The mental health and well-being of children and adolescents are critical public health concerns globally. This cross-sectional study analysed nationally representative data from the combined 2016-2022 National Survey of Children's Health (n = 239,534) to produce estimates of parent-reported diagnoses of children's anxiety, depression and…

This study evaluates the Children's Worlds Psychological Well-Being Scale (CW-PSWBS) within a diverse international cohort of children aged 10 and 12, utilising Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) methodologies. Through a detailed psychometric analysis, this research assesses the CW-PSWBS's structural integrity, focusing on…

During adolescence, increases in pubertal hormones lead to reproductive maturity as well as changes in cognitive development. Yet, little is known about how to best characterize interindividual differences in hormone concentrations. The goal of the current study was to examine the antecedents and consequences of membership in empirically derived…

Temporal differences of neurodevelopmental milestones' achievement are commonly taken into account in preterm infant assessment during the first year of life, especially when minor or none neurological signs arise from clinical examination. The influence of gender on neurodevelopment in preterm infants was examined by a milestones-based…

Many studies have found that a majority of boys and girls prefer to play with toys that are typed to their own gender but there is still uncertainty about the age at which such sex differences first appear, and under what conditions. Applying a standardized research protocol and using a selection of gender-typed toys, we observed the toy…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contributions of general cognitive skills (working memory, inhibition, and reasoning) and metalinguistic awareness to young children's character reading. One hundred eighty-nine Chinese children, aged from 60 to 78 months, were administered with measures of character recognition, language,…

This study explored the development of theory of mind (ToM) in 80 Swedish-speaking 3- to 5-year-olds, a previously unstudied language and culture. The ToM scale was translated and tested in a Swedish context. The results show that the ToM abilities improve significantly with age. In addition, a gender difference was observed for the whole sample,…

Understanding that other people hold different mental states and that they may be changed is the core of persuasion. Thus, theory of mind (ToM) abilities are fundamental to generate persuasive arguments. To date, only the relation between false belief and false belief-emotion understanding and persuasion has been investigated, ignoring other…

The present study examined the interplay among negative emotionality, responsive parenting and socio-cognitive developmental outcomes (i.e., communication, personal-social and problem-solving outcomes) in about 1620 Korean children using three waves of longitudinal data spanning the first 2 years of their life. Results from the Structural Equation…

Eighty 4- to 9-year-old children answered factual knowledge questions in math, science and social studies during one-on-one interviews. Children indicated whether they had known or guessed each answer, and whether they (a) remembered the moment they learned the answer (episodic response) or (b) did not remember. For episodic responses, children…

Identifying and understanding the predictors of preliteracy skills can set the stage for success in a child's academic career. Recent literature has implicated social-emotional competence as a potential component in helping children learn preliteracy skills. To further understand the role of social-emotional competence in preliteracy, the…

The importance of warm and democratic parenting styles for optimal social, emotional and cognitive outcomes in children over the age of five is well established. However, there is a dearth of literature exploring variations in parenting styles during infancy, despite many popular parenting books aimed at this period. The primary aim of this study…

Recent research has demonstrated that social responsiveness (comprised of social awareness, social information processing, reciprocal social communication, social motivation, and repetitive/restricted interests) is continuously distributed within the general population. In the present study, we consider temperament as a co-occurring source of…

This study examined the prevalence and determinants of spanking of children at 3?years of age and the associations between spanking and externalizing behaviour and receptive verbal ability at age 5?years. Overall, we find maternal spanking rates of 55.2% and paternal rates of 43.2% at age 3?years. Mothers facing greater stress and those who…

To test divergent theoretical predictions as to the impact of having a younger or older, same-sex sibling or opposite-sex sibling on other gender constancy, Israeli kindergarten children in two-child families responded to a gender constancy task in which a male and female picture target engaged in counter-stereotypic toy play and adopted…