The psychological mechanisms that subserve inductions about novel social categories in childhood are hotly debated. While research demonstrated that language, and in particular generic statements, plays a major role in how children learn to attribute properties to social categories, developmental theories propose other mechanisms. One theoretical…

This study examined children's emotion attributions and moral judgements to hypothetical procedural justice outcomes when the candidates were equal in merit but different in need. Children (7 to 11 years old, N = 88) were presented with four vignettes depicting resource-rich and resource-poor candidates losing educational materials and…

Extensive research demonstrates the far-reaching impacts of early childhood development (ECD) interventions, including both pre-primary education (PPE) and in-home nurturing. At the same time, a limited understanding of inequalities in ECD exposure across groups of children in many countries poses a fundamental challenge to effective policymaking.…

Background: Early childhood development (ECD) is pivotal in addressing educational inequality and reducing income disparities in South Africa. Government initiatives to integrate ECD into the education system underscore a positive trajectory. Aim: This study assesses the impact of relocating ECD to the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in South…

Across psychology, there is increasing recognition that the experiences of children from minoritized racial and ethnic groups are underrepresented. Research on prosocial behavior exemplifies this systemic bias. This paper suggests that measures of prosocial behavior should be revised to be more culturally equitable, in order to reflect the…

Current understanding of how culture relates to the development of children's gender-related peer preferences is limited. To investigate the role of societal acceptance of gender nonconformity, this study compared children from China and Thailand. Unlike China and other cultures where the conceptualization of gender as binary is broadly accepted,…

In the Indian context, the problem of the high proportion of out-of-school underprivileged children as well as the learning deficits in many such children in primary schools have raised concerns. Preparing these children for their journey through schooling has therefore been under the spotlight. The national Early Childhood Care and Education…

Frequent social comparisons can not only influence parents' well-being but also spill over to their children's development through intergenerational influences within the family. Using data from children and their parents, the current study shows that the higher parents' social comparison orientation is, the less their children are willing to…

There is near consensus that early childhood education and care (ECEC) is essential to children's early development. A common corollary is that early learning will be pivotal to helping redress inequities in educational outcomes. We examine whether this is true among rural communities in the Indian states of Assam, Rajasthan, and Telangana.…

In this paper I argue for a necessary -- and possible -- paradigmatic shift in early childhood scholarship that embraces multiplicity, diversity, ambiguity, uncertainty and shared situated knowledge creation in response to a profoundly changed global context. The contours of the new paradigm are already emerging as three interconnected…

Socioeconomic disparities in early language are widespread and have long-lasting effects. The aim of this study is to investigate when social gaps in language problems arise and how they change across the first years of schooling. We address this question in two large longitudinal Norwegian datasets: the Behavior Outlook Norwegian Developmental…

The article attempts to analyze critically the role of the modern school in the development of human potential. Based on the conducted research procedures (the focus group study of the parent community, the questionnaire survey N = 90), they determined the domination of parental position, according to which there is the lack of equal opportunity…

Very rarely is one considered ahead of his/her time. Janusz Korczak has been described by so many as being such a person. His criticism of the educational system in his time served as a motivational force for his innovative pedagogy. His beliefs, techniques and methods have been echoed by experts in special education as well as in gifted education…

This paper re-examines the purposes of a planned and intentional parenting style--"concerted cultivation"--for different middle-class groups, highlighting that social class fraction, ethnicity, and also individual family disposition, guides understandings of the purposes of enrolling children in particular enrichment activities. We…

Nordic welfare states have been very successful at reducing poverty and inequality among their citizens. However, the presence of a strong social safety net in these countries has not solved the problem of "socioeconomic exclusion", manifesting in such outcomes as chronic unemployment and welfare dependency. In an effort to understand…