Fear of darkness is prevalent in childhood, yet how children explain it remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate how preschoolers make sense of fear of darkness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through Zoom with 4- to 5-year-old Russian children (n = 31; 13 girls). Reflexive thematic analysis revealed that…

This research with two studies examined whether young children's moral judgments of honesty and dishonesty predict their actual cheating behavior. Participants were 200 children aged 3-6 years (2021-2022. Study 1: N = 80, M[subscript age] = 4.96, 40 girls; Study 2: N = 120, M[subscript age] = 4.98, 60 girls; all middle-class Han Chinese). Children…

Disparities in socioeconomic status (SES) may affect individuals' risk preferences, which have important developmental consequences across the lifespan. Yet, previous research has shown inconsistent associations between SES and risky decision-making, and little is known about how this link develops from a young age. The current research is among…

Sometimes we should persist to succeed. But other times it might be wiser to give up on the task at hand and focus our energy on something new. Knowing whether a task is worth the effort potentially requires multiple capacities, including sensitivity to one's own likelihood to succeed on the current problem, the associated costs with continuing to…

The aim of this study was to examine gender stereotyping by pre-school children in selecting a picture book cover and assigning gender to animal characters in illustrations. We aimed to explore which gender children would assign to bear characters, when these are portrayed in different more or less gender stereotyped activities, occupations or…

Delay discounting tasks measure the relation between reinforcer delay and efficacy. The present study established the association between delay discounting and classroom behavior and introduced a brief measure quantifying sensitivity to reward delays for school-aged children. Study 1 reanalyzed data collected by Reed and Martens (J Appl Behav Anal…

This investigation examined whether the mode of locomotion matters in how 8-, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-old children (N = 91) judge dynamic affordances in a complex perception-action task with significant safety risks. The primarily European American children in the sample came from the area of Iowa City, Iowa and were balanced for gender. The same…

This research explores how decision-making autonomy and social distance impact young children's sharing behaviour. In Study 1, findings from 159 Chinese children (total N = 159, 72 boys, aged 3-6 years) revealed that children aged 5-6 exhibited significantly more sharing behaviours in the controlled condition, however 3-4 years-olds showed no…

Schools are the most common site to implement evidence-based prevention programs and practices (EBPs) to improve behavioral and mental health outcomes among children and adolescents. Research has highlighted the critical role of school administrators in the adoption, implementation, and evaluation of such EBPs, focusing on the factors they should…

Regarding children's books' influences on a variety of social and individual components, this study aims to analyze educational components and philosophies in Pippi Longstocking. While there are a few studies which examined Pippi's feelings, thinking, reasoning, and developmental characteristics, there is a lack of research describing why and/or…

Previous research debated whether and to which extent normative views and own resource distribution behavior in childhood are dissociated or aligned. The present study aims to advance this debate by examining the relation from two different methodological viewpoints within the same study. Here, 4-6-year-old children's (N = 91) normative views and…

Previous research on 4-6-year-olds' interpretations of adjunct control has observed non-adult-like behavior for sentences like "John called Mary before running to the store." Several studies have aimed to identify a grammatical source of children's errors. This study tests the predictions of grammatical and extragrammatical accounts by…

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is an early-appearing temperamental trait characterized by intense negative affect and withdrawal behaviors to novel and challenging situations. Inhibited children are more likely to display social withdrawal and experience an increased risk for internalizing problems. Trait inference, the way children interpret…

The current study is the first to provide a comprehensive examination of the activation--decision--construction model (Walczyk, Roper, Seemann, & Humphrey, 2003, 2009) in relation to young children's lie-telling and lie maintenance. Young children (3 to 4 years of age, N = 93) completed the temptation-resistance paradigm to elicit a…

Data from multiple school sources, including informant ratings, systematic direct observations (SDOs), and school wide data (e.g., office disciplinary referrals [ODRs]) are routinely used to guide decision making in the delivery of evidence based practices for students with externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Over 50 years of…