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 development of self-regulation is influenced by children's experiences at home, with parenting styles and parenting stress being important contextual factors. However, little is known about how parenting styles and stress are related to the emotional (hot) and cognitive (cool) aspects of self-regulation. This study examined the relationships…

Background: Sensory processing differences are reported both in children with ADHD and in children with autism. Given the substantial overlap between autism and ADHD, the current study examined which sensory features were uniquely predictive of autistic traits after controlling for ADHD symptoms, age, IQ, and sex in a sample of children and…

This two-part study looks at disrespectful talk and behavior in tween's television programming (study 1) and its relationship to disrespectful talk and behavior by young viewers (study 2). First, a content analysis was conducted to examine the amount of disrespectful talk and disrespectful behavior in the top programs that children aged 6-12…

Recent studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often face challenges in emotion recognition (ER) skills, which impacts their social and behavioural outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a flexible online intervention in meeting the individual needs of children with DLD, focusing on ER…

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly limited access to vital services and resources required to support the health, education and development of neurodivergent children, especially children with Down syndrome (DS). We undertook qualitative analysis of responses to open-ended questions exploring caregiver (n = 194) concerns about the impact of the…

Behaviour problems in early childhood have a lasting impact on cognitive development and education attainment in later adolescence and into adulthood. Here we address the relationship conduct and hyperactivity problems at school entrance, and vocabulary acquisition in adolescence. We compare performance in identical assessments across two…

Two original studies explored relationships between visual attention of children with ASD (candidates for receiving a service dog) and their behaviors during their first interaction with a service dog. The first study consisted in video behavioural analyses of 16 children with ASD interacting with a service dog. During the interaction with a…

This work analyzes spontaneous cooperation between children who participated in Automata for STEM, European Union funded Erasmus+ project workshops. Taking into account the characteristics of automata, that involve a narrative part and a mechanism, the project used them to implement contextualized and interdisciplinary STEM activities. The…

The concept of open functions was introduced to capture an intended feature of van Eyck's seminal play sculptures -- they do not suggest a specific action. In a recent study, Van der Schaaf, A. L., S. R. Caljouw, and R. Withagen. (2020. "Are Children Attracted to Play Elements with an Open Function?" "Ecological Psychology" 32:…

This meta-analytic study examined the associations between child-father attachment in early childhood and children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. Based on 15 samples (N = 1,304 dyads), the association between child-father attachment insecurity and externalizing behaviors was significant and moderate in magnitude (r = 0.18,…

Prior studies investigating restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) subtypes within autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have found varied factor structures for symptom groupings, in part, due to variation in symptom measurement and broad sample age ranges. This study examined RRBs among 827 preschool-age children, ages 35 to 71 months, through an…

This study examined interparental conflict as a curvilinear predictor of children's reactivity to interparental conflict and, in turn, their school problems across three annual measurements. Participants included 243 preschool children (M[subscript age] = 4.60 years; 56% girls) and their parents from racially (e.g., 48% Black; 16% Latinx) diverse…

Background: Complications during pregnancy, postpartum and current maternal depression are risk factors that may affect child behavior in early and middle childhood. Objectives: This longitudinal study examined the associations between complications during pregnancy, postpartum and current depression, and child internalizing and externalizing…

Technology can provide children new opportunities to dive into the internet and play online games. Parents are showing concerns towards losing the ability to observe children's accession to technological devices. It is also growing concern that technological addiction has some negative impacts on young children. The purpose of this study was to…