Given the relevance of caregivers' perceptions, cognitions, and emotions about their child's mental states for caregiving behavior and children's development, researchers from multiple theoretical perspectives have developed constructs to assess caregivers' cognitions, resulting in a large but scattered body of literature. In this article, we…

This study explores the associations among narcissistic traits, emotion regulation strategies, and peer problems among adolescents. Specifically, it examines whether cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression moderate the relationship between narcissistic traits and peer problems. In total 2207 individuals (1165, 52.8% females), aged between…

Higher rates of socio-emotional difficulties for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children have been reported compared with their typical hearing (TH) peers. Nonetheless, there has to date been limited examination on this issue internationally and no such examination in the Republic of Ireland. In this study, data was collected from parents using an…

Purpose: Follow-up studies of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in early childhood that focus on friendship formation during adolescence are scarce. The present study focused on exploring characteristics possibly related to the ability to establish friendships during adolescence among children diagnosed with ASD in…

Executive function (EF) is essential for developing social competence (SC) in early childhood. However, previous research has primarily taken a general perspective of SC and overlooked its components. Furthermore, although EF and SC are known to influence each other across childhood, the mechanisms of this interaction remain unclear. Therefore,…

The alexithymia hypothesis posits that specific aspects of the autistic socio-cognitive profile, namely emotion recognition difficulties, can be explained by the increased prevalence of alexithymia in autistic populations. However, this hypothesis has largely been tested in adults. We tested whether co-occurring alexithymia could account for…

Moral reasoning and theory of mind (ToM) are two distinct but related aspects of social cognition. While past research has clearly documented serious delays in ToM development for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) both cross-sectionally (e.g. Happe, 1995) and longitudinally (Peterson & Wellman, 2020) much less is known about the…

While nature contact is increasingly recognized for its health benefits, its role in human development and learning remains insufficiently examined. The present meta-analysis aimed to investigate (a) the extent to which nature contact predicts social functioning, cognitive functioning, and academic performance, (b) whether these associations vary…

Significant socioeconomic disparities exist across the neighborhoods where children grow up today, which may exacerbate inequities in children's educational opportunities (Leventhal et al., 2015; Leventhal & Dupere, 2019; Mijs & Roe, 2021; Reardon et al., 2018). Prior research documents associations between neighborhood socioeconomic…

Although it is well established that reading with young children supports early language and literacy development, few studies have focused on the importance of parental beliefs about reading with infants. The current study, which sheds light on parental beliefs had three main aims. The first was to examine practices of shared reading in infancy…

It is well established that parent-child dyadic synchrony (e.g., mutual emotions, behaviors) can support development across cognitive and socioemotional domains. The advent of simultaneous two-brain "hyperscanning" (i.e., measuring the brain activity of two individuals at the same time) allows further insight into dyadic "neural…

Understanding predictors and effects of teacher well-being, including job satisfaction, is crucial for both teachers' and children's development. Research on teacher job satisfaction (TJS) has indicated that many individual and contextual factors may make a difference for teachers' professional well-being. However, against the backdrop of this…

Young children born preterm may be more affected by environmental influences than their full-term peers. Few studies have investigated whether such effects exist for older children and young adolescents. With participants aged 9 and 13 years, we examine whether children born preterm could be differentially affected by the quality of their…

Background: The transition from primary to secondary school presents a challenging developmental milestone which often marks a decline in academic performance. Social-emotional skills are recognized as fundamental to academic success but longitudinal research is needed to determine the extent of their association over this transition period. Aim:…

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have problems acquiring language, affecting their communicative participation, social--emotional functioning (SEF) and quality of life (QoL). Aims: To investigate whether communicative participation mediates the relation between language and SEF and QoL. Methods & Procedures: In a…