Developmental Questions Research Articles

A Data Integration Method for New Advances in Development Cognitive Neuroscience

Combining existing datasets to investigate key questions in developmental cognitive neuroscience brings exciting opportunities and unique challenges. However, many data pooling methods require identical or harmonized methodologies that are often not feasible. We propose Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) as a promising framework to advance developmental cognitive neuroscience with secondary data analysis. IDA serves to test hypotheses by combining data of the same construct from commensurate (but not identical) measures. To overcome idiosyncrasies of neuroimaging data, IDA explicitly evaluates if measures across studies assess the same construct. Moreover, IDA allows investigators to examine meaningful individual variability by de-confounding source-specific differences. To demonstrate IDA’s potential, we explain foundational concepts, outline necessary steps, and apply IDA to volumetric measures of hippocampal subfields from 443 4- to 17-year-olds across three independent studies. We identified commensurate measures of Cornu Ammonis (CA) 1, dentate gyrus (DG)/CA3, and Subiculum (Sub). Model testing supported use of IDA to create IDA factor scores. We found age-related differences in DG/CA3, not but CA1 and Sub volume in the integrated dataset. By successfully demonstrating IDA, our hope is that future innovations come from the combination of existing neuroimaging data to create representative integrated samples when testing critical developmental questions.

The Future of Comparative Cognition: Answering Developmental Questions with Big Team Science

The Future of Comparative Cognition: Answering Developmental Questions with Big Team Science

Unlocking the Complexity of Neuromuscular Diseases: Insights from Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Neuromuscular Junctions.

Over the past 20 years, the use of pluripotent stem cells to mimic the complexities of the human neuromuscular junction has received much attention. Deciphering the key mechanisms underlying the establishment and maturation of this complex synapse has been driven by the dual goals of addressing developmental questions and gaining insight into neuromuscular disorders. This review aims to summarise the evolution and sophistication of in vitro neuromuscular junction models developed from the first differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into motor neurons to recent neuromuscular organoids. We also discuss the potential offered by these models to decipher different neuromuscular diseases characterised by defects in the presynaptic compartment, the neuromuscular junction, and the postsynaptic compartment. Finally, we discuss the emerging field that considers the use of these techniques in drug screening assay and the challenges they will face in the future.

Taking a lifespan approach to polygenic scores.

This commentary is a call to action for researchers to create and use genome-wide association studies (GWASs) with previously missed age groups (e.g., infancy, elderly), which will improve our ability to ask important developmental questions using genetic data to trace pathways across the lifespan.

Use of Population-Level Administrative Data in Developmental Science.

Population-level administrative data-data on individuals' interactions with administrative systems (e.g., health, criminal justice, and education)-have substantially advanced our understanding of life-course development. In this review, we focus on five areas where research using these data has made significant contributions to developmental science: (a) understanding small or difficult-to-study populations, (b) evaluating intergenerational and family influences, (c) enabling estimation of causal effects through natural experiments and regional comparisons, (d) identifying individuals at risk for negative developmental outcomes, and (e) assessing neighborhood and environmental influences. Further advances will be made by linking prospective surveys to administrative data to expand the range of developmental questions that can be tested; supporting efforts to establish new linked administrative data resources, including in developing countries; and conducting cross-national comparisons to test findings' generalizability. New administrative data initiatives should involve consultation with population subgroups including vulnerable groups, efforts to obtain social license, and strong ethical oversight and governance arrangements.

A SHOPPERS TALE: THE DIGITAL MARKETING INFLUENCE ON THE BEHAVIOR OF ONLINE SHOPPING USERS, A PHENOMENOLOGY

Online shopping has significantly transformed the way consumers buy their desired products in this technological era. This study aims to set out the lived experiences of online shoppers who have altered their buying behavior to a more transcended one especially amidst this pandemic. Method: This qualitative paper made use of a phenomenological research design to understand the lived experiences and perceptions of the participants relative to the central question: How do online marketing strategies affect the behavior of customers? Data were gathered using a one-to-one interview that consists of twenty-five developmental questions and were analyzed using an inductive approach in theme development. Results:Four major themes emerged out of the data gathered which are Product Management, Customer Relations, Buyer-Seller Relationship, and Business Gains. Online shoppers behavior was directly influenced by the digital marketing strategies in consideration to the assessed product, trend impact, customer concerns and satisfaction, and the benefits they can get using this online business platform. The study revealed that online shoppers developed skills and characteristics that affect their purchasing behavior relative to the digital marketing strategies. Conclusion: Digital marketing significantly influenced the purchasing behavior of online shopping users who used various strategies as a reflection of their rich lived experiences.Recommendation: Online products and services providers may consider the identified behaviors of online shoppers through responsive digital marketing strategies crucial in promoting and protecting the best interest of the companies and consumers.

Research Review: A guide to computing and implementing polygenic scores in developmental research.

The increasing availability of genotype data in longitudinal population- and family-based samples provides opportunities for using polygenic scores (PGS) to study developmental questions in child and adolescent psychology and psychiatry. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of how PGS can be generated and implemented in developmental psycho(patho)logy, with a focus on longitudinal designs. As such, the paper is organized into three parts: First, we provide a formal definition of polygenic scores and related concepts, focusing on assumptions and limitations. Second, we give a general overview of the methods used to compute polygenic scores, ranging from the classic approach to more advanced methods. We include recommendations and reference resources available to researchers aiming to conduct PGS analyses. Finally, we focus on the practical applications of PGS in the analysis of longitudinal data. We describe how PGS have been used to research developmental outcomes, and how they can be applied to longitudinal data to address developmental questions.

THE LUCID ADVANCEMENT: A PARADIGM SHIFT OF PARENTS TOWARDS DISTANCE LEARNING, A PHENOMENOLOGY

Background:Distance learning contributed significantly to the lived experiences of parents with children. The pandemic brought a sudden shift of school to home-based learning. Children are not yet mature enough to handle distance learning independently, while parents have to juggle workloads and family affairs, thereby experiencing challenges. Method: To better understand the lived experiences of Filipino parents regarding the sudden shift to distance learning, a qualitative phenomenological study was used. With the central question What are the common struggles and coping strategies of Philippine School Doha parents on the institutions distance learning education program?. The researchers conceived twenty-five developmental questions, which were asked to the participants during the semi-structured interviews. The collected data were transcribed and analyzed into themes. Findings: Filipino parents lived experiences towards the shift to distance learning can be divided into three main themes, namely Capability, Adaptability, and Productivity. Conclusion: A parents role and impact on childrens success in the online set-up are crucial yet required. Parents serve as a coach for their children, which lead students through their learning process. The capability to adapt by parents to the newly changed routine during a pandemic shows that many coping strategies are effectively working. Many parents have struggled but conquered hardships in terms of investments in necessary technologies and allowing time for their childrens studies. Enriching knowledge to students in distance learning has further enhanced their abilities, and some parents receive outstanding results from their children. Equally benefiting both parties increases the vote for distance learning more than face-to-face classes, which in conclusion, parents and students most likely prefer distance learning. Recommendations: The researchers recommend interviewing working or non-working parents with children attending distance learning and experiencing the new learning modality that affected their lifestyle and decisions.

Contributions of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to Child Development.

We describe the promise of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) for developmental researchers. FFCWS is a birth cohort study of 4,898 children born in 1998-2000 in large US cities. This prospective national study collected data on children and parents at birth and during infancy (age 1), toddlerhood (age 3), early childhood (age 5), middle childhood (age 9), adolescence (age 15), and, in progress, young adulthood (age 22). Though FFCWS was created to understand the lives of unmarried parent families, its comprehensive data on parents, children, and contexts can be used to explore many other developmental questions. We identify six opportunities for developmentalists: (a) analyzing developmental trajectories, identifying the importance of the timing of exposures for later development, (c) documenting bidirectional influences on development, (d) understanding development in context, (e) identifying biological moderators and mechanisms, and ( f ) using an urban-born cohort that is large, diverse, and prospective.

Regeneration in the phylogenetic empire: an interview with Peter Currie.

Regeneration in the phylogenetic empire: an interview with Peter Currie.

Factors Affecting the Long-Term Development of Specialized Agricultural Villages North and South of Huai River

Village-level agricultural specialization in China is becoming increasingly important for rural development. However, existing knowledge of specialized agricultural villages (SAVs) based on singular assessment criteria and data describing static time points becomes insufficient in addressing multifaceted developmental questions today. We examined the long-term development patterns of SAVs in Anhui, China, with attributes from multiple angles, and explored how local factors affected SAV development across space and time using random forest regression. We found that as time elapsed, economic rationality drove specialized farmers closer to sale dependency and made SAVs more susceptible to market and economic factors, which builds upon previous findings analyzing SAVs at specific time points and consolidates the importance of market factors in the long-term development of SAVs. However, this susceptibility manifests differently in these two geographically contrasting regions north and south of Huai River. The northern SAVs received increased influences from market and economic factors, while the southern SAVs were continuously controlled by market and location factors. The dynamic spatial and temporal patterns of the two regions point to different dependencies, which emphasized local sales in the north and distant sales in the south. We propose that policies and strategies regarding SAV development accommodate these dynamics and address appropriate influencing factors accordingly.

The clashing nature of rebelliousness: Nontraditional attitudes and counter-normative behaviors show divergent associations with intelligence.

Prior literature indicates that nontraditional attitudes are linked to higher intelligence. However, such attitudes in adolescence often accompany counter-normative, delinquent-type behaviors, which are themselves negatively linked with intelligence. This points to the possibility of suppression in the relationship between intelligence and nontraditional attitudes. We analyzed a large community sample of 17year olds (N=3330) with data on intelligence, nontraditional attitudes, and a diverse collection of self- and teacher-reported counter-normative behaviors. Developmental questions for these relationships were examined through cross-sectional comparisons between the adolescents and their parents as well as longitudinal analysis of the adolescent sample across emerging adulthood. Youth who endorsed nontraditional attitudes had lower school grades, earlier age at first sex, heavier substance use, and were perceived as more oppositional by their teachers. Each of these problem behaviors was inversely related to intelligence. Accordingly, the positive correlation between nontraditional attitudes and intelligence was much weaker in adolescents as compared to their middle-aged parents. Longitudinal analyses revealed that the association between nontraditional attitudes and intelligence strengthens in early adulthood. Associations between intelligence and sociopolitical attitudes can be obscured even by seemingly distal psychological characteristics.

Twins Separated at Birth: Across a Country and Around the World/Twin Research: Memorial Tribute to Isaac Blickstein, MD; Infanticide and Sacrifice of Archaic-Aged Twins and Triplets; Prehistoric Twin Burials; Highlights from a Conference on Three Identical Strangers/Media Reports: An Atypical Twin Father; An Actor's Twin Brother; Twin Link to Tulsa, Oklahoma Massacre; Superfetated Twins; Twin Comedians and Script Writers; Indian

Every reared-apart monozygotic (MZ) twin pair offers a fresh perspective on human developmental questions. This is true regardless of whether the co-twins were raised in the same country or across the globe. The members of two pairs of separated MZ female twins have recently come to attention. In one case the twins were raised by different families in Argentina; in the other case the twins were raised by different families in Sweden and Vietnam. The perceptions and perspectives of these twins are insightful. The twin research section that follows begins with a tribute to our late esteemed colleague, Dr Isaac Blickstein (1953-2020). Research concerning the infanticide and sacrifice of Archaic-aged twins and triplets and prehistoric twin burials is reviewed next. Highlights from a conference focused on the 2018 film Three Identical Strangers are also included in this portion. The final section of this article includes media reports of an atypical twin father, an actor's twin brother, a twin link to the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma massacre, the birth of superfetated twins, twin comedians and script writers and Indian twins' tragic loss to COVID-19.

Research Highlights

Research Highlights

Lateral Root Initiation and the Analysis of Gene Function Using Genome Editing with CRISPR in Arabidopsis

Lateral root initiation is a post-embryonic process that requires the specification of a subset of pericycle cells adjacent to the xylem pole in the primary root into lateral root founder cells. The first visible event of lateral root initiation in Arabidopsis is the simultaneous migration of nuclei in neighbouring founder cells. Coinciding cell cycle activation is essential for founder cells in the pericycle to undergo formative divisions, resulting in the development of a lateral root primordium (LRP). The plant signalling molecule, auxin, is a major regulator of lateral root development; the understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling lateral root initiation has progressed tremendously by the use of the Arabidopsis model and a continual improvement of molecular methodologies. Here, we provide an overview of the visible events, cell cycle regulators, and auxin signalling cascades related to the initiation of a new LRP. Furthermore, we highlight the potential of genome editing technology to analyse gene function in lateral root initiation, which provides an excellent model to answer fundamental developmental questions such as coordinated cell division, growth axis establishment as well as the specification of cell fate and cell polarity.

Urbanization in Nigeria, Enugu (the coal city) as an urban town: A historical review.

Following the discovery of coal at Udi hill in 1909 by two itinerant English geologists, A. E. Kitson and E.O. Thiele, Enugu was born as an urban town. The colonial government recognizing the discovered large coal field as a treasure of inestimable economic value commenced mining operations immediately. With the mining, the emergent coal city welcomed local and international immigrants. Before long, pre-existing Udi villages and jungles were incorporated as part of the new urban town. This study employing quantitative and qualitative methods of historical inquiry seeks to unravel the city's urban phenomenon with a view to evolving sustainable measures in urbanization in modern Nigeria. Three theories guide this study. These are the Human Ecology, Culturalist/Volutaristic and Ernest Raven stein's Push-Pull theories. The findings are that urbanization of Enugu raises a lot of critical developmental questions and policy issues especially on urban land use planning and administration, security and politics. The development of the city has left terrible consequences on the residents and the communities that play host to the city's settlements.

Beliefs, affordances, and adolescent development: Lessons from a decade of growth mindset interventions.

Beliefs play a central role in human development. For instance, a growth mindset-a belief about the malleability of intelligence-can shape how adolescents interpret and respond to academic difficulties and how they subsequently navigate the educational system. But do usually-adaptive beliefs have the same effects for adolescents regardless of the contexts they are in? Answering this question can reveal new insights into classic developmental questions about continuity and change. Here we present the Mindset×Context framework and we apply this model to the instructive case of growth mindset interventions. We show that teaching students a growth mindset is most effective in educational contexts that provide affordances for a growth mindset; that is, contexts that permit and encourage students to view ability as developable and to act on that belief. This evidence contradicts the "beliefs alone" hypothesis, which holds that teaching adolescents a growth mindset is enough and that students can profit from these beliefs in almost any context, even unsupportive ones. The Mindset×Context framework leads to the realization that in order to produce more widespread and lasting change, we must complement the belief-changing interventions that have been aimed at students with new interventions that guide teachers toward classroom policies and practices that allow students' growth mindset beliefs to take root and yield benefits.

Impacts of expressive writing on children’s anxiety and mathematics learning: Developmental and gender variability

Expressive writing (EW), or writing about one’s thoughts and feelings, has been posited to reduce the working memory (WM) load that pressure and anxiety can impose on test-takers. The mechanisms of EW are far from clear, however, and social and developmental questions about its role in shaping children’s engagement with academic contexts remain. We report a study with 250 10–12-year-olds (Mage = 11.55; SDage = 0.48; 127 females), exploring gender differences in these younger children’s use of EW before a high demand mathematics lesson on ratio. In contrast to the literature with adults, children assigned to EW had greater anxiety relative to control. The highest-achieving higher-WM girls also were most impacted by EW, showing decreases in immediate learning and retention relative to their counterparts who did not write expressively. A mediation analysis indicated that EW reduced learning gains by increasing children’s anxiety during the lesson, thereby suggesting that EW functioned quite differently from its use in older youth and adults. These data suggest that emotion regulation skills may be an under-considered mechanism that underpins benefits of EW in older adolescents and adults.

Boon or Bane: The Lived Experiences of the Robotics Club Members of Philippine School Doha at the Onset of Robotics

Background. The advent of robotics has certainly changed the world. Not only did it influence the way people live their lives, it has changed the way teaching and learning have always been done. In this regard, the present research centers on the lived experiences of the robotics club members of Philippine School Doha. It focuses on how the members view the robotics club. By learning their insights, recommendations can be cited to mitigate problems related to robotics and cite recommendations to make the robotics club more relevant in this 21st century setting. Method. This qualitative paper made use of a phenomenological research design to understand the lived experiences and perceptions of the participants, specifically Robotics club members, relative to the central question: “How do robotics club members of Philippine School Doha perceive the offered Robotics program of the school?” Data were gathered using one-to-one interview that consists of twenty-five developmental questions and were analyzed using an inductive approach in theme development. Findings. Findings have shown that students perceive robotics and the robotics club as gateway for the many breakthroughs in life. There are, however, a few hardware and software issues present. Nevertheless, it is still critical in preparing the students for the challenges of 21st century learning. Conclusion. The rise of robots from the early times up until now has undoubtedly brought great advancements in different areas, especially in the education setting. It is indeed a boon to students who are deeply immersed in technology. The robotics club would create highly-abled students who are imbued with critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Recommendation. To fill the literature gap, this paper suggests to future researchers to further expand the pool of participants to elicit a wider range of responses.

Motor Development Research: Designs, Analyses, and Future Directions

Throughout this special issue, different authors have discussed diverse aspects of past, present, and future motor development research. In such research, understanding how people move involves much more than studying motor behavior in individuals of different ages. Rather, empirical designs should embed some element of past, present, and future motor behavior into research questions, designs, methodologies, and interpretations. In this article, we provide an overview on the process of asking movement-related developmental questions and designing appropriate research studies that will answer them to provide a foundation for both new and returning investigators interested in studying human motor development. We compare descriptive and experimental approaches as well as longitudinal, cross-sectional, and alternative research designs, followed by a discussion of common statistical analyses suited for these designs. Through this discussion, we offer suggestions for the most appropriate ways in which to study developmental change. We finish with our thoughts on future directions for investigational methods within motor development research.