Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-07-24
Abstract： Distributive fairness is an important manifestation of children’s sense of fairness. When faced with unfair distribution, children engage in fairness maintenance actions such as first-party unfairness aversion and third-party intervention. Previous research suggests group identity may influence these behaviors, although findings are mixed. Additionally, resource acquisition methods can affect children’s fairness maintenance behaviors and their perception of group identity. This study examined how cooperative or non-cooperative resource acquisition and group identity jointly influenced the fairness maintenance behaviors of children aged 3 to 8 in both first-party and third-party positions. We hypothesized that (1) group identity affects the fairness maintenance behaviors of children, especially as third parties, and (2) cooperative resource acquisition moderates this impact. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 used an unfair game paradigm with resource redistribution to examine how resource acquisition methods and group identity influenced advantageous and disadvantageous unfairness aversion in children as first-parties. Experiment 2 used a third-party intervention game to investigate how these factors affected children’s intervention in unfair distribution among others. Experiment 2 classified unfair distribution schemes from the proposer’s perspective into selfish and generous distributions. Specifically, Experiment 1 employed a 2 (resource acquisition: cooperative, non-cooperative) × 2 (group identity: ingroup, outgroup) × 3 (distribution scheme: fair, advantageous unfair, disadvantageous unfair) × 3 (age group: 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 years) design. Experiment 2 used a 2 (resource acquisition) × 3 (group identity: ingroup-ingroup, ingroup-outgroup, outgroup-outgroup) × 3 (distribution scheme: fair, selfish, generous) × 3 (age group) design. Resource acquisition and age group were between-subject variables, while group identity and distribution scheme were within-subject variables. The study recruited 184 and 178 children from a kindergarten and a primary school in Hangzhou, China, for Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Both experiments included three stages: (1) group identity manipulation, (2) resource acquisition, and (3) unfair game/third-party intervention. Both experiments mainly used generalized estimating equations to analyze the data. Experiment 1 found that, except for children aged 3-4 who showed higher aversion to disadvantageous unfair distribution than to advantageous unfair distribution in the non-cooperative context, all children exhibited similar aversion to both types of unfair distribution schemes in both cooperative and non-cooperative contexts. However, we did not find any impact of group identity on unfairness aversion among children aged 3-8, regardless of whether they were in cooperative or non-cooperative contexts. Experiment 2, which used a third-party context excluding self-interest involvement from unfair distribution schemes, found that in the non-cooperative context, children intervened less in selfish distributions of ingroup-to-outgroup and ingroup-to-ingroup compared to outgroup-to-outgroup selfish distributions, demonstrating an ingroup preference. In the cooperative context, children intervened less in generous distributions of outgroup-to-outgroup and ingroup-to-ingroup compared to ingroup-to-outgroup generous distributions, demonstrating a more general ingroup preference. This study reveals that group identity influences children’s fairness maintenance behaviors as bystanders, moderated by resource acquisition methods. When resources are acquired independently, group identity affects children’s intervention in selfish distributions; through cooperation, it affects their intervention in generous distributions. These findings expand the theoretical framework on the development of children’s fairness behaviors.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-07-24
Abstract： Prosocial behavior benefits both individuals and society. Previous research has shown that human observers can influence the prosocial behavior of 5-year-old children. Psychological agency refers to the ability to think, make decisions, possess knowledge reserves, and interact responsively. Prior studies have indicated that the perceived psychological agency of robots affects children’s selective trust in them. Based on this background, this study aimed to understand the impact of social robots on children’s prosocial behavior in the context of human-robot interaction.
Experiment 1 (N = 162), examined the effect of different observer types on preschool children’s prosocial behavior, utilizing a 3 (observer type: human, social robot, none) × 2 (age group: 3 years, 5 years) between-subjects design. The experimenter had all participating children interact with a social robot before administering an animism test. Then, the children were randomly assigned to one of three groups: human observer, social robot observer, and no observer, and participated in an anonymous dictator game to share stickers. After the game, the experimenter asked the children for justifications for their sticker-sharing behavior. Experiment 2 further investigated the effect of different levels of robot psychological agency on 3-year-old’s prosocial behavior. In Experiment 2 (N = 192), the robot’s psychological agency was manipulated, such that robots with psychological agency showed the ability to think, make decisions, have knowledge reserves, and interact with others. 3-year-old children were assigned to interact with a social robot with psychological agency or one without psychological agency, as well as a control group. Children in the psychological agency group interacted with a social robot and then took an animism test. Subsequently, the children participated in the anonymous dictator game in front of the robot. The control group children did not interact with the robot and directly participated in the anonymous dictator game. Following, the experimenter interviewed children in each group and recorded the reasons for their sticker-sharing behavior. In both experiments, the experimenter recorded the number of stickers shared by the children after they left.
Study 1 found that 5-year-old children shared more stickers (exhibited more prosocial behavior) as compared to 3-year-old children. For 3-year-old children, the number of stickers shared in the human and robot observer conditions was significantly higher than in the no observer condition, with no significant difference between the human and robot observer conditions. Study 2 manipulated the psychological agency of social robots to explore its effect on the prosocial behavior of 3-year-old children. The results showed that 3-year-old children shared more stickers in the presence of a robot with psychological agency compared to the other two conditions. The study also explored the animism tendencies of children toward robots, indicating that 5-year-old children exhibited less animism than 3-year-old children. Furthermore, 3-year-old children attributed more psychological and life-like characteristics to robots with psychological agency as compared to those without.
The research confirms that observers influence children’s prosocial behavior and finds that the prosocial behavior of 3-year-old children is affected by the psychological agency of robots. Additionally, this study explores the animism tendencies of Chinese children of different ages toward social robots. These findings provide perspectives and foundations for future applications and research in the field of human-robot interaction.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-07-23
Abstract： Social evaluation refers to the capacity of a human being to assess the behavior and intention of others in a social context. As social beings, humans inhabit a profoundly interconnected world characterized by unceasing interpersonal interactions. Under this background, the manner in which individuals evaluate their peers acts as the foundation for comprehending the world. In particular, early social assessment serves as a precursor variable in the development of moral and prosocial behaviors in subsequent years. It is a pivotal factor in shaping an individual’s future prosocial tendencies. On the one hand, social evaluation aids in identifying suitable social companions, avoiding inappropriate or hazardous individuals, and making judicious decisions. On the other hand, it assumes a pivotal role in kindling an individual’s prosocial inclinations, guiding prudent behavioral choices, molding prosocial conduct, and fostering moral maturation.
Social evaluation capacity among adults primarily manifests through their quick acquisition of meaningful insights from the emotional, behavioral, and postural cues of others, enabling them to formulate corresponding assessments and behavioral responses. Similarly, infants exhibit the capacity to discern behavioral cues exhibited by others during social interactions, extrapolating insights into their motives and intentions and making apt assessments.
In 2007, Hamlin et al. published a study in Nature that reported that 6-month-old infants possessed social evaluative skills, responding differently to the “helping” and “hindering” behaviors of individuals during social interactions and showing greater preference for helpers (prosocial agents). Since then, researchers have continuously challenged the replicability of this result. In the present study, we used the classic “helper–hinderer” choice paradigm of Hamlin et al. (2007) and a violation of the expectation paradigm to examine the choice preferences and gaze duration of Chinese infants (age: 6.32 ± 0.34 months; total of 179, 86 were girls) in a social evaluation task, and their relationship with the temperament of infants. The results of the present study showed that the gaze duration of infants was significantly higher when a third party approached the hinderer than when a third party approached the helper in an expectation violation task. However, infants did not show a preference for the helper in the behavioral choice task as reported by Hamlin et al. Infants who scored higher in the surgency dimension of temperament were more likely to choose “helper” in the manual choice task.
In general, the results suggested that 6-month-old infants may already exhibit social evaluation ability to understand the behavior of others and infer their evaluation. However, individual differences are observed in this ability, which may be related to the temperament of infants.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-07-23
Abstract： Although social emotional issues in children and adolescents have received increasing attention, there is currently a lack of specialized image libraries designed to elicit their social emotions. This study establishes a Chinese Social Emotional Image Library suitable for eliciting social emotions in Chinese children and adolescents through two studies. Study 1 employed semi-structured interviews to explore the sources of social emotions in children and adolescents, finding that their emotions primarily stem from social scenes involving interpersonal interactions. Based on Study 1, Study 2 collected emotional images corresponding to these social scenes and experimentally assessed the arousal, valence, and motivation of the collected social emotional images. Study 2 revealed that positive, neutral, and negative social emotional images not only differ significantly in their ratings across dimensions but also exhibit high internal consistency reliability within each dimension. These findings indicate that the library has good validity and reliability, serving as a reliable tool for eliciting social emotions in Chinese children and adolescents.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-06-28
Abstract： Visual-motor integration (VMI) refers to the integration and coordination of fine motor skills and visual perception skills. Numerous studies have consistently demonstrated a strong correlation between VMI ability and reading, and the degree of correlation is adjusted by age. The developmental trajectory of the correlation between VMI ability and reading varies across different writing systems. In alphabetic writing system, the correlation tends to decline with age, but remains significant until secondary school. Conversely, in Chinese writing system, the correlation increases with age: starting from an insignificant correlation in preschool and lower grades of elementary school, it becomes significant in upper grades of elementary school as well as during adulthood. Future studies need to: 1) adopt a multifaceted approach to measure VMI ability encompassing both process-oriented and outcome-based assessments; 2) focus on determining whether VMI ability serves as an essential foundation for supporting reading development; 3) and elucidate the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying this correlation and its development.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-06-15
Abstract： Previous quantitative genetic studies have demonstrated that adolescent self-control is influenced by parenting and genetics. In most existing studies, researchers have explored only the impact of the interaction between a single gene and parental factors on adolescent prosocial behaviour, but exploration of the endophenotype mechanism underlying the impact of the interaction between genes and the environment on prosocial behaviour is lacking. According to social cognitive models of prosocial behaviors, sociocognitive and socioemotive traits may be important mediators of environmental and genetic interactions on individual behaviors. In recent years, the single-polymorphism G×E design has been criticized for unreliable findings and difficult replication. As a potential solution, researchers have constructed multilocus genetic profile scores (MGPSs) to explore how environmental factors interact with genetic factors to predict adolescent development. Therefore, this study examined self-control as a mediator of the link between parental emotional warmth and adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Furthermore, this study developed an MGPS composed of five functional SNPs (COMT gene rs6269, HTR2A gene rs6313, OXTR gene rs53576, OXTR gene rs2254295, and OXTR gene rs2254298) and examined whether the MGPS moderates the mediating effect of self-control.
Using a 2-time longitudinal design (6 months apart), this study recruited 880 adolescents by cluster sampling at T1 in Guangzhou, China. All adolescents completed questionnaires about parental emotional warmth, prosocial behavior, and demographic characteristics and provided saliva samples for DNA extraction. At T2, 723 adolescents remained in the study and reported their prosocial behavior and self-control. All polymorphisms were genotyped using SNaPshot analysis (Applied Biosystems).
After controlling for the baseline levels of prosocial behavior, parental emotional warmth positively and significantly predicted adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Self-control mediated the link between parental emotional warmth and adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the MGPS moderated the mediating mechanism but not the direct impact of parental emotional warmth on adolescents’ prosocial behavior, and the model coefficients were invariant for mothers and fathers. Specifically, the MGPS moderated the effect of parental emotional warmth on self-control such that the effect was stronger in adolescents with higher MGPS than in those with lower MGPS. For adolescents with higher MGPS, parental emotional warmth was related to higher levels of self-control, which in turn increased prosocial behavior. However, this mediating effect was not observed among adolescents with lower MGPS.
The results highlight the importance of examining multiple genes and endophenotypic mechanisms to explore the relationship between gene–environmental interactions and adolescents’ prosocial behavior and provide new evidence for the “environment×polygene–endophenotypic–behavior” research framework.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-06-14
Abstract： The emotional information conveyed through phonological prosody and facial expressions forms the foundation for human interpretation of others’ emotions and facilitates interpersonal interactions. Investigating how infants perceive, discriminate, and evaluate emotions embedded in these two modalities deepens our understanding of infants’ cognitive development and neural mechanisms. This paper comprehensively reviews emotion processing in infants, revealing that the temporal and frontal cortex play crucial roles in processing emotional speech and facial expressions. Although emotional processing involves both brain hemispheres, infants initially show a right-hemisphere advantage similar to adults. Within the first week after birth, infants can distinguish emotional information and exhibit a processing bias toward positive emotions. The bias gradually shifts to favor negative emotions around six months of age. By twelve months, infants’ negative emotional biases stabilize, and they can understand and respond to emotional cues from speech and facial expressions. Based on these findings, we propose the Developmental Theory of Emotional Bias. Importantly, cross-modal visual-auditory information significantly enhances infants’ ability to discern and understand specific emotions.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-05-29
Abstract： Prosocial behavior is a major aspect of social functioning in childhood and adolescence. Research has indicated relations between parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. However, the meachanims for the relations remain unclear, especially in non-Western countries. The primary purpose of the present longitudinal study was to explore the role of children’s group orientation in linking parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. Group orientation, characterized as concern for group welfare and interpersonal harmony, has been particularly emphasized in socialization and believed to regulate children’s behaviors in social interaction in Chinese collectivistic society. To address the gap in the literature, this study examined the transactional relations among perceived parental warmth, child group orientation, and child prosocial behavior with a focus on the mediating effects of group orientation.
Multi-wave longitudinal data were collected each year from Grade 4 to Grade 6 in a sample of five randomly selected regular public elementary schools in China (initial N = 1033; 49.5% girls; initial Mage = 10.28 years, SD = 0.69). Data on parental warmth, group orientation, and prosocial behavior were obtained from multiple sources including self-reports and teacher ratings. Measurement invariance tests were first conducted for the measures with multiple indicators across three times of measurement. Next, latent cross-lagged panel models were constructed to examine the relations among maternal/paternal warmth, group orientation, and prosocial behavior controlling children’s gender and parental educational level. Multigroup analyses were also conducted to examine gender differences in the models.
The results showed that maternal warmth positively predicted later prosocial behavior, and child prosocial behavior positively predicted later paternal warmth. Both paternal and maternal warmth positively predicted child group orientation, which in turn positively predicted child prosocial behavior; group orientation was a mediator of the contributions of parental warmth to prosocial behavior. Multigroup analyses showed no significant gender differences in the cross-lagged paths.
The findings highlight the crucial role that group orientation plays in the link between parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. The study has significant implications for early intervention to promote children’s prosocial behavior.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-05-13
Abstract： The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in health risk behaviors among children and adolescents. Moreover, these impacts have persisted even as life gradually has returned to normal. The changes in health risk behaviors among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic were primarily observed in the form of excessive screen time, reduced physical activity, increased sedentary behaviors, limited variety in food, irregular eating patterns, staying up late and getting up even later. This study aims to establish a family risk framework to elucidate the mechanisms driving these changes in health risk behaviors. This framework can be integrated with life history theory to provide insights into the lasting effects of these behaviors in the post-pandemic era. Future research should focus on long-term tracking of the developmental trajectories of health risk behaviors among children and adolescents. Moreover, there is a critical need for more empirical research to explore the complex interplay between family-related risk factors, life history theory, and health risk behaviors in this demographic. These research efforts will provide universal approaches for addressing children and adolescents’ health issues in situations such as major unforeseen events and natural disasters.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-04-29
Abstract： Objective:This study aims to further reveal the influencing factors of Internet addiction by studying the chain mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and peer alienation on the relationship between parenting style and Internet addiction.
Methods:The subjects were 373 students in Grade one and Grade two of a middle school in Quanzhou, Fujian Province. The method of questionnaire survey was adopted, and the survey tools used included the simplified Family Parenting Style Scale (S-EMBU),the Rejection Sensitivity Scale, the peer alienation dimension of Parent-Child Peer Attachment Scale(IPPA) and the Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS). SPSS25.0 was used to analyze the recovered data.
Results:(1) Positive parenting style was negatively correlated with rejection sensitivity, peer alienation and Internet addiction.
(2) Negative parenting styles were positively correlated with rejection sensitivity, peer alienation and Internet addiction.
(3) There are gender differences in positive parenting style, rejection sensitivity and peer alienation, indicating that boys have higher scores in positive parenting style than girls, while girls have higher scores in rejection sensitivity and peer alienation than boys.
(4) Rejection sensitivity and peer alienation play a chain mediating role in the influence of negative parenting styles on Internet addiction.
(5) Rejection sensitivity and peer alienation play a chain mediating role in the influence of positive parenting styles on Internet addiction.
Conclusion:Adolescents’ rejection sensitivity and peer alienation play a partial mediating role in the influence of parental rearing style on Internet addiction, that is, teenagers’ parents adopt positive parenting style, will reduce adolescents’ rejection sensitivity, thus reducing the generation of peer alienation, and finally reduce the degree of Internet addiction. If parents adopt negative parenting style, it will increase teenagers’ rejection sensitivity, increase the phenomenon of peer alienation, and finally increase their degree of Internet addiction.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Educational Psychology submitted time 2024-04-23
Abstract： As a crucial component of cognitive function, mathematical ability plays an essential role in an individual’s future development. Previous studies have highlighted significant differences in this ability between children from high and low family socioeconomic backgrounds. Executive functioning are the most reliable factor in explaining this disparity. However, fundamental questions remain about the mediating role of executive functioning in this relationship: (1) The role of specific subcomponents of executive functioning in their relationship. (2) The differences in the impact of socioeconomic status on various mathematical abilities through these executive functioning subcomponents. (3) The variations in the role of executive functioning in the relationship between socioeconomic status and both current and future mathematical abilities. Accordingly, our study explored the impact of socioeconomic status on the second and third graders’ mathematical operations, logical reasoning, and spatial imagination abilities, as well as the mediation role of interference inhibition, response inhibition, and working memory. A total of 185 second-grade students were followed for 20 months in two assessments. At the beginning of second grade, children were assessed on their working memory through forward and backward digit span tasks; their interference inhibition was assessed with the Stroop task; and their response inhibition was assessed via the Go/No-go task. Children’s socioeconomic status was assessed using their parents’ educational levels, occupational status, and Family Affluence Scale. The Chinese Rating Scale of Pupil’s Mathematics Abilities, which included subtests for addition, subtraction, number sequence, length estimation, and cube counting, was utilized to assess the children’s mathematical calculation, logical thinking, and spatial imagination abilities. We explored the main effects of socioeconomic status on children’s current and future mathematical abilities using structural equation modeling and simultaneously developed multiple mediation models to investigate how executive functioning components mediate these relationships. The results indicated that the three types of mathematical abilities in second graders showed significant improvement over the 20-month period; socioeconomic status in the second grade directly predicted mathematical abilities at the same grade level; and socioeconomic status could indirectly predict mathematical calculation abilities in the second grade and logical thinking abilities in the third grade through the mediating role of working memory. It is concluded that the present study extends previous research that has explored the mediation role of executive functioning between socioeconomic status and mathematical ability, demonstrating that working memory is a crucial cognitive factor that contributes to the explanation of this mechanism. It provides a scientific basis for educational and research professionals to develop interventions aimed at enhancing the mathematical abilities of children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-04-21
ZENG Zihao
LIU Shuangjin
YANG Qin
WANG Hongcai
LIU Chengzhen
ZHAO Qian
MENG Li
HE Zhen
LIU Xiuru
HUANG Ning
HU Yiqiu
Abstract： Adolescence has been conceptualized as a second ’sensitive period,’ marked by neuroendocrine developmental changes that heighten sensitivity to the environment. Faced with an increase in stressful life events, particularly those involving interpersonal relationships, there is a continuous rise in the incidence of internalizing and externalizing issues during adolescence, which negatively impacts personality development, academic performance, and physical health. Prior research consistently supports that positive and healthy interpersonal relationships significantly enhance adolescents’ social adaptability and levels of well-being. Conversely, negative interpersonal relationships, especially those characterized by danger and hostility, lead individuals to develop negative cognitive patterns and self-assessments, thereby increasing the risk of psychological crises. Additionally, certain genetic traits also influence the adolescent social adjustment. Although the risk of social adjustment is influenced by multiple factors, the potential for interactions between genetics and the environment remains promising, garnering attention from researchers in psychology, psychiatry, and epigenetics. Given this backdrop, this study aims to explore the moderating role of genetic risk in different forms of environmental stress and adolescent social adjustment (including depressive symptoms, prosocial behavior, and self-injure) through the assessment of multilocus genetic variations and the measurement of a critical environmental risk factor, namely, parent-child relationship.
Using questionnaires and DNA typing techniques, 700 adolescents (14.15 ± 0.63 years old) were selected from a junior high school in Hunan Province by whole group sampling. After obtaining informed consent from the school, parent and participants, they completed Parent-child Intimacy Questionnaire, Childhood trauma scale, Short Form of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale Prosocial Tendencies Measures and Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory. The genetic samples were sent to a professional biotechnology company for DNA extraction and typing. In study 2: The participants recruited in Study 1 via an experimental flyer. They completed emotional Stroop task and dictator games.
The results indicate the following: 1) HPA axis MGPS was only associated with mother-child relationship, and there were significant bidirectional correlations between parent-child relationships, Childhood trauma, depressive symptoms, prosocial behavior, and self-injure. 2) Utilizing the multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach, in the context of the depression equation, whether in the father-child relationship model or the mother-child relationship model, the interaction effect between parent-child relationships and Childhood trauma strengthens as the HPA axis system’s MGPS increases. 3) The interaction effect of G×E×E was found to impact adolescent prosocial behavior only in the mother-child relationship model. Furthermore, this interaction becomes significant when the standard deviation of the MGPS exceeds -0.14. 4) No G × E × E triadic interaction was detected in the parent-student relationship model. Subsequent binary interaction test between Childhood trauma and MGPS revealed that as MGPS increased, the impact of Childhood trauma on adolescents self-injure increased. 5) Results from three sensitivity analyses also demonstrate that multigene hereditary research exhibits greater efficacy and stability. 6) Supplementary evidence indicates the presence of the main effect of parent-child relationships in accuracy and response time for emotional words. Additionally, the interaction effect of G×E×E was identified in the mother-child relationship model.
In conclusion, this study demonstrates that the HPA axis multilocus genetic profile score moderates the adolescent stress sensitivity. Specifically, the HPA axis MGPS moderates the interaction between Childhood trauma and parent-child relationships, affecting adolescent social adjustment. Moreover, individuals with high genetic sensitivity exhibit a pattern consistent with the differential susceptibility model, wherein they display lower levels of depressive symptoms, self-injure, and higher prosocial behavior in positive environments, while the reverse holds true in adverse environments.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-04-09
Abstract： Anxiety disorders reach their peak prevalence during adolescence, significantly impacting young individuals’ physical and mental health. Current insights into the pathogenesis, evolution, and treatment of adolescent anxiety predominantly focus on fear processing at a conscious level, overlooking a crucial aspect: the prefrontal cortex and its top-down control functions are not yet fully developed in adolescents. Therefore, applying a top-down mechanism to clinical treatment for adolescents may have limitations. Moreover, exploring automatic fear processing may help to extend the knowledge about the pathogenesis of anxiety in adolescents. This is the first research combined with unconscious perception to explore the occurrence, development, and mechanism of anxiety in adolescents. Recruiting adolescents who are in anxiety or vulnerable to anxiety as subjects and integrating paradigms used for examining unconsciousness, we aim to explore: 1) the occurrence and development of unconscious fear processing, along with its underlying neural mechanisms in adolescents, and the impact of chronic stress hormones; 2) the role of unconscious fear processing in the development of anxiety in adolescents; 3) the noninvasive intervention for unconscious fear in adolescents.This project will provide scientific support for the prevention, recognition, and intervention of anxiety in adolescents and to promote all-round development of adolescents in physical and mental.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-04-08
Abstract： Parental coping socialization encompasses the interactive process through which parents impart cognitive, emotional, and behavioral strategies to their offspring, aiming to equip them with the essential abilities to effectively manage and navigate challenging situations. Empirical research, considering perspectives such as long-term developmental timelines, real-time contexts, and their integrations, has explored the implications of parental coping socialization, revealing its unique effects on the adjustment of children and adolescents. This study integrates these two models and proposes a dynamic process theory model of coping socialization based on a dynamic systems perspective. It refines the mechanisms of parental coping socialization in the adjustment of children and adolescents, considering both the long-term developmental and real-time situational timelines. This comprehensive model encompasses both the individual level of children and adolescents and the dyadic level of parent-child interactions. Future research can investigate the universality of parental coping socialization effects, delving deeper into the mechanisms by which parental coping socialization influences children and adolescents’ adjustment and their bidirectional relationships. This knowledge would provide a scientific basis for applying and promoting parental coping socialization in family education and clinical interventions.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-03-29
Abstract： Parent-child communication is pivotal in children’s education, with both parties actively engaging in discussion and influencing each other. These daily interactions are widely acknowledged as significant contributors to children’s developmental outcomes. While existing research has focused on examining parental effects or bidirectional relations over time, our understanding of child-driven versus parent-driven effects in momentary interactions remains limited. Furthermore, considering that children aged 5 and 6 have gained increased autonomy and self-regulation abilities, it is imperative to examine the dynamic processes within parent-preschooler dyads. In the current study, we used dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM) to explore the bidirectional associations between parenting behaviors and child behavioral responses during a conflict discussion task. Our aim is to determine whether the momentary interaction process is primarily driven by parents or by children themselves.
The study included 113 Chinese parent-child dyads (59 boys, Mage = 5.81 years). During the laboratory visit, the parent-child dyads were video-recorded engaging in a conflict discussion. Specifically, they were prompted to discuss a negative episode with the potential to lead to conflict in their daily lives. Trained observers rated parental supportive behavior, non-supportive behavior, child positive behavior, and child negative behavior on 4-point scales in 15-second epochs. Also, observers coded the resolution of the conflict discussion as compromise, win-loss, or standoff. For data analysis, we employed DSEM with Bayesian statistics to assess changes in parental parenting behaviors and child behavioral responses in their momentary interactions during the discussion task. Further, we conducted regression analysis to examine the effects of parental and child behaviors on the resolution of the conflict discussion.
The findings revealed that: (1) increases in children’s negative behavioral responses in a given 15-second epoch predicted increases in parental non-supportive parenting behavior in the next epoch; (2) children’s positive behavioral responses primarily predicted the resolution of the conflict discussion, with higher levels of positive behavior in children contributing to more constructive conflict resolution.
The current study provides evidence for the child-driven effect in moment-to-moment parent-child communication, highlighting the active role of preschoolers in shaping parent-child interactions. Our findings underscore children as proactive agents in their own socialization process and offer valuable insights for parenting practices. Specifically, parents should be mindful of their own non-supportive parenting behaviors when responding to their children’s negative reactions. To achieve constructive conflict resolution, it is crucial for parents to guide their children in developing positive strategies for behavioral regulation. Overall, our findings have practical implications for fostering effective parenting practices and nurturing healthy parent-child relationships.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2024-03-28
Abstract： Sharing our positive feeling with friends or turning to them for help when we are sad is immensely common in daily life. The process by which an individual consciously regulates the emotions of others is called interpersonal emotion regulation. Differ from intrapersonal emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation is influenced by the emotional state of both parties. This study aims to elucidate this influence on interpersonal emotion regulation, including interpersonal emotion regulation effect and strategy selection. Experiencing the same emotions helps to identify other’s emotion and help them control their emotions. If so, we can validate the mood-congruence effect in interpersonal emotion regulation and further explore the underlying mechanisms.
In this study, we used an adapted emotion selection paradigm. 51 pairs of best friends (experiencers and regulators) were randomly chosen from one university and filled out the Friendship Quality Questionnaire prior to the experiment. Each pair of best friends completed the experiment in two separate and quiet rooms. During the formal experiment, both of them were presented with different emotional events and their emotional state were recorded before and after the experiment of interpersonal emotion regulation. And then, the experiencers were asked to anticipate the strategy that the regulator may use. After that, the experiencers were first asked to share their emotional events or mood with the regulators and seek for help via WeChat. The regulators completed emotion regulation after receiving the help signals. The results showed the emotional consistency effect, that is, when the emotions of both sides(experiencers and regulators) were consistent, comparing with the regulation effects when the emotions were inconsistent, both the interpersonal regulation effect of experiencers and the self-regulation effect of regulators were better. Meanwhile when the emotions were inconsistent, negative emotions were preferentially regulated whoever in that emotion state. In addition, only in interpersonal regulation of negative emotions, the strategy matching degree is affected by the emotional state of the regulators. Experiencers experienced better interpersonal regulation in negative emotional states than in positive emotional states.
Based on the finding in Study 1, we speculate that the emotional consistency effect in interpersonal emotion regulation may partly originate from the preferential processing of negative emotions. By sorting through the previous literature, we thought that self-regulation by the regulators may led to the allocation of cognitive resources. Therefore, in Experiment 2 we set up an emotional congruence situation to verify our hypothesis. We randomly recruited 88 friend pairs from one university and divided them into three groups to participate in the experiment, including control group, self-focused attention group , friend-focused attention group. The procedure is similar to Experiment 1. And the difference is that in Experiment 2, the regulators were asked to adjust their attention tendencies to manipulate the cognitive resources allocated to interpersonal emotion regulation, and both of experiencers and regulators were presented with same emotional events. The results revealed that only in negative emotions state, the self-focused attention group has worse interpersonal emotion regulation effect and lower strategy matching degree than those of the friend-focused group.
These suggest that: (1) In interpersonal interaction, the effect of regulating the negative emotions of others is better than that of regulating the positive emotions. (2) Emotional consistency effect exists in interpersonal emotion regulation. That is, the effect of interpersonal emotion regulation is better when both of experiencers and regulators are in the same emotional state. When the emotional states are inconsistent, the regulators preferentially regulates the negative emotions whoever in that emotion state. (3) Only when interpersonal regulating negative emotions occurs, the allocation of cognitive resources caused by attention focusing on friend can effectively improve the strategy selection and regulation effect.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-03-24
Abstract： Mnemonic discrimination (MD) refers to the ability to accurately distinguish similar memory experiences, which relies on a neural computing mechanism known as pattern separation. Currently, mnemonic similarity task (MST) is commonly employed to measure and study MD. The elderly tend to exhibit a noticeable decline in MD. This decline is proved to be associated with damage to the structural and functional integrity of the medial temporal lobe, which occurs during the aging process. Some researchers have also suggested that the aging of the neocortex can influence MD. Given its reliance on the medial temporal lobe, MD can reflect abnormal brain structural damage and functional decline in the early stages of cognitive impairment. Thus, MST has significant potential in early identification of cognitive impairment. To further explore the causes of the decline in MD, future studies should employ more advanced imaging techniques to separately investigate the effects of aging in the dentate gyrus and CA3 subregion on MD. It is also critical to explore the neural mechanisms underlying age-related changes in MD, with a particular focus on neocortical regions like the prefrontal cortex. Large-scale prospective cohorts should also be established to validate the effectiveness of MST in early identification of cognitive impairment.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-03-10
Abstract： Currently, depression is increasingly prevalent among children and adolescents, thereby raising concerns about emotional dysregulation in this population. The pivotal role of emotional regulation ability in maintaining emotional stability and effectively managing one’s emotional state during adolescence is becoming more apparent. Understanding the dynamic nature of emotion regulation and its multi-stage processing is crucial for comprehensively elucidating the characteristics and causes of emotional dysregulation in depressed adolescents. To capture the dynamic nature of emotion regulation, the extended process model divides the emotion regulation process into three stages: identification stage, selection stage, and implementation stage, highlighting their mutual influence. Building upon this model, our study examines the characteristics of depressed adolescents across these three stages of emotion regulation, revealing deficiencies within each stage. Given the interconnectedness and continuity between these stages, future research can systematically investigate which specific impairments or disruptions in emotional dysregulation affect subsequent stages among depressed adolescents; to what extent they do so; and whether directive interventions can mitigate such effects. To achieve this goal more comprehensively, we propose employing the following methods: 1) integrating EEG technology with drift diffusion models to reconstruct the dynamic process of emotion regulation; 2) conducting a comprehensive investigation on individuals with varying degrees of depressive symptoms during adolescence; 3) focusing on dual aspects of abnormal emotional reactivity to explore intervention pathways and measures targeting emotional dysregulation in depressed adolescents.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2024-02-26
Abstract： China has now embarked on the new journey of rural revitalization from poverty eradication to the elimination of absolute poverty. The scientific topics of evaluating the living conditions after poverty alleviation, grasping the negative impacts of poverty experiences and changes on child development, and understanding the internal mechanisms are becoming crucial for rural revitalization. Considering the cumulative effects of poverty during growth, there are more potential poverty-related conditions that need to be considered. Besides, how children process and perceive the relevant information after experiencing poverty has often been the determining factor to their development. This study focuses on school-aged children in China who have experienced poverty, aiming to construct a multi-dimensional poverty model that is applicable in the current context. Based on scarcity theory, cognitive and fMRI experiments are proposed to examine the impact of poverty on children's executive function with scarcity theory, and reveal its attention and neural mechanisms. This study intends to provide a new intervention perspective for the cognitive development in impoverished children and support the healthy rural construction.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2024-01-20
Shunsen Huang
Xiaoxiong Lai
Cai Zhang
Xinmei Zhao
Xinran Dai
Mengdi Qi
Huanlei Wang
Wenrong Wang
Yun Wang
Abstract： Adolescents frequently encounter elevated levels of digital stress by exposure to digital media (e.g., smartphone stress). Their ongoing brain development increases adolescents’ susceptibility to digital stress, making them more vulnerable to its adverse effects. Among digital devices, smartphones are the most widely used ones by adolescents and a primary source of digital stress. The current study aims to investigate the robust association between digital stress, specifically smartphone stress, and adolescent mental health. The study also aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms of this association.
In Study 1, a multiverse-style analysis was employed to investigate the robust relationship between smartphone stress and mental health (depression and well-being) in a large sample of adolescents (N=74,178, male=39,129). This method was chosen for its robustness of various data manipulations to test the effect of interest, and median β and NSRPD (number of significant results in predominant direction) were used as statistical inference indicators of the effect. In Study 2, we conducted an intensive longitudinal design to examine the mechanism of how smartphone stress affects mental health among adolescents (N=477, female=214, Mage=12.67±.31). Before intensive longitudinal design, we assessed smartphone stress, well-being, and depression (T1). Subsequently, daily rumination (consecutive 17 days, T2) and daily negative mood (consecutive 18 days, T3) were assessed over a 35-day period. Upon intensive longitudinal design, we once again measured well-being and depression (T4). We found that rumination, negative emotion (NE), and rumination-NE (serial mediation) mediate the link between smartphone stress and mental health (smartphone stress-depression model, smartphone stress-well-being model).
Study 1 indicated that over half of adolescents (52.6% of grade 4 students and 78.2% of grade 8 students) experienced smartphone stress. Furthermore, smartphone stress strongly and robustly predicted depression (Median β = 0.37, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 160/160, p < 0.001, partial r2 = 0.172) and well-being (Median β = -0.14, p < 0.001, NSRPD = 160/160, p < 0.001, partial r2 = 0.011). Effect sizes from both outcomes (partial r2 > .010) are capable to inform policy and the public sphere. Study 2 revealed that rumination intensity, negative emotion intensity, and rumination-negative emotion intensity mediate the relationship between smartphone stress and depression. However, no mediation was found for rumination or negative emotion fluctuation. In smartphone stress-well-being model, negative emotion intensity and rumination-negative emotion intensity, but not rumination intensity, mediated the association between smartphone stress and well-being. Moreover, negative emotion and rumination-negative emotion fluctuation, but not rumination fluctuation, mediated the association between smartphone stress and well-being. Therefore, the intensity and fluctuation of rumination and negative emotion are common mediators in the relationship between smartphone stress and depression/well-being, while the effects of mechanisms are outcome-dependent.
The findings pinpoint the significant and robust effect of smartphone stress on depression and well-being among adolescents. The mediation of rumination and negative emotion in the relationship between smartphone stress and mental health probes into the mechanism of this relationship. These results support classic theories (e.g., the Emotional Cascade Model) and confirm and enrich the recent Media use-Digital stress-Mental health model. These findings could also inform future interventions for mental health problems related to smartphone stress.
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