Optimism is linked to persistence and resilience in adults; however, how optimism might relate to children's evaluations of potentially challenging situations and risk-taking behaviors is unknown. This study examined the role of optimism in 4- to 8-year-old children's (N = 121) perceptions of and willingness to engage in physical activities that…

Parenting style plays an important role in children's externalizing behaviors. Differences in physiological regulation among children may lead to variations in whether or to what extent parenting style influences them. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of parenting styles on young children's development of externalizing behaviors…

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…

Parents' cultural beliefs are associated with their children's socialization and development. Researchers have examined these associations through the lens of parents' ethnotheories, which refer to parents' implicit beliefs about children's developmentally appropriate behavior. In contrast to prior work focused on parents' ethnotheories of…

This longitudinal study explores the associations between children's executive functions at the beginning of preschool and their learning behaviors, namely competence motivation and attentional persistence, at the end of preschool. Participants were 218 Portuguese children (M[subscript age]= 40.4 months, SD= 4.2; 52% boys) and their preschool…

To successfully pull a practical joke on someone, children need to understand that their victims do not know what they themselves know, be able to intentionally manipulate others' beliefs, and maintain a straight face to safeguard the integrity of the joke. This study examined the relationship between children's developing theory of mind (ToM),…

Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response over a subdominant one, is a fundamental aspect of self-regulation. It has been observed that higher levels of parenting stress are associated with lower levels of effortful control in children. Perceived social support, an important factor in reducing parenting stress, may act as a…

The goal of this prospective longitudinal study was to explore whether co-occurrent internalizing difficulties and aggression in early childhood convey increased risk for later mental health problems in middle childhood. Participants were mothers from the "Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study" (MoBa), who provided assessments…

Lying is a prevalent and normative behavior in young children. Conceptually, it is strongly linked with children's theory-of-mind development. However, empirical studies show that the link between children's lying and theory-of-mind is heterogeneous. This study examined whether parental control and parental warmth moderate the link between…

According to the heuristic model of emotion socialization by Eisenberg et al., parental reactions to children's negative emotions (RCNE) have an important role in this socialization process; however, its effects on children's social-emotional outcomes may be moderated by the children's temperament. This longitudinal study verified this proposition…

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…

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits predict behavioral problems in adolescence. But little is known about early modulatory factors. Behavioral Inhibition (BI) in particular has been suggested to protect against the development of CU-traits. This temperamental predisposition is characterized by heightened environmental sensitivity. The current…

In this article, I discuss major theoretical and methodological issues in the study of cultural meanings of children's behaviors. Research in this area is conducted mainly through assessing individual beliefs using hypothetical vignettes or other self-report methods. I argue that it is important to investigate functional meanings of children's…

Many young children experience insufficient or poor quality sleep, which may have implications for adjustment and cognitive performance. This study tested group-level changes and rank-order stability in both daytime and nighttime sleep parameters over a six-month period, from fall to spring, among children receiving high-quality, center-based…

Although the functionalist perspective on emotional development posits that emotions serve adaptive functions, empirical tests of the role of anger mostly focus on how anger contributes to dysfunction. Developmentally, as children gain agency and skill at emotion regulation between the ages of 36 months and 48 months, their modulation of anger may…