Implications For Theories Of Development Research Articles

Maternal autonomy support in a randomized controlled trial of the Reminiscing and Emotion Training intervention

ObjectiveThe Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET) intervention targets and improves maltreating mothers’ elaboration and sensitivity in reminiscing (conversations about past emotional events), as well as children's emotion knowledge. However, in previous studies of RET, improvements in mothers’ elaborative and sensitive reminiscing did not explain improvements in children's emotion knowledge. Thus, we evaluated whether RET is associated with improved maternal autonomy support during reminiscing and whether improved autonomy support is associated with enhanced child emotion knowledge after RET. MethodsThe sample included 248 mothers (165 maltreating and 83 non‐maltreating) and their 3- to 6-year-old children involved in a randomized controlled trial of RET. At baseline, we assessed maternal and child receptive language, dyadic reminiscing, and children's emotion knowledge. Then, maltreating mothers were randomized either to receive RET or participate in an active control condition including case management and written parenting materials. Non‐maltreating mothers did not receive intervention and participated as an additional control group. Families then completed an eight-week follow-up assessment. ResultsMaltreating mothers displayed significantly less baseline autonomy support during reminiscing than non‐maltreating mothers (partial eta squared = 0.028). Contrary to hypotheses, RET did not significantly improve autonomy support. However, baseline autonomy support was significantly and positively correlated with children's emotion knowledge at baseline (r = 0.20) and follow-up (r = 0.18). ConclusionAutonomy support during reminiscing may play a role in the development of emotion knowledge. Implications for developmental theory and clinical practice are discussed.

Friendship attachment style, intolerance of uncertainty, and psychological distress among unaccompanied immigrant minors in times of COVID-19.

This cross-sectional study used a convergent parallel mixed-method design to investigate friendship attachment style, intolerance of uncertainty, and psychological distress among unaccompanied immigrant minors (UIMs) during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Participants were 80 male UIMs (Mage = 17 years, standard deviation = 0.84) hosted in residential care communities. Individual interviews comprising questionnaires and open-ended questions assessed the constructs of interest. Qualitative data were analyzed through thematic content analysis, whereas descriptive statistics and regression analysis were computed on quantitative data. Several UIMs mentioned positive relationships with peers, but more than half also felt reluctant to trust others and build new friendships due to events experienced before and during migration. However, in quantitative data, 69% identified themselves with the secure friendship attachment style. Regarding intolerance of uncertainty, participants expressed feelings of worry about the pandemic, but also emphasized their resources in terms of confidence, optimism, and planning skills, as well as being accustomed to uncertainty; indeed, levels of this variable were low-to-medium. In regression analysis, insecure attachment and higher intolerance of uncertainty were each associated with greater psychological distress. Moreover, psychological distress was lower among securely attached UIMs with low (vs. high) levels of intolerance of uncertainty. The findings suggest that, even in conditions of societal insecurity, UIMs display resilience and employ effective coping strategies; however, a lack of trust in peer relationships and the inability to tolerate uncertainty may undermine their psychological adjustment. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

The interplay between parenting and environmental sensitivity in the prediction of children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors during COVID-19.

The interplay of parenting and environmental sensitivity on children's behavioral adjustment during, and immediately after, the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions was investigated in two longitudinal studies involving Italian preschoolers (Study 1, N = 72; 43% girls, Myears = 3.82(1.38)) and primary school children (Study 2, N = 94; 55% girls, Myears = 9.08(0.56)). Data were collected before and during the first-wave lockdown (Studies 1 and 2) and one month later (Study 1). Parental stress and parent-child closeness were measured. Markers of environmental sensitivity in children were temperamental fearfulness and Sensory Processing Sensitivity. Results showed little change in externalizing and internalizing behaviors over time, but differences emerged when considering parenting and children's environmental sensitivity. In preschoolers, greater parenting stress was related to a stronger increase in internalizing and externalizing behaviors, with children high in fearful temperament showing a more marked decrease in externalizing behaviors when parenting stress was low. In school-aged children, parent-child closeness emerged as a protective factor for internalizing and externalizing behaviors during COVID-19, with children high in Sensory Processing Sensitivity showing a marked decrease in internalizing behaviors when closeness was high. Implications for developmental theory and practice in times of pandemic are discussed.

What do religion and natural science each have to say about origins, creation and evolution?

The purpose of this article is to put forward an acceptable scriptural stance with respect to an evolutionary worldview. The authors posit that a theologically orthodox position can best be substantiated when the moral ideal embodied in Christ is the starting point for all deliberations. In light of this premise, the authors consider the following topics: the great divide between science and religion; the various theoretical shifts taking place on both sides of the science and religion arena concerning the veracity of evolution a substantive consideration of Darwin’s evolutionary theory; the issue of whether Genesis is only a myth or a narration of literal, historical events and the profound implications of evolutionary theory for religious belief. The authors conclude that a choice does not have to be made between evolution and religion but between good and bad evolutionary theory and good and bad religious beliefs.Contribution: The article’s challenge is to not only show that science and theology are not in conflict, but also that ascribing to an evolutionary worldview when discussing God’s creative acts, is also not in conflict with God’s Word.

Using Harter and Likert Response Formats in Middle Childhood: A Comparison of Attachment Measures.

Self-report questionnaires based on Harter's response format ("Some kids . . . but other kids . . . ") are commonly used in developmental and clinical research settings, but the reliability and validity of this format in middle childhood are still under debate. The current study aimed to test the psychometric proprieties of Harter versus Likert response formats as applied to two attachment questionnaires in a sample of 410 Italian children aged 8 to 10 years. Participants completed the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised Child version (n = 102, 4-point Likert-type scale; n = 104, adapted Harter version) and the Security Scale (n = 95, Harter's format; n = 109 adapted 4-point Likert version). Results of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the two response formats exhibited comparable reliability and factorial validity, although a slight superiority of Harter's format emerged for the Security Scale. External validity was supported for both answer formats. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

Model-based network discovery of developmental and performance-related differences during risky decision-making

Theories of adolescent neurodevelopment have largely focused on group-level descriptions of neural changes that help explain increases in risk behavior that are stereotypical of the teen years. However, because these models are concerned with describing the “average” individual, they can fail to account for important individual or within-group variability. New methodological developments now offer the possibility of accounting for both group trends and individual differences within the same modeling framework. Here we apply GIMME, a model-based approach which uses both group and individual-level information to construct functional connectivity maps, to investigate risky behavior and neural changes across development. Adolescents (N = 30, Mage = 13.22), young adults (N = 23, Mage = 19.19), and adults (N = 31, Mage = 43.93) completed a risky decision-making task during an fMRI scan, and functional networks were constructed for each individual. We took two subgrouping approaches: 1) a confirmatory approach where we searched for functional connections that distinguished between our a priori age categories, and 2) an exploratory approach where we allowed an unsupervised algorithm to sort individuals freely. Contrary to expectations, we show that age is not the most influence contributing to network configurations. The implications for developmental theories and methodologies are discussed.

Children as mediators of their own cognitive development: The case of learning science in kindergarten and first grade

ABSTRACTAs the United States experiences greater income inequality, more and more students experience an early science achievement gap. This study tested several competing theoretical models of early science achievement with a longitudinal sample of 14,624 children who were followed from kindergarten entry to the end of 1st grade. To understand why and when differences emerge among children, we adopted a theoretical approach to study early science achievement because theories, if they are accurate, appeal to the factors responsible for achievement differences. Results from a structural equation modeling analysis revealed a mediation-only model provided an excellent fit to the data that was minimally changed when some of the indirect pathways were dropped and several direct pathways were added. This finding suggests that children who are more advanced in their understanding of science topics, have more expertise, or have more working-memory capacity are likely to process the same classroom material more effectively and completely than their classmates who have a less advanced understanding, less expertise, or less working-memory capacity. From a theoretical perspective, these findings provide strong support for individual theories of conceptual knowledge, expertise, working memory, and motivational development, and they also demonstrate the value of a large-scale, longitudinal, and multivariate approach for understanding science achievement. Implications for developmental theory and educational policy are discussed.

The Active Inference Approach to Ecological Perception: General Information Dynamics for Natural and Artificial Embodied Cognition

The emerging neurocomputational vision of humans as embodied, ecologically embedded, social agents—who shape and are shaped by their environment—offers a golden opportunity to revisit and revise ideas about the physical and information-theoretic underpinnings of life, mind, and consciousness itself. In particular, the active inference framework (AIF) makes it possible to bridge connections from computational neuroscience and robotics/AI to ecological psychology and phenomenology, revealing common underpinnings and overcoming key limitations. AIF opposes the mechanistic to the reductive, while staying fully grounded in a naturalistic and information-theoretic foundation, using the principle of free energy minimization. The latter provides a theoretical basis for a unified treatment of particles, organisms, and interactive machines, spanning from the inorganic to organic, non-life to life, and natural to artificial agents. We provide a brief introduction to AIF, then explore its implications for evolutionary theory, ecological psychology, embodied phenomenology, and robotics/AI research. We conclude the paper by considering implications for machine consciousness.

Risky business: Correlation and causation in longitudinal studies of skill development.

Developmental theories often posit that changes in children's early psychological characteristics will affect much later psychological, social, and economic outcomes. However, tests of these theories frequently yield results that are consistent with plausible alternative theories that posit a much smaller causal role for earlier levels of these psychological characteristics. Our article explores this issue with empirical tests of skill-building theories, which predict that early boosts to simpler skills (e.g., numeracy or literacy) or behaviors (e.g., antisocial behavior or executive functions) support the long-term development of more sophisticated skills or behaviors. Substantial longitudinal associations between academic or socioemotional skills measured early and then later in childhood or adolescence are often taken as support of these skill-building processes. Using the example of skill-building in mathematics, we argue that longitudinal correlations, even if adjusted for an extensive set of baseline covariates, constitute an insufficiently risky test of skill-building theories. We first show that experimental manipulation of early math skills generates much smaller effects on later math achievement than the nonexperimental literature has suggested. We then conduct falsification tests that show puzzlingly high cross-domain associations between early math and later literacy achievement. Finally, we show that a skill-building model positing a combination of unmeasured stable factors and skill-building processes can reproduce the pattern of experimental impacts on children's mathematics achievement. Implications for developmental theories, methods, and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Self-Construals and Social Adjustment in Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Early Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Executive Functioning.

This study examined whether executive functions (EFs) moderate the association between independent and interdependent self-construals and social adjustment in 488 Moroccan, Romanian, and Italian preadolescents (ages 11-13) in Italy. Participants were assessed using self-report questionnaires and standardized EF tasks. Better working memory was related to increased social competence across all groups. High levels of inhibitory control were found to enhance the positive relation between interdependence and prosocial behavior for native Italian youth, and between interdependence and social competence for Moroccan preadolescents. High levels of cognitive flexibility boosted the interdependence-social competence link for the immigrant groups, whereas among native Italian preadolescents, the interdependence-social competence link was significant at low levels of flexibility. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

The Local Impact of Globalization in South and Southeast Asia

The Local Impact of Globalization in South and Southeast Asia. Edited by Bart Lambregts, Niels Beerepoot and Robert C. Kloosterman. London and New York: Routledge, 2016. Pp. 219. The book under review touches an unexplored area: the impact of multinational service industries on local systems--society, culture, innovation, labour, class, industrial systems, etc. Researchers and policymakers, especially those in the developmental space, will benefit greatly from the book. The book uses simple qualitative research methods and descriptive statistical analysis, which makes it accessible to everyone. The hardbound book is divided into four broad parts under which three or four chapters are clubbed. These are: the broader framework of globalization of the services sector and how it manifests in India and Philippines; how it is different in smaller contexts like Hong Kong and Bangkok; the changes in labour and industrial organizations; and the rise of the new middle class due to the emerging service economy. Besides covering India (Mumbai) and the Philippines (Manila), the book also covers: China and its cities in the Pearl River Delta; Hong Kong; and Bangkok. The book clearly delineates what it wants to achieve in the first chapter, to analyse: the local impact of services offshoring in South and Southeast Asia in terms of opportunities; how the relationships between multinational industrial systems and local players are played out in various domains; and implications for theories of development. This is followed with Part I, consisting of Chapters 2 to 5, which contains some hits and misses. Chapter 2 provides the necessary historical details of service-sector-driven economic development while teasing out the theories of economic development. It can be a good introduction to junior scholars for an understanding of the role of the service sector in economic development. While the third chapter compares the business process offshoring (BPO) industries in India and Philippines and factors for development, Chapter 4 zooms into the BPO sector in the Philippines. Apart from raising some concerns about negative implications, the latter chapter's analysis is not deep enough and could have been better if merged with the earlier chapter. Although Chapter 3 does not have a strong theoretical framework driving it, it at least clearly differentiates software services from business processing in its analyses, unlike many studies in this area. Chapter 5 approaches its topic on global value chains and national innovation systems from a more wholesome perspective, laying the theoretical foundation nicely and making good efforts in collecting data. While the theories discussed pave an easy entry into the discussion on ecosystems in the Philippines, the data and its findings could have been described in greater detail. This chapter has the potential to be published as a research article in a good journal. Part II follows with three chapters. The sixth chapter, possibly one of the most well written ones in the book, describes the Pearl River Delta region (Guangdong province) in China and cautions that the single developmental approach might not fit all cities. The details presented here are not easily available, and it contains a table of typologies of business services economies that can serve as a framework for future studies. The seventh chapter introduces us to re-exportation in Hong Kong and explains it using secondary data. Although this chapter expounds on an interesting concept, it could have borrowed the framework from the earlier chapter for greater analytical strength. …

Mapping and predicting literacy and reasoning skills from early to later primary school

This study explored the relations between early indicators of literacy, numeracy and reasoning with later school performance in these abilities. In pursuit of this aim, appropriate tests were administered to 1073 children at the start of school in England who were divided into four age groups (mean ages of groups: 4.12, 4.37, 4.62, and 4.88years old) and again during their third year of primary school when they were six to seven years of age. Analysis of variance revealed large improvement in all abilities throughout the fifth year of life. Girls outperformed boys only in language but differences diminished extensively at the end of this year. Structural equation modeling showed that all three abilities of language, mathematics and reasoning emerge as distinct factors strongly related to a general ability factor (g) at both testing waves. General ability at the start of school highly predicted G in the third year of primary school at age 6–7years. The reading ability of children in the second half of the fifth year was also directly related to g at age 6–7, especially for girls. Implications for developmental theory and education are discussed.

What Is the Long-Run Impact of Learning Mathematics During Preschool?

The current study estimated the causal links between preschool mathematics learning and late elementary school mathematics achievement using variation in treatment assignment to an early mathematics intervention as an instrument for preschool mathematics change. Estimates indicate (n=410) that a standard deviation of intervention-produced change at age 4 is associated with a 0.24-SD gain in achievement in late elementary school. This impact is approximately half the size of the association produced by correlational models relating later achievement to preschool math change, and is approximately 35% smaller than the effect reported by highly controlled ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models (Claessens etal., 2009; Watts etal., ) using national data sets. Implications for developmental theory and practice are discussed.

Trajectories of adolescent hostile-aggressive behavior and family climate: Longitudinal implications for young adult romantic relationship competence.

The formation and maintenance of young adult romantic relationships that are free from violence and are characterized by love, connection, and effective problem-solving have important implications for later well-being and family functioning. In this study, we examined adolescent hostile-aggressive behavior (HAB) and family relationship quality as key individual and family level factors that may forecast later romantic relationship functioning. Guided by a family systems framework, we evaluated the reciprocal influences of adolescent hostility and family climate, to provide a more comprehensive picture of the etiology of romantic relationship functioning. We drew on a large sample (N = 974) of young adults (mean age = 19.5) that were followed starting in the fall of 6th grade, and subsequently in spring of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades prior to the young adult assessment. Using a latent difference score cross-lag model (McArdle, 2009), our results indicated that a more positive family climate was associated with decreases in HAB, but HAB was not associated with changes in family climate. Further, the influence of the family climate on HAB was consistent across all time points. HAB and family climate had different predictions for young adult romantic relationships: Increasing HAB over adolescence predicted relationship violence, while maintenance in family climate was a key predictor of relationship problem-solving skills. The only predictor of love and connection in relationships was early family functioning. Implications for developmental theory and prevention science are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Disinhibited Attachment Disorder in UK Adopted Children During Middle Childhood: Prevalence, Validity and Possible Developmental Origin

We investigate the prevalence, specificity and possible aetiology of Disinhibited Attachment Disorder (DAD) in adopted children without a history of institutional care. Sixty children adopted from UK out-of-home care (AD; mean age 102 months, 45 % male); 26 clinic-referred children with externalizing disorder (ED; mean age 104 months, 77 % male) but no history of maltreatment or disrupted care; and 55 matched low-risk comparison controls (LR; mean age 108 months, 49 % male) were assessed for DAD using a triangulation of parent, teacher, and research observations. Maltreatment history and child psychiatric symptoms were obtained from parent report and child language development was assessed. DAD was identified in 49 % of AD, 4 % of ED and 6 % of LR children. Seventy-two percent of AD children had suffered maltreatment. DAD was not associated with degree of risk exposure, demographics, or language. A significant association with ADHD did not explain variance in DAD prevalence across groups. DAD was significantly more common in children first admitted to out-of-home care between 7 and 24 months, independent of maltreatment severity, age at adoption and number of care placements. Implications for developmental theory, adoption policy and clinical application are discussed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10802-016-0131-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Endosymbiosis and its implications for evolutionary theory

Historically, conceptualizations of symbiosis and endosymbiosis have been pitted against Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. In more recent times, Lynn Margulis has argued vigorously along these lines. However, there are only shallow grounds for finding Darwinian concepts or population genetic theory incompatible with endosymbiosis. But is population genetics sufficiently explanatory of endosymbiosis and its role in evolution? Population genetics “follows” genes, is replication-centric, and is concerned with vertically consistent genetic lineages. It may also have explanatory limitations with regard to macroevolution. Even so, asking whether population genetics explains endosymbiosis may have the question the wrong way around. We should instead be asking how explanatory of evolution endosymbiosis is, and exactly which features of evolution it might be explaining. This paper will discuss how metabolic innovations associated with endosymbioses can drive evolution and thus provide an explanatory account of important episodes in the history of life. Metabolic explanations are both proximate and ultimate, in the same way genetic explanations are. Endosymbioses, therefore, point evolutionary biology toward an important dimension of evolutionary explanation.

Relationships between vocalization forms and functions in infancy: preliminary implications for early communicative assessment and intervention.

This preliminary study explored relationships between form and function in prelinguistic vocalizations to increase our understanding of early communicative development and to provide potential clinical implications for early communicative assessment and intervention. Twenty typically developing infants-5 infants in each of 4 age groups, from 3 to 20 months of age-were included. Vocalizations from these infants had previously been categorized for their form (Nathani, Ertmer, & Stark, 2006) and function (Stark, Bernstein, & Demorest, 1993) characteristics. In the present study, cross-classification tabulations between form and function were conducted to examine relationships between vocalization types and their apparent uses. As anticipated, earlier developing forms were mostly associated with earlier developing functions, and later developing forms were mostly associated with later developing functions. However, there were some exceptions such that some forms were associated with a variety of functions, and vice versa. The results suggest that some forms are more tightly coupled to function than others in the prelinguistic and early linguistic period. Preliminary implications for developmental theory, future research, and clinical applications are discussed. Larger, longitudinal studies with typical and atypical populations and stricter methodological controls are needed to validate these findings.

Eve and Evolution: Christian Responses to the First Woman Question, 1860–1900

Historians of encounters between evolutionary science and Christianity have long been aware of the significance placed upon debates about the applicability of evolution to Adam. It has not been widely noticed, however, that in more conservative circles the creation of Eve was frequently thought to be a more difficult problem to solve. This essay examines how, in distinctive ways, the creation of Eve became a point of contention among three communities of conservative Christian thinkers grappling with the implications of evolutionary theory in the period 1860–1900.

Bacterial natural transformation by highly fragmented and damaged DNA

DNA molecules are continuously released through decomposition of organic matter and are ubiquitous in most environments. Such DNA becomes fragmented and damaged (often <100 bp) and may persist in the environment for more than half a million years. Fragmented DNA is recognized as nutrient source for microbes, but not as potential substrate for bacterial evolution. Here, we show that fragmented DNA molecules (≥ 20 bp) that additionally may contain abasic sites, cross-links, or miscoding lesions are acquired by the environmental bacterium Acinetobacter baylyi through natural transformation. With uptake of DNA from a 43,000-y-old woolly mammoth bone, we further demonstrate that such natural transformation events include ancient DNA molecules. We find that the DNA recombination is RecA recombinase independent and is directly linked to DNA replication. We show that the adjacent nucleotide variations generated by uptake of short DNA fragments escape mismatch repair. Moreover, double-nucleotide polymorphisms appear more common among genomes of transformable than nontransformable bacteria. Our findings reveal that short and damaged, including truly ancient, DNA molecules, which are present in large quantities in the environment, can be acquired by bacteria through natural transformation. Our findings open for the possibility that natural genetic exchange can occur with DNA up to several hundreds of thousands years old.

Teaching ‘Evolution readiness’ to fourth graders

We describe a National Science Foundation-funded project called ‘Evolution Readiness’ that used computer-based interactive models as well as hands-on activities to help fourth grade students learn Darwin's model of natural selection as the process primarily responsible for evolution. The inclusion of ‘readiness’ in the title is important to keep in mind. A full understanding of evolution would require the acquisition of a detailed model of how information is encoded in DNA, interpreted in cells, and manifested in organisms and species. To understand the evidence presented by the fossil record and its implications for evolutionary theory would require an appreciation of the immensity of geologic time as well as a substantive introduction to geology and paleontology. These topics are not easily accessible to ten-year-olds, but we have found that children can successfully perform virtual experiments that explore the connection between the interdependence of species and their remarkable adaptations and recognize the latter as arising gradually from small variations that affect reproductive success. Working in three school districts, located in Texas, Missouri, and Massachusetts, we implemented a curriculum unit covering 16 class periods. In each state the elementary science standards include all the concepts we cover, but traditional curricula do not attempt to integrate these concepts or to use them to explain observations of the natural world. We compared students who had used our materials to a baseline cohort taught by the same teachers but exposed only to the traditional curriculum. The treatment students outscored the baseline students, demonstrating the feasibility of teaching young students the fundamental concepts behind the theory of evolution and thus preparing them to deepen their understanding when they next encounter the topic.