Annual Review of Developmental Psychology - Volume 2, 2020
Volume 2, 2020
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The Connection Between Student Identities and Outcomes Related to Academic Persistence
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 437–460More LessYoung people begin to explore and develop a deeper understanding of who they are, or their identities, during adolescence and young adulthood. The various aspects of these dynamic and developing identities guide how students navigate the world and pursue their goals, including how they engage with academic opportunities and challenges. This article uses the identity-based motivation framework to integrate a selective review of research demonstrating connections between student identities and outcomes related to academic persistence. First, a foundation of significant theoretical and empirical contributions describes how different types of identities—including future identities and social identities—influence academic persistence. Additional evidence builds upon socioecological and sociocultural perspectives to demonstrate various levels of contextual influence on student identities and outcomes related to academic persistence. The area of research has implications for the promotion of more holistic approaches to student success, health, and well-being in addition to effective goal pursuit across the life span.
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The Effects of Cannabis Use on the Development of Adolescents and Young Adults
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 461–483More LessThis review summarizes evidence on the effects of cannabis use on the development of adolescents and young adults. It draws on epidemiological studies, neuroimaging studies, case-control studies, and twin and Mendelian randomization studies. The acute risks include psychiatric symptoms associated with the use of high THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) products and motor vehicle accidents. Daily cannabis use during adolescence is associated with cannabis dependence and poor cognitive function, which may affect educational attainment and occupational choice. Daily use of highly potent cannabis is associated with more severe psychological symptoms, such as psychoses, mania, and suicidality. There are more mixed findings on depressive symptoms, anxiety, and violence and debates about the interpretation of these associations. Legalization of adult cannabis use may increase cannabis use and dependence among adolescents and young adults. The regulation of cannabis after legalization needs to minimize adolescent uptake and cannabis-related adverse developmental outcomes.
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Screen Time, Social Media Use, and Adolescent Development
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 485–502More LessAdolescents spend much of their daily lives online, and fears abound that digital technology use, and social media in particular, is harming their social and emotional development. Findings to date do not support causal or robust associations between social media use and adolescents’ development. Instead, prior studies have produced a mix of small positive, negative, and often null associations. The narrative around social media and adolescent development has been negative, but empirical support for the story of increasing deficits, disease, and disconnection is limited. This article reviews what is known about the association between social media use and adolescent social and emotional well-being, identifies key limitations in current research, and recommends ways to improve science while also minimizing risk and creating opportunities for positive development in an increasingly digital and uncertain age.
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The Development of Emotion Reasoning in Infancy and Early Childhood
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 503–531More LessHistorically, research characterizing the development of emotion recognition has focused on identifying specific skills and the age periods, or milestones, at which these abilities emerge. However, advances in emotion research raise questions about whether this conceptualization accurately reflects how children learn about, understand, and respond to others’ emotions in everyday life. In this review, we propose a developmental framework for the emergence of emotion reasoning—that is, how children develop the ability to make reasonably accurate inferences and predictions about the emotion states of other people. We describe how this framework holds promise for building upon extant research. Our review suggests that use of the term emotion recognition can be misleading and imprecise, with the developmental processes of interest better characterized by the term emotion reasoning. We also highlight how the age at which children succeed on many tasks reflects myriad developmental processes. This new framing of emotional development can open new lines of inquiry about how humans learn to navigate their social worlds.
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Bayesian Models of Conceptual Development: Learning as Building Models of the World
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 533–558More LessA Bayesian framework helps address, in computational terms, what knowledge children start with and how they construct and adapt models of the world during childhood. Within this framework, inference over hierarchies of probabilistic generative programs in particular offers a normative and descriptive account of children's model building. We consider two classic settings in which cognitive development has been framed as model building: (a) core knowledge in infancy and (b) the child as scientist. We interpret learning in both of these settings as resource-constrained, hierarchical Bayesian program induction with different primitives and constraints. We examine what mechanisms children could use to meet the algorithmic challenges of navigating large spaces of potential models, in particular the proposal of the child as hacker and how it might be realized by drawing on recent computational advances. We also discuss prospects for a unifying account of model building across scientific theories and intuitive theories, and in biological and cultural evolution more generally.
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Development of ADHD: Etiology, Heterogeneity, and Early Life Course
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 559–583More LessAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) represents a powerful entry point for developmental approaches to psychopathology due to its substantial role in early emergence of major life problems. One key issue concerns the role of early environmental risks in etiology and maintenance in the context of genetic liability. Here, psychosocial aspects of development need more attention. A second key issue is that phenotypic heterogeneity requires better resolution if actionable causal mechanisms are to be effectively identified. Here, the interplay of cognition and emotion in the context of a temperament lens is one helpful way forward. A third key issue is the poorly understood yet somewhat striking bifurcation of developmental course in adolescence, when a subgroup seems to have largely benign outcomes, while a larger group continues on a problematic path. A final integrative question concerns the most effective conceptualization of the disorder in relation to broader dysregulation. Key scientific priorities are noted.
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Developmental Exposure to Air Pollution, Cigarettes, and Lead: Implications for Brain Aging
Vol. 2 (2020), pp. 585–614More LessBrain development is impaired by maternal exposure to airborne toxins from ambient air pollution, cigarette smoke, and lead. Shared postnatal consequences include gray matter deficits and abnormal behaviors as well as elevated blood pressure. These unexpectedly broad convergences have implications for later life brain health because these same airborne toxins accelerate brain aging. Gene-environment interactions are shown for ApoE alleles that influence the risk of Alzheimer disease. The multigenerational trace of these toxins extends before fertilization because egg cells are formed in the grandmaternal uterus. The lineage and sex-specific effects of grandmaternal exposure to lead and cigarettes indicate epigenetic processes of relevance to future generations from our current and recent exposure to airborne toxins.
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