To explore inequities in prenatal consultation and parental resuscitation decisions across high-mortality conditions.

Use of standardized feeding protocols and donor breast milk (DBM) have been studied primarily in infants born <1500 g and not examined exclusively in infants born >1500 g.

Growth in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is associated with increased global and regional brain volumes at term, and increased postnatal linear growth is associated with higher language scores at age 2. It is unknown whether these relationships persist to school age or if an association between growth and cortical metrics exists. Using regression analyses, we investigated relationships between the growth of 42 children born extremely preterm (< 28 weeks gestation) from their NICU hospitalization, standardized neurodevelopmental/language assessments at 2 and 4-6 years, and multiple neuroimaging biomarkers obtained from T1-weighted images at 4-6 years. We found length at birth and 36 weeks post-menstrual age had positive associations with language scores at 2 years in multivariable linear regression. No growth metric correlated with 4-6 year assessments. Weight and head circumference at 36 weeks post-menstrual age positively correlated with total brain volume and negatively with global cortical thickness at 4-6 years of age. Head circumference relationships remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Right temporal cortical thickness was related to receptive language at 4-6 years in the multivariable model. Results suggest growth in the NICU may have lasting effects on brain development in extremely preterm children.

To evaluate the impact of a standardized feeding protocol and donor breast milk (DBM) provision on clinical outcomes in moderate preterm infants (MPT, 29-33 6/7 weeks gestational age).

Widespread failures of replication and generalization are, ironically, a scientific triumph, in that they confirm the fundamental metascientific theory that underlies our field. Generalizable and replicable findings require testing large numbers of subjects from a wide range of demographics with a large, randomly-sampled stimulus set, and using a variety of experimental parameters. Because few studies accomplish any of this, meta-scientists predict that findings will frequently fail to replicate or generalize. We argue that to be more robust and replicable, developmental psychology needs to find a mechanism for collecting data at greater scale and from more diverse populations. Luckily, this mechanism already exists: Citizen science, in which large numbers of uncompensated volunteers provide data. While best-known for its contributions to astronomy and ecology, citizen science has also produced major findings in neuroscience and psychology, and increasingly in developmental psychology. We provide examples, address practical challenges, discuss limitations, and compare to other methods of obtaining large datasets. Ultimately, we argue that the range of studies where it makes sense *not* to use citizen science is steadily dwindling.

Attachment theorists claim that the quality of parental support is internalized as a mental representation of early relationship experiences. Increasingly, the content of attachment representations is evaluated by studying the extent to which adults demonstrate , either in the context of the Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) or during the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Preliminary evidence from a high-risk sample showed that AAI was more strongly associated with the quality of antecedent caregiving than was the more traditional approach to the measurement of adult attachment focused on the coherence of adults' AAI discourse (Waters, et al., 2017). Drawing on new coding of data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD), we found that AAI around age 18 years was significantly predicted by observations of maternal ( = .21) and paternal ( = .12) sensitivity assessed prospectively through age 15 years, and with attachment security in the first three years of life ( =.08). AAI was also associated with existing measures of adult attachment (s = .31-.42). Pre-registered analyses revealed that AAI performed in a manner roughly comparable to traditional, though more labor intensive approaches to coding the AAI. Based on all available evidence from the SECCYD and the pragmatic challenges and advantages of different narrative methods for assessing adult attachment representations (Booth-LaForce & Roisman, 2014; Steele et al., 2014), researchers seeking to measure attachment representations should strongly consider the strengths of the ASA in term of practicality, performance, and adaptability to various age groups across development (Waters & Waters, 2021).

Using a sample of 286 mothers and fathers from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, we tested the associations between the frequency and quality of parents' shared book reading (SBR) with infants aged 9 months, and language skills of infants aged 18 months, and whether infants' attention during SBR at 9 months mediated these associations. Frequency of SBR was parent-report and quality of SBR (i.e., number of reading strategies) and infants' attention were coded from recorded SBR interactions at home. The majority of mothers and fathers reported reading to their 9-month-olds at least weekly, and mothers reported reading, on average, significantly more often than fathers. There was large variability in parents' SBR quality ranging from 0 to 15 strategies per minute, with labelling being the most common. Path analysis showed that mothers' SBR frequency at 9 months was significantly associated with infants' receptive and expressive language skills at 18 months, whereas, SBR quality by either parent was not significant. Infants' attention did not mediate these associations. These findings suggest that early SBR is beneficial for language development and programmes targeting early language development should encourage both mothers and fathers to read often to their infants during the first year.

Joint attention (JA) is the purposeful coordination of an individual's focus of attention with that of another and begins to develop within the first year of life. Delayed, or atypically developing, JA is an early behavioral sign of many developmental disabilities and so assessing JA in infancy can improve our understanding of trajectories of typical and atypical development. This scoping review identified the most common methods for assessing JA in the first year of life. Methods of JA were divided into qualitative and quantitative categories. Out of an identified 13,898 articles, 106 were selected after a robust search of four databases. Frequent methods used were eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), behavioral coding and the Early Social Communication Scale (ECSC). These methods were used to assess JA in typically and atypically developing infants in the first year of life. This study provides a comprehensive review of the past and current state of measurement of JA in the literature, the strengths and limitations of the measures used, and the next steps to consider for researchers interested in investigating JA to strengthen this field going forwards.

This study examined whether parental sensitivity during distressing and non-distressing mother-infant interactions predicts changes in young children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) activity. Baseline RSA levels were collected from 83 children (49% female, 51% male) when children were 7 and 18 months old. Children's RSA reactivity and RSA recovery during the Still-Face paradigm were collected when children were 7 months and during the Strange Situation procedure at 18 months. Controlling for stability of RSA activity over time, maternal sensitivity during distressing interactions at 7 months predicted changes in children's baseline RSA levels (β = -.30) and children's RSA recovery (β = .25). Young children who experienced higher levels of sensitivity at 7 months had lower resting RSA levels and exhibited greater RSA recovery at 18 months. These results suggest that changes in young children's RSA activity are meaningfully related to their early caregiving experiences.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic has been implicated in increased mental health concerns for families of low income, we aimed to describe maternal perspectives about the pandemic's impact on their kindergartener's mental health during the 2020-2021 school year. We conducted 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with U.S. mothers with low income who had kindergarten-age children (50% male and 50% female). All participants were female, ranging in age from 24 to 44 years, and reported the following ethnic/racial identities: non-Hispanic Black or African American (41%), Hispanic of any race (36%) and non-Hispanic, White (23%). With a team comprising multiple researchers from varied disciplines (e.g., medicine, education and public health) our analytic process used an iterative approach for developing and revising codes and themes until we reached thematic saturation. Most mothers described negative impacts on social, behavioural and emotional aspects of mental health. Some described positive social impacts, including strengthened family relationships. Mothers described no positive changes to behavioural or emotional aspects of mental health. Maternal perspectives suggest the importance of prioritising access to screening and treating mental health needs to support children's kindergarten transition, mitigate pandemic impacts and plan for future disruptions.

Developmental scientists have adopted numerous biomarkers in their research to better understand the biological underpinnings of development, environmental exposures, and variation in long-term health. Yet, adoption patterns merit investigation given the substantial resources used to collect, analyse, and train to use biomarkers in research with infants and children. We document trends in use of 90 biomarkers between 2000 and 2020 from approximately 430,000 publications indexed by the Web of Science. We provide a tool for researchers to examine each of these biomarkers individually using a data-driven approach to estimate the biomarker growth trajectory based on yearly publication number, publication growth rate, number of author affiliations, National Institutes of Health dedicated funding resources, journal impact factor, and years since the first publication. Results indicate that most biomarkers fit a "learning curve" trajectory (i.e., experience rapid growth followed by a plateau), though a small subset decline in use over time.

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia Reactivity (RSA-R) correlates both positively and negatively with externalizing behavior in autistic individuals. These inconsistencies may result from task-based differences. This pilot study measured RSA-R in 4-to 6-year-olds, across two time-points, using four validated tasks with matched baseline and challenge periods. Social, cognitive, sensory, and emotional tasks were employed to evaluate the use of a domain-specific approach in measuring RSA-R in young autistic children.

Increasingly, researchers have operationalized Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)-derived attachment representations as reflecting individual differences in secure base script knowledge (AAI)-the degree to which individuals show awareness of the temporal-causal schema that summarizes the basic features of seeking and receiving effective support from caregivers when in distress. In a series of pre-registered analyses, we used AAI transcripts recently re-coded for AAI and leveraged a new follow-up assessment of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development cohort at around age 30 years (479 currently partnered participants; 59% female; 82% White/non-Hispanic) to assess and compare the links between AAI and traditional AAI coding measures at around age 18 years and self-reported romantic relationship quality in adulthood. Higher AAI predicted better dyadic adjustment scores in adulthood ( = 0.17) and this association remained significant controlling for other AAI-derived coding measures, as well as sociodemographic and cognitive functioning covariates. Findings extend previous evidence pointing to the predictive significance of AAI for multiple adult functioning domains.

In the still-face episode of the Face-to-Face/Still-Face (FFSF), parents are asked to become unresponsive. However, infant-parent interaction may be irrepressible, and there is some evidence that interaction during the still-face is associated with attachment outcome. To explore these questions, we independently coded the continuous affective valence of parents and 6-month-old infants (negative to positive) during the FFSF (=73) and assessed attachment at 15 months with the Strange Situation Procedure (=66). There was a mean positive correlation between moment-to-moment parent and infant affective valence, indicating synchronous affective interaction during the still-face. Higher levels of affect interaction during the still-face episode were detected in infants later classified as disorganized compared to securely attached. Findings underscore the importance of testing for still-face interaction and suggest that this interaction may be an unappreciated predictor of infant attachment outcomes.

Measures of parasympathetic regulation, such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), predict executive function outcomes, including inhibitory control, across childhood. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia augmentation tends to be associated with more maladaptive outcomes compared to RSA suppression, but the literature regarding RSA profiles and inhibitory control development across infancy and early childhood is contradictory. The goal of our current study was to examine the longitudinal and interactive effects of infant RSA during a frustrating task with negative maternal characteristics on inhibitory control during early childhood. Participants included 410 children (209 girls, 77.6% White, 92.9% non-Hispanic) and their mothers. With small to moderate effect sizes ( range from 0.124 to 0.143), we demonstrated that maternal negative affect when children were 36-months-old moderated the association between 10-month-old RSA during a frustrating task and 48-month-old inhibitory control, such that RSA suppression predicted higher levels of inhibitory control, but only when mothers exhibited high levels of negative affect. Our results highlight the biosocial framework under which child inhibitory control develops.

This study explores the cognitive development of children born to adolescent mothers within South Africa compared to existing reference data, and explores development by child age bands to examine relative levels of development. Cross-sectional analyses present data from 954 adolescents (10-19 years) and their first-born children (0-68 months). All adolescents completed questionnaires relating to themselves and their children, and standardized child cognitive assessments (Mullen Scales of Early Learning) were undertaken. Cognitive development scores of the sample were lower than USA reference population scores and relative performance compared to the reference population was found to decline with increasing child age. When compared to children born to adult mothers in the sub-Saharan African region, children born to adolescent mothers (human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] unexposed;  = 724) were found to have lower cognitive development scores. Findings identify critical periods of development where intervention may be required to bolster outcomes for children born to adolescent mothers.

The increasing adoption of open science practices in the last decade has been changing the scientific landscape across fields. However, developmental science has been relatively slow in adopting open science practices. To address this issue, we followed the format of Crüwell et al., (2019) and created summaries and an annotated list of informative and actionable resources discussing ten topics in developmental science: Open science; Reproducibility and replication; Open data, materials and code; Open access; Preregistration; Registered reports; Replication; Incentives; Collaborative developmental science. This article offers researchers and students in developmental science a starting point for understanding how open science intersects with developmental science. After getting familiarized with this article, the developmental scientist should understand the core tenets of open and reproducible developmental science, and feel motivated to start applying open science practices in their workflow.

Open science practices, such as pre-registration and data sharing, increase transparency and may improve the replicability of developmental science. However, developmental science has lagged behind other fields in implementing open science practices. This lag may arise from unique challenges and considerations of longitudinal research. In this paper, preliminary guidelines are provided for adapting open science practices to longitudinal research to facilitate researchers' use of these practices. The guidelines propose a serial and modular approach to registration that includes an initial pre-registration of the methods and focal hypotheses of the longitudinal study, along with subsequent pre- or co-registered questions, hypotheses, and analysis plans associated with specific papers. Researchers are encouraged to share their research materials and relevant data with associated papers, and to report sufficient information for replicability. In addition, there should be careful consideration about requirements regarding the timing of data sharing, to avoid disincentivizing longitudinal research.

Children's daily contexts shape their experiences. In this study we assessed whether variations in infant placement (e.g., held, bouncy seat) are associated with infants' exposure to adult speech. Using repeated survey sampling of mothers and continuous audio recordings, we tested whether use of independence-supporting placements was associated with adult speech exposure in a Southeastern U.S. sample of 60 4- to 6- month- old infants (38% male, predominately White, not Hispanic/Latinx, from higher SES households). Within-subject analyses indicated that independence-supporting placements were associated with exposure to fewer adult words in the moment. Between-subjects analyses indicated that infants more frequently reported to be in independence-supporting placements that also provided posture support (i.e., exersaucer) were exposed to fewer adult words and less consistent adult speech across the day. These findings indicate that infants' opportunities for exposure to adult speech "in the wild" may vary based on immediate physical context.

Descriptive developmental research seeks to document, describe, and analyze the conditions under which infants and children live and learn. Here, we articulate how open-science practices can be incorporated into descriptive research to increase its transparency, reliability, and replicability. To date, most open-science practices have been oriented toward experimental rather than descriptive studies, and it can be confusing to figure out how to translate open-science practices (e.g., preregistration) for research that is more descriptive in nature. We discuss a number of unique considerations for descriptive developmental research, taking inspiration from existing open-science practices and providing examples from recent and ongoing studies. By embracing a scientific culture where descriptive research and open science coexist productively, developmental science will be better positioned to generate comprehensive theories of development and understand variability in development across communities and cultures.

The current study investigated science identity development among Latinx university students selected for a critical race theory (CRT)-informed undergraduate research experience. Twenty students (12 female, 8 male; = 22.00; = 2.77) enrolled in biomedical-related majors at a 4-year university responded to open-ended questions regarding their identity as scientists at 2 weeks, 6 months, and 18 months after they began the program. Results illustrated a steady increase in the number of students identifying as scientists over 18 months. At 2 weeks into the program, only 35% of Latinx students felt like a scientist. At 6 months, 45% of Latinx students identified as a scientist. At 18 months, 70% of Latinx students reported feeling like a scientist. Results also revealed variation in science identity trajectories, with four trajectories viewed in the data: (1) , (2) , (3) , and (4) . The majority of students demonstrated a trajectory in which they reached science identity achievement (the feeling that they are "a scientist"). Our results provide evidence of the positive, longitudinal impact that a CRT-informed curriculum has on the science identity development of Latinx students. Implications surrounding future research and strategies to facilitate long-term Latinx student participation in the biomedical sciences are discussed.

The current study explores whether individual differences in the dimensional adjectives (e.g., big, tall) children , relates to individual differences in two non-verbal spatial abilities, spatial scaling and mental transformations, in bilingual children. The inclusion of English-Spanish bilingual children broadens the work in this area which has previously focused strictly on English language. Ninety-two English-Spanish bilingual children between 37.65 and 71.87 months (42 male) participated in the study. Results show number of dimensional adjectives preschool children utilizing a new interactive, tablet-based task relates to performance on non-verbal spatial tasks. This research supports hypothesized relations between spatial language and spatial abilities, introduces an effective tool for examining spatial language comprehension in young children, and improves generalizability by including a bilingual sample and testing comprehension in both English and Spanish.

The mental health and well-being of children and adolescents are critical public health concerns globally. This cross-sectional study analysed nationally representative data from the combined 2016-2022 National Survey of Children's Health ( = 239,534) to produce estimates of parent-reported diagnoses of children's anxiety, depression and behavioural or conduct problems, and to examine temporal trends for each condition. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic regression were used to examine the prevalence of the conditions by sociodemographic characteristics. Among children aged 3-17 years, 8.4% had anxiety, 3.7% had depression and 7.1% had behavioural or conduct problems. Between 2016 and 2022, there were increases in the prevalence of anxiety (6.9%-10.6%), depression (3.1%-4.6%) and behavioural or conduct problems (7.2%-7.5%). Older age and higher poverty were associated with higher odds of each condition, while having private insurance was associated with lower odds. Females had higher odds of anxiety (AOR = 1.22; 95% CI, 1.15-1.29) and depression (AOR = 1.48; 95% CI, 1.35-1.61), and lower odds of behavioural or conduct problems (AOR = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.41-0.48). Prevention, early intervention and improved access to mental health services are critical to reversing the ongoing trends of increasing prevalence of mental health conditions among children and adolescents.

Few empirical studies have explored variability in parenting behaviors observed in a mealtime setting as well as in a play setting with young children. We analyzed data from 282 parent-toddler dyads who participated in the Play & Grow study in the United States in 2017-2019. Parent-child interactions were video-recorded during play in the laboratory when the child was 18 months old and then during mealtime in the home 6-months later. Standardized coding procedures were used to rate parenting behaviors (sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, positive regard, detachment, intrusive control, negative regard). We describe correlations and differences and variability in parenting behavior between the two assessments and relative to child sex, gestational age, parent education level, household composition, and household income. Detachment was lower on average during play at 18 months compared to during mealtime at 24 months (Cohen's =-.40), and the other five parenting behaviors were greater on average during play than during mealtime (=.18-.43) Sociodemographic characteristics were unrelated to the magnitude of individual differences across contexts in any of the parenting behaviors. Implications for research on associations between parent-child interactions and risk for childhood obesity are discussed.

This study utilized the Early Growth and Development Study (N = 561 adoptive children; 57.2% male, 55.3% White), a study of children adopted at birth, to examine heritable (birth parent psychopathology) and prenatal risk (prenatal maternal distress and smoking during pregnancy), infant negative affectivity, adoptive parent over-reactivity and warmth as independent predictors of childhood externalizing symptoms. The current study evaluated if: (1) infant negative affectivity and over-reactive parenting are candidate mediators for the effects of heritable and prenatal risk on externalizing symptoms and (2) parental warmth weakens the influence of heritable risk, prenatal risk, negative affectivity, and over-reactive parenting on externalizing symptoms. There were main effects of heritable risk, infant negative affectivity, and over-reactive parenting on child externalizing symptoms. The study found no support for the hypothesized mediation and moderation effects, suggesting that targeting parental over-reactivity rather than warmth would be more effective in reducing risk for childhood externalizing symptoms.

Mindfulness training programmes have shown to encourage prosocial behaviours and reduce antisocial tendencies in adolescents. However, less is known about whether training affects susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence. The current study investigated the effect of mindfulness training (compared with an active control) on self-reported prosocial and antisocial tendencies and susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence. 465 adolescents aged 11-16 years were randomly allocated to one of two training programmes. Pre- and post-training, participants completed a social influence task. Self-reported likelihood of engaging in prosocial and antisocial behaviours did not change post-training, and regardless of training group, participants showed a higher propensity for prosocial influence than for antisocial influence. Finally, participants were less influenced by antisocial ratings following both training programmes.

Prior studies found hand preference trajectories predict preschool language outcomes. However, this approach has been limited to examining bimanual manipulation in toddlers. It is not known whether hand preference during infancy for acquiring objects (i.e., reach-to-grasp) similarly predicts childhood language ability. The current study explored this motor-language developmental cascade in 90 children. Hand preference for acquiring objects was assessed monthly from 6 to 14 months and language skill was assessed at 5 years. Latent class growth analysis identified three infant hand preference classes: left, early right, and late right. Infant hand preference classes predicted 5-year language skills. Children in the left and early right classes, who were categorized as having a consistent hand preference, had higher expressive and receptive language scores relative to children in the inconsistent late right class. Consistent classes did not differ from each other on language outcomes. Infant hand preference patterns explained more variance for expressive and receptive language relative to previously reported toddler hand preference patterns, above and beyond socioeconomic status (SES). Results suggest that hand preference, measured at different time points across development using a trajectory approach, is reliably linked to later language.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) with longitudinal survey data was used to test a proposed developmental model of the association of family income (with children aged 6-9) to parent behaviors (for children at 10 years of age) and adolescent cognitive achievement and behavior problems (at age 15). Data from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) and Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) provided a representative US sample ( = 953). The SEM measurement model of parent behaviors showed two robust latent variables representing parent distress (based on two measures) and parent support (composed of four measures of parent investment, cognitive stimulation, emotional warmth, and educational expectations for the child). The SEM structural model indicated that the relation between average family income between 1998 and 2001 for young children (ages 6-9) and adolescent cognitive achievement and behavior problems in 2007 (age 15) was almost entirely mediated by parent distress, parent support and material hardship, all measured in 2002. Results suggested that the structural model was strongest ( = .08) when all three mediating variables were included. These results provide a clearer picture of the developmental mechanisms by which family income becomes associated with adolescent cognitive achievement and behavior problems over time.

Children with elevated behavioural inhibition (BI) show context-inappropriate fear and dysregulated RSA across stressor tasks. However, few studies have examined dynamic RSA within tasks and relations to parent and child anxiety. Using piecewise growth modelling and multimethod baseline data from an intervention study of 151 3.5-5-year-old children and their parents, we examined relations between child social anxiety (SA), parent anxiety and their interaction in predicting children's RSA across social stressor tasks (e.g. learning about unfamiliar peers, Trier Social Stress). Within the sample, 49.63% of children were reported to be White, non-Hispanic/Latine ( = 67), 22% multiracial ( = 31), 14.81% Asian/Pacific Islander ( = 20) and 12.59% Black/African-American ( = 17). Furthermore, 64.44% of the parents were reported to be White, non-Hispanic/Latine ( = 87), 20% Asian/Pacific Islander ( = 27), 13.33% Black/African-American ( = 18) and 2.22% multiracial ( = 3). Children showed differentiated RSA reactivity and recovery within an anticipatory social learning task based on their level of clinically appraised SA. Relations between child SA and RSA across tasks was moderated by parent anxiety, specifically for dyads matched in anxiety. Findings provide support for the potential influence of both child and parent anxiety on children's parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) responses across specific self-regulatory tasks.