Choosing adequate partners is essential for cooperation, but how children calibrate their partner choice to specific social challenges is unknown. In two experiments, 4- to 7-year-olds (N = 189, 49% girls, mostly White, data collection: 03.2021-09.2022) were presented with partners in possession of different positive qualities. Children then…

Longitudinal changes in trusting behavior across adolescence and their neural correlates were examined. Neural regions of interest (ROIs) included the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left anterior insula (AI), bilateral ventral striatum (VS), and right dorsal striatum (DS). Participants (wave 1 age: M =…

This study investigated familial attachment-based processes in middle childhood, using 788 families (50.6% boys; 84.4% White), assessed six times from 4.5 years old to Grade 6. An adapted Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model revealed between-family associations among couple emotional intimacy, relationships with both parents, and child social…

Strategic collaboration according to the law of comparative advantage involves dividing tasks based on the relative capabilities of group members. Three experiments (N = 405, primarily White and Asian, 45% female, collected 2016-2019 in Canada) examined how this strategy develops in children when dividing cognitive labor. Children divided…

This study investigates the relations between two forms of joint action (JA)--movement coordination (MC) and goal attainment--and theory of mind (ToM), contrasting the interactionist and traditional cognitivist views. A custom task was carried out to measure the properties of the JAs between children and their parents, while classical tasks were…

We examined 6- to 9-year-olds' (N = 60, 35 girls, 34% White, 23% Hispanic, 2% Black/African American, 2% Asian/Asian American, 22% Mixed Ethnicity/Race, 17% Unavailable, collected April-September 2019 in Providence, RI, USA) first-person perspectives on their exploration of museum exhibits. We coded goal setting, goal completion, and behaviors…

This study investigated the associations between cultural diversity approaches endorsed by teachers and adolescents' positive and negative intergroup contact in schools. Participants were 984 adolescents (M[subscript age] = 14.66; 62.7% female; 24.8% ethnic minority) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study between 2019 and 2020. Results…

Changes in family life related to globalization may include reduction in the collaborativeness observed in many Indigenous American communities. The present study examined longitudinal changes and continuities in collaboration in a Guatemalan Maya community experiencing rapid globalization. Fluid collaboration was widespread 3 decades ago among…

This study explored how overimitation and collaboration interact in 3- to 6-year-old children in Westernized (N = 48 in Experiment 1; N = 26 in Experiment 2) and Indigenous Australian communities (N = 26 in Experiment 2). Whether working in pairs or on their own rates of overimitation did not differ. However, when the causal functions of modeled…

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…

This study investigated young children's commitment to a joint goal by assessing whether peers in collaborative activities continue to collaborate until all received their rewards. Forty-eight 2.5- and 3.5-year-old children worked on an apparatus dyadically. One child got access to her reward early. For the partner to benefit as well, this child…

Several theoretical approaches have discussed the role of children's expectations of their parent's responsiveness in explaining motivation to collaborate in acquiring skills. This study attempted to measure these expectations in 102 toddlers (M age = 26.4 months) through observations of attention-seeking (A-S) behaviors during caregiver's…

This study examined relations between early behavioral inhibition and social and school outcomes in Chinese children (N = 200). Data on behavioral inhibition were collected from a sample of 2-year-olds in China. Follow-up data on social behaviors, peer relationships, and school performance were collected from multiple sources at 7 years of age.…

Children were tested to discover their rules for predicting the movement of a balance beam. The children worked with a partner who used the same rule or a rule evidencing more or less competence. Rules discovered in posttests were equally likely to show advances or declines in competence from pretest rules. (BC)

Human children 18-24 months of age and 3 young chimpanzees interacted in 4 cooperative activities with a human adult partner. The human children successfully participated in cooperative problem-solving activities and social games, whereas the chimpanzees were uninterested in the social games. As an experimental manipulation, in each task the adult…