In this article I wish to defend hope by arguing that it is a child-like predisposition and that its strength and uniqueness stem exactly from its naïve, infantilizing character. To discuss the concepts of hope and of childhood and the relationship between them, I read in Kazuo Ishiguro's latest book -- "Klara and the Sun" (2021), using…

Jeremy Sawyer recounts that, after Lev S. Vygotsky's death, Jean Piaget conceded the Russian psychologist correctly understood the social origins, functions, and developmental trajectory of children's egocentric speech (now called private speech) but dismissed this work as irrelevant to children's egocentrism or nondifferentiation of perspectives.…

Research on the role of moral emotions in moral judgment, both in hypothetical dilemmas and in real-life moral decision making, has focused on preschool and elementary school age, with few studies spanning a larger age range, into adolescence and adulthood. The present special issue addresses a neglected area, the development of moral emotions and…

The question of when moral identity first develops in childhood deserves more considered investigation. In this article, we examine the claim that moral identity first emerges in middle-childhood (8-12 years). An approach is taken here whereby a tendency to attribute moral shame under conditions entailing moral identity failure is considered as…

Caregivers' sensitive responses to infant cry have long-term consequences for adaptive child development. Although mounting evidence suggests that parents who experience high emotionality to infant cry respond less sensitively to infant cry, there is a dearth of knowledge on potential mechanisms underlying individual differences in emotionality to…

With studies primarily focusing on family risk factors on adolescent maladjustment, less is known about positive family processes that facilitate adolescent positive development. This study aimed to identify different configurations of parental involvement and interparental affection during early childhood from a person-centered approach and…

This study examines three parenting behaviors (support, involvement, and harsh control) in predicting children's loneliness and aggression across developmental transitions to adolescence in a Taiwanese sample. Two cohorts (n = 4,990) were followed for 5 years: a younger cohort (first-graders, 51.5%) and an older cohort (fourth-graders). Multilevel…

Children experience grief and loss from death, divorce, parental incarceration, and similar situations of being placed in foster care or adoption. These youths may be challenged in recovery due to lacking the necessary life experience and coping skills. They may also lack the appropriate support networks to work through their grief as their…

Disgust has been theorized to be a basic emotion with a facial signal that is easily, universally, automatically, and perhaps innately recognized by observers from an early age. This article questions one key part of that theory: the hypothesis that children recognize disgust from its purported facial signal. Over the first 5 years, children…

To chart the developmental path of children's attribution of pride to others, we presented children (4 years 0 month to 11 years 11 months of age, N = 108) with video clips of head-and-face, body posture, and multi-cue (both head-and-face and body posture simultaneously) expressions that adults consider to convey pride. Across age groups, 4- and…

How do schooling years impact children's lives, in rural and urban settings? Why do some children have lower self-esteem than others? What kinds of conflicts do adolescents experience in their search for identity? Why are some teachers able to understand the importance of ensuring the well-being of children while others do not? Does the emotional…

The central question we addressed was whether mothers' adjustment might vary systematically by the developmental stages of their children. In an Internet-based study of over 2,200 mostly well-educated mothers with children ranging from infants to adults, we examined multiple aspects of mothers' personal well-being, parenting, and perceptions of…

Recent studies suggest that there appears to be a similar developmental sequence in the understanding of mental states in both internal-state language and in standard theory-of-mind tasks. These findings suggest possible developmental relations between children's ability to talk and think about the mind. Two experiments investigated the concurrent…

In his monumental research, although Piaget primarily relayed information about children's developmental stages of cognitive growth, Marian Marion goes on to discuss not only the developmental stages, yet focuses on how children think. In her textbook, "Guidance of Young Children", Marion conveys how teachers need to understand children and help…

Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare condition characterized by distinct regression of developmental and behavioral functioning following a period of apparently normal development for at least 2 years. The purpose of this article is to present the developmental, behavioral, psychosocial, and medical histories of eight children who…