This study investigated the links between theory of mind, social motivation, and children's social competence in middle childhood and early adolescence. Two hundred and sixty four children (136 girls, 128 boys) aged between 8 and 13 years (M Age = 10.88 years, SD = 1.45) completed theory-of-mind tests and self-report questionnaires measuring…

Children with special educational needs (CSEN) in the early years have been identified as vulnerable to the pandemic restrictions. This study explored the lived experiences of educators teaching CSEN online in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 school closures. Semi-structured interviews with 21 educators revealed that educators perceived the prolonged…

The aim of the current article is to extend prior conceptualizing by presenting a model of social and emotional competence that recognizes both the mechanisms and the manifestations of social and emotional competence. The Social and Emotional Competence School Model draws together conceptual underpinnings from the social and emotional competence…

The aim of this research is to improve the social skills of children in need of protection for 7-12 age groups through visual arts education. In the study carried out within the framework of general purpose, the effect of the activity-based visual arts education program on the social skill levels of children in need of protection for 7-12 age…

The vast majority of studies on theory of mind (ToM) have focused on the preschool years. Extending the developmental scope of ToM research presents opportunities to both reassess theoretical accounts of ToM and test its predictive utility. The twin aims of this longitudinal study were to examine developmental relations between ToM, executive…

Being able to manage reputation is an important social skill, but it is unclear whether autistic children can manage reputation. This study investigated whether 33 autistic children matched to 33 typical children could implicitly or explicitly manage reputation. Further, we examined whether cognitive processes--theory of mind, social motivation,…

Using a sample of individuals (277 males, 315 females) studied since birth in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study investigated how early pubertal maturation and school transition alter youth trajectories of social competence during the transition to…

Both autism spectrum (ASD) and anxiety disorders are associated with atypical neural and attentional responses to emotional faces, differing in affective face processing from typically developing peers. Within a longitudinal study of children with ASD (23 male, 3 female), we hypothesized that early ERPs to emotional faces would predict concurrent…

In accord with increasing recognition of the situation specificity of childhood social behaviors, individual and contextual differences in children's responses to potential peer conflict were examined (hostile attribution, behavioral strategies, and affective reactions; N = 367, 9-2 years, 197 girls). Situational cues from 2 sources, the…

Building on an existing latent variable analysis of executive function (EF) in children (N=191, 57% boys and 43% girls) making the transition to school (Hughes et al. (2010), "Developmental Neuropsychology", vol. 35, pp. 20-36), the current study both documented average developmental improvements from 4 to 6 years of age and examined individual…

Despite significant advances in the field of social neuroscience, much remains to be understood regarding the development and maintenance of social skills across the life span. Few comprehensive models exist that integrate multidisciplinary perspectives and explain the multitude of factors that influence the emergence and expression of social…

Conflict management is a skill best learned early in life, and lays a foundation for the development of future relationships. The present study examined the strategies children use when negotiating roles in a dynamic play situation. Participants were 156 children (M age = 6.5 years) in 39 groups of four, who were videotaped in a play activity that…

Creativity can be broadly defined as a combination of interacting individual and environmental resources leading to the production of valuable solutions. This paper concentrates on the type of creativity that can be expressed in solving social problems. After reviewing the potentially relevant psychological and contextual variables intervening in…

The study of phenotypic variability in social impairments and comorbid emotional disorders in autism is important because it provides information on phenotypic differences that currently complicate diagnosis, research, and treatment of this disorder. Currently, though, relatively little is known about the processes that contribute to individual…

Examined 245 third- through sixth-graders' relational aggression, overt aggression, prosocial behavior, and social adjustment at three points during the academic year. Found that individual differences in relational aggression were relatively stable over time, and that relational aggression and prosocial behavior contributed to the prediction of…