The Effects of Parental Behavior on Infants' Neural Processing of Emotion Expressions

Infants become sensitive to emotion expressions early in the 1st year and such sensitivity is likely crucial for social development and adaptation. Social interactions with primary caregivers may play a key role in the development of this complex ability. This study aimed to investigate how variations in parenting behavior affect infants' neural responses to emotional faces. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) to emotional faces were recorded from 40 healthy 7‐month‐old infants (24 males). Parental behavior was assessed and coded using the Emotional Availability Scales during free‐play interaction. Sensitive parenting was associated with increased amplitudes to positive facial expressions on the face‐sensitive ERP component, the negative central. Findings are discussed in relation to the interactive mechanisms influencing how infants neurally encode positive emotions.     

Child and Adolescent Predictors of Personality in Early Adulthood

This study investigated development of the Big Five personality traits from early childhood into adulthood. An initial group of 137 Swedish children were assessed eight times between ages 2 and 29 years. Initial decreases in extraversion leveled off in early adulthood; agreeableness and conscientiousness increased from ages 2 to 29; neuroticism initially increased, leveled off in later childhood and adolescence, and decreased throughout early adulthood; while openness to experience showed an initial increase, then decreased and leveled off in early adulthood. Individual developmental trajectories varied significantly, particularly in relation to gender. Personality traits became increasingly stable, and the fact that childhood scores predicted scores in adulthood indicated that personalities are fairly stable across this portion of the life span.     

Relationship Reciprocation Modulates Resource Allocation in Adolescent Social Networks: Developmental Effects

Adolescence is characterized as a period of social reorientation toward peer relationships, entailing the emergence of sophisticated social abilities. Two studies (Study 1: N = 42, ages 13–17; Study 2: N = 81, ages 13–16) investigated age group differences in the impact of relationship reciprocation within school‐based social networks on an experimental measure of cooperation behavior. Results suggest development between mid‐ and late adolescence in the extent to which reciprocation of social ties predicted resource allocation. With increasing age group, investment decisions increasingly reflected the degree to which peers reciprocated feelings of friendship. This result may reflect social‐cognitive development, which could facilitate the ability to navigate an increasingly complex social world in adolescence and promote positive and enduring relationships into adulthood.     

CORRELATES OF CONDUCT PROBLEMS AND DEPRESSION COMORBIDITY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BOYS AND GIRLS RECEIVING SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

There is limited empirical research on the correlates of conduct problems (CP) and depression comorbidity during childhood. This study investigated 479 elementary school children (48.2% girls). It compared children with comorbidity to children with CP only, depression only, and control children on individual, academic, social, and family characteristics. The study also analyzed gender differences in the associations between correlates and comorbidity. Multinomial logistic regression results revealed that children with CP and depression had higher levels of anxiety and more school difficulties than children with CP only, more social difficulties and more severe attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms than children with depression only, and more difficulties in all domains than control children. Girls with CP and depression presented a particularly negative profile, including lower school abilities than CP and control girls, and lower social skills and more severe ADHD symptoms than control girls.  Implications for evaluation and intervention planning are discussed.     

Reading difficulties and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity behaviours: evidence of an early association in a nonclinical sample

Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often co‐occurs with reading disability. A cross‐sectional study in an Italian‐speaking, nonclinical sample was conducted in an attempt to document the existence of an early association between reading difficulties (RD) and ADHD behaviours. We recruited a sample of 369 children in their first year at primary school. Of the sample, 8.4% displayed RD; 7.0% had ADHD; 3.5% presented both RD and ADHD behaviours; 50% of the children with ADHD displayed RD; 41.9% of those with RD displayed ADHD behaviours. Low socioeconomic status was associated with a fourfold increased probability of displaying RD (odds ratio = 3.98), but not ADHD behaviours. In this nonclinical sample, we detected an early association between ADHD behaviours and RD. A key role in this association may be played by inattention symptoms, which occurred with significantly increased frequency also in the group presenting only RD.     

Iraqi,Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Adolescents' Beliefs About Parental Authority Legitimacy and Its Correlates

This study examined intra‐ and interindividual variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee adolescents (M_age = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians in Amman, Jordan. Confirmatory factor analyses showed distinct latent factors for moral–conventional, prudential, and personal legitimacy items. Older adolescents rated legitimacy lower for personal issues, but higher for prudential issues. Beliefs were associated with socioeconomic status (fathers' education, family size), particularly for personal issues, but were more pervasively associated with displacement‐related experiences. Greater war trauma was associated with less prudential legitimacy for all youth and more authority legitimacy over moral–conventional issues for Syrian youth. Greater hopefulness was associated with more authority legitimacy over all but personal issues.     

Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to foster such skills. This paper presents evidence on the importance of social and emotional skills; on how policy makers and schools are currently enhancing and monitoring such skills; and, on the existing gaps between knowledge, expectations and practices to mobilise these skills. The paper concludes by pointing ways in which education stakeholders can do more to better develop and mobilise the skills that drive individual's well-being and social progress. The paper draws on findings and frameworks that are being published in a full OECD report entitled ‘Skills for Social Progress: the Power of Social and Emotional Skills’ in the first half of 2015.