Early developmental insights into the social construction of race.

The way that societies assign people to racial categories has far-reaching social, economic, and political consequences. One framework for establishing racial boundaries is based on , which historically has been leveraged to create rigid racial categories, particularly with respect to being categorized as White. A second framework is based on , which can vary within families and across the lifespan, and is thus more likely to blur racial boundaries.

Children's recognition of causal system categories across superficially distinct events.

A deep understanding of any phenomenon requires knowing how its causal elements are related to one another. Here, we examine whether children treat causal structure as a metric for assessing similarity across superficially distinct events. In two experiments, we presented 156 4-7-year-olds (approximately 55% of participants identified as White, 29% as multiracial, and 12% as Asian) with three-variable narratives in which story events unfold according to a causal chain or a common effect structure.

Children use disagreement to infer what happened.

In a rapidly changing and diverse world, the ability to reason about conflicting perspectives is critical for effective communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. The current pre-registered experiments with children ages 7 to 11 years investigated the developmental foundations of this ability through a novel social reasoning paradigm and a computational approach. In the inference task, children were asked to figure out what happened based on whether two speakers agreed or disagreed in their interpretation.

How barriers become invisible: Children are less sensitive to constraints that are stable over time.

When making inferences about the mental lives of others (e.g., others' preferences), it is critical to consider the extent to which the choices we observe are constrained.

Humane genomics education can reduce racism.

Moving instruction "beyond Mendel" can counter inaccurate, essentialist views.

Why are there no girls? Increasing children's recognition of structural causes of the gender gap in STEM.

The gender disparity in STEM fields emerges early in development. This research examined children's explanations for this gap and investigated two approaches to enhance children's structural understanding that this imbalance is caused by societal, systematic barriers. Five- to 8-year-old children (N = 145) observed girls' underrepresentation in a STEM competition; the No Structural Information condition presented no additional information, the Structural: Between-Group Comparison (Between) condition compared boys' greater representation to girls' when boys had more opportunities to practice than girls, and the Structural: Within-Group Comparison (Within) condition compared girls' greater STEM representation when they had opportunities versus not.

Calculated Comparisons: Manufacturing Societal Causal Judgments by Implying Different Counterfactual Outcomes.

How do people come to opposite causal judgments about societal problems, such as whether a public health policy reduced COVID-19 cases? The current research tests an understudied cognitive mechanism in which people may agree about what actually happened (e.g., that a public health policy was implemented and COVID-19 cases declined), but can be made to disagree about the counterfactual, or what would have happened otherwise (e.

Children can represent complex social status hierarchies: Evidence from Indonesia.

Children's ethnicity-status associations are often studied in societies where one ethnic group possesses status across multiple dimensions, such as political influence and wealth. This study examined children's (6-12 years) and adults' representations of more complex hierarchies in Indonesia (N = 341; 38% Native Indonesian, 33% Chinese Indonesian, and 27% other ethnicities; 55% female, 36% male; 2021-2022), a society where ethnic groups hold distinct forms of status (on average, Native Indonesians have political influence; Chinese Indonesians have wealth). By 6.

Emphasizing others' persistence can promote unwarranted social inferences in children and adults.

People often hear stories about individuals who persist to overcome their constraints. While these stories can be motivating, emphasizing others' persistence may promote unwarranted judgments about constrained individuals who do persist. Using a developmental social inference task (Study 1a: = 124 U.

Thinking Structurally: A Cognitive Framework for Understanding How People Attribute Inequality to Structural Causes.

To make accurate causal inferences about social-group inequalities, people must consider . Structural causes are a distinct type of extrinsic cause-they are stable, interconnected societal forces that systematically advantage some social groups and disadvantage others. We propose a new cognitive framework to specify how people attribute inequality to structural causes.

Overheard evaluative comments: Implications for beliefs about effort and ability.

This research examined the effects of overhearing an adult praise an unseen child for not needing to work hard on an academic task. Five-year-old Han Chinese children (total N = 270 across three studies; 135 boys, collected 2020-2021) who heard this low effort praise tended to devalue effort relative to a baseline condition in which the overheard conversation lacked evaluative content. In Study 3, low effort praise increased children's endorsement of essentialist beliefs about ability and their interest in becoming the kind of person who does not need to work hard to succeed.

Young children form generalized attitudes based on a single encounter with an outgroup member.

The goal of the present research was to assess whether children's first interaction with a single outgroup member can significantly impact their general attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole. In two preregistered studies, 5- to 6-year-old Chinese children (total N = 147) encountered a Black adult from another country for the very first time, and they played a game together. General attitudes toward the outgroup were assessed using both implicit and explicit measures.

Children acknowledge physical constraints less when actors behave stereotypically: Gender stereotypes as a case study.

A fundamental part of understanding structural inequality is recognizing that constrained choices, particularly those that align with societal stereotypes, are poor indicators of a person's desires. This study examined whether children (N = 246 U.S.

Children's reputation management: Learning to identify what is socially valued and acting upon it.

Much of what people do is motivated by a concern with social evaluation. We argue that the process of figuring out what others value and making effective use of this information presents significant cognitive challenges. These challenges include reasoning about the relevance of different forms of information and making inferences about the mental lives of others.

Perceptions of police legitimacy and bias from ages 13 to 22 among Black, Latino, and White justice-involved males.

Objective: Although researchers, policymakers, and practitioners recognize the importance of the public's perceptions of police, few studies have examined developmental trends in adolescents and young adults' views of police.

Hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: Perceptions of police legitimacy would exhibit a U-shaped curve, declining in adolescence before improving in young adulthood. Hypothesis 2: At all ages, Black youth would report more negative perceptions of police legitimacy than Latino youth, who would report more negative perceptions than White youth.

Children's Developing Ability to Resolve Disagreements by Integrating Perspectives.

Children live in a world where disagreement is commonplace. Although disagreement can sometimes be explained by differences in people's reliability, disagreement may also indicate that the referent elicits multiple perspectives. The present studies (total N = 129, 5- to 12-year-old ethnically diverse U.

Minor infractions are not minor: School infractions for minor misconduct may increase adolescents' defiant behavior and contribute to racial disparities in school discipline.

Although minor misconduct is normative in adolescence, such behavior may be met with punishment in American schools. As part of a punitive disciplinary approach, teachers may give adolescents official infractions for minor misconduct-that is, a minor infraction-presumably to deter future problem behavior. This article investigates three arguments that challenge the wisdom of this assumption and considers the potentially detrimental effects of minor infractions: (a) minor infractions increase, rather than deter, adolescents' defiant behavior; (b) these effects are exacerbated among adolescents who are highly attached to school; and (c) teachers' punishment of minor misconduct may be racially biased, resulting in African American students receiving more minor infractions than White students.

Trust and Discipline: Adolescents' Institutional and Teacher Trust Predict Classroom Behavioral Engagement following Teacher Discipline.

This daily diary study examined how adolescents' institutional and teacher-specific trust predicted classroom behavioral engagement the day after being disciplined by that teacher. Within mathematics classrooms, adolescents (N = 190; M  = 14 years) reported institutional and teacher-specific trust and then completed a 15-day diary assessing teacher discipline and behavioral engagement. The results indicated that, among adolescents with low teacher trust, discipline was unrelated to next-day behavior.

Older Siblings as Academic Socialization Agents for Younger Siblings: Developmental Pathways across Adolescence.

The role of older siblings in younger siblings' academic socialization becomes increasingly salient during adolescence. This longitudinal study examines the developmental mechanisms through which older siblings shape younger siblings' academic outcomes and whether older siblings' peer affiliations predict younger siblings' educational aspirations and attainment. Data consisted of responses from 395 target adolescents (M = 12.

African American adolescents' gender and perceived school climate moderate how academic coping relates to achievement.

Using stereotype threat and motivational resilience theories as the guiding frameworks, this study examined how African American adolescents' academic coping strategies (i.e., problem solving, help seeking, self-encouragement, comfort seeking, and commitment) were associated with academic achievement, and whether these associations varied by adolescents' gender and perceptions of school climate (i.

Persistence Mindset among Adolescents: Who Benefits from the Message that Academic Struggles are Normal and Temporary?

Research proposing that mindset interventions promote student achievement has been conducted at a frenetic pace nationwide in the United States, with many studies yielding mixed results. The present study explores the hypothesis that mindset interventions are beneficial for students only under specific circumstances. Using a randomized controlled trial with student-level random assignment within two public schools (School 1: n = 198 seventh-graders, 73% Black, 27% White, 53% male; School 2: n = 400 ninth-graders, 98% White, 2% Black, 52% male), this trial conceptually integrated elements from three evidence-based mindset interventions.

Defining and achieving permanency among older youth in foster care.

Permanency is a key child welfare system goal for the children they serve. This study addresses three key research questions: (1) How do older youth in foster care define their personal permanency goals? (2) How much progress have these youth made in achieving their personal permanency goals and other aspects of relational permanency, and how does this vary by gender, race, and age? and (3) What transition-related outcomes are associated with relational permanency achievement? Surveys were conducted with 97 youth between the ages of 14 and 20 currently in care. Over three-fourths of participants had an informal/relational permanency goal; however, only 6.

Adolescent Offenders' Qualitative Reflections on Desistance From Crime.

Although many young offenders desist from crime during adolescence, little is known about this process. This study used a qualitative approach to elucidate adolescent offenders' experiences in desisting from crime. Thirty-nine male adolescent offenders (M  = 16.

Who Wants to Play? Sport Motivation Trajectories, Sport Participation, and the Development of Depressive Symptoms.

Although sport involvement has the potential to enhance psychological wellbeing, studies have suggested that motivation to participate in sports activities declines across childhood and adolescence. This study incorporated expectancy-value theory to model children's sport ability self-concept and subjective task values trajectories from first to twelfth grade. Additionally, it examined if sport motivation trajectories predicted individual and team-based sport participation and whether sport participation in turn reduced the development of depressive symptoms.

Transactional Relations between Motivational Beliefs and Help Seeking from Teachers and Peers across Adolescence.

Adolescents often avoid seeking academic help when needed, making it important to understand the motivational processes that support help seeking behavior. Using expectancy-value theory as a framework, this study examined transactional relations between motivational beliefs (i.e.