Incarceration in the United States affects not only the individuals incarcerated, but also the whole family system, including children. 1.5 million children younger than 18 have had parents incarcerated at some point in their life (U.S. Census Bureau, 2021), and children have been called the hidden victims of the mass incarceration that is…

We examined whether family care following early-life deprivation buffered the association between stressful life events (SLEs) and executive functioning (EF) in adolescence. In early childhood, 136 institutionally reared children were randomly assigned to foster care or care-as-usual; 72 never-institutionalized children served as a comparison…

Although abundant evidence demonstrates that play is the source of development for preschool-aged children in various cultures, few studies have investigated the role of adult-children collective play in supporting the development of children in institutional care settings. This study examined whether and how a play-based programme created…

This study was aimed at investigating the processes of socialisation and development of life skills of children from orphanages in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study used a mixed-methods approach, including structured surveys for 200 orphanage graduates and in-depth interviews with 12 field specialists. This approach provided quantitative data…

The U.S. has seen a more than five-fold increase in the number of children who experience the incarceration of a parent, such that now 7% of all U.S. children have been impacted. Parental incarceration has been linked to an array of consequences for children's development and well-being, spanning most developmental domains and all developmental…

Parental incarceration is a socially relevant topic with substantial implications for children, yet it is understudied by child development scholars. About 2.6 million U.S. children currently have a parent who is incarcerated, and by age 14, one in 14 U.S. children experiences a resident parent leaving for jail or prison. In this developmentally…

Although incarcerated individuals have committed potentially 'immoral' crimes, many are also parents, and need to foster their children's moral development. As such, incarcerated parents occupy a paradoxical position: they are labelled as morally deviant yet simultaneously expected to provide moral guidance for their children. This study explores…

Interior immigration enforcement continues to have a significant impact on children in mixed-status families. Numerous studies have demonstrated the association between the detention and deportation of parents-- including the threat of these actions--and negative outcomes for children and their families. These include developmental concerns,…

Children with disabilities and special needs make up the vast majority of those currently being adopted internationally into the United States (U.S.). China has been a leading sending country for international adoption since the 1990s and remains one of the few nations with thousands of orphaned or abandoned children, many with congenital…

Developmental scholars, parents, and policymakers alike have long heralded the opening years of life as disproportionately influential. Recent work on adolescence has revealed, however, greater influence of these later years--but without considering how experience during these two periods interact. We address this issue by studying adverse…

Over 5 million American children under the age of 18 years, a disproportionate number of whom are Black or Latino, have had a residential parent jailed or incarcerated. While a number of existing studies identify parental incarceration as a key risk factor for poor child and family outcomes, there is more limited information describing programs…

In recent years, families with children from the Northern Triangle countries of Central America constitute a large and growing proportion of migrants and overall filed asylum claims. In an effort to deter overall immigration through the U.S.-Mexico border, the executive branch under the Trump administration has made substantial changes to federal…

Research Findings: Addressing factors that influence children's self-regulation is a critical step toward closing achievement gaps that have consistently been found for African American and Latino children as well as children living in poverty. Cumulative sociodemographic risk in childhood is now widely understood to be a developmental risk factor…