To heal, grow, and thrive: Engaging Indigenous paradigms and perspectives in developmental science.

A focus on positive child development among Indigenous children has largely been absent from developmental science. In this special section of Child Development, we sought to address continuing inequity in representation and valuing Indigenous knowledge and voices by soliciting articles that identified cultural and strengths-based factors Indigenous children, youth, and families cultivate and leverage to promote positive development. In this introduction to the special section, we provide an overview of the four empirical articles included, with attention to the ways these articles advance Indigenous paradigms and methodologies by focusing on the unique histories and strengths of four distinct Indigenous communities.

When Parents Are at Fault: Development and Validation of the Parental Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale.

Research has linked individuals' dispositional guilt and shame to their interpersonal processes. Although caregivers' guilt and shame proneness in the parenting context likely have important implications for their mental health and parenting, there is a lack of validated measures for such dispositions. In three studies with Chinese parents, we developed and validated the Parental Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (PGASP), which was based on the Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (GASP).

My child and I: self- and child-reference effects among parents with self-worth contingent on children's performance.

Research shows that parents' self-worth may be contingent on their children's performance, with implications for their interactions with children. This study examined whether such child-based worth is manifested in parents' recognition memory. Parents of school-age children in China ( = 527) reported on their child-based worth and completed a recognition memory task involving evaluative trait adjectives encoded in three conditions: self-reference, child-reference, and semantic processing.

Parents' responses to their children's performance: A process examination in the United States and China.

This research examined the idea that children's inferences about their parents' goals for them is a possible mechanism by which parents' responses to their children's performance contribute to children's psychological functioning. American ( = 447; = 13.24 years; 49% girls; 95% European American) and Chinese ( = 439; = 13.

Youth's Negative Stereotypes of Teen Emotionality: Reciprocal Relations with Emotional Functioning in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

In Western society, there has been a history of perceiving adolescence as a time of "storm and stress," during which youth may go through heightened negative experiences such as conflict with parents, disengagement from school, and emotional dysfunction. Despite increasing attention to positive youth development, such negative stereotypes of adolescence may be held by youth themselves, which undermine their behavioral and neural development. However, youth's stereotypes of teen emotionality in particular (i.

An East-West contrast in executive function: Measurement invariance of computerized tasks in school-aged children and adolescents.

Existing cross-cultural findings related to school-aged children's executive function (EF) from studies using computerized tasks highlight both an East-West contrast (East > West) and potential methodological confounds (e.g., contrasting levels of computer fluency).

Early adolescents' stereotypes about teens in Hong Kong and Chongqing: Reciprocal pathways with problem behavior.

To elucidate the processes underlying the cultural construction of adolescence, this research examined youth's stereotypes about teens in Hong Kong and Chongqing, a relatively less developed city in Mainland China. Youth ( = 1,269) reported on their teen stereotypes and problem behavior in the fall and spring of 7th grade. Youth in Hong Kong (vs.

Do executive functions mediate the link between socioeconomic status and numeracy skills? A cross-site comparison of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

In the fields of education, sociology, and economics, there is a long-standing connection between socioeconomic status (SES) and school outcomes in a wide variety of cultural settings, but these studies have yet to examine the possible mediating effects of domain-general cognitive factors such as executive functions (EFs). Addressing this gap and building on evidence for links between EFs and numeracy, the current cross-cultural study used a large sample (N = 835) of 9- to 16-year-old children from Hong Kong and the United Kingdom to examine the independence and interplay of SES and EFs as predictors of numeracy skills. Our analyses yielded three key findings, namely that (a) EFs consistently predicted numeracy skills across sites and genders, (b) associations between SES and EFs differed by site and gender, and (c) associations between numeracy skills and SES/EFs differed by site and gender.

Implications of Chinese and American mothers' goals for children's emotional distress.

This research examined a cultural socialization model in which differences in Chinese and American parents' goals for children foster differences in children's emotional distress via parents' responses to children's performance. Chinese and American mothers and their children (N = 397; M = 13.19 years) participated in a 2-wave study spanning a year.

Children's Block-Building Skills and Mother-Child Block-Building Interactions Across Four U.S. Ethnic Groups.

Play offers an unparalleled opportunity for young children to gain cognitive skills in informal settings. Block play in particular-including interactions with parents around block constructions-teaches children about intrinsic spatial features of objects (size, shape) and extrinsic spatial relations. In turn, early spatial cognition paves the way for later competencies in math and science.

The Role of Mothers' Child-Based Worth in Their Affective Responses to Children's Performance.

This research examined whether American and Chinese mothers' tendencies to base their worth on children's performance contributes to their affective responses to children's performance. Study 1 used daily interviews to assess mothers' warmth (vs. hostility) and children's school performance (N = 197; M  = 12.

Efficiency of Executive Function: A Two-Generation Cross-Cultural Comparison of Samples From Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

Although Asian preschoolers acquire executive functions (EFs) earlier than their Western counterparts, little is known about whether this advantage persists into later childhood and adulthood. To address this gap, in the current study we gave four computerized EF tasks (providing measures of inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning) to a large sample ( n = 1,427) of 9- to 16-year-olds and their parents. All participants lived in either the United Kingdom or Hong Kong.

Immigrant Chinese Mothers' Socialization of Achievement in Children: A Strategic Adaptation to the Host Society.

Academic socialization by low-income immigrant mothers from Mainland China was investigated in two studies. Immigrant Chinese mothers of first graders (n = 52; M  = 38.69) in the United States (Study 1) and kindergartners (n = 86; M  = 36.

Why are Chinese mothers more controlling than American mothers? "My child is my report card".

Chinese parents exert more control over children than do American parents. The current research examined whether this is due in part to Chinese parents' feelings of worth being more contingent on children's performance. Twice over a year, 215 mothers and children (Mage  = 12.

European American and Chinese parents' responses to children's success and failure: implications for children's responses.

The authors examined cultural differences in parents' responses to their children's performance. In Study 1 (N = 421), Chinese 5th graders reported that their parents de-emphasized their academic success and emphasized their academic failure, whereas their American counterparts reported that their parents did the opposite. This partially accounted for Chinese (vs.

Mothers' affect in the homework context: the importance of staying positive.

This research investigated mothers' affect in the context of children's homework. Mothers (N = 109) of children 8 to 12 years old were interviewed daily about their affect while interacting with children, their assistance with children's homework, and children's behavior while completing homework. At this time and 6 months later, children's motivational and emotional functioning was assessed.

Children's achievement moderates the effects of mothers' use of control and autonomy support.

Two studies investigated the effects of parents' control and autonomy support on low- and high-achieving children. In Study 1, mothers' (N=110) involvement with children (7 to 10 years old) in the context of a challenging task was observed. During this interaction, mothers' control predicted diminished engagement and their autonomy support predicted enhanced performance for low-achieving children more than for high-achieving children.