Early peer connections are crucial for young children’s well

Chapter 1

Early peer connections are crucial for young children's well-being. Indeed, children with positive peer relationships fare better in domains ranging from mental health to academics. The benefits of peer relationships have led researchers and practitioners to develop programs that support children's friendships and social skills. Many of these programs involve adults, but to date it is unclear what adult behaviors are most useful in supporting children's peer connections-especially during the earliest phases of peer relationship formation.

In the present research, we asked whether scaffolding provided by an adult could help children establish a new peer connection. Because young children are still developing social and communication skills, we reasoned that having an adult scaffold children's initial conversation with a new peer would be beneficial for forming a positive peer connection. We further tested the role of more vs. less intrusive scaffolding in facilitating a new peer connection. We reasoned that providing more intrusive scaffolding would limit children's agency and stifle their ability to form genuine connections.

To test these hypotheses, we designed a novel experimental paradigm for Zoom. Participants (five to eleven years in the United States; N equals two hundred eighty-eight) were assigned to same-gender or different-gender age-matched pairs. Some pairs were randomly assigned to complete an adult-scaffolded activity designed to help children get to know one another. Half of scaffolded pairs experienced more intrusive support and half experienced less intrusive support. In the former case, the adult asked both members of the pair a predetermined set of questions ("what is your favorite food?"); in the latter case, children asked each other the same predetermined questions. Remaining pairs were assigned to a baseline condition that featured no scaffolded activity.

Dependent measures included a "free talk" measure (participants interacted with their partner independently for two minutes) as well as self-report measures focused on how children felt about their partner. Preregistered analyses examined the effects of condition and pair gender composition on children's connections, measured by one) adult ratings of children's free talk and two) children's self-reports. Both types of measures revealed the same pattern: Pairs in scaffolded conditions connected better than pairs in the baseline condition, and the scaffolded conditions - especially the condition that involved less intrusive participation on the part of the adult - eliminated gender ingroup-favoritism.

Taken together, these results suggest that adult-led scaffolding can promote the formation of positive peer connections between young children. However, scaffolding that maintains children's autonomy during peer interactions may be particularly effective for encouraging connections between children who struggle to connect spontaneously (here, children of different genders). With its controlled methodology and focus on testing mechanisms of connection, this research introduces a new experimental approach to illuminate factors facilitating the formation of positive peer connections in childhood. Paper two Examining Baseline Relations Among Parent-Child Interactions, STEM Learning and Engagement

The relation between parental involvement and children's engagement and learning in STEM tasks is central to understanding educational dynamics in informal learning environments. Prior research has shown that certain types of parent-child interactions, particularly when parents are directive, can reduce children's engagement in independent STEM activities. However, these studies have not compared parent-child interactions to a baseline condition where children engage in tasks without prior parental involvement. The present study addresses this gap by incorporating a baseline measure, examining children's engagement and performance in a series of circuit-building challenges with and without prior parent-child interaction.

Sixty-eight children between the ages of four to seven (M equals seventy-one point eight six months) completed a set of circuit-building challenges with no prior experience with the circuits. Their results were compared with one hundred eleven four- to seven-year-olds who participated in the same challenges but who previously explored the circuit materials with a parent. Each challenge consisted of a building question, followed by a structured interaction with the experimenter to ensure that participants completed each challenge even if they could not do so independently. After each challenge (up to eight possible), children were asked if they wanted to continue. The number of challenges attempted measured engagement, while performance was measured by the proportion of challenges solved independently.

The baseline group, which had no prior experience with circuit components, was compared with the one hundred eleven children whose interaction was coded in terms of parental goal setting, with parents being overly parent-directed, jointly-directed, or more child-directed.

Children in the baseline group engaged in more challenges compared to the parent-directed group (shown in Figure one), beta equals negative zero point seven seven, standard error equals zero point three nine, ninety-five percent confidence interval (negative one point five three to negative zero point zero two), Wald square equals four point zero four, P equals zero point zero five, Odds Ratio equals zero point four six, but were not engaged differently from the jointly- or child-directed groups (P equals zero point seven five and P equals zero point nine four, respectively). Children in all three parent-child interaction groups solved a higher proportion of challenges on their own (our measurement of learning), compared to the baseline group (data shown in Figure two), parent-directed: beta equals one point two three, standard error equals zero point three eight, P less than zero point zero zero one; jointly-directed: beta equals one point six three, standard error equals zero point three seven, P less than zero point zero zero one; child-directed: beta equals one point four one, standard error equals zero point three eight, P less than zero point zero zero one. Additionally, children whose parents used more causal language during free play provided more causal explanations of how the circuits they built functioned, rho (one hundred eight) equals zero point two zero, P equals zero point zero three, particularly in the jointly- and child-directed conditions, P equals zero point zero one and P equals zero point zero four, respectively.

These findings suggest that although parent directive behavior may reduce children's engagement, the use of causal language enhances children's ability to provide explanations, supporting children's learning. This contributes to our understanding of how different forms of parental involvement impact children's engagement and learning in STEM tasks, emphasizing the importance of balancing guidance and independence in informal learning settings.

Parent Provision of Choice Predicts Executive Function in Preschool Children Author information Role

Children's executive function skills have been linked to a host of positive outcomes including academic achievement, social competence, and overall well-being. Positive parenting behaviors have been consistently associated with individual differences in executive function skills. Research has shown that parents' support of children's autonomy may be beneficial to the development of these skills, particularly in early childhood, whereas parental control is inversely related to child executive function. Most existing studies have reported on this association using global indicators of autonomy support. However, according to Self-Determination Theory, autonomy support is multidimensional and consists of different yet interrelated parenting behaviors. These include supporting children's competence by scaffolding help, using positive verbalizations, and providing opportunities for children to play an active role through choice-making. Emerging evidence suggests that not all autonomy-supportive behaviors contribute equally to children's executive function skills. In the present study, we collected behavioral data from one hundred twenty-seven parents and their two- to five-year-old children to examine how different aspects of parent autonomy support relate to children's executive function skills. Parent and child dyads worked on a set of jigsaw puzzles that were designed to be slightly too difficult for children to complete on their own. Parents were rated on four autonomy-supportive behaviors adapted from a well-established coding scheme: One) support of child competence Two) use of positive verbalizations Three) acknowledgement of child feelings and perspective and Four) provision of choice. Children competed a battery of behavioral executive function tasks including the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, Backward Word Span, and Gift Delay, as well as novel tasks measuring their preference for choice. Findings revealed that overall parent autonomy support was positively correlated with a composite measure of child executive function skills. In a linear regression model, autonomy support predicted child executive function over and above child age and verbal IQ. Follow-up analyses on the individual autonomy support subscales revealed that only the provision of choice subscale was significantly correlated with child executive function skills. Indeed, a hierarchical linear regression showed that the choice subscale predicted child executive function over and above child age, verbal IQ, and the other autonomy support subscales. In model three, the acknowledgement of child feelings and perspective and 4) provision of choice (Whipple et al., 2011) . Children competed a battery of behavioral EF tasks including the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, Backward Word Span, and Gift Delay, as well as novel tasks measuring their preference for choice. Findings revealed that overall parent autonomy support was positively correlated with a composite measure of child EF skills (r = . 30, p <. 01) . In a linear regression model, autonomy support predicted child EF over and above child age and verbal IQ (B = . 18, t = 2.03, p < . 05) . Follow-up analyses on the individual autonomy support subscales revealed that only the provision of choice subscale was significantly correlated with child EF skills (r = . 36, p < . 01). Indeed, a hierarchical linear regression showed that the choice subscale predicted child EF over and above child age, verbal IQ, and the other autonomy support subscales. In model 3, the choice subscale accounted for an additional one point eight percent of the variance in child executive function scores. This association was partially mediated by children's preference for choice. Overall, findings suggest that the provision of choice in early childhood may be an effective parenting approach to help children build a capacity for autonomy which in turn promotes their executive function skills. Future research should consider diversifying how parent autonomy support is measured. Additionally, capturing parent provision of choice more directly will contribute to help advance this line of research.