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AbstractVariations in parents' emotion socialization have been linked to children's social competence (SC) and behavior problems, but parental influences do not act independently of children's characteristics. A biopsychosocial model was tested, in which children's parasympathetic regulation of cardiac function and paternal and maternal socialization of negative emotions were examined as joint predictors of young children's SC and behavior problems at daycare and preschool. Mothers and fathers responded differently to children's emotions, and cardiac vagal tone moderated the relations between parents' emotion socialization and children's behavior in early childcare settings. Both maternal and paternal emotion socialization strategies were more strongly associated with preschool adjustment for children with relatively less parasympathetic self‐regulatory capacities than for more self‐regulated children. Paternal reactions to children's anger, and maternal responses to children's sadness and fear, were particularly closely tied to variations in SC and internalizing and externalizing problems.

This highly regarded handbook remains the leading reference and advanced text on socialization. Bringing together foremost authorities, the volume reviews the breadth of current knowledge on socialization processes across the lifespan. Contributors present cutting-edge theories and findings pertaining to family, peer, school, community, media, and other influences on individual development. Genetics and biology, cultural psychology, and affective science are given particular attention. Three themes guide the book the interdependence of biology and experience, the bidirectionality of socializat

AbstractMother's positive parenting predicts children's development of concern for others; however, it is unclear which distinct positive parenting behaviors contribute to children's concern for others. We examined the bidirectional associations between mothers' warmth and reasoning and children's concern toward an adult in distress at 4 and 6 years. We tested these associations in two independent samples with parallel methods, a U.S. community sample (Study 1, N = 83, 44% female, 73.6% White, median income range = $75,000–$90,000 USD) and a Canadian sample at risk for externalizing problems (Study 2, N = 98, 50% female, 82.7% White, median income range = $70,000–$80,000 CND). Child gender and externalizing problems were examined as moderators of these bidirectional socialization processes. In Study 1, a cross‐lagged model (CLM) found that maternal warmth positively predicted children's concern for others over 2 years, whereas children's concern for others inversely predicted future maternal reasoning. Multigroup comparisons found these lagged effects were unique to boys only. Study 2 partially replicated Study 1, revealing fully bidirectional socialization effects unique to boys. Maternal reasoning positively predicted the development of boys' concern for others over 2 years, and boys' greater concern for others at age 4 elicited greater maternal reasoning over 2 years. Maternal warmth positively predicted concern for others only for children with elevated externalizing problems. These findings support a differentiated approach to positive parenting research, revealing that distinct parenting behaviors may meet individual child needs uniquely.

AbstractUsing a sample of 99 2‐ to 5‐year‐olds (51 girls, 48 boys), we evaluated whether parent‐reported temperamental shyness was associated with prosocial behaviors with same‐aged peers, and considered parenting (use of elaborative emotion language) and parent and child gender as possible moderators of relations between shyness and prosocial behaviors. Active and passive forms of prosocial behavior were evaluated when children were with familiar and unfamiliar peers. There were no direct associations between shyness and peer prosocial behaviors. Fathers' emotion elaboration predicted more active prosocial behavior with familiar peers. There were significant moderating effects of parental emotion language, and parent and child gender, on relations between shyness and prosocial behavior. When mothers used more emotion elaboration, less shy children showed more active prosocial behavior toward unfamiliar peers and less passive prosocial behavior with familiar peers. Conversely, when fathers used more emotion elaboration, more shy boys engaged in more active prosocial behaviors with unfamiliar peers. These findings suggest that multiple social and contextual factors influence whether shy children become proactive helpers and sharers. Shy boys may particularly benefit from emotion elaboration from fathers whereas less shy children may be most prepared to benefit from mothers' emotion language.

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report higher levels of stressful interpersonal conflicts with others because of their divergence from heterosexual social norms. In a biopsychosocial model of minority stress, we tested diurnal cortisol slopes and internalized homonegativity (IH) as two potential mechanisms linking experiences of LGB-related stress to depression. The sample consisted of 27 lesbian and bisexual young women and 35 gay and bisexual young men ( N = 62; age, 17–27, M = 21.34 years) from the greater metropolitan area of Montréal, Québec. We predicted that (a) LGB-related stress, IH, and diurnal cortisol slopes would be positively associated with each other and with depression; and (b) flatter diurnal cortisol slopes and/or greater IH would mediate the link between LGB-related stress and depression. LGB-related stress, diurnal cortisol slopes, and IH were positively associated with depression, and mediation analyses showed that diurnal cortisol slopes mediated the link between LGB-related stress and depression. These findings suggest that external stressors associated with being LGB can impact individuals' physiological coping resources, thus affecting their psychological health.

AbstractThis 2‐year longitudinal study examined Mexican‐origin adolescents' need to belong and cognitive reappraisal as predictors of multiple forms of prosocial behavior (i.e., general, emotional, and public prosocial behaviors). Prosocial behaviors, which are actions intended to benefit others, are hallmarks of social proficiency in adolescence and are influenced by intrapersonal abilities and motivations that typically develop during adolescence. Yet, few studies of Mexican‐origin or other U.S. Latinx youths have examined whether such individual difference characteristics, specifically social motivation and emotion regulation skills, support prosocial behavior. In a sample of 229 Mexican‐origin youth (Mage = 17.18 years, SD = .42, 110 girls), need to belong, cognitive reappraisal, and general prosocial behaviors were assessed at ages 17 and 19. Emotional and public forms of prosociality also were assessed at age 19. Cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with concurrent general prosociality at age 17, whereas need to belong was positively associated with concurrent public prosociality at age 19. Moderation analyses revealed that general and emotional types of prosocial behaviors at age 19 were lowest for youth with both lower need to belong and less use of cognitive reappraisal at 19 years. Greater cognitive reappraisal skills and need to belong may reflect distinct motivations for engaging in varying forms of prosocial behavior in late adolescence.

AbstractEarly maternal depression is a risk factor that may have adverse effects on adolescent social skills. Although evidence indicates links between early maternal depression and social outcomes during early childhood, whether an association extends to adolescence needs further examination. We tested the possible long‐term association between early maternal depression and adolescent social skills using a national secondary dataset. A secondary objective was to test if maternal parenting at the transition to adolescence mediated the association, with the notion that adverse outcomes of early maternal depression could be ameliorated by positive parenting practices at an important developmental transition. Data were obtained from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Marginal structural modeling within the context of structural equation modeling revealed a significant association between early maternal depression and adolescent social skills while controlling for maternal depression during pre‐adolescence and adolescence. Maternal parenting skills partially mediated the association between early maternal depression and mother report of adolescent social skills. These findings have important implications for understanding the link between early maternal depression and adolescent social skills, and for informing parenting practices during pre‐adolescence.

Contexts for Young Child Flourishing uses an evolutionary systems framing to address the conditions and contexts for child development and thriving. Contributors focus on flourishing-optimizing individual (physiological, psychological, emotional) and communal (social, community) functioning.

AbstractAltruistic behavior after stress exposure may have important health and psychological benefits, in addition to broader societal consequences. However, so far experimental research on altruism following acute stress has been limited to adult populations. The current study utilized an experimental design to investigate how altruistic donation behavior among children may be influenced by (a) exposure to an acute social stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test modified for use with children (TSST‐M), (b) individual differences in stress physiology, and (c) social support from a parent. The sample consisted of 180 children (54.9% male, 45.1% female; mean age = 9.92 years, SD = 0.56 years) randomly assigned to one of three conditions involving the TSST‐M: (a) prepare for the TSST‐M alone, (b) prepare for the TSST‐M with a parent, and (c) no‐stress control group. Results revealed that children made larger donations post‐stressor if they were alone before the acute stressor, if they had moderate cardiac autonomic balance, reflecting both parasympathetic and sympathetic influence, and if they were older. Children who prepared for the TSST‐M with social support from a parent made comparable donations as children in the no‐stress control group, in accord with stress buffering models. Increased altruism following acute stress among children suggests that a comprehensive understanding of the human stress response needs to incorporate "tend‐and‐befriend" behavior—the tendency for humans to show increased altruistic behavior during times of distress.

AbstractExperiencing maltreatment in early childhood predicts poor parasympathetic regulation, characterized by low baseline parasympathetic activity and strong withdrawal of parasympathetic influence in response to tasks. The Promoting First Relationships® (PFR) program improves parental sensitivity toward young children in families identified as maltreating. Using a subsample from a randomized control trial, we examined whether parental participation in PFR had lasting effects on toddlers' parasympathetic regulation, as measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), relative to a resource and referral control condition. In addition, we examined whether parental sensitive and responsive behavior mediated or moderated associations between parent treatment group and children's RSA. More than 6 months after completing treatment, 29 families in the PFR condition and 30 families in the control condition were visited at home, and toddlers' RSA was assessed at baseline and during five moderately challenging tasks. Groups did not differ in baseline RSA, but differed in RSA reactivity to the tasks. Across tasks, toddlers of parents in the control condition manifested significantly larger RSA decreases than toddlers of parents in the PFR condition. Parental behavior showed divergent associations with RSA change for toddlers of parents in the PFR versus control condition, with PFR treatment predicting RSA change ranging from small decreases to increases in toddlers of parents who showed the most sensitive, responsive behavior in the 6 months following treatment. This preliminary study showed that the same intervention that improved parenting also improved toddlers' parasympathetic regulation in response to everyday activities, warranting further experimental investigation.

Models of the etiology of adolescent antisocial behavior suggest that externalizing problems may reflect a susceptibility to crime exposure and a diminished capacity for emotion introspection. In this study, adolescents of Mexican origin completed a neuroimaging task that involved rating their subjective feelings of sadness in response to emotional facial expressions or a nonemotional aspect of each face. At lower levels of neural activity during sadness introspection in posterior cingulate and left temporoparietal junction, and in left amygdala, brain regions involved in mentalizing and emotion, respectively, a stronger positive association between community crime exposure and externalizing problems was found. The specification of emotion introspection as a psychological process showing neural variation may help inform targeted interventions to positively affect adolescent behavior.

The present study examined adolescents' neural responses to social exclusion as a mediator of past exposure to a hostile school environment (HSE) and later social deviance, and whether family connectedness buffered these associations. Participants (166 Mexican‐origin adolescents, 54.4% female) reported on their HSE exposure and family connectedness across Grades 9–11. Six months later, neural responses to social exclusion were measured. Finally, social deviance was self‐reported in Grades 9 and 12. The HSE–social deviance link was mediated by greater reactivity to social deviance in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, a region from the social pain network also implicated in social susceptibility. However, youths with stronger family bonds were protected from this neurobiologically mediated path. These findings suggest a complex interplay of risk and protective factors that impact adolescent behavior through the brain.

AbstractThere is a paucity of research on how mothers and fathers socialize emotion in their adolescent sons and daughters. This study was based on 220 adolescents (range 11‐ to 16‐years‐old) who exhibit a range of emotional and behavioral problems and their parents. Parental responses to their children's displays of sadness, anger and fear were assessed. Mothers were found to be more engaged in their children's emotional lives than were fathers. With a few important exceptions (e.g., boys were punished for expressions of anger more than girls), adolescent girls and boys were socialized in much the same way. Parents of older adolescents were generally less supportive and more punitive toward emotional displays. Systematic links between adolescent problem status and parent approaches to emotion socialization were found. These findings on how parents socialize emotions in their adolescents have important implications for theory as well as practice.

AbstractThis study evaluated a comprehensive model of factors associated with internalizing problems (IP) in early childhood, hypothesizing direct, mediated, and moderated pathways linking child temperamental inhibition, maternal overcontrol and rejection, and contextual stressors to IP. In a novel approach, three samples were integrated to form a large sample (N=500) of Canadian children (2–6 years; M=3.95 years; SD=.80). Items tapping into the same constructs across samples were used to create parallel measures of inhibited temperament, maternal positive, critical, and punitive parenting, maternal negative emotionality, family socioeconomic and structural stressors, and child's IP. Multiple‐groups structural equation modeling indicated that associations were invariant across samples and did not differ for boys and girls. Child inhibition, less positive and more critical parenting, maternal negative emotionality, and family socioeconomic disadvantage were found to have direct associations with IP. In addition, maternal negative emotionality was associated with IP through more critical parenting, and both maternal negative emotionality and socioeconomic stress were associated with IP through less positive parenting. Results highlight the multiple independent and cumulative risk factors for early IP and demonstrate the power of integrating data across developmental studies.