Need for cognition (NFC) reflects the tendency to enjoy and engage in cognitive challenges. This study examines the relations between NFC and academic interest among 922 German secondary school students (academic track) assessed four times in Grades 5–7 (initial age M = 10.63, SD = 0.55; 41% female; 90% first language German) in mathematics, German, and English. Data were collected between 2008 and

Adjusting practice to different goals and characteristics is key to learning, but its development remains unclear. Across 2 preregistered experiments, 190 4-to-8-year-olds (106 female; mostly White; data collection: December 2021–September 2022) and 31 adults played an easy and a difficult game, then chose one to practice before a test on either the easy, difficult, or a randomly chosen game. All children

We present the typological approach to child language research. The typological approach places language diversity at the centre of acquisition research, thereby limiting arbitrary adjustments to theory and practice. We apply the typological approach to Ingram’s (2002) measures of whole-word phonological complexity (PMLU) and proximity (PWP). Our generalised PMLUg measure takes into account crosslinguistic

What are the psychological consequences of receiving direct and indirect help in childhood? We conducted three preregistered experiments (N = 619, 7–9 years, 80% Dutch, 51% girls, 49% boys, mostly higher socioeconomic status) in the Netherlands (July 2020–July 2022). Children received direct help (correct answer), indirect help (hint), or no help. An internal meta‐analysis showed that children who

Childhood adversity takes a toll on lifelong health. However, investigations of unpredictability as a form of adversity are lacking. Environmental unpredictability across multiple developmental periods and ecological levels was examined using a multiethnic, longitudinal birth cohort (1998–2000) oversampled for unmarried parents. Data were from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 4898

Observed parental sensitivity during a parent–child teaching task and free‐play task was tested as mediators of the association between family socioeconomic risk and child receptive language at 48 months, consistent with family investment theory. Parents (n = 881 mothers; 624 fathers, data collected between 2006‐2008) and their 5‐month‐old children (52% male) were recruited from public health clinics

The present study assessed both concurrent and early influences of the maternal caregiving environment to examine unique contributions of each to variation in children's emotional responses to COVID‐19 pandemic. Preschoolers (3–5 years; M = 4.12, SD = 0.49) previously assessed in infancy, several years prior to pandemic outbreak, were re‐assessed during pandemic‐related nationwide lockdown (N = 200;

Eye‐tracking studies tested the understanding of two types of speech acts (questions and assertions) in 14‐, 18‐, and 30‐month‐olds (N = 280; 149 females; ethnicity data collection forbidden, testing in 2021–2024). Experiments involved objects either hidden or visible for a speaker. By 14 months, when the speaker asked questions, infants focused on hidden objects (rs > 0.31). Infants linked novel labels

Children with disabilities often receive accommodations, but teachers rarely explain them to typically‐developing (TD) classmates. How do TD students reason about these accommodations and evaluate their fairness? Five‐, seven‐, and nine‐year‐olds from the United States (N = 122; 50% female; 87.7% white; data collected April 2022 ‐ September 2023) heard stories where a child character with a cognitive

This qualitative study examined intergenerational transmission of fathering in Türkiye, a Majority World context, with particular attention to the socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics. In exploring the intergenerational transmission of fathering in Türkiye, this study was informed by Greenfield's social change theories (2009, 2016) and Kağıtçıbaşı's family change theories (2007, 2012), both of

Music appears universally in human infancy with self‐evident effects: as many parents know intuitively, infants love to be sung to. The long‐term effects of parental singing remain unclear, however. In an offset‐design exploratory 10‐week randomized trial conducted in 2023 (110 families of young infants, Mage = 3.67 months, 53% female, 73% White), the study manipulated the frequency of infant‐directed

This longitudinal study (data collected from 2019 to 2023) examines the relation between Spanish‐English bilingual Latino toddlers' (n=46; F=22; M=24) early gesture production (Mage=18.67 months; SDage=1.02) and later language skills (Mage=36.87 months; SDage=0.81). Video recordings at child‐age 18‐months yielded counts of children's speech and gesture production; the latter included gesture words

Identifying the neural processes that underlie the association between children's early adverse experiences and cognitive development could inform more effective intervention strategies. The goal of the current study (data collected 2015–2021) was to examine relations among early experiences at 6 months, electroencephalography (EEG) theta power at 6 months and 2 years, and cognitive outcomes at 5 years

This study explores the impact of menstrual taboos on adolescent girls aged 12–17 in Ghana's Offin River communities, focusing on the Adansi South District and Upper Denkyira East Municipality. Conducted by the Department of Children under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, it aims to assess the socio‐economic effects of these taboos and the strategies addressing them. Fieldwork

This study explored the concept of “home” amongst 25 Bedouin children (aged 4–6) from unrecognised villages (UVs) in the Naqab/Negev, southern Israel, experiencing harsh living conditions due to ongoing socio‐political conflict and the threat of house demolitions, and limited access to basic services. Using drawing activities and interviews, this study investigated children's perceptions of home, revealing

While teacher-child relationships vary across sociocultural contexts, most research has focused on Western settings. Given Korea’s collectivistic culture and the hierarchical nature of adult-child relationships, this study examined how teacher and child perceptions of their relationships influence children’s math skills mediated by instructional quality. Participants included 283 children and 16 preschool

There is widespread evidence that children display a mutual exclusivity response upon encountering new words. Children displaying this behaviour will select a novel, name‐unknown object in response to a novel label, rather than a familiar, name‐known object. The mutual exclusivity response has been viewed as a means of fast‐mapping vocabulary—enabling the retention of new words with minimal and incidental

A growing number of early childhood interventions are intended to be used by classroom teachers to support children's emergent literacy development, yet we know little about for whom such interventions might be effective. In this study, we examined whether children's initial emergent literacy skills (alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary) moderated the effects of a small‐group emergent

Computational thinking (CT), defined through its dimensions of abstraction, generalization, algorithmic thinking, and evaluation, fosters cognitive skills for solving problems logically and systematically, preparing individuals for the challenges of the digital society, where interaction with machines is essential. This empirical pre-experimental study arises from an individualized intervention with

In this study, we explore how children learn causatives from the language they are exposed to in their everyday lives. Previous research has argued that argument structure is a crucial facilitator for learning causatives. Here, we examine the role of argument structure in the acquisition of morphological and lexical causatives. We use Turkish as a test case which allows argument ellipsis and ask whether

Sentences with a plural subject receive a distributive reading if the predicate refers to the atomic members, or a collective one if it relates to the whole group. Previous accounts suggest that the distributive representation includes an additional semantic operator, and comprehension experiments show that adults interpret an ambiguous sentence as collective. However, children accept distributive

This study explores the relationships among socioeconomic status (SES), executive function (EF), grammar comprehension (GC), and pragmatic language (PL) in children aged 8–11. By employing a structural equation modelling approach, we aimed to investigate the direct and indirect effects of these variables on PL, a crucial aspect of child development involved in the formation of social relationships

Book-sharing interactions expose children to diverse language input, yet most research on parent–child book-sharing has focused on monolingual parents reading monolingual books. This study investigated how Latine bilingual parents in the U.S. share different types of books with their children. Twenty-four Latine parents and their three- to five-year-old children shared a monolingual English-only book

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Transition to School Teacher Professional Development Program (TSTPDP) in promoting school readiness and social-emotional adjustment among preschoolers in Southeastern Anatolia, Türkiye. Using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design, 40 preschool teachers and 152 children aged 48–72 months were assigned to either the TSTPDP intervention

This study examines the dreams of children who have experienced an earthquake and subsequently started preschool education, as well as the reflections of these dreams in their drawings. The participants of the study consisted of 25 children aged 46–60 months attending a public independent preschool in Kahramanmaraş, the epicentre of the earthquake that occurred in Turkey on February 6, 2023. The study

This study examined how established adult offspring born to lesbian parents cope with the renewed anti‐LGBTQ+ oppression in the United States. The study included 75 adults in their early thirties (M = 30.93, SD = 0.92; 49.33% female, 48.00% male and 2.66% gender non‐binary; 90.67% White, 9.33% people of colour) from Wave 7 of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study. Even though the majority

Research abounds regarding the need for young children’s access to authentic play experiences. Yet, while play is considered the main method of learning for young children, mainstream curricula often omit this mode and further perpetuate the artificial divide of play or learning. Guided play is a pedagogical approach in which teachers integrate a balance of child-led exploration alongside intentional

This practice-based case study is taken from a large three-year school-based participatory research project and presents evidence of both teacher-adapted and peer-supported learning in collaborative group work in early years mathematics. We draw on Vygotskian sociocultural theory, incorporating asynchronous and synchronous scaffolding, to examine evidence from one teacher’s unit of work conducted with

The purpose of this study was to examine Head Start (HS) teachers’ characteristics, working conditions, whole well-being, and classroom quality and their associations compared to other (non-HS) ECE teachers. The study collected survey and direct assessment data on a range of working conditions and whole well-being (physical, psychological, and professional well-being) from 262 teachers (112 HS teachers

This study investigated the role that daily communication between parents and teachers in childcare centers plays in enhancing parental self-efficacy, which in turn decreases the child’s problem behaviors and improves the parent–child relationship. The data were drawn from 239 children (boys: N = 141; girls: N = 98; mean (SD) age = 4.95 (0.99) years) in formal childcare settings from the Japan Child

The Elementary School Journal, Ahead of Print.

The goal of this study was to determine whether the measurement of children’s externalizing behaviors, as rated by teachers on a short version of the Conners’ Rating Scale, was invariant for Latino and non-Latino children with different language backgrounds and whether those ratings displayed invariant prediction of academic outcomes. The sample included 1,174 children (592 boys, 582 girls) who ranged

This study examines the childhood experiences of LGBT+ adults who were born and raised in Turkey and spent their childhood and adolescence in Turkey within the framework of family, friendship, education, life, and social spheres. The research group consists of 11 participants aged between 18 and 30, 10 of whom are still living in Turkey and 1 of whom moved abroad in adulthood. The participants were

On a daily basis, children make decisions about how to negotiate their physical environment. Sometimes they engage in physical tasks that involve risk, requiring them to judge the safety of how to negotiate the environment safely. Individual differences in children's age, sex, physical size, and personality may impact those decisions. We used fully immersive virtual reality to assess 7–10‐year‐olds'

Children are vulnerable to disease, yet are poor at recognising and avoiding sickness. Thus, the current study aims to recruit 5‐ to 9‐year‐olds (anticipated 50% female, 60% White, 60% Hispanic/Latine) to test whether children's sickness perception is malleable and can be improved through training. We created developmentally appropriate stories and games for children, based on training methods that

The qualifications, practices, and interactions of early childhood (EC) teachers with children have been widely researched as avenues for improving EC education. However, little is known about the work supports EC teachers need to be successful. Non-contact time is an important element of the work environment that supports teachers’ ability to meet their professional expectations. This exploratory

Little evidence exists on how best to support children’s alphabet knowledge, which is a foundational early literacy skill. In this study, we investigated the impact of multisensory alphabet instruction on the alphabet learning of English monolingual and emergent bilingual (EB) children aged 3:5 to 5 years old, compared to visual-auditory alphabet instruction (i.e., featuring visual and auditory modalities

Relying on self‐report to understand how children solve cognitive tasks has limitations, particularly with young children. Recent advances in eye‐tracking technology allow researchers to leverage this tool to measure young children's strategies for solving cognitive tasks. The current study focuses on young children's mental rotation ability given its reported links to academic achievement in science

The Elementary School Journal, Ahead of Print.

Following a significant natural event (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, Hurricane Katrina), some young children adapted effectively while others face academic and social-emotional challenges (Goenjian et al., American Journal of Psychiatry 162(12) (2005)); (Joo & Lee, Child Indicators Research, 15 (2022)); (Stark et al., Psychological Trauma: Theory Research Practice and Policy, 12(S1) 2020); children from groups