Few studies on the development of forgiveness involved young children and adolescents, and very few involved samples from non-western countries. This study focused on the development of willingness to forgive a particular transgression in participants aged 4 to 12 years and from two different cultures: a South African culture (Mozambique) and a…

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the factor structure and stability of early-life temperament in a German sample, using three measures developed within Rothbart's psychobiological approach. Temperament was measured using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) at the ages of 6 and 12 months, the Early Childhood Behavior…

An overarching framework in the field of developmental psychology highlights the close linkage of cognition with emotion; however, the extent to which this framework supports the relationship between executive functions and emotion understanding in young children remains unclear. Hence, we employ a longitudinal tracking study to investigate the…

Research has shown the importance of responsive caregiving for fostering positive development early in life; however, tools measuring these interactions are often impractical for larger scale intervention trials and in settings with resource constraints. The present study provides reliability and validity evidence from Sindh, Pakistan for a tool…

The component model of human parenting has been extensively used to study parents' interactions with their offspring and to examine variation across cultural contexts. The current study applies this model to nonhuman primates to investigate which forms of parenting humans share with other primates and how these interactions change over infants'…

Research to date has shown longitudinal changes in conscientiousness during early and middle adolescence, but most studies have been conducted in Western countries. The present study aimed to examine the pattern of mean-level conscientiousness change at the transition into early adolescence among a Chinese sample using curve of factors (CUFFS)…

Gender differences in early childhood development are under-researched in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where almost 90% of the world's young children live. This study examines the direction, magnitude, and variation of gender similarities and differences in 3- and 4-year-olds' early childhood development in 71 low- and middle-income…

This study examined the association between internalizing and externalizing mental health and prosociality across four developmental transitions. The effects of parent-child interactions on mental health and prosociality were also explored. The data from a community sample of 10,703 children on mental health, prosociality, child maltreatment,…

Training studies have shown the positive effects of play tutoring on children's social skills. This study investigates whether the theoretically suggested mechanism of change--social pretend play quality--explains the effect of play tutoring on social pretend play competence and social skills. Twenty-seven Swiss playgroups (N = 214 three- to…

Researchers and practitioners need robust measurement tools for evaluating knowledge of child development to better support parents and their children during pregnancy and the transition to parenthood. We addressed this need by evaluating the psychometric properties of the Domains of Development Instrument (DoDI) for measuring knowledge of…

Maternal depression is a global public health concern with far-reaching impacts on child development, yet our understanding of mechanisms remains incomplete. This study examined whether parenting mediates the association between maternal depression and child outcomes. Participants included 841 rural Pakistani mother-child dyads (50% female).…

The positive links between children's theory of mind (ToM), emotion understanding, and positive peer relationships are well established. However, the existing literature lacks comprehensive studies investigating the longitudinal interplay between these components in preschool-aged children. This study aimed to fill this gap by examining the…

Given the substantial increase in children attending center-based childcare over the past decades, the consequences of center-based childcare for children's development have gained more attention in developmental research. However, the relation between center-based childcare and children's neurocognitive development remains relatively…

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…

Prenatal folate and vitamin B[subscript 12] status have been linked to child neuropsychological development, but less is known about maternal genetic influences on this association. We conducted an exploratory longitudinal study of 181 mother--child pairs to assess whether maternal MTHFR 677C>T genotype modifies the association between maternal…