In This Issue

Adolescents in some countries and U.S. states are required to perform community service, and many national and nongovernmental agencies promote such service. Van Goethem, van Hoof, Orobio de Castro, van Aken, and Hart (p. 2114) find that while community service has broad benefits for adolescents, it's particularly effective when the activities are accompanied by reflection. They assessed findings from 49 studies from around the world conducted from 1980 to 2012 that involved almost 24,500 participants ages 12–20, focusing on identifying how reflection contributed to community service. While community service positively affected such areas as grades, self-esteem, and civic responsibility, structured reflection was found to be crucial to the benefits gained, especially when it was integrated with school curricula. Educators and families agree that parental involvement in adolescents' education is important. But it's unclear what parents do and what works to support adolescents' academic, behavioral, and mental health outcomes throughout middle and high school. Wang, Hill, and Hofkens (p. 2151) find that parental involvement in adolescents' education isn't as simple as more is better: Different types of involvement strategies are important for different types of outcomes. There are also important differences in the patterns of involvement and the effectiveness of involvement strategies between African American and European American parents. The results of this study of almost 1,500 ethnically diverse families (including adolescents in seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades) pave the way for developing targeted interventions and for providing strategic support to families and their teens. Omega-3 fatty acids, a group of nutrients that are found only in food, are important for good health. Some research shows that, in young children, more Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet are connected with better performance on tests of memory, ability to concentrate, and other mental processes. However, Omega-3 fatty acids might affect brain development even before birth. Rees, Sirois, and Wearden (p. 2131) considered whether the level of an Omega-3 fatty acid (DHA) in mothers' diet during pregnancy was connected with better performance by young children when they were 22 months old. About 70 women from high-income families were asked questions when they were 21–28 weeks pregnant, then again at 35–37 weeks of pregnancy, and their foods were recorded. Babies were tested at 22 months on a task involving memory, concentration, and understanding objects. On average, babies of mothers who had high DHA in the third trimester of pregnancy performed better than babies of mothers who had low DHA during that period. Since most women don't have enough DHA in their diet during pregnancy, the findings have implications for advising pregnant women about their DHA intake, especially during the last 3 months of pregnancy. Imitation isn't just the most sincere form of flattery; it's a great way to learn. that's what Nielsen, Mushin, Tomaselli, and Whiten (p. 2169) find in their study of about 175 children ages 3–6 from three different cultures (urban Australia, remote Australian Aboriginal, and South African Bushman communities) and a range of economic backgrounds. The work builds on research showing that children are prone to blanket copy something new they see an adult do, down to details that seem irrelevant. They find that while children from different cultures overimitate, most can transfer what they learned to different but related problems—though the Bushman children were less able to do so, perhaps for reasons related to poverty or cultural factors. Rather than being the expression of an immature mind, then, children's overimitation may be a key part of learning. By showing that imitation isn't restricted to the objects on which actions are learned but, for most, can transfer to other similar objects, the findings have implications for learning. As adults, we understand that what we prefer at age 20 may differ from what we will prefer at age 60. Without an awareness of such differences, planning for the future would be difficult. Although research has shown that children's ability to talk about and formulate simple plans for the future improves between ages 3 and 5, we know little about their understanding that preferences may change over time. Bélanger, Atance, Varghese, Nguyen, and Vendetti (p. 2419) find that 3-year-olds tended to believe that they would always prefer “child” items (e.g., Kool-Aid) over “adult” items (e.g., coffee), while 5-year-olds were able to envision their own grown-up selves, or the grown-up self of another child, preferring coffee. In this study of 240 Canadian children from predominantly White, middle-class backgrounds, 3- and 4-year-olds also found it easier to predict that another child's preferences would change than that their own preferences would. The study adds to research on future thinking and can inform how we understand development. How do people remember emotionally salient events and information? Dykas, Woodhouse, Jones, and Cassidy (p. 2185) examined how the way adolescents talk about their early attachment-related experiences affects their memory for emotionally salient events and information. They interviewed about 190 primarily White, middle-income eleventh graders to determine how they reflected on and discussed their childhood relationships with caregivers; how people think and talk about the attachment-related parts of such relationships may be relevant to how memory is formed. Results suggest that individuals recall and store emotionally salient information in memory in a biased way, and that these biases relate to how individuals talk about their early experiences. The findings show that individuals' memory for emotional and parent-related information may indeed be shaped and altered by attachment-related representations. As such, they have implications for clinicians, psychologists, and people in the legal system. According to self-socialization theories, once children develop an understanding of their gender identity, like little “gender detectives,” they seek out information relevant to their gender and undergo the process of becoming what they think it means to be a girl or a boy. While research has confirmed that children's early understanding of gender categories (e.g., girl, boy) is linked to an increased interest in play with gender-typed toys, the exact type of knowledge that matters for the development of gender-typed play is unclear. Zosuls, Ruble, and Tamis-LeMonda (p. 2202) looked at more than 210 toddlers from low-income, ethnically diverse homes (children were African Americans born in the United States, or of Dominican or Mexican ethnicity). They find that only once children develop an intergroup understanding of gender—one that involves the idea that their own gender (the ingroup) contrasts with the other gender (the outgroup)—do they change their play behaviors to become increasingly aligned with gender stereotypes. The study highlights how children develop an awareness of us and them that shapes their behavior while they're still quite young. Is identity—how we perceive ourselves, who we want to be, and how we think we're perceived by others—important for success in school? Students' ability to identify with the purposes and values of their school can affect their academic motivation, but different students may identify with academics in different ways. In their study of 600 urban African American and Latino American adolescents in sixth, eighth, and tenth grades, Matthews, Banerjee, and Lauermann (p. 2355) find that identity when it's defined as internal values (e.g., “Education is important to how I think of myself”) differs from identity when it's defined as social belonging (e.g., “The people in my school make me feel like I belong”). And for students who have low confidence in their academic abilities, perceptions of social belonging are especially important for academic effort and motivation. By illustrating the importance of belonging among students who have historically contended with disconnectedness in school, the study can inform educators' efforts. An estimated 1 in 68 children in the United States are affected by autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and gaps in our knowledge about these disorders limit our ability to detect and treat children early in life. Across two experiments with 6-month-olds, Libertus, Sheperd, Ross, and Landa (p. 2218) examined how almost 130 infants played with and manipulated small objects, and how long about 40 infants were able to grasp toys. Compared to infants in a control group, infants later diagnosed with ASD or with an older sibling with ASD showed reduced grasping and less mature manipulation of objects. The findings, among the first to suggest measurable differences in the motor domain between high- and low-risk children at 6 months, confirm and extend previous research identifying motor weaknesses in infants later diagnosed with ASD or at increased risk for ASD. As such, they have implications for paying attention to manual abilities as part of early detection and intervention of autism and related disorders, which have increased tenfold in the last decade. When does young children's drawing begin to show distinctively human characteristics? Saito, Hayashi, Takeshita, and Matsuzawa (p. 2232) compared drawing in about 60 human children and six chimpanzees, humans' closest living relatives. According to their longitudinal study, humans tended to complete the missing parts on an imperfect face even with immature motor control, while chimpanzees never completed the missing parts, instead marking the existing parts or tracing the outlines with fine motor control. This study, one of few directly comparing chimpanzees and human children on drawing, suggests that the differences aren't due to inadequate motor ability, but to conceptual issues: Both species put pen to paper and draw, but young children show signs of representational skill. Figures on paper may trigger imagination in humans and lead them to complete the missing parts, and this cognitive tendency may be absent in chimpanzees, the study suggests. Improving the academic skills needed for school entry could reduce inequalities in educational achievement, according to Chittleborough, Mittinty, Lawlor, and Lynch (p. 2247). They used information from almost 12,000 families in England to examine differences in educational achievement between 15-year-olds from poor backgrounds and those from more well-off backgrounds if academic skills at age 5 could be improved through interventions (providing extra support to parents and high-quality preschool for children have been found to improve children's ability to get the most out of school). Children born into poorer families were twice as likely as those born into the most affluent families to have a poor educational outcome at age 15. This difference was cut by about 15% when effective interventions were provided for all families, with more intensive support for those from poorer backgrounds. Millions of children in the United States live in homes where there is violence between parents. This kind of domestic violence increases children's chances of having difficulties in social, cognitive, and behavioral development. However, many children adapt well despite their exposure to family violence, raising questions about what factors contribute to healthy development in violent environments. Manning, Davies, and Cicchetti (p. 2263) took a longitudinal look at about 200 mother–toddler pairs in which income was low and there was, in two-thirds of the cases, some level of violent interactions with a male romantic partner who had had regular contact with both the mother and child over the past year. They sought to determine how sensitive parenting when the children were 2 altered children's emotional and social development 2 years later. They find that violence predicted later behavior problems only when children didn't have sensitive parenting as toddlers. Children who had sensitive parenting had fewer angry emotional responses to conflicts between their parents, which led to fewer behavior problems and more positive social behaviors over time. The findings can inform intervention efforts. Children who have been exposed prenatally to substances such as cocaine, alcohol, and opiates are at greater risk for developing problem behavior than children who haven't been exposed. But how does this happen, and why do some children who have been exposed do well despite growing up in adverse early environments? Conradt et al. (p. 2279) studied 860 primarily African American 11-year-olds from a mix of economic backgrounds—some had been exposed to substances prenatally and some hadn't. Findings: The way African American children respond to stress (as measured by their cortisol response) may explain how they develop problem behavior and how well they adapt to their early environments. Being exposed to substances prenatally led to exposure to more adversity early in life, which in turn was related to a flattened cortisol response and more externalizing behavior and delinquency. Less exposure to substances prenatally was related to less exposure to early adversity and greater reactivity to cortisol, which in turn was related to more positive student–teacher relationships and better executive functioning. The results have implications for public health, early intervention, and prevention. Biracial youth (children with parents of two different races) are the fastest-growing youth population in the United States. We know relatively little about how educational and social outcomes might be different for these youth. In their study, Gaither et al. (p. 2299) looked at almost 250 monoracial and biracial 3- to 8-year-olds from middle- to upper-income families: Monoracial children were White, Black, and Asian; biracial children were Black/White and Asian/White. They find that a child's racial group membership may influence learning and social preferences more for biracial children because these children have multiple racial group affiliations with which to identify. This may allow them to identify with a larger diversity of teachers, for example. Racial identity malleability has the potential to open up options for learning through expanded opportunities for affiliating with teachers and classroom peers from different backgrounds. The study is the first to offer evidence that the racial identity malleability known to exist for biracial adults is also present and developing early in childhood. Although adolescents often experience ethnic-racial discrimination, little is known about whether they experience discrimination from adults and peers in the same manner or to the same degree during middle school. Niwa, Way, and Hughes (p. 2339) looked at 585 low-income Dominican, Chinese, and African American urban public middle school students in grades 6–8 to determine whether different patterns of discrimination from adults and peers existed among ethnically diverse adolescents over time. They find no universal patterns of ethnic-racial discrimination: While some adolescents experienced no adult discrimination, others consistently experienced low discrimination from adults during middle school, with boys at a higher risk for membership in that group. And most adolescents were in groups who experienced high and moderate, but declining, discrimination from peers. The findings challenge the assumption of universal patterns of discrimination during middle school, and they illustrate the potential role of race and ethnicity in peer victimization and bullying. Head Start, the largest federally funded preschool program for disadvantaged children, is designed to prepare children academically and socially for kindergarten. Research has shown relatively small impacts overall on cognitive and social skills, which has led to controversy over its effectiveness and cost benefit. Using a new statistical technique, Cooper and Lanza (p. 2317) investigated data from the national, federally funded Head Start Impact Study, which was done to determine the program's effectiveness. They sought to determine whether certain types of children benefit more or less from the program. Findings: The most consistent, positive effect was on short-term cognitive outcomes (specifically, reading skills), but these didn't last. Bilingual children whose moms were married and had low levels of education also saw a positive effect, with benefits lasting into first grade. And children of single moms had more positive benefits. For other groups, there was little to no effect. If replicated with other groups, this study and its findings could inform policy, especially decisions related to which low-income children should be given priority for early education services. Children of immigrants are among the nation's fastest-growing demographic subgroups. Young children of immigrants are more likely to live in poverty and to enter school with fewer of the kindergarten readiness skills needed for early academic success. One way to promote readiness for this large and vulnerable group of children is the federal child care subsidy program. Johnson, Han, Ruhm, and Waldfogel (p. 2140) tested whether subsidies received in the preschool year are associated with immigrant children's school readiness in kindergarten. Although research has found negative or neutral effects of subsidies on child outcomes in the general population, this study finds some positive associations between subsidies and reading skills for children of immigrants, but only if the subsidy was used in a center rather than a home-based setting. The study used data on 2,900 kindergarten children from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort whose parents had low incomes when the children were preschoolers; the children were either native-born or children of immigrant parents. Keeping a secret can be challenging for children, both socially and cognitively. In their study of more than 100 Canadian 4- to 12-year-olds and their parents from a range of economic backgrounds, Gordon, Lyon, and Lee (p. 2374) find an association between children's social and cognitive development, on the one hand, and their ability to keep a secret for a parent, on the other. Overall, older children were more likely to keep the secret than younger children, and children who agreed verbally to promise to keep the secret were more likely to do so. Children who kept the secret throughout two interviews showed more trust in their parents and were rated more highly by their parents in executive functioning than children who didn't keep the secret. The findings suggest that the development of children's ability to keep secrets coincides with the development of other social and cognitive skills. The results can inform forensic situations as well as our general understanding of trust and secret keeping in children. Part of what makes us human is our ability to understand that people's behavior is motivated by what goes on in their minds, or theory of mind (TOM). While we understand that TOM develops in the preschool years and is related to social competence, we know less about how children's inferences about others' mental states relate to an understanding of how their own minds work. Lecce, Bianco, Demicheli, and Cavallini (p. 2404), in their study of about 60 Italian children ages 4 and 5 from a mix of socioeconomic backgrounds, find that it's possible to help young children develop TOM through dedicated training. Specifically, promoting children's understanding of others' minds helps them understand how their own minds work in a cognitive task, such as memory, and the effects of the training last 2 months. By identifying TOM understanding as a cognitive tool to enable children to develop sophisticated forms of knowledge about mental phenomena, the study has implications for teachers and parents. Positive peer relationships in childhood have been shown to affect later well-being and academic performance. Understanding the factors that contribute to healthy peer relationships is key for supporting how children initiate and maintain friendships. An important part of children's cognitive development that influences peer relationships is TOM understanding, that is, the ability to take someone else's perspective. In their longitudinal work, Fink, Begeer, Hunt, and de Rosnay (p. 2389) find that TOM understanding plays a particularly important role when children enter into a new peer group, such as during the first year of school—it helps them establish and maintain social relations with peers. However, once social position is established, it becomes largely self-maintaining and children's later TOM understanding no longer exerts a strong influence on their social position. This study looked at about 115 middle-class Australian 5-year-olds, most of whom were followed up a year later. The findings can inform the timing and design of interventions that help promote positive social interactions for children at risk of isolation and rejection by classmates.

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