Parenting behaviors have long been recognized as crucial to children's healthy development. However, examinations of the etiology of these behaviors are less prevalent. The current study investigated the driving forces behind parental warmth and discipline, particularly whether they are related more to traits within the parent or reactions to…

Research to date has shown longitudinal changes in conscientiousness during early and middle adolescence, but most studies have been conducted in Western countries. The present study aimed to examine the pattern of mean-level conscientiousness change at the transition into early adolescence among a Chinese sample using curve of factors (CUFFS)…

The study explored parents' opinions regarding the forest kindergarten attended by their children. Six parents participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore their experiences. The topics raised in the interviews concerned four areas: sources of parents' knowledge about forest kindergartens; arguments for choosing a…

Curiosity -- broadly defined as the desire to acquire new information -- enhances learning and memory in adults. In addition, interest in the information (i.e., when the information is processed) can also facilitate later memory. To date, it is not known how states of pre-information curiosity and post-information interest enhance memory in…

Children with a history of behaviorally inhibited (BI) temperament face a heightened risk for anxiety disorders and often use control strategies that are less planful. Although these relations have been observed concurrently in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence, few studies leverage longitudinal data to examine long-term…

Parenting and children's temperament are important influences on language development. However, temperament may reflect prior parenting, and parenting effects may reflect genes common to parents and children. In 561 U.S. adoptees (57% male) and their birth and rearing parents (70% and 92% White, 13% and 4% African American, and 7% and 2% Latinx,…

Caregivers play an important role in the development of talent in high-potential children, however, limited research exists on their observations and perceptions of their child's development. The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine caregivers' perceptions of the social and emotional characteristics of gifted children in grades K-3.…

Across all cultures, parents have intuitive ideas ("ethnotheories") of what undesirable child characteristics are as well as how to explain them. Yet there have been relatively few cross-cultural comparisons of parents' ethnotheories about the nature and causes of child misbehavior. 108 mothers of 5-year-old children from the United…

The aim of the research was to determine what relations occur between the stress experienced by parents in the relationship with their children and the personality traits that they shape in them. Personal characteristics that parents shape in their children have been classified into metatraits described in the Circumplex of Personality model. The…

From expressing wonder and awe about the natural world to contemplating the significance of life to conveying compassion and expressing concern for others, the spiritual child has much to offer the world. However, the topic of spirituality is rarely addressed in early childhood or child development textbooks. Spirituality can be defined in many…

The advancement of inclusive education policies worldwide has given greater weight to social justice practices in educational settings. However, inclusion in preschools has received less attention from researchers. This article examines a 4-year-old child's participation in a mainstream preschool in Australia from a cultural-historical…

Behavioural, cognitive and emotional dysregulation related to parent borderline personality disorder (BPD) may have a major impact on parent-infant interactions. We investigated the ways in which infant social withdrawal and mother sensitivity may be associated to a BPD diagnosis in mothers. Two groups of clinic-referred mother-infant dyads were…

As children develop the abilities to engage in more sophisticated forms of play, play serves as a context in which children can practice and develop skills in various domains including adaptive behavior and executive functioning. StoryCarnival is a tool designed over 39 sessions at a preschool, working with two groups of 3-5-year-old children,…

Adults teach children not to "judge a book by its cover." However, adults make rapid judgments of character from a glance at a child's face. These impressions can be modestly accurate, suggesting that adults may be sensitive to valid signals of character in children's faces. However, it is not clear whether such sensitivity requires…

Robust investment in early childhood education can help expand children's access to high-quality pre-K programs. These investments can also strengthen the ability of educators to gather valuable information about young children's behaviors, skills, and competencies in order to make better decisions about how to support their learning and…