School belonging is crucial for students' identity development and academic motivation. It enhances educational success and predicts mental well-being, particularly during secondary school years. A supportive school environment is vital for fostering student engagement and overall development in early adolescence. This study culturally adapts the…

Play materials designed to enhance children's pretense were investigated; namely, how the specific characteristics of the play sets (thematically open-ended village set vs thematically closed-ended train set) influenced children's play communication regarding their co-construction of shared meanings. Participants included 44 7-year-old focal…

This study investigated how specific characteristics of multipiece, miniature, realistic play props (thematically open-ended village set versus thematically closed-ended train set) designed to enhance children's pretense influenced their scenario creativity, object transformations, and the frequency and use of specific internal-state language. The…

This article describes a qualitative study of how two ethnic Burmese families in the United States authored storybooks that included their children's drawings and writings representing their families' stories. The theoretical perspectives of storytelling and the social semiotics multimodal approach were utilized in this inquiry. The data included…

This article examines the participation process of elder siblings in caregiving for their siblings with special needs and how this participation process reflects in their peer relationships in rural context in Turkey. This study was carried out as a case study, which is one of the qualitative methods and as a data collection tool a semi-structured…

China offers a natural laboratory for comparing the development of only children and children with siblings. We examined potential differences in the way that they expected a protagonist to allocate resources between two recipients with different social relationships, e.g. a sibling vs. a stranger, a friend vs. a stranger, and a sibling vs. a…

A limited number of findings from empirical studies show that biracial adolescents are at a heightened risk of peer victimization. Black/White biracial adolescents are frequent targets of peer victimization due to racism and systematic oppression that are inherent in U.S. schools. Similar to adolescents of other racial and ethnic groups, biracial…

The current study explored how children's social interactions during a six-month period of school closures impacted the development of their social and emotional functioning on return to school. A sample of 81 primary school children (age 8-12 years) in Ireland completed measurements of social and emotional functioning before and after the school…

Research Findings: Few studies have examined second-born preschool children's empathy development under China's universal two-child policy. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in empathy between Chinese preschool children with one older sibling and without siblings. A total of 180 children were purposively sampled from 14…

Siblings of children with chronic disorders are at a heightened risk for internalizing and externalizing problems. Studies on sibling mental health typically use parent report, and sometimes sibling self-report, but do not include the perspectives of teachers. We investigated how teachers and parents in Norway rated sibling mental health to gain a…

Emerging adulthood is a time filled with instability, but disclosure within close egalitarian relationships such as siblings, friends, and romantic partners can help when coping with stress. The present study examines patterns of disclosure across these relationships, as well as specific associations between relationships with siblings and peers.…

The present study examined features of sibling and friend dyads' connectedness (e.g., length and emotional tone of connected sequences) and the quality of the dyads' interactions during play from early to middle childhood. Forty-four families with a 4-year-old focal child were observed at Time 1 (T1) and again at Time 2 (T2) at age 7 in two…

The present study examined children's co-construction of shared meanings and internal state language during play with their sibling and friend from early to middle childhood. Sixty-five 4-year-old children (T1) and 46 7-year-old children (T2) were observed in the home during two free play sessions with a sibling and with a friend at both time…

Background: In recent times, sibling bullying has emerged of interest to researchers concerned with the emotional and behavioural implications for victimization regardless of type and setting. Aims: This research attempts to extend current knowledge on both peer and sibling bullying and to determine the effects of poly-setting victimization. This…

The objective was to characterize the relation between different sources of school-based social support (friends, peers, and teachers) and bereaved siblings' grief and grief-related growth and to examine whether nonparental sources of social support buffer the effects of low parent support on bereaved siblings. Families (N = 85) were recruited…