Early attachment has been commonly hypothesized to predict children's future developmental outcomes, and robust evidence relying on assessments of single caregiver-child attachment patterns has corroborated this hypothesis. Nevertheless, most often children are raised by multiple caregivers, and they tend to form attachment bonds with more than…

Environmental contaminants, which include several heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and other harmful chemicals, impair several domains of child development. This article describes four themes from recent research on the impact of environmental contaminants on child development. The first theme, disparities in exposure, focuses on how…

Discriminatory legislation targeting Latinx immigrants in the United States has shifted how parents communicate with their children about the hostile political climate. One way that Latinx parents talk about and prepare their children to face prejudice is through ethnic-racial socialization, which can promote children's positive development. Few…

Inuit communities in Northern Quebec (Canada) are exposed to environmental contaminants, particularly to mercury, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Previous studies reported adverse associations between these neurotoxicants and memory performance. Here we aimed to determine the associations of pre- and postnatal exposures to mercury, lead…

Developmental scientists are often interested in subgroups of people who share commonalities in aspects of development; these subgroups often cannot be captured directly but instead must be inferred from other information. Mixture models can be used in these situations. Two specific types of mixture models, latent profile transition analyses and…

Children are exposed to many trace elements throughout their development. Given their ubiquity and potential to have effects on children's neurodevelopment, these exposures are a public health concern. This study sought to identify trace element mixture-associated deficits in learning behavior using operant testing in a prospective cohort. We…

Talent development constitutes an important phenomenon of human development; yet it is rarely considered a mainstream topic in the field of child and adolescent development. Conversely, in the field of gifted and talented studies, various talent development (TD) models developed in the past have had minimal interaction with the literature on child…

Child environmental health (CEH) science has identified numerous effects of early life exposures to common, ubiquitous environmental toxicants. CEH scientists have documented the costs not only to individual children but also to population-level health effects of such exposures. Importantly, such risks are unequally distributed in the population,…

Although peer relations are recognized as a fundamental developmental context, they have been rarely studied as a means of understanding the effects of socioeconomic status and inequality. In this paper, we show how and why peer relations provide a unique and powerful opportunity to assess the differential risks and resources available in the peer…

Attachment theorists have long recognized that multiple attachments characterize the typical experience of most children. But an appreciation of attachment networks is new, and this commentary draws on some of the most theoretically provocative themes of the contributions to this special issue. These include: how the quality of attachment…

This comment on the Special Issue contributions regarding the attachment network addresses the clinical implications of the findings from three perspectives: (1) the need to look beyond maternal influences on child developmental outcomes; (2) to be open to every seemingly peripheral influence on the child as this may have a central impact on the…

The early years are a critical period for setting children up for school and life. For Black children who are exposed to adversities before and after birth, early childhood education (ECE) has been shown as one potentially strategy to mitigate against systemic inequities. However, evidence continues to show the negative impact of structural racism…

Although almost everyone agrees that the environment shapes children's learning, surprisingly few studies assess in detail the specific environments that shape children's learning of specific content. The present article briefly reviews examples of how such environmental assessments have improved understanding of child development in diverse…

There is an urgent need to strengthen early childhood development and education in emergencies (ECDEiE) globally. Colombia has faced protracted and acute crises for decades. Also, the country has applied a unique approach to holistic and integrated ECDE policy formulation. We argue that these characteristics offer a valuable country-case to…

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has, over the last four decades, infected millions of young women and their children. Interventions developed in parallel with the spread of the virus have been able to reduce rates of vertical transmission from mother to child. The impact of HIV in children can be direct in children living with HIV (CLHIV) and…