It is widely accepted that investing in early childhood helps build the foundations of a healthy, productive, and equitable society. Guided by that knowledge, a range of broad-based programs and targeted services make a significant difference for millions of children, yet a closer look at outcome data shows that some benefit greatly, some benefit…

The development of executive function (EF) has been linked to various life outcomes, motivating intense research on the topic. While much of this research has focused on more thoroughly understanding age-related changes of the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms involved, recent theoretical and empirical works have stressed how the immediate…

In what the author calls an autoethnography, he examines two aspects of his love of a favorite childhood toy: G.I. Joe. First, because the author is a contingent pacificist and this military figure--a fundamentally violent toy--played so important a role in his life, he now seeks to reconcile his aversion to (real life) violence with his enjoyment…

Children from low-income backgrounds are less likely to have economically successful role models and mentors in their own families and neighborhoods, and are more likely to spend time with media. In this article, Melissa Kearney and Phillip Levine review the theoretical and empirical evidence on how these external forces can influence children's…

The objective of this research is to comparatively analyze the performance of two generations of children (as first generation of immigrants) attending primary and secondary education in different geographical areas, evaluated in different decades but with equivalent age brackets. Two samples of 169 immigrant school populations in Portugal, with…

Across diverse cultural contexts, children and adults believe in the existence of religious and supernatural unobservables (e.g., gods, angels) as well as scientific and natural unobservables (e.g., germs, oxygen). In this article, we explore the role of cultural input and testimony in children's developing beliefs in supernatural and natural…

Parental sensitivity and nurturance are important mechanisms for establishing biological, emotional, and social functioning in childhood. Sensitive, nurturing care is most critical during the first three years of life, when attachment relationships form and parental care shapes foundational neural and physiological systems, with lifelong…

In this article, Melanie Wasserman reviews the latest evidence about the causal link between family structure and children's economic and social outcomes. Going beyond the question of whether family structure affects child outcomes--a topic that's already been covered at length, including in previous Future of Children volumes--she examines how…

Divergent cultural, religious, and ideological beliefs and practices are often challenging to contemplate and difficult to accept when they conflict with an individual's own convictions and way of life. The recognition that children and adolescents grow up in an increasingly diverse world has led to a general interest in fostering tolerance. In…

Children's block building has long been a focus of psychological research, in part because block building skills are thought to be useful indicators of other abilities such as representational thinking. Block building skills are assumed to progress through developmental stages and a number of measures have been developed to assess these skills. In…

This article responds to Euro-western conceptions of childhood obesity that understand fat within developmental narratives, as biochemically consequential and as a marker of individualized responsibility. Drawing in multiple fat(s) generated in a pedagogical inquiry with early childhood educators and children, the author articulates…

Poverty is associated with many types of life adversities and child developmental problems. Among various physical and mental developmental outcomes that could be affected by poverty, self-regulation abilities are of critical importance for leading a successful life. In this article, we provide discussions regarding the different developmental…

The majority of students in Maryland spent at least a portion of the last school year learning virtually, from public prekindergarten through college. Throughout the year, jurisdictions made individual decisions to allow for a gradual return to in-person school in a variety of ways. Lessons learned from the earliest stages of the pandemic made it…

The purpose of this article is to examine the brain-based differentiations between the genders and the impact they may have on teaching and learning. The term gender will be used throughout the article to highlight the characteristics that distinguish males and females. The article will first examine if these differences do exist and how they…

Hannah Arendt has been criticised for the sharp distinction she drew between the social and political realms, and her application of this distinction to schools. In this paper, I demonstrate that this distinction can be interpreted as a heuristic that Arendt developed to address a tension that she had encountered in her attempt to understand…