sexual minority young men. Data were from the Healthy Young Men’s Cohort Study collected semiannually from 2016 to 2020 in Los Angeles and included 426 cisgender Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx sexual minority young men between the ages of 18 and 25 at baseline. Multidomain latent growth modeling with a complex grouping variable was used to estimate the parallel trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms and whether these trajectories varied based on the patterns of intersectional stigma at baseline. Models were adjusted for individually varying age of observations to approximate the growth processes from ages 18 to 29. Results demonstrated a general decline in anxious symptoms and depressive symptoms over time. Relative to all other patterns of stigma experiences, the subgroup characterized by a pattern of compounding racism and heterosexism exhibited the highest levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and an earlier peak in anxious symptoms. This compound stigma group also exhibited an earlier and the highest peak in anxious symptoms compared to all other groups. Results highlight the impact of intersecting stigma on mental health across early adult development, the need for mental health intervention early or before the transition to adulthood, and continued effort to challenge and combat racist and heterosexist biases.

Repo, Juuso; Herkama, Sanna; Salmivalli, Christina

doi: 10.1037/dev0001913pmid: 39847020

This preregistered longitudinal study examined the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic self-efficacy and cognitive reappraisal in early adolescence. It followed and compared two cohorts over 4 years: one prepandemic (11–14 years, 2016–2019) and one during the pandemic (2019–2022). The study analyzed annual well-being surveys merged with school enrolment data from South Australian public schools (N = 28,307, 49% female). Employing latent growth modeling and a novel cohort comparison design, the study addressed a major limitation in pandemic studies: It separated pandemic effects from normative developmental changes. Results indicate that the pandemic cohort largely followed typical, yet declining, developmental trajectories, showing resilience at a population level. Unexpectedly, the examination of multiple covariates (i.e., gender, socioeconomic status, non-English background, anxiety, peer belonging, teacher support) showed that preexisting vulnerabilities did not predict adverse pandemic effects. This research underscores the value of longitudinal data infrastructures and the importance of understanding normative youth development and resilience research in discerning the effects of pandemics or other widespread crises.