Perspective taking and cognitive flexibility are important abilities for navigating our everyday lives. In this longitudinal study with 108 children (61 girls, mostly White), we investigated the developmental relation between Level 1 perspective taking at 27 months of age and Level 2 perspective taking at 52 months of age as well as relations to…

The component structure of executive functioning (EF) has been shown to change across development. Empirical research examining this in Sub-Saharan Africa is limited. We report the development of EF component structure with a large sample of Ghanaian children (n = 2,979) followed longitudinally from ages 3 through 12 across six waves. Existing…

Background: Computational thinking (CT) has emerged as a critical component of 21st-century skills, and increasing effort was seen in exploring the development of CT skills in K-12 students. Despite cumulative research on exploring students' CT acquisition and its influencing factors, learners' development of the skill over time and the underlying…

A basic question about bilingual development is how the acquisition of one language affects the acquisition of the other. Previous findings are few and mixed. The present study addressed this question with longitudinal data on the dual-language vocabulary growth of 149 US-born children from Spanish-speaking immigrant families, who were followed…

The construct of belonging has been studied in many marginalised student groups yet has been understudied among students with intellectual disability. The present study used a large dataset from the United States to quantitatively investigate the construct of belonging among 7th to 12th grade students with the educational classification of…

Intelligence (IQ) scores are used in educational and vocational planning for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) yet little is known about the stability of IQ throughout development. We examined longitudinal age-related IQ stability in 119 individuals with ASD (3-36 years of age at first visit) and 128 typically developing controls.…

Multifinality, equifinality, and fanning are important developmental concepts that emphasize understanding interindividual variability in trajectories over time. However, each concept implies that there are points in a developmental window where interindividual variability is more limited. We illustrate the multifinality concept under…

Integrative data analysis (IDA) was used to derive developmental models of depression, externalizing problems, and self-regulatory processes in three prevention trials of the Family Check-Up and one longitudinal, community-based study of girls over a 10-year span covering early to late adolescence (N = 4,773; 74.9% female, 41.7% white). We used…

Social skills are dynamic developmental constructs typically measured using assessments developed via cross-sectional methods. The measurement model of derivatives (MMOD), a factor analytic approach targeting individual growth trajectories, was used to evaluate the longitudinal factor structure of the Social Skills Improvement System--Rating…

Infant-directed speech (IDS) is characterized by a range of register-typical characteristics. Many of those can be objectively measured, such as acoustic-prosodic and structural-linguistic modifications. Perceived vocal affect, however, is a socio-emotional IDS characteristic and is subjectively assessed. Vocal affect goes beyond acoustic-prosodic…

During human childhood, brain development and body growth compete for limited metabolic resources, resulting in a trade-off where energy allocated to brain development can decrease as body growth accelerates. This preregistered study explores the relationship between language skills, serving as a proxy for brain development, and body mass index at…

The impact of a major historical event on child and youth development has been of great interest in the study of the life course. This study is focused on assessing the causal effect of the Great Recession on youth disconnection from school and work. Building on the insights offered by the age-period-cohort research, econometric methods, and…

Background: Although research clearly demonstrates the importance of motivation in mathematics learning, relatively little is known about the developmental dynamics between different facets of mathematics motivation and performance, especially in the early years of schooling. Aims: In a longitudinal setting, we examined (1) how children's ability…

Trajectories of stability and change in bullying roles were examined through a longitudinal prospective study of 916 school students followed up biannually from age 11 to 17. Perpetrators and victims had relatively stable trajectories with most of the children remaining in the same role over time or becoming uninvolved. Bully/victim was the most…

Girls, more than boys, experience a decrease in the severity of autism symptoms during childhood. It is unclear, however, which specific autistic behaviors change more for girls than for boys. Trajectories of autism symptoms were evaluated using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-calibrated severity scores (ADOS-CSS). Change in the…