Although children display strong individual differences in emotion expression, they also engage in emotional synchrony or reciprocity with interaction partners. To understand this paradox between trait-like and dyadic influences, the goal of the current study was to investigate children's emotion expression using a Social Relations Model (SRM)…

The experience of love plays an integral role in human development as adolescents transition into adulthood. However, little is known about whether early adults have a shared understanding about indicators of love in daily life in this transitional phase. Using Cultural Consensus Theory informed by developmental theory, this study examined whether…

The sustainability motive-alignment hypothesis posits that adolescents will be motivated to act sustainably when they view sustainable behavior as aligned with their motives for autonomy and peer status. Based on this hypothesis, we developed the Sustainability Motive-Alignment Scale (SMAS), a brief self-report scale of individual differences in…

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are increasingly used in clinical and school settings to promote psychological and social-emotional well-being among youth. However, the precise role of youth-animal relationships in shaping developmental trajectories is understudied. Research is needed to expand human-centric models of child development,…