Average sex differences in physical aggression have been consistently observed across various species, with males being more physically aggressive than females. In humans, sex differences in physical aggression are present starting from infancy and persist across childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Thousands of non-human mammal experiments have shown that early androgen exposure exerts programming and long-lasting influences on developmental outcomes that show sex differences. The present study examined whether early postnatal testosterone and harsh parenting can predict subsequent physical aggression. The present study specifically focused on 1-3 months of age, a window known as “mini-puberty”, which is a presumed critical period for neurobehavioural sexual differentiation in human development. When infants were 1–3 months old (T1), 3 weekly saliva samples were collected from infants for testosterone measurements. Mothers also filled out a questionnaire assessing harsh parenting at T1. When infants reached 12 months of age (T2), they completed a parent-child problem-solving task designed to elicit frustration and aggression in the laboratory. Mothers also filled out a questionnaire assessing the child’s physical aggression at T2. 422 mother-child dyads (238 boys) completed data collection procedures for both time points. There were significant differences in testosterone concentrations, harsh parenting, and physical aggression between boys and girls (all higher in boys). Moreover, higher testosterone concentrations as well as higher ratings of harsh parenting were associated with more physically aggressive behaviours in boys. Interactions between testosterone and harsh parenting in predicting physical aggression were also marginally significant in boys. No significant relationships were found in girls. These results suggest that early postnatal testosterone and harsh parenting, both independently and jointly, contribute to subsequent physical aggression in boys.

Spatial perspective-taking (SPT) is categorized into Level 1 (determining whether an object is visible to another person) and Level 2 (assessing how an object can be seen from a specific location in space). Level 1 is believed to be acquired at age one (Ikeda et al., 2022), while level 2, involving mental self-rotation, takes several years to develop. However, recent research suggests that similar abilities may also arise from the immaturity of the self-other distinction (Watanabe, 2022). This study explored the potential of this type of SPT and its relationship with developmental milestones. This study included a cross-sectional design involving 61 children aged 9–14 months and a longitudinal design where 15 4-month-old infants were followed up over a period of ten months. The children were asked to play a video game involving SPT. The task involved paired-associate learning with flashing eyes and sounds presented on facial stimuli using a habituation method to trigger spontaneous perspective-taking. Eye-tracking data were collected using Tobii Pro Spectrum and its accompanying software. Fixation times for areas of interest (AOI), defined by concentric circles around the eyes within the facial stimuli, were calculated. Correct responses required longer fixations on the appropriate AOI, whereas responses were invalid if no fixation time was recorded. Additionally, two developmental milestones were assessed: the Scale of Infant Development (SID) and the Hand Dominance Questionnaire (HDQ). Results showed that in the longitudinal design, significantly more correct responses were observed at a 180-degree rotation angle, while in the cross-sectional design, the frequency of correct responses at 180°was marginally significant. Significant correlations were found between the number of correct answers in the SPT task and SID and HDQ, suggesting that SPT equivalent to level 2 in infants under one year of age may depend on the establishment of the physical self.

Hands are socially meaningful components of the human body, allowing us to perform actions and gestures, express emotions and intentions since early in life. Evidence shows that infants’ visual and haptic experience is rich with their own’s and others’ hands (Fausey et al., 2016; Aslin, 2009): during their first months of life, infants learn to interact with objects and communicate with people by using and attending to hands (Deák at al., 2014). Recently, it has been shown that infants are sensitive to the shape and structure of hands, preferring scrambled over intact images of hands (Jubran et al., 2019). However, in Jubran and colleagues' study, images of scrambled hands were created by altering the location of one more finger (e.g., pinky repositioned between thumb and index finger), thus breaking the overall gestalt. Here, we explore whether infants’ representation of hands is guided by anatomical coherence when the overall gestalt is maintained, but anatomical plausibility is disrupted (i.e., anatomically implausible but configurally recognizable hands). 22 full-term, Caucasian infants participated in the study (mean age = 6.98 months, SD = 0.58; 9 males). Infants were presented with intact and scrambled images of hands, in which all fingers were switched among one another to anatomically inconsistent positions, but still preserving the overall hand configuration. Infants’ looking times to right and left hands, presented in dorsal or palm view, were recorded using an eye-tracker within a preferential-looking task where intact and scrambled hand images were simultaneously presented. Preliminary results reveal that both hand view (palm vs. dorsal) and laterality (right vs. left hand) modulate infants’ preference for scrambled over intact hand images (p = .017). Our findings shed light on the specificity of visual information underlying infants’ sensitivity to hands, advancing our understanding of the mechanisms driving perceptual representation and social tuning towards hands.

Being ostracized -i.e., being excluded and ignored- has been shown to significantly impact psychological well-being (Wesselmann et al., 2016) and physiological activation in adults (Eres et al., 2021). This phenomenon also extends to cognitive processes, such as attentional disengagement from socially salient stimuli (i.e., faces; DeWall et al., 2009). While research has shown that ostracism influences infants' behavioral reactivity (Quadrelli et al., 2023), much remains unknown about how self-experienced ostracism affects social signal processing during infancy and its impact on physiological reactivity. This study explores whether being included or ostracized during a live triadic ball-tossing game impacts 8-month-olds’ behavioral and physiological reactivity during the game, as well as their subsequent attentional disengagement from faces. Infants first engaged in a two-minutes free play interaction with their caregiver before participating in the ball-tossing game, where they were either included or ostracized. During both tasks, we measured infants’ heart rate variability. Following the game, infants completed a disengagement task involving centrally presented neutral and scrambled faces, while their eye movements were recorded using an eye-tracking system. The current sample is composed of twenty-seven 8-month-old infants (N = 13 included and N = 14 ostracized). Preliminary results indicate that ostracized infants exhibit a reduced heart rate variability (rMSSD) as compared to included ones, suggesting increased stress levels. Behavioral reactivity data highlight a decrease in positive emotionality and an increase in active engagement (i.e., asking for the ball, catching the players’ attention). Lastly, eye-tracking data suggest that 8-month-olds are slower to disengage from central stimuli when ostracized vs. when included. Data collection and analysis are still ongoing, however, these preliminary results underline that ostracism affects infants’ physiological and behavioral reactivity but also attentional disengagement from social stimuli from very early in life.

Imitation is essential in learning new skills and facilitating a social glue from early childhood (Over, 2020). Pittet et al. (2022) showed that 2- to 5-year-olds with high ASD traits and low linguistic abilities have lower imitative ability. However, though imitation develops rapidly in the second year of life (Barr & Hayne, 2003), the factors governing imitation at that age are unclear. This study clarified the factors determining imitative ability at an early age, focusing on several types of abilities (e.g., language and motor skills) and ASD traits.

Using Japanese-speaking 14-month-olds’ data from the Hamamatsu Birth Cohort for Mothers and Children, a longitudinal cohort of children born in a specific hospital in Japan (Takagai et al., 2015), we conducted multiple regression analyses on the imitation score retrieved from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories as the dependent variables. The predictors were the scores of expressive language, receptive language, fine motor, gross motor, and visual reception from the Mullen Scales of Early Learning and ASD traits obtained from the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT). In addition, we used the children’s demographic data as covariates, such as gender, birth weight, father’s and mother’s educational background, annual income at the time of registration in the cohort, and the mothers’ frequency of alcohol consumption and smoking during pregnancy. The total number of available data was 893 (442 females) without missing values for all the above data.

The results showed that the gross motor and the ASD traits strongly related to imitation (p<.001). Moreover, the receptive language was associated with imitation (p=.028), though the expressive language was not. These present findings extend the previous research, revealing that imitative ability is related to ASD traits, gross motor, and receptive language at 14 months, which is an earlier age than reported previously (Pittet et al., 2022).

Objective of the study

Rapid changes of sleep rhythm consolidation take place during infancy and difficulties with sleep during this period become persistent for some infants. Infancy is also a period of rapid development for many neurocognitive skills, such as executive functions (EF). It is hypothesized that the changes in sleep may influence infant EF development. There is still little understanding of these associations in infancy. We examine the relations between different infant sleep profiles and EF, and sustained attention.

Methodology

Participants were 1957 infants from a large birth cohort. A latent profile analysis using Mplus was employed to identify distinct sleep profiles based on four variables (night awakenings, sleep onset latency, total sleep duration, and bedtime) derived from BISQ at 6 months. The sleep profiles were linked with infant sustained attention measured using the IBQ-R Duration of Orienting scale at 6 months. In a smaller subgroup of infants (N=347), sleep profiles were linked with infant EF performance in a modified A-not-B task and sustained attention during Lab-TAB Blocks episode at 8 months.

Results

We identified four distinct sleep profiles which were characterized as having: 1) no sleep problems (60%), 2) night awakenings (6,8%), 3) long sleep onset latency and late bedtime (20,6%), and 4) short sleep onset latency (12,6%). Same profiles were confirmed in a subsample. The outcome analyses are underway.

Conclusion

We were able to identify four clinically relevant groups of sleep in a large cohort of infants. The associations of these profiles with infant EF might shed light on whether infant sleep problems vs. normative changes in sleep have relevance for neurocognitive development in infancy.

Existing literature has explored the relationship between musical activities, rhythmic skills, and the development of executive functions in children. However, few studies have considered the role of contextual variables when assessing these activities and skills in preschoolers. The present study of Italian 4-year-old children analyses the connections between children’s rhythmic skills, their executive functions, their parents’ musical sophistication and their experience of music at home. The participants were 53 preschoolers (25 females). Each child was tested for rhythmic skills using the “Rhythmic imitation test” (Stamback, 1980), for inhibitory control using the “Stroop Day/Night” task (Usai et al., 2017), and for working memory using the “Keep in Mind” task (Usai et al., 2017). Their parents completed two questionnaires: about music sophistication (Goldsmith, Müllensiefen et al., 2014) and about home musical activities (Music@Home, Politimou et al., 2018). Spearman correlation analysis, controlling for parents’ education, showed that children’s rhythmic abilities are partially correlated with the Goldsmith’s subscale “parents’ ability to perceive musical aspects” (ρ=.374), children’s speed in the Stroop task control phase (ρ=.374) and in the test phase (ρ=.405), and children’s ability to memorize the target picture in the Keep in Mind task (ρ=.350). Furthermore, children’s working memory correlated with “parents’ active engagement” (ρ=.319), “musical training” (ρ=0.348), and “singing abilities” (ρ=0.315), as reported in the Goldsmith questionnaire. Finally, children’s inhibitory control correlated with the Goldsmith’s “parental musical training” subscale (ρ=.386). Musical activities at home were not associated with any other dimensions. These results suggest that (i) children’s rhythmic skills are associated with their executive function skills and (ii) parents’ competencies related to musical sophistication play a role in the development of the child’s executive functions.

One of the most fascinating recent discoveries in neurolinguistics is that neuronal oscillations synchronize with external signals like speech. In early child development, this is crucial for better understanding language acquisition milestones, such as the ability to segment continuous speech into smaller linguistic units. Studies on infants show that infant-directed speech amplitude modulations are particularly strong around certain frequency ranges, corresponding to stressed syllables, syllables, and phonemes. This early entrainment suggests that infants are able to neurally track speech, thus supporting early language development. Indeed, the initial literature in this field indicates a link between speech-brain-coherence and early language acquisition. This might suggest that infants with greater tracking may have an early advantage for language acquisition. However, no study has tried to systematically test this linking hypothesis.

Herein, we longitudinally assess whether individual neural tracking of speech trajectories relates to individual differences in later language skills. Two key questions are asked: (i) How does neural tracking change in early brain development (6, 9, 12 months of age)? (ii) How does neural tracking measures relate to later language growth (measured in the second year of life)? We expect that at different ages, different rates might drive tracking mechanisms. Moreover, those children with better tracking abilities across early life will show greater language growth/skills in later language measures.

We recently completed EEG data collection (N = 129) from monolingual Dutch infants while they listen to child-directed stories at three different timepoints in the first year of life (6, 9, 12 months). Additionally, we collected early CDI language development data in the second year of life (12, 18, 24 months). Speech-brain coherence data will be longitudinally compared between the three sessions and regressed against language skills in their second year of life. All collected data will be analysed in the upcoming months.

Having reciprocal friends in childhood contributes to future academic achievement and well-being, so it is worth investigating how young children form friendships with peers in their social group. One possibility is that they exhibit homophily in their social cognitive abilities; they make friends with those who have similar levels of social cognitive abilities that are important for ongoing reciprocal exchange or smooth coordination with peers.

To address this possibility, we tested whether Japanese 3- to 6-year-old preschoolers (N = 44, 31 boys) attending a single nursery school were more likely to form affiliative bonds with peers who had similar social cognitive abilities, as measured by social norm understanding and theory of mind tasks. In the social norm understanding task, the children rated the acceptability of deviant behavior concerning moral and social-conventional norms. They also completed the theory of mind task, which included false belief tasks, etc. To build a peer social network, we administered a friend-nomination task in which the children nominated those with whom they liked to play the most in their preschool.

The Exponential Random Graph Model was run to investigate children’s homophily in social cognitive abilities within their social network. The model revealed that the children had friendships with peers with a similar understanding of social-conventional norms. Since social-conventional norm enables individuals to foster cohesion and coordination with other group members, children may prefer peers with a similar level of social-conventional norm understanding to facilitate smooth interactions, leading to long-term cooperative relationships (i.e., friendships). In contrast, we did not observe homophily in the theory of mind and moral norm understanding.

Our research suggests that the presence of similar social-conventional norms plays a vital role in forming friendships in young children. This result would enhance our understanding of children's friendship dynamics.

The ability of self-regulation develops significantly during preschool age (Zelazo et al., 2018). Preschool children with good self-regulation also have good individual prerequisites for school readiness (Biermann et al., 2008) and better mental health (Fergusson et al, 2013; Moffitt et al., 2011). To date, a comprehensive assessment of self-regulation in preschool children is not yet possible due to the lack of a test battery in German-speaking countries (Ulitzka, 2022). Even though the identification of deficits in Self-regulation can enable support before school entry and thus improve educational trajectories. The aim of this study is therefore to present a review of the newly developed test battery (SelKi). The test battery contains three tasks each to measure inhibition and working memory and two tasks to measure flexibility (shifting). In a first design sample (n = 69; 34 girls; 3-6 years; M-age = 4.32 years, SD = 0.83), all tasks show acceptable to very good internal consistencies (α = .66-.96). Six of the tasks correlate with each other (r = .26*-.68**), while one task on inhibition and one task on flexibility correlate positively, but not always significantly, with the others. Performance in all tasks correlates with age (r = .32*-.61**) and no gender differences and no interactions of age and gender were found. There are no correlations with parental assessment of inhibition and working memory deficits in the BRIEF-P (Daseking & Petermann, 2013) or ADHD symptoms in the SDQ (Goodman, 1997). The preliminary results indicate that the SelKi test battery could be suitable for measuring executive functions at preschool age, but that a larger sample size is required. The collection of data is ongoing, so that a larger sample and therefore more accurate results can be expected at the time of the poster presentation.

Parents’ ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) plays a crucial role in shaping children’s attitudes toward individuals from diverse ethnic-racial backgrounds. For instance, a review of 43 studies reveals consistent associations between parents’ conscious ERS strategies with their children’s greater awareness of racial inequities and more favorable attitudes toward people from different ethnic-racial backgrounds. However, these studies focus on entrenched racism resolution in the US, with few to no studies addressing tensions surrounding current issues of migration and integration in European countries. To assess the issue of growing migration flows and an increasingly multicultural society, we examined parents’ ERS in Italy and potential associations with children’s prosocial behaviors toward peers from diverse ethnic-racial backgrounds.

The study involved 312 White Italian parents (89.7% mothers; M_age = 39.02) and their children (48.1% girls; M_age = 51.94 months; range 31–75 months). Parents completed an adapted version of the White Racial Socialization Questionnaire (Hagan et al., 2023), which evaluates three ERS strategies: conscious, discussion-hesitant, and evasive approaches. Children’s prosocial behaviors toward migrant-origin peers were assessed using both parental reports and a sticker-sharing task, in which children were asked to allocate resources to Italian native-born and migrant-origin peers. A structural equation model (SEM) was estimated to examine the associations between ERS strategies and children’s prosocial behaviors, controlling for children’s age and sex assigned at birth.

Results indicated that a conscious ERS approach was significantly positively associated with children’s prosocial behaviors toward migrant-origin peers, as assessed through both parental reports and the sticker-sharing task. By incorporating both behavioral observations and parental evaluations, this study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the links between ERS and early prosocial development. These findings contribute to the growing body of research on ERS in European contexts and may have implications for fostering inclusive social development in early childhood.

Introduction. It is well established, that prosocial behavior is related to aspects of individual cognitive development, especially theory of mind (Imuta et al., 2016). Dispite the self-evident connection between language and social interactions, the evidence supporting this hypothesis remain sparse (Bonifacci et al., 2024). The aim of this study was to investigate the associotion between language skills and prosocial behavior at 5 years of age.

Methods. Participants (n = 545, 44.2 % girls) belong to FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. At the age of 5 years, prosocial behavior was measured with parent report using Multisource Assessment of Children’s Social Competence Scale (MASCS). Two subscales of prosocial behavior were used: Cooperating Skills and Empathy. Language skills were measured with Reynell Developmental Language Scales III (RDLS-III) and Similarities of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence III during study visits. In addition, mean length of utterance was calculated from a speech sample collected in a free-play situation.

Results. According to the preliminary results, RDLS-III was related to Cooperating Skills (r(383) = .102, p = .046). In addition, Similarities was related to Cooperating Skills (r(510) = .179, p < .001). No statistically significant associations were found between MLU and Cooperating Skills or any language variable and Empathy.

Conclusions. According to the preliminary results, better language skills are associated with better parent-reported cooperating skills at the age of 5 years in a normative cohort sample. According to previous literature, prosocial behavior is related to a child’s social relationships, well-being and academic achievements. The knowledge of early associations between prosocial behavior and other individual factors is crucial information when the targets of early interventions are planned.

Background: Children's emotional regulation (ER) is a crucial component of social competence during the preschool stag. Gross motor (GM) competence has significant developmental links with emotional competence, with EF particularly highlighted as a mediating factor. However, most of the previous studies focus on pairwise or cross-sectional relationships, with limited research synthesizing the longitudinal associations among these variables. Therefore, this study examined the association between GM skill and ER in children aged 3 to 6 years, and whether this association between GM skill and ER was mediated by EF.

Methods: This study utilized a longitudinal database from the Kids in Taiwan: National Longitudinal Study of Child Development –3-old Cohort. The sample was selected from four waves of data collected when children were aged 3 to 6 years, with questionnaires completed by biological mothers. The total valid sample size was 1,175. This study investigated the regression analysis to investigate the autoregressive effects among GM skills, EF, and ER in children aged 3 to 6, as well as the predictive effects of GM skills and EF on ER. Additionally, a longitudinal mediation model analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among GM skills, ER, and EF across ages 3 to 6.

Results: Firstly, during the ages of 3 to 6, after controlling for child gender, parental education level, and monthly household income, the findings showed that GM skills, EF, and ER demonstrated significant autoregressive effects. Secondly, the findings revealed that GM skills and EF were significant predictors of ER. Finally, longitudinal mediation analysis indicated that EF mediated the effect of GM skills on ER.

Conclusions: GM skills were found to contribute to ER by enhancing children’s EF. These findings provide families and educators are encouraged to implement interventions and activities that foster both motor skills and EF to support children’s emotional development.

Executive function (EF) is a complex cognitive ability that enables individuals to formulate appropriate plans and make sound judgments across various situations. Early deficits in EF development can hinder later growth and negatively impact other domains, such as language and social-emotional development. EF development is highly influenced by environmental factors, with parenting being one of the most crucial determinants. However, existing research on the relationship between parenting and EF predominantly relies on Western parenting theories, while longitudinal studies within Chinese cultural contexts remain limited. Given that parenting practices are deeply shaped by cultural values, applying a Western theoretical framework to examine the relationship between parenting and EF within Chinese culture may not provide a comprehensive understanding and presents certain limitations. Thus, this study aims to explore the influence of Taiwanese parents' Chinese culture parenting on the developmental trajectories of children's EF. The sample was drawn from the Kids in Taiwan (KIT) database, consisting of longitudinal parent-reported data collected consistently from the same respondents when the children were aged 1 to 6 years (N=4,236; 50.4% boys, 49.6% girls). The analysis variables include parenting beliefs (discipline, teaching, achievement expectation, shame), parenting behaviors (positive response, conditional discipline), and children's EF IRT scores. Latent Growth Model (LGM) analysis was applied. The results indicated that Taiwanese children's executive function (EF) exhibited a linear growth trajectory from ages 1 to 6. Parents' Chinese cultural “teaching” beliefs and positive responsive parenting behaviors at the age of 1 were associated with higher initial EF levels. In contrast, parental conditional discipline behaviors were negatively associated with the rate of EF development. This study tracks EF development in Taiwanese children aged 1 to 6 using national data, offering generalizable findings for cross-cultural comparisons and insights for future parenting education programs.

Assessing spoken language in preschool children requires a reliable instrument, as children of this age are not able yet to assess their own language level. While there are many instruments abroad that provide reliable results for assessment by professionals or parents, there is no psychological instrument available for the Lithuanian language and for the entire preschool age group. Considering this, a scale for parents has been developed for the assessment of spoken Lithuanian language in preschool children. An analysis of the scientific literature revealed that the level of a child's spoken language should be assessed by evaluating three aspects: passive and active vocabulary, language comprehension, and expressive language skills. Thus, a questionnaire consisting of 122 words and statements was created. To test the structure and reliability of the created questionnaire, a study was conducted with 105 parents raising preschool-aged children. The reliability analysis of the questionnaire showed that the overall internal consistency of all statements was low, and thus the questionnaire is not suitable for evaluating preschool-aged children's spoken language when combining all aspects into one. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the questionnaire consists of three scales: "Passive and Active Vocabulary Checklist", "Language Comprehension Assessment", and "Expressive Language Skills Assessment". The internal consistency of the statements that make up each scale separately is high. Therefore, based on the study results, it can be concluded that the questionnaire is suitable for assessing the spoken language of preschool-aged children from the parents' perspective, if it is not considered as one-dimensional. The suitability condition is met if the child's passive and active vocabulary, language comprehension, and expressive language skills are considered as separate indicators for the assessment of preschool children's spoken language.

Deciding how much effort to invest in challenges is a key part of childhood. These decisions are shaped by children's understanding of potential rewards weighed against anticipated costs, and parents’ language can play a crucial role in guiding this process. However, little is known about how parents naturally communicate about effort and how this shapes children's strategic persistence. It is also unclear how these patterns vary across cultures, particularly in contexts where economic instability may influence cost-benefit considerations. If parents’ language around persistence helps shape children’s effort allocation, we would expect those who balance cost-relevant and reward-focused language to have children who persist more strategically. In a Zoom-based study, parents in the U.S (N = 143) and Turkey (N = 94) read a wordless picture book with their 3-to-6-year-old child (MAge=59.74 months), depicting someone repeatedly searching for treasure. Parents’ utterances were coded for positive (rewards/goals and persistence/praise) and cost-relevant effort messages. Children also completed a search game, choosing between high-reward and low-reward options. Strategic persistence was operationalized as the proportion of time spent searching in high-reward locations. Parents in the U.S. used more reward-focused (M=10.11) and persistence-related (M=1.87) utterances than parents in Turkey (M=7.78 and 1.09, respectively; ps< .01), but parents in Turkey (M=3.22) used more cost utterances than parents in U.S. (M = 2.51, p=.035). Parents in both countries used significantly more rewards/goals than cost utterances (ps<.0001). Surprisingly, cost talk was rare overall. Contrary to predictions, children’s strategic persistence was not predicted by parents’ cost utterances, positive utterances, or their interaction. These findings suggest that while parents do highlight effort-related costs and benefits, their natural language does not consistently frame effort as a cost-benefit decision. Additionally, other factors may contribute to children's ability to strategically persist, such as broader cultural values or familial experiences.

Scientific reasoning skills for school children have received significant attention as part of the core skills for 21st century outcomes set by the OECD. However, the emergence of such skills in relation to executive functions, which lay the foundation for general competency, is not well understood.

This study focuses on three components of executive functions: updating information (measured by working memory), inhibitory control (measured by the Stroop task), and attention shifting (measured by the DCCS). It examines the longitudinal relationships between these components and scientific reasoning, measured by the 10-item version of the Science-K Inventory:SK-I (Osterhaus, Lin, & Koerber, 2021). The SK-I comprises three subsets: experimentation, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science.

The research questions are: 1) How do 6-year-old Japanese children perform on the SK-I? and 2) Do scientific reasoning skills have a predictive relationship with early executive functions?

Fifty-five Japanese children (25 girls) participated in the study. Executive functions were measured three times: at entry to preschool (Time1), and 6 months (Time2) and 18 months (Time3) later. Scientific reasoning skills were measured at the end of preschool (age 6) using the SK-I.

Of the 10 items on the SK-I, children performed better than chance level on 2 items of the experimentation subset, but not on the data interpretation or understanding the nature of science subsets. Separate logistic regressions were performed for these 2 items as outcome variables to test if earlier executive functions predict scientific reasoning skills. One regression model reached significance, with working memory at Time2 and Time3 as significant predictors. The other outcome variable was predicted by Time1 working memory and DCCS. Children’s inconsistent performance on the SK-I suggests that early scientific reasoning skills may be more dependent on the content of scientific inquiry, particularly in Japanese children.

Introduction: Temperament is a fundamental component of child development, influencing behaviour and social interactions. Prosocial behaviours (PB), defined as voluntary actions to benefit others (Batson, 1998), develops through interactions among temperament, social context, and emotion regulation processes (Eisenberg et al., 2006). This study investigates the relationship between temperamental profiles and PB in preschool children.

Method: A total of 114 parents (85.1% mothers, 12.3% fathers, 2.6% non-specified) of children aged between 32 and 71 months (M = 56 months; SD = 8.1) participated. Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to evaluate PB, and the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire – Very Short Form (CBQ-VSF) to evaluate temperament. Statistical analyses included ANOVA and cluster analysis to identify temperamental profiles and examine their relationship with PB.

Results: Four temperamental profiles emerged: Profile A, where PB is M=6.23, has high impulsivity and low inhibitory control; Profile B (PB, M=7.36) has high emotional sensitivity and good inhibitory control; Profile C (PB, M=7.40) has high perceptual sensitivity and focused attention; Profile D (PB, M=7.81) has low levels of anger, fear, and impulsivity with strong inhibitory control. Children in Profile D showed the highest PB, likely due to better emotion regulation and lower negative emotionality (Memba & Ostrov, 2023). Additionally, a significant gender difference was observed for shyness (p < .01), with higher scores in females (M = 11.09; SD = 4.82) compared to males (M = 9.07; SD = 4.11).

Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of temperament in modulating PB. Future research will apply more advanced statistical analyses, such as Latent Profile Analysis, to further investigate these findings. Children with higher inhibitory control and lower levels of negative emotions tend to be more prosocial. These results provide insights for educational interventions that foster the development of prosocial behaviours, taking into account individual temperament.

Objective of the study

Executive functions (EFs), the cognitive dimension of self-regulation, encompass a wide range of processes essential for goal-directed behavior. EF development is crucial for academic and occupational achievement and socioemotional well-being. Difficulties in EF development can often be detected early in childhood, highlighting the importance of early identification and intervention. There are two main approaches to measuring EFs: parent-rated questionnaires on everyday behavior and performance-based laboratory tasks. However, their correlations remain debated, and there is still no consensus on whether these two approaches measure the same constructs. In this study, we examined the relationship between composite EF scores from laboratory-based tasks and parent-completed questionnaire on everyday life EF difficulties in 5-year-old children.

Methods

The children in this study were a subsample from the longitudinal FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, with a total of 545 children (M age = 5.0 years, SD = 0.1; 44.2% girls) and their parents participating. The EF task composite score was calculated by combining all z-standardized EF tasks, which included various inhibition and working memory tasks targeting different aspects of EF. With GLM we analysed the association between EF task performance and the Global Executive Composite (GEC) score from BRIEF2 (Gioia et al., 2015), controlling for significant covariates.

Preliminary results

After controlling for child sex and maternal distress (prenatal anxiety and depressive symptoms), a higher EF composite score was associated with lower GEC (β = - 0.14, p < .001) indicating lower parent-reported EF difficulties (adj. R² = .10).

Conclusions

Despite the small effect size, the significant association between lab-based EF performance and parent-reported EF difficulties suggests that both measures capture individual differences in EF development. Better EF task performance correlated with fewer everyday EF difficulties, reinforcing the complementary nature of these assessment methods.

Previous studies have shown that preschoolers with imaginary companions (ICs) tend to have better socio-cognitive abilities and social competence (e.g., Giménez-dasí et al., 2016; Taylor & Carlson, 1997). Furthermore, child–IC relationships (i.e., horizontal or vertical) are related to children’s peer relationships (Gleason et al., 2014; Lin et al., 2018). However, most studies on the relationship between children’s ICs and sociability have been conducted in Western countries. Therefore, we investigated how the existence of ICs and child–IC relationships relate to everyday social behaviors among Japanese preschoolers. We administered questionnaires to 325 parents of 4- 6 years-old children (M =69.0, SD =7.2, 155 girls and 166 boys). Parents were asked whether their children have ICs or not and the questions about their relationship with ICs. Children’s everyday behaviors were examined by SDQ. The parents of 110 children (33.8%) answered that their children had ICs. The results revealed that the existence of ICs was thought to be associated with emotional symptoms (Z = -2.27, p = .02, r = -.13). After controlling the effect of gender, the association between ICs and emotional symptoms was still significant (F (1, 317) = 5.81, p = .02). Furthermore, children with ICs displayed higher prosocial behavior compared with children without ICs (Z = -2.56, p = .01, r = -.14). However, the association between ICs and prosocial behavior was nonsignificant after controlling gender (F (1, 313) = 2.28, p = .13). The other subscales of SDQ did not differ between children with and without ICs. The child–IC relationship did not relate to any subscales of SDQ including peer problems or prosocial behavior. The relationship between ICs and emotional symptoms suggests that sensitive children tend to be anxious and might be more likely to create and use ICs as a coping mechanism.

Background:

Pediatric obesity is a significant public health concern, linked to various obesity-related diseases and psychosocial challenges. Temperament may influence obesogenic eating behaviors and contribute to childhood overweight, with its effects potentially varying by child age. Therefore, longitudinal studies are needed to better understand these associations. The aim of this study was to identify latent temperament profiles from infancy to preschool and explore their association with weight growth and eating habits in childhood.

Methods:

Study included 510 children from the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study. Temperament was assessed at 6 months and 1 year using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ-R), at 2 years using the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire (ECBQ) and at 4 and 5 years with the Child Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ). Eating habits questionnaire included items on snacking, sweets consumption, pickiness and willingness to try new foods. Weight growth data of BMI-SDS from 2 to 5 years were obtained from well-baby clinics. Latent profile analysis will be used to identify longitudinal temperament profiles. General linear models and multinominal logistic regression models were used to investigate the relationship between temperament profiles, weight and eating habits.

Results:

Temperament at 2 years was associated with eating habits, but not with BMI-SDS. Children with higher levels of surgency and effortful control were less picky (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.34-0.58) and more willing to try new foods (1.94; 1.41-2.68). Additionally, children with higher levels of effortful control snacked less (0.65; 0.51-0.84). In contrast, children with higher levels of negative affectivity snacked more (1.89; 1.39-2.57) and were pickier (2.14; 1.61-2.84).

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that surgency and effortful control may protect child from poorer eating habits, but temperament’s role in weight development may not appear as early as 2 years of age. The role of longitudinal temperament profiles in shaping weight development will be presented.

Selective trust is a fundamental component of social and cognitive development in early childhood, shaping how children form relationships, acquire knowledge, and navigate their social environments. This systematic review synthesizes existing empirical studies on the development of trust in preschool-aged children (3-6 years old), focusing on how trust emerges, its role in social interactions, and its impact on social-cognitive development. The development of trust during this period is closely linked to advances in the theory of mind, executive functions, language development, reflection, and children’s growing ability to interpret others' errors or misinformation more accurately (e.g., false beliefs). A comprehensive search was conducted across several databases, including PsycINFO, PubMed, ERIC, and ScienceDirect. Empirical studies published between 2010 and 2025 were identified and analyzed following the PRISMA protocol. Key findings suggest that children’s ability to assess the trustworthiness of informants is influenced by factors such as prior accuracy, intentions, and informants' social traits, including gender and language behavior. Moreover, the findings highlight that children's trust behavior is driven not only by the content of the information provided but also by the social context in which the information is delivered. Children demonstrate a willingness to revise their beliefs when confronted with unexpected testimony from reliable sources but are less likely to do so when faced with inaccurate informants. Future research should include longitudinal designs and cross-cultural comparisons to further investigate the contextual factors influencing trust development, such as parent-child attachment, peer relationships, and SES. Although existing research provides a broad perspective on the complexity of selective trust and its impact on social and cognitive development, future studies could also explore the factors that influence children's decision-making in situations where informants provide ambiguous or unclear answers.

Keywords: Selective Trust, Preschool Children, Testimony, Social-Cognitive Development

Emotional eating (EE) refers to children's eating behaviors regardless of the presence of satiety when they are emotionally aroused (Sleddens et al., 2008). EE is linked to developmental outcomes, including weight and emotional problems (Webber et al., 2009; Buja et al., 2022). EE behaviors arise from a combination of individual characteristics, such as self-regulation—the ability to manage behaviors, emotions, and thoughts—and environmental factors like parental behaviors and mealtime dynamics (Herle et al., 2017; Karoly, 1993; Steinsbekk et al., 2020). Mealtime-technoference, defined as disruptions in parent-child interactions by parental screen use, may negatively relate to mealtime dynamics and contribute to EE (Gramm et al., 2020; McDaniel & Coyne, 2016). This study aimed to investigate transactional associations among parental mealtime-technoference, self-regulation (SR), and EE during preschool years.

We collected data from 231 children aged 36–76 months at two time points, six months apart. EE was assessed using the emotional overeating subscale of the Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (Wardle et al., 2001) and mealtime-technoference via the DISRUPT scale (McDaniel, 2021; Gramm et al., 2020). Researchers assessed self-regulation using the Preschool Self-Regulation Assessment Tool (Smith-Donald et al., 2007; Carlson, 2005).

Cross-lagged path analysis showed technoference at Time 1 was associated with increased EE at Time 2 (β=.26), whereas EE at Time 1 was related to less technoference at Time 2 (β=.-21). These findings suggest that technoference increases children's stress and reliance on food as a coping mechanism, while EE may serve as an indirect attention-seeking behavior, encouraging parents to reduce screen use during meals. Interestingly, higher SR was related to greater EE (β = .15), possibly indicating that children with better SR use EE as a short-term strategy to manage negative emotions, despite its limited long-term effectiveness. These findings suggest that EE is related with both individual and environmental factors (Puder & Munsch, 2010).

Fantasy orientation refers to the tendency to engage in imaginative and pretend scenarios, including symbolic thinking, storytelling, and magical beliefs, and it has been linked to children’s cognitive, social, and linguistic development (Lillard et al., 2013). Specifically, it is associated with cognitive flexibility, creativity, language skills, social-emotional competence, and symbolic thinking (Lillard et al., 2013; Taylor, 1999). There are individual differences in children’s fantasy orientation, and these may be influenced by their mothers’ own engagement with imaginative thought and fantasy, as parental modeling and shared symbolic experiences can shape a child's cognitive and linguistic development. Hence, the current study aims to investigate whether children’s play-related fantasy orientation is related to their mothers’ fantasy orientation. To this end, 84 preschool-aged children (M = 5.59 years) and their mothers participated in this study. Children responded to questions about their favorite play and imaginary companions. Mothers completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, which consists of four subscales: Perspective Taking, Fantasy, Empathic Concern and Personal Distress (Davis, 1980). For the purposes of this study, we analyzed the Fantasy subscale which measures inclination to mentally place oneself in the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of fictional characters in plays, movies, and literature. Only 16 children in our sample had imaginary companions and it was not related to their or their mothers’ fantasy orientation. Girls (M = .54) had higher fantasy orientation scores compared to boys (M = .28) (t(68) = 2.16, p =.03). Furthermore, age was negatively linked to fantasy orientation (r = .31, p = .01). Finally, maternal fantasy orientation positively correlated with children's fantasy orientation (r = .37, p = .05), which may reflect shared environmental influences, such as engagement in imaginative play or storytelling, and similarities in cognitive and personality traits that contribute to fantasy-related tendencies.

Early patterns of sibling relationships often remain stable throughout childhood and adolescence, underscoring the importance of fostering high-quality sibling bonds from the start. However, little research explores the factors influencing the initial development of these relationships, particularly the child’s own characteristics. The enduring impact of China’s nearly four-decade-long one-child policy means that, despite its relaxation, having one child is still normative for a large proportion of the current families. Consequently, it is culturally challenging for young Chinese children to accept younger siblings. This study aimed to assist Chinese children and families in adapting to the transition to siblinghood.

We assessed 155 firstborn-mother dyads in China at three time points: late pregnancy of the secondborn to examine potential determinants and at 2 and 6 months into siblinghood to assess outcome variables. Child factors, including social understanding and temperament, were evaluated through mother-reported questionnaires, while language abilities were assessed using performance-based tasks. Family factors (i.e., maternal factors and other family relationships) were measured through interviews, performance-based assessments, and mother-reported questionnaires. Sibling relationship quality (i.e., positive engagement, antagonism, and jealousy) was assessed mainly through mother reports.

T3 data collection is in progress, and we conducted hierarchical regression based on existing data. Results indicate that, after controlling for firstborns’ age and gender, temperament but not social understanding was associated with sibling relationship quality: children’s anger proneness was positively linked to T2 antagonism toward infant siblings. Among family factors, only maternal mind-mindedness positively predicted T3 firstborns’ jealousy while controlling for demographic factors and T2 sibling relationship quality. This suggests that mind-minded mothers, being highly attuned to their children's thoughts and emotions, may lead children to become more aware of their concerns about the sibling. This finding is novel in the field, and more advanced statistical analyses will be conducted once data collection concludes in May.

Children's play is considered to be an important part of healthy development, influencing emotions, cognitions, social and communicational skills. As well as other areas of life, children's play has been affected by massive digitalization in recent decades. However, there exists a significant lacuna in the field of scientific research regarding the topic of traditional analog play in the context of digital gaming among preschool children.

This study aims to conduct an exploratory research into the distinctive characteristics and specificities of traditional analog children's play across three groups of children: those who engage in digital gaming for periods exceeding two hours daily; those whose digital gaming engagement is limited to less than two hours per day; and those with no digital gaming exposure. The research sample will consist of 24 children aged 4-7 years, together with their parents and teachers. Data collection will be conducted in Slovak kindergartens, using 2 standardized questionnaires: My Child's Play for parents and RALLA Play Skills Assessment for teachers. Individual observation Child-Initiated Pretend Play Assessment will also be applied.

Research project and preliminary data will be included in the poster.

This study examines whether preschoolers attribute mental states to dog dolls and whether such attributions vary with the dolls' realism. Although previous research has explored children’s interactions with dolls, limited studies have addressed how young children distinguish between animate and inanimate objects in this context.

In this study, thirty-eight kindergarten children (ages 5 and 6) from N City, Japan, participated. They interacted with three types of toy dogs: a cloth puppet, an automated plush toy, and a rechargeable robot dog. A verification task ensured children understood that warmth detection required physical contact. In the main task, children observed a toy dog's paw touching three heat packs, one of which was warm and answered whether the toy "knew" which was warm and whether the experimenter could guess correctly by asking the toy.

Results indicated that many children incorrectly attributed awareness to the toy dogs, as evidenced by responses suggesting the toys "knew" which heat pack was warm. Frequent comments such as "A dog can't speak" suggested that children distinguished between possessing knowledge and the ability to communicate it.Q-test analysis revealed no significant differences in correct-answer distribution across toy types, indicating that realism did not impact task difficulty.

These findings enhance our understanding of how preschoolers perceive artificial entities, shedding light on early cognitive development and its implications for the design of interactive educational tools and robotic companions.

Nowadays, children are involved with the internet from the earliest years of their lives. The
aim of the present study was to investigate the conceptual representations of young
children about the internet. The study involved 420 participants,180 children aged 5-8 years
(60 children per age group), their parents (N=180) and 60 adults who formed the
comparison group. A semi structured interview required the participants to respond verbally
and non-verbally to questions regarding their use and understanding of the internet. Most
children, of all ages, seem to be using the internet at home for almost an hour a day for at
least two years watching mainly simulation,action games and videos. In general, most of the children across all the age groups, defined the internet verbally as a medium of entertainment, while in their drawings, most of them illustrate the internet as a device. However, most of the elder age group children (6-8 years old) depicted the internet as a Wi-Fi signal and various applications, in comparison to the younger children 5–6-year-old who depicted the internet as a device. The majority of the children mentioned that the information comes online from sources of electricity (wires) and people. Lastly, 5–6-year-old children mentioned mostly entertainment as an advantage of the internet in comparison to 7–8-year-old children and adults who positively highlighted the internet as a source of information and connection with other people. Among the disadvantages, the 6–8-year-old children referred to was deception and addiction in comparison to 5–6-year-old children who mentioned physical health problems and possibility of technical damage. Adults notably referred to deception and negative psychological effects as negative aspects of the internet. The findings are discussed in relation to relevant theoretical models and previous research in the field.

Understanding dishonesty in early childhood is crucial for gaining insights into children’s moral development and identifying interventions to curtail dishonesty from an early age. This study aims to explore the root of dishonest behavior from a developmental perspective, focusing on parents’ caregiving, particularly the parent-child trust relationship and parental co-regulation, as well as child self-regulation within caregiver-child dyads.

A total of 313 German parents with children aged 3–6 years (M_age = 53.72 months, SD_age = 10.04 months, age range = 36.15 to 83.86; 53% girls) participated in an online survey. The central outcome variable was a composite measure of children’s dishonest behavior. In parallel, parent-child trust relationship was measured in three dimensions: children’s trustworthiness, parental trustworthiness in promises, and parental trustworthiness in honesty. Parents also completed a shortened version of IMMA questionnaire (IMpulse-MAnagement in the caregiver-child dyad; Pauen et al., 2019) to evaluate different aspects of child self-regulation and parental co-regulation strategies.

OLS regression analysis results showed that children’s trustworthiness and parental trustworthiness in promises have significant negative effects on children’s dishonest behavior (β = -.398 and -.398, SE β = .09 and .09, ps < .001, respectively). Increased dishonest behavior was linked to lower perceptions of children’s trustworthiness and parental trustworthiness in promises. Conversely, children’s ability to negotiate with caregivers was positively associated with increased dishonest behavior (β = .03, SE β = .01, p = .019). Parental co-regulation practices, including the use of rewards, withdrawal, negotiation with the child, and strictness, were also positively related to children’s dishonest behavior (ps < .05).

These findings highlight the complex interplay between parent-child trust relationship, child self-regulation skills, and parental regulatory strategies in influencing children’s dishonest behavior. Contrary to our expectations, some parental regulatory strategies appeared to have undesirable effects, whereas child self-regulation skills showed little impact.

Play, as the primary activity of early childhood, plays a fundamental role in various aspects of development, including cognitive, emotional, and social growth. It is also the first context in which children learn to suppress immediate impulses in an enjoyable and acceptable way. To engage in play, they must follow certain rules (Bodrova & Leong, 2015). While most research on play focuses on older preschool children (typically four or five years old), there is comparatively less research on the play of infants and toddlers (Fleer, 2009). Additionally, researchers emphasize that children's development varies, but on average, the ability to regulate actions and behavior begins to emerge around 36 months of age (McClelland, Cameron, & Dahlgren, 2018). Given that play is a critical driver of child development and learning, it is important to explore how toddlers engage in play and develop self-regulation.

This study investigates the relationship between toddlers' play and self-regulation skills. It was conducted in early childhood education institutions in Vilnius, where 19 early childhood teachers observed and assessed the play and self-regulation abilities of 70 children using The Child’s Play and Self-Regulation (CP&SR) Checklist (Bredikyte & Brandisauskiene, 2023).

The results indicate that toddlers predominantly engage in object-oriented and action-oriented play. Their self-regulation skills in play are not yet well developed; they show interest and engage in play only episodically, with frequent interruptions due to external distractions. Additionally, adult involvement plays a crucial role in facilitating their play. However, findings also suggest that toddlers who demonstrate early symbolic play tend to have stronger self-regulation abilities within play contexts.

This study examines adults’ predictions of children’s behaviour in response to four emotion-based scenarios (fear, anger, happiness, sadness), focusing on gender differences. Between-subjects experimental design was used. 172 participants (aged 21-69 years old, 124 women) read researcher-created narratives describing children’s emotional experiences in different situations and completed the stories by predicting the child’s following behaviour. The primary manipulation was the child’s gender (e.g. the stories were the same about the boy and the girl). Content analysis was used to categorize the predicted behaviours into key themes. Chi-square analyses revealed significant gender-based patterns in adults’ predictions. In anger scenarios, adults more frequently predicted that the girl would give up, while the boy would address the situation independently. For sadness, the girl was often portrayed as expressing emotions outwardly, whereas the boy was depicted as asking questions. In fear scenarios, the boy was more likely described as experiencing internalized emotions compared to the girl. Participant characteristics (e.g. gender, parental status) also influenced their predictions of children’s behaviour in emotional scenarios. These findings highlight the prevalence of gender stereotypes in everyday contexts and provide valuable insights into adults’ gendered perceptions of children’s emotion-based behaviour.

Background. Childhood maltreatment (CM) is associated with impaired emotional development (ED), a putative latent vulnerability factor for the onset of later mental health problems. Current research on the association between CM and ED is fragmented, with the effects on different domains researched in isolation. This umbrella meta-analysis integrates the available evidence and provides a holistic overview of the CM-ED relationship.

Methods. A pre-registered systematic search of existing meta-analyses with a focus on children and young people (< 18 years) was conducted. Seven meta-analyses, including a total 140 articles, were identified. An umbrella meta-analysis on the effects of CM on emotion regulation, recognition, alexithymia and callous unemotional traits was conducted using Comprehensive Meta Analysis (v4).

Results. CM had a significant negative impact on emotion regulation and accuracy of identifying non-threatening emotions from facial expressions. CM exposed children were more prone to alexithymia and callous unemotional traits.

Conclusions. CM significantly negatively impacts ED across childhood and adolescence, including poorer emotion regulation and recognition, and increased CU traits and alexithymia symptoms. This review identifies gaps in the literature among the study of CM-associated ED deficits and identified a geographic bias to Western countries. Authors discussed strategies to implement socioemotional training for at-risk children.

Children’s individual characteristics, such as temperament, play an important role in a successful transition to school. In this study we examined whether first-grade students’ temperamental characteristics (low task-orientation, negative emotionality, positive mood, and inhibition) were related to the level of and variation in daily teacher-student interaction. Altogether 153 students and their teachers participated the study where the teacher-student interaction (that is, affection, psychological control, and behavioral control teachers used with students) was measured across one school week in the Fall term one week in the Spring term of students’ first school year. Regression modelling was used to analyse the intensive diary data.

The findings indicate, in general, that temperamental characteristics that could be seen as more challenging in the classroom environment, such as low task-orientation and negative emotionality, were related to teachers’ reports of using psychological and behavioral control in their interaction with the students. However, the findings of this study showed somewhat different kinds of relations a) when examining the relations in the levels of the different interaction types and in the daily variation in using these, and b) when examining them in the Fall term and in the Spring term. This indicates that the beginning of schooling is an important phase in the formation of teacher-student interaction, and the individual characteristics of the student play a role in this development.

The findings can be utilized while aiming to increase teachers’ knowledge on different kinds of factors that may affect to their interaction with students.

Capturing students’ emotions in real-time is challenging. Emotions—especially in educational contexts—have traditionally been studied primarily through self-report measures and observations. However, these approaches have a number of limitations: self-reported instruments assess emotions retrospectively rather than in the moment, leading, for example, to potential inaccuracies in recall and susceptibility to social desirability bias. To mitigate these shortcomings of the traditional emotions research, and to better capture emotions as they actually occur during learning, there is increasing interest in using process-oriented approaches and online measures, such as physiological data (e.g. skin conductance, heart rate) and automatic analysis of facial expressions, hand gestures and postures.

This study explores the potential of facial expression data as a way to capture emotions experienced by Grade 5 students during solving math word problems on a digital learning platform. Specifically the study explores (1) the types of emotions students experience and that can be detected through facial expression analysis, (2) the relationship between facial expression data and self-reported emotional states. Fifteen students performed two digital math word problem tasks (total of 6 and 8 subtasks, respectively) at the ViLLe online platform. Students self-reported their emotions before and after each block of tasks. Video and screen recordings were captured while performing the tasks. iMotions software will be used to analyze the video data to recognize facial expressions, while the screen recordings will provide context for the emotions detected by a computer vision algorithm. By implementing multiple data sources, this study illustrates the possibilities of combining real-time emotion tracking with a more traditional approach to move forward in understanding affective aspects of math learning.

This study examined the development of moral evaluations of lying and truth telling for transgressions of peers. Japanese first graders and fifth graders in elementary school children as well as adults (university students), made moral judgments about lying or truth telling of a protagonist who saw his/her friend breaking the rule. The protagonist was asked twice (Time 1: the friend was present and Time 2: the friend was absent) by their teacher whether it was the friend who had broken the rules. In the lie context, the protagonist lied in both Time 1 and Time 2, saying it was not the friend who did it. In the truth context, the protagonist lied in Time 1 but told a truth in Time 2, saying it was the friend who did it. The result showed that in the lie context, first graders judged bad in both Time 1 and Time 2, and the degree of bad decreased with age. In the truth context, first graders judged bad in Time 1 but good in Time 2, and the degree of bad or good decreased with age. In both contexts, adults judged neither bad nor good on average in both Time 1 and Time 2. These results indicate that, nevertheless the case in which protecting peers, younger children think that lying is worse whereas adults think that lies to protect others have both good and bad aspects. Furthermore, the children’s moral judgments about lying and truth-telling change over time from an early age to adults.

Background: Gender nonconforming (GN) children are more likely to be rejected and bullied than are gender conforming (GC) children. Our previous study has revealed that, starting from around 9 years of age, children blatantly dehumanize GN peers by rating GN peers as less human-like than GC peers. This study examines whether emphasizing GN peers’ humanizing characteristics (i.e., competence, sociability, and morality) can improve children’s dehumanization of and prosociality towards GN peers as well as their acceptance of gender nonconforming behaviors.

Method: Participants included 129 Chinese children aged 9-12 years in Hong Kong. First, children read vignettes of either a hypothetical GN boy or GN girl. Then, children were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the active control group. In the intervention group, children read stories demonstrating the GN peer’s humanness traits. In the active control group, children read stories describing the GN peer’s daily routines. Blatant dehumanization was measured by children’s ratings of how human-like the GN peer was on the Insect scale and the Ascent of Man scale. Prosociality was assessed by children’s decisions to help the GN peer in the Tangram Help/Hurt Task. Acceptance of gender nonconformity was assessed by rating scales.

Results: The humanizing intervention significantly enhanced children’s perception of GN peers’ competence, sociability, and morality. Also, compared with children in the active control group, children in the intervention group rated GN boys as more human-like (p < .001) but rated GN girls as similarly human-like (p = .766). Children in the intervention group showed greater willingness to help GN peers (p = .096) and greater acceptance of gender nonconforming play behaviors (p = .037) than did those in the active control group.

Conclusion: Emphasizing GN peers’ humanness characteristics could be an effective psychoeducational strategy to reduce GN-based bullying and promote gender inclusion.

Phubbing, i.e., ignoring physically present individuals in favour of one’s smartphone, poses significant challenges to interpersonal relationships and psychological well-being, particularly in the parent-child dynamic. As digital devices increasingly permeate all aspects of life, it is crucial to understand how parental phubbing may influence the development of aggressive behaviours in adolescents, including bullying and cyberbullying. This scoping review systematically examines the association between parental phubbing and adolescent involvement in bullying and cyberbullying, with attention to both perpetration and victimization. Following the PRISMA protocol, we identified and analyzed empirical studies investigating the relationship between parental phubbing and youths’ aggressive behaviours. Our inclusion criteria encompassed research exploring key mediating factors—such as social anxiety, moral disengagement, and online disinhibition—and moderating variables related to adolescents’ characteristics and broader family contexts. Our analysis revealed a consistent link between parental phubbing and a heightened likelihood of bullying and cyberbullying involvement among adolescents. Specifically, social anxiety, moral disengagement, and online disinhibition emerged as critical mechanisms mediating the impact of parental phubbing on youth aggression. Meanwhile, supportive family environments and robust socio-emotional competencies in adolescents appear to buffer these risks, functioning as protective factors. These findings highlight the importance of targeted interventions aimed at fostering more mindful smartphone use among parents, improving parent-child communication, and reinforcing adolescents’ social and emotional skills. Such interventions may help counteract the negative influence of phubbing on adolescent aggression, thereby reducing bullying and cyberbullying rates and promoting healthier family relationships. By exposing gaps in the literature, this review provides a platform for future research to elucidate further the complex interplay between parental phubbing, adolescent development, and digital behaviour, ultimately informing educational programs and policies designed to curb these problematic trends. Further investigation in varied cultural contexts and longitudinal studies could clarify these dynamics.

Keywords: Phubbing, parental phubbing, bullying, cyberbullying, adolescent behavior

When bullying occurs in school, most students are not only aware of it, but are also present and witness bullying. In the case of witnessing bullying, a bystander may recognize bullying as wrong, and feel responsible and motivated to intervene, but they may occasionally fail to actively intervene and defend a bullied peer for any number of reasons. The purpose of this study was to investigate how moral distress, conformity and peer norms were related to bystander behaviors (defending or remaining passively aside) in bullying. In addition to examining the pathways to bystander behaviors, we also tested the hypothesis that middle school students have different pathways from those of primary school students. One thousand one hundred Japanese primary school students (mean age=10.6 years, 48.5% girls) and one thousand four hundred and fifty-five middle school students (mean age=13.6 years, 49.9% girls) participated in our questionnaire survey. T-test showed that compared with middle school students, primary school students significantly expressed more defending and remaining passively aside, higher peer norms, and less conformity. In order to examine how each variable is related to the occurrence of bystander behaviors, we converted the experience of bystander behaviors into a binary value, with “never” set to “0” and all other responses set to “1”, and conducted a binomial logistic regression analysis by using experience of bystander behaviors as the criterion variable. Results showed that bystander behaviors were positively predicted by conformity and negatively predicted by peer norms, and that indifferent outsider behavior was negatively predicted by moral distress. Moreover, the results of simple slope analysis for the significant effect of two-way interaction suggested that peer norms might regulate the effect of moral distress on defending behaviors among only primary school students. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Students who experience victimization or engage in bullying may face sleep problems, with evidence suggesting a reciprocal relationship. The present study aims to examine both cross-sectional and bidirectional longitudinal associations between victimization or bullying, and sleep problems in children and adolescents in eligible primary studies using a systematic review and meta-analysis methodology. Following PRISMA guidelines and specific eligibility criteria, a two-step screening process conducted by two reviewers resulted in 52 reviewed studies.

The results indicated a moderate cumulative effect for cross-sectional relationships between sleep problems and victimization (d = .38; 37 effect sizes) or sleep problems and bullying (d = .27; 12 effect sizes). The strongest relationship was found for a bully-victim role (d = 0.48; 5 effect sizes) indicating that experiencing bullying in both roles could be particularly challenging. Supporting the bidirectional longitudinal model, victimization both preceded (d = .43; 13 effect sizes) and followed (d = .36; 5 effect sizes) sleep problems. Similarly, bullying both preceded (d = .34; 2 effect sizes) and followed (d = .37; 3 effect sizes) sleep problems. Longitudinal research on a bully-victim role is limited. The methodological quality of studies varied, but it did not consistently moderate the links. Gender and age moderated some associations. Thus, the concurrent association between bullying and sleep problems was stronger in samples with higher proportions of female students. The longitudinal link from victimization to subsequent sleep problems was stronger in younger than older students. Finally, a small indication of publication bias was documented.

This meta-analysis provides robust evidence for bidirectional links between victimization or bullying and sleep problems and also suggests gaps in research concerning the bully-victim role. It also highlights the need to encourage anti-bullying programs to focus on disrupting this cycle.

Executive functioning (EF) undergoes protracted development during childhood and adolescence, and plays a crucial role in interpersonal relationships and academic achievement. The operationalization and measurement of EF are central to understanding these competencies; however, debates persist regarding the component structure of EF. Additionally, there is no consensus on whether EF structure remains stable over time or following a differentiation or re-organization process. This study aims to examine the component structure of EF and its developmental stability using a multiple-cohort, longitudinal design. A total of 858 students from grade 5 (M_age = 10.72, SD = 0.39, 167 boys, 120 girls), grade 7 (M_age = 12.74, SD = 0.42, 180 boys, 124 girls), and grade 9 (M_age = 14.71, SD = 0.47, 126 boys, 141 girls) participated in five waves of assessment over a three-year period. Eight behavioral tasks were used to assess inhibition (Flanker, Stroop), switching (DCCS, Picture-Symbol, WCST), and updating (Backward Digit Span, Ranking, Visuospatial Memory), respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses and longitudinal factor analyses revealed that a two-factor model differentiated into a three-factor model at late children (around age 11.22), indicating a separation between switching and inhibition; for middle adolescence (around age 15.71) a three-factor model de-differentiated into a two-factor model, with switching and inhibition being combined into one factor. These results demonstrated developmental variation in EF component structure from two-factor model, to three-factor model, and then two-factor models from middle childhood to late adolescence, highlighting the processes of differentiation and de-differentiation in EF development.

Learning English as a second language (L2) at school is vital for long-term well-being and communication in a globalized world. However, most L2 research focuses on college students, leaving the study of early language learners largely unexplored, although L2 teaching is being anticipated at increasingly earlier ages. This study examines factors that might support L2 acquisition in primary school, focusing on the influences of academic emotions (joy, fear, and boredom) and the perceived conflict and warmth in teacher-child relationship.

Third-grade Italian children (N=147; 46% females) completed the Achievement Emotion Questionnaire – Elementary School (Pekrun et al., 2011) and Young Children's Appraisals of Teacher Support (Mantzicopoulos & Neuharth-Pritchett, 2003) as well as standardized batteries assessing English achievements (Palladino et al. 2018) and primary mental abilities (Thurstone &Thurstone, 1981).

Moderation analyses with SPSS PROCESS macro showed that controlling for cognitive abilities (b=.19, p<.001), children’s experience of joy during English lessons and tasks was positively associated with English performance (b=.81, p=.005), while fear and boredom were not (b=-.23 and b=-.65, p=ns). Conflict with the English teacher was significant moderator (b=-.40, p=.015): in the presence of high levels of conflict, joy was no longer significant, while it explained an additional amount of variance in the presence of low and average levels (b=1.35, p=.001) or moderate (b=.81, p=.005). No moderating effect of warmth was found (p>.05).

Results suggest that joy is associated with better English performance, possibly due to its enhancement of motivation, engagement, and cognitive processes (Ashby, 2006; Pekrun, 2004). Besides, the more intense the conflict with the teacher, the less joy exerts a positive effect on learning, confirming the relevance of considering the quality of the affective teacher relationship in learning processes (Sabol & Pianta, 2012).

Findings highlight the importance of addressing conflict to maintain a learning environment where joy can enhance performance.

Susceptibility to peer influence in adolescence is often associated with maladaptive behaviors, including truancy, substance misuse, conduct problems. However, it is also an adaptive consequence of the structural changes that characterize adolescence and facilitate psychosocial adaptation (Laursen & Veenstra, 2021). Conforming to the behaviors and attitudes of valued peers can be fundamentally beneficial, as it may provide a favorable sense of self (Brechwald & Prinstein, 2011). Some consider susceptibility as a trait-like attribute responsible for consistent individual differences (Belsky & Pluess, 2009), others argue that it is product of interpersonal circumstances that increase vulnerabilities to conform (Laursen & Faur, 2022). On the other hand, not everyone is equally likely to be influenced.

This study aims to investigate how susceptibility to peer influence is related and may be predicted from individual characteristics of adolescents, including rejection sensitivity, identity, emotional reactivity, and loneliness.

The study was conducted in a regional town in Lithuania. The sample consisted of students from six high schools, with a total of 746 students (grades 5–8). Participants were aged 10–14 years (M = 12.33, SD = 1.17). The sample was diverse in terms of family and socio-economic backgrounds but homogeneous in terms of ethnic background.

The following measures were used: Resistance to Peer Influence Scale (Steinberg & Monahan, 2007), Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (Crocetti et al., 2008), Loneliness Scale (Parker & Asher, 1993), Children’s Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (Downey et al., 1998), Emotional Reactivity Scale (Nock et al., 2008).

Preliminary regression analysis showed that significant associations were found between susceptibility to peer influence and all examined variables, but susceptibility could be predicted by loneliness, emotional reactivity, and identity. Our model explains 35 percent of the data variability. The longitudinal interplay between the study variables will be analyzed using three waves of data across one academic year.

Autonomy pursuit is salient during adolescence. Autonomy can be conceptualized either as functional agency or detachment. The former reflects the volition to pursue goals and can promote adaptive adjustment, whereas the latter signifies alienation and may compromise psychosocial functioning (Van Petegem et al., 2013). Adolescents might engage in information management (IM), which includes voluntary disclosure and intentional concealment, as a means to achieve autonomy (Tilton-Weaver & Marshall, 2008). However, whether IM facilitates specific forms of autonomy lacks clear support. Prior research found a positive link between youth self-concealment and emotional autonomy (Finkenauer et al., 2002). Nevertheless, the autonomy assessment has faced criticism for blending different constructs (Ryan & Lynch, 1989), and the cross-sectional design could not determine the effect directionality. Other studies emphasizing adolescents’ intrinsic motivations underlying IM suggest that autonomy perceptions might precede changes in disclosure and concealment (Tilton-Weaver, 2014). Aiming to address the ambiguity in effect valences and directions, this study examined the longitudinal associations between adolescents’ IM behaviors and (mal)adaptive forms of autonomy. Specifically, 208 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 15.00; 43.30% male) completed 21 daily reports on disclosure, concealment, functional agency, and detachment from their mothers. Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling showed that disclosure was positively linked with functional agency at the between-person level, whereas concealment was positively correlated with detachment. Within-person associations indicate that when youth perceived greater functional agency than usual, they disclosed more to their mothers the next day. Conversely, when adolescents experienced greater detachment from mothers than usual, they concealed more the following day. However, no lagged effects existed from earlier IM to either form of autonomy. These findings highlight different forms of autonomy as a potential focus for practitioners to promote adolescents’ healthy IM, indicating that disclosure may reflect a healthy sense of agency, while concealment could signify problematic relational distance from parents.

Adolescence is an important period of development, as adolescents explore who they are and want to be, while at the same time negotiating autonomy and relatedness within their social and cultural contexts. In this study, we examine the roles autonomy and relatedness play in the lives of N = 16 culturally diverse adolescents. Semi-structured interviews with adolescents of non-immigrant descent (n = 5), of second-generation immigrant descent (n = 5), and first-generation immigrants with experiences of flight (n = 6) were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: 1) Family and friends are most important in life, 2) Autonomy is a developmental privilege you can earn, 3) Too much autonomy is bad for you – humans need rules, and 4) I am not in control over my own future, school is. The findings highlight relatedness as most important for adolescents from all backgrounds. The importance and negotiation of autonomy varied across the groups of adolescents, however all adolescents accepted the necessity of rules for personal and societal well-being. Findings further highlight the importance of dismantling classist and assimilationist structures embedded in the German school system to enhance the autonomy, well-being and success of adolescents with diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Intercultural sensitivity is a key component of intercultural communication competence, as it fosters openness and adaptability to cultural differences (Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003). Recently, the investigation of factors that could enhance intercultural sensitivity has gaining attention, given its impact on inclusive attitudes among adolescents in an increasingly multi-ethnic society. One of these factors is social support, defined as the perceived support from family, friends, and significant others. Previous studies have linked social support to emotional well-being and social adaptability (Wright & Silbereisen, 2015). Yet its direct effect on intercultural sensitivity remains unexplored. Moreover, little is known about the potential mediating role of individual factors, such as reflective thinking (i.e., the ability to analyze experiences, reconsider cognitive and behavioural patterns, and suspend judgment; Facione, 2010). This study examines the effect of social support on intercultural sensitivity in adolescents and the mediating role of reflective thinking on a preliminary sample of N = 50 adolescents (74% female, M_age = 16.5, SD = 1.55, range: 13–18 years) from Italian secondary schools who self-reported on variables of interest.
Preliminary mediation analysis revealed that social support did not directly predict intercultural sensitivity (B = -.08, p = .16) but fully through the indirect effect of reflective thinking (B = .08, 95% CI [.014, .19]), with social support impacting on reflective thinking (B = .24, p < .001) that in turn has a significant effect on intercultural sensitivity (B = .31, p = 0.03).
Findings suggest that promoting supportive social relationships among adolescents can enhance deep reflection on experiences and behaviors, fostering greater openness to diversity. As the data collection is still ongoing aiming at reach around 1500 observations, by the time of the conference, findings will rely on a larger sample size. Implications for research and practice will be discussed.

Objective:
This study examined the structure of the Japanese concept Kanyo in adolescent friendships. While Western psychology traditionally treats tolerance and forgiveness as distinct constructs, in the Japanese context, these elements are often integrated under Kanyo, with adolescents showing little distinction between the two (Hattori, 2024). Hattori identified three responses to interpersonal discomfort: recognition of individuality (tolerance), letting go of negative emotions (forgiveness), and willingness to maintain or rebuild the relationship (forgiveness). Given this overlap, the present study aimed to conceptualize Kanyo as a construct integrating aspects of tolerance and forgiveness. Two central components—recognition of individuality and letting go of negative emotions—were selected as focal dimensions. A new scale was developed and examined for its reliability and validity.

Method:
Items were adapted from existing tolerance and forgiveness scales. Experts reviewed the content validity, and a scenario-based approach was employed to reflect Kanyo’s context-dependent nature. Data were collected from 327 Japanese university students (mean age = 20.0).

Results:
After excluding one item with low communality and two with floor effects, exploratory factor analysis (principal factor method with Promax rotation) identified three factors: (1) Letting Go of Negative Emotions, (2) Acceptance through Recognition of Individuality, and (3) Rumination and Resolution of Discomfort. All factors demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s α > .77). Construct validity was partially supported. "Letting Go of Negative Emotions" was weakly negatively correlated with TRIM subscales (r = −.25 to −.18). "Rumination and Resolution of Discomfort" showed moderate positive correlations (r = .28 to .42), while "Acceptance through Recognition of Individuality" was weakly positively correlated with interpersonal trust (r = .15) but not with loneliness.

Conclusion:

This study advances understanding by conceptualizing Kanyo as a three-factor construct integrating both forgiveness and tolerance. Future studies should investigate the cross-cultural applicability and validity of the scale.

Ethnically minoritized adolescents face the developmental task of balancing multiple ethnic-cultural identities. Bicultural Identity Integration (BII) addresses this process by examining how ethnic-cultural identities are affectively experienced and cognitively combined. Findings suggest that among adolescents in Germany, BII is multifaced comprising different combinations of the two affective (Harmony and Conflict) and two cognitive (Blendedness and Compartmentalization) dimensions. According to identity theories, it can be expected that BII combinations are associated with particular levels of national and host culture identifications, because only certain combinations represent a coherent sense of self and a balanced identity development. This study investigated longitudinal BII trajectory subgroups using Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA). We hypothesized subgroup differences in ethnic-heritage identification, national identification, and their discrepancy.

The sample comprised 226 ethnic minoritized students from Germany (Mage= 12.9, SD= 1.19; 51.1% female) (T1:2019, T2:2021). LCGA identified five BII subgroups (“High Integrated”, “BII Exploration”, “Conflict Resolution”, “Compartmentalized BI”, “Insignificant BI”). Two one-way MANOVAs were conducted to identify differences in ethnic-heritage and national identification at T1 and at T2 across BII subgroup memberships. At T1, significant differences were found for national identification (F(4, 188) = 3.50, p = .009, η² = .07) and identity discrepancy (F(4, 188) = 2.24, p = .066, η² = .05), but not for ethnic identification. At T2, differences were significant for ethnic identification (F(4, 155) = 3.75, p = .006, η² = .09) and identity discrepancy (F(4, 155) = 2.35, p = .057, η² = .06), but not for national identification. Pairwise comparisons revealed pronounced differences between “High Integrated,” “Compartmentalized BI,” and “Insignificant BI” subgroups, whereas the “BII Exploration” and “Conflict Resolution” subgroups showed moderate levels of cultural identification.

Results indicate that addressing various aspects of ethnic-cultural identity in combination can contribute to a comprehensive understanding of cultural identity processes in ethnically minoritized youth.

Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) provides a valuable framework for studying academic procrastination, as it emphasizes both positive and negative dimensions of motivational beliefs. Procrastination is an avoidance behavior, and EVT acknowledges that while positive task values can encourage engagement, negative factors such as perceived costs may contribute to avoidance. This suggests that task values may differentially relate to approach- and avoidance-oriented learning behaviors, including procrastination. This study examines how both positive (expectancies and values) and negative (costs) motivational beliefs relate to procrastination in math learning.

The sample consisted of 1487 ninth-graders (55.9 % girls; mean age = 14.88) from 24 schools. Students completed self-report measures of academic procrastination and motivational beliefs, including expectancies for success, interest, utility and attainment value, as well as effort, opportunity, ego and emotional cost.

A three-step multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted where procrastination in math learning was a dependent variable. Gender and prior math achievement were entered as control variables at step one. Expectancy and task values were entered at step two. Perceived costs were entered at step three. Each step yielded significant change in R², with final model explaining 24.7 % of the variation of procrastination. Gender, prior achievement, interest value, attainment value, effort cost and emotional cost proved to be significant predictors in the final regression model. The strongest predictor of procrastination was emotional cost, while effort cost predicted procrastination to a lesser extent. The dimensions of positive task value – interest and attainment – also predicted academic procrastination. Our results differ from Jiang et al. (2018), who found that only cost, but not value, predicts academic procrastination. This difference may be explained by the inclusion of specific value and cost dimensions in our predictive models and highlights the need for further refinement of the constructs of value and cost.

It has been noted that some Japanese adolescents are aware of their wanting to rebel but do not or cannot rebel. However, rebellion in adolescence is often defined as a time when a rebellious attitude is manifested, focusing only on the behavioral aspect, and the consciousness of awareness to rebel is not situated well.Therefore, this study examined adolescent rebellion in terms of the gap between awareness and behavior.

This study was conducted from August to December 2024. 79 Japanese junior college, undergraduate, and graduate students participated. The survey was administered using a questionnaire and analyzed using the lifeline method.

As a result, for the significance of the gap between defiance and defiant behavior in adolescents, the results indicate that there are several patterns depending on the size of the gap in the intensity of awareness and behavior of rebellion and the timing of when the gap is observed. The patterns suggest that, in cases of rebellious behavior in adolescence, even if the causes of anger and frustration have not changed, multiple short-term stressors, including social conditions, and the intensity and nature of the adolescent's rebellious behavior may change. In some cases, the adolescent's behavior may seem excessive to him or her. In addition, even in cases where rebellious behavior was not seen very often in adolescence, there were cases in which the adolescents themselves had an unexplainably high level of rebellious awareness. It was suggested that the adolescents may have had experiences in their early years, such as in elementary school, when they were unable to make their own arguments, and that the feeling of not being able to defend themselves or the negative perception of themselves in conflict may be related to their not expressing rebellious behavior during their adolescence.

Adolescents’ career decisions can have an immense impact on the entire family, particularly if they grow up in business family, where succeeding in the family firm is an inevitable career option. For this reason, a family system perspective is required to understand business families dealing with adolescents’ succession intentions. Following a family system perspective, we firstly studied parent-adolescent-congruence (or -divergence) in offspring’s cognitive (likelihood) and affective (passion) succession intentions. We, secondly, tested whether parent-adolescent-divergence in cognitive and affective intentions are associated with lower levels of family communication.

The sample comprised 142 parent-adolescent dyads in family firms. Offspring and parents were interviewed separately in their homes (average interview duration M_adol.=85 min, SD=18.45, M_parent=45 min, SD=20.48). Adolescents’ age was 16.93 years (SD=1.81) with 76% of them being school students of different secondary school tracks.

The correlative agreement of parent and adolescent succession intentions was substantial, albeit somewhat lower for affective intentions (r_cognitive=.70, p<.05; r_affective=.57, p<.05). Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed, however, significantly mean level differences with lower cognitive intentions among parents (F=4.07, 147df, p<.05) and lower affective intentions among adolescents (F=15.4, 147df, p<.05). Linear regression analyses with interaction terms (controlled for age, gender, sibling number) revealed lower levels of family communication in parent-adolescent-dyads that diverged in the cognitive intention or agreed that the adolescent will not take over the firm. If parents and adolescents agreed in the cognitive intention on adolescents’ succession, more communication was found. No significant interactions were found for affective intentions.

Analyses revealed the role of parental expectations in adolescents’ career development and in family communication – particularly in families where the family firm can be assumed to be a major part in both adolescents’ and parents’ life. The study also highlights the need to investigate more thoroughly the mutual insights in parents’ and children’s career perspectives.

The role of digital skills in youth’s online experiences and mental well-being has been a relatively new research area in Educational Psychology. This study analysed the complex relationship among four types of digital skills, exposure to four types of online risks (cyberhate, harmful content, sexting(receiving) and sexual content), self-efficacy and life satisfaction using secondary data collected from 6 European countries by the ySKILLS longitudinal project. The study is cross-sectional and the data from the latest wave (2023) were analysed (n = 6253, Mean age = 16.3, girls= 49.43%, boys = 46.84%, NA = 3.72%). Four path analyses were conducted for each type of online risk using the Lavaan package in R. All four models include direct relationships among all the variables, the mediating effect of self-efficacy between digital skills and online risks and the mediating effect of online risks between self-efficacy and life satisfaction.

Youth’s higher information navigation and processing skills reduced their exposure to online risks. Conversely, higher technical and operational skills and content creation and production skills increased exposure to online risks. Moreover, path models suggest that higher information navigation and processing skills, along with communication and interaction skills, slightly reduce the exposure to online risks such as cyber hate, harmful content, and sexual content through the mediation effect of self-efficacy. Higher levels of self-efficacy predicted lower exposure to online risks except for sexting (receiving). As anticipated, self-efficacy positively predicted life satisfaction in all four models. However, when the relationship was mediated by online risks, it weakened the relationship between self-efficacy and life satisfaction, reducing its strength to a very weak one. These findings confirm the complex relationship between youths' digital skills, online risks and mental well-being, suggesting the need for deeper analyses of these constructs.

Friendships play an important role in shaping adolescents' social and emotional development. Adolescents actively seekconnections with peers who share similar ideas, experiences, and perspectives which fosters a sense of belonging andmutual understanding. These relationships provide a secureenvironment for adolescents to explore their identities, expresstheir emotions, and build self-esteem. In addition, friendshipsplay a protective role by offering emotional support duringdifficult times such as academic pressures, family conflicts, orpersonal problems. Research shows that positive peer relationspromote social behaviors such as empathy, sharing, andeffective communication as well as the development of interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution andcooperation. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the adolescents’ peer relations in Turkey. Specifically, weexamined the activities they engage in, the topics they discuss, the time and locations in which they interact, and the funtionof cliques and crowds present in schools. A total of 273 high school students (57% girls) participated in this study and they were asked open-ended questions. The qualitative analysis isstill ongoing. Preliminary findings revealed that adolescents spend time with their peers by playing computer games (27%), playing football (16%), and visiting malls or shopping (%14). The primary topics in adolescents’ daily conversations include school (%20), classes and exams (%12), football (%10), and future plans (%9). Regarding crowds in schools, adolescents frequently mentioned jocks, the ‘brains’, and the choir and theater groups. Additionally, some specific crowds wereobserved only in local schools. These results highlight theimportance of peers in adolescents' daily lives. Furthermore, the influence of peers often shapes adolescents' behavior, interests, and self-esteem, underscoring the need for positivepeer relationships.

Keywords: friendship, adolescents, peers, peer relations

Recent research underscores the critical role of prosocial functioning in fostering social inclusion and well-being during adolescence. Social exclusion has severe consequences, undermining both community engagement and mental health. While existing research highlights associations between prosocial functioning and social inclusion, there is a lack of causal evidence, particularly regarding how specific facets like self-regulation and sympathy contribute to these outcomes in real-world settings.

This study adopts an ecological-causal perspective to investigate how self-regulation and sympathy—key components of prosocial functioning—enhance inclusion and well-being. A total of 240 adolescents (≥14 years old) from upper secondary schools were recruited for a two-phase data collection process: a baseline questionnaire and a daily diary phase. Using a Within-Person Encouragement Design (WPED), participants received randomized daily encouragement, serving as an instrumental variable to assess causal effects on prosocial behavior. They were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (prosocial responding, self-regulation, or social inclusion) and monitored over three weeks via a smartphone application. On 50% of the days (11 out of 21), they received encouragement messages and completed daily questionnaires assessing self-efficacy, sympathy, and social inclusion.

Ongoing data collection includes 15 high-school classes in Tuscany. Analyses will employ a Dynamic Structural Equation Model (DSEM) to examine associations between prosocial behavior, social inclusion, and well-being. We hypothesize that increased self-regulation and sympathy will enhance social inclusion and well-being over time. Findings will inform interventions aimed at fostering inclusion and well-being among socially marginalized adolescents.

Parental attitudes, characterised by emotional warmth and supportive parenting behaviours, play a crucial role in the development of empathy and altruism in adolescents and emerging adults (Fuentes et al., 2022). In contrast, negative parenting patterns have been linked to increased aggressive behaviour in adolescents (Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Ma et al., 2020). This raises an important question: To what extent does an individual's level of empathy moderate these relationships? The present study aimed to examine the relationship between retrospective evaluations of parental attitudes and behaviours, and levels of altruism and aggression, in individuals with different empathy profiles. A cross-sectional method was used, involving a sample of 548 adolescents and emerging adults aged 15–25 years. Several standardised instruments were used to assess empathy and altruism (Interpersonal Reactivity Index and Social Empathy Questionnaire), aggression (Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire), and maternal and paternal behaviours (Retrospective Questionnaire of Parental Attitudes and Perceived Parental Reaction to Adolescent Distress). In the first step, latent profile analysis was conducted to identify distinct empathy profiles based on the three dimensions: perspective taking, empathic concern, and personal distress. Four empathy profiles were identified. Moderation analysis was performed to investigate whether these empathy profiles moderated the associations between retrospective parental attitudes/behaviours and participants’ altruism and aggression. The results revealed a significant moderating effect of empathy in the relationship between positive maternal attitudes and altruism. In terms of aggression, empathy profiles moderated the relationship between negative parental attitudes and behaviours (both maternal and paternal) and various forms of aggressive behaviour. These findings highlight the role of empathy in shaping the association between parental attitudes and behavioural outcomes in adolescence and emerging adulthood. Practical implications are discussed.

Establishing a romantic relationship has long been considered an essential developmental task of emerging adulthood. However, this assumption is being questioned as emerging adults take longer to achieve adult roles. This study aims to explore the quality of romantic relationships and their change throughout the early years of emerging adulthood. In this paper, we present longitudinal data from 446 emerging adults (153 men, 293 women, 3 persons with other gender identities). Among other measures, participants completed the Affection, Reliable Alliance, and Antagonism subscales of Network Relationship Inventory (Furman y Buhrmester, 1985) at Wave 1 (2020, Mean age= 20.91) and Wave 2 (2024, Mean age= 24.09). Of the total sample, 46.5% (W1) and 57.8% (W2) reported being in a romantic relationship. A K-means clustering analysis of these scores revealed three distinct groups: The first cluster (25% of the sample), characterized by low scores in Affection and Reliable Alliance and low scores in Antagonism, showed a significant increase in Reliable Alliance from W1 to W2. A second group (63.3% of the sample) had the highest scores in Affection and Reliable Alliance and the lowest scores in Antagonism, although Reliable Alliance decreased from W1 to W2. The third cluster (11.4% of the sample) exhibited high scores in both Affection and Reliable Alliance as well as in Antagonism. While the significant change over time was a decrease in Reliable Alliance, we also observed a decrease in Affection and an increase in Antagonism. The distribution of men and women was similar across all three clusters, and there was no wave*sex interaction in any of the variables. Finally, belonging to one of these three clusters was associated with Flourishing and Psychological Distress highlighting the growing importance of romantic relationships in the lives of emerging adults.

Empirical evidence suggests that empathic self-efficacy, “which refers to individuals’ perceived capability to experience emotions from another’s perspective, to respond emotionally and compassionately to others’ distress and misfortune, and to be sensitive to how one’s actions affect others’ feelings” (Bandura et al., 2003, p. 774), contributes to increasing prosocial behaviors (Alessandri et al., 2009; Caprara et al., 2010). However, the relation between empathic self-efficacy and prosocial behavior has been limitedly explored in intensive longitudinal studies with an ecological perspective.

This study aimed to understand the predictive role of empathic self-efficacy on daily prosocial behavior at intraindividual (i.e., within) and interindividual levels (i.e., between). The sample was composed of 254 Italian young adults (18-35 years; M_age = 25.4; SD = 3.4; 56.3% females) who completed baseline and daily questionnaires for 21 days.

A multilevel regression analysis was performed. The results indicated that empathic self-efficacy positively predicts prosocial behavior at the between (β = .34; p =.006) and within levels (β = .12; p < .001;). Specifically, young adults who, on average, reported more empathic self-efficacy also reported more prosocial behaviors over 21 days (interindividual differences). Moreover, the results showed that reporting more empathic self-efficacy than usual on a specific day positively predicted higher-than-expected peaks in prosocial behaviors on the same day (intraindividual changes).

This implies that higher perceived empathic self-efficacy is associated with greater prosocial tendency in general (i.e., between level) and in daily fluctuations of prosocial behaviors (i.e., within level). This finding highlights the importance of fostering perceived empathic self-efficacy through psychological and educational interventions to promote prosociality in this important life phase.

Background:

Emerging adulthood is characterized by diverse opportunities to pursue life goals, many with profound long-term implications. Individual personality traits play a major role in these processes, functioning as both protective and risk factors, this raises the question of their role in the process of individual goal-pursuit, especially for changeability and resistance against emotional influences.

Method:

People aged 18 to 29 (n=179;M=23.66(SD=2.67)) were surveyed using an online questionnaire.

The currently most important development-goals were surveyed with open questions.

Self-constructed items on the general experience of the goal-pursuit-process and on specific goal-related action tendencies were collected and analyzed thematically separately, in each case factor-analytically. In addition, the personality dimensions (Big-5) were recorded using the BFI-10.

(I) Developmental goals were categorized into seven domains (κ=.98,p<.001) and ranked according to frequency of mention.

(II) The self-constructed items were subjected to two exploratory factor analyses (EFA;Rotation:Varimax).

(III) Finally, correlations between the five personality dimensions and the resulting factors were carried out on domain-specific basis.

Results:

(I) Goals related to the domains of work/education (n= 99,55.3%) and personal-growth (n=35,19.6%) were mentioned most frequently.

(II) One factor results from the first EFA: (1) emotional experience of the goal-pursuit-process (EEZ)(variance:58.68%,α=.76,rtt=.55-=.57,4 items). Two factors resulted from the second EFA (variance:72.23%):(1)Changeability in the goal-pursuit-process (WZ) (α=.68,rtt=.40-=.55),(2)Resistance to emotional influences in the goal-pursuit-process (REEZ) (α=.81,rtt=.68).

(III) In both domains considered (personal-growth,work/education), significant positive correlations between neuroticism and REEZ(work/education:r=.56,p<.001;personal-growth:r=.34,p=.045) were found. There were significant negative correlations between neuroticism and REEZ in both domains(work/education:r=-.24,p=.015;personal-growth:r=-.62,p<.001). In the work/education domain, there are also correlations between conscientiousness and WZ(r=-.31,p=.002), conscientiousness and REEZ r=.38,p<.001). Additionally, correlations between extraversion and REEZ(r=.34,p=.044), openness and changeability(r=-.37,p=.028) were found in the personal-growth domain.

Discussion:

Given the instability of emerging adulthood, high neuroticism poses significant risks to successful development, highlighting the need for tailored developmental support based on personality dispositions.

Individuals regulate emotions in daily life through two primary approaches. These are intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation. To our knowledge, there is no measurement tool in Türkiye that simultaneously evaluates both an individual's ability to regulate their own emotions (intrapersonal emotion regulation) and their ability to regulate others' emotions (interpersonal emotion regulation). In this context, the study aimed to adapt the Emotion Regulation for Self and Others Scale (EROS) into Turkish and evaluate its psychometric properties to fill this gap in the literature. The study sample consisted of 418 adult participants (M_age=21.42; SD_age=4.26). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess construct validity. The relationships between EROS and perceived stress, perceived social support, difficulties in emotion regulation, and other emotion regulation scales were investigated for criterion-related validity. In order to assess reliability, internal consistency coefficients were calculated and subsequently, test-retest analyses were repeated on 71 participants (M_age=21.69; SD_age=4.62). The results of CFA showed that the model fit the data well and verified the four-factor structure as in the original form: “extrinsic affect-improving”, “extrinsic affect-worsening”, “intrinsic affect-improving”, and “intrinsic affect-worsening”. As expected, these factors were found to be associated with perceived stress, perceived social support, difficulties in emotion regulation, other emotion regulation scales. Furthermore, the Turkish adaptation of the EROS satisfied the conditions of reliability. The internal consistency coefficients for the factors were between .71 and .83, and test-retest correlation coefficients were also found to be strong. Results indicated that the Turkish adaptation of Emotion Regulation of Others and Self (EROS) Scale is a valid and reliable measure for adult population in Türkiye. Our scale adaptation study contribute to future research on Turkish sample aiming to measure intrinsic and extrinsic emotion regulation strategies and examine the related factors in adulthood.

Keywords: emotion regulation, intrapersonal emotion regulation, interpersonal emotion regulation, adulthood

The Philippines has gradually undergone digital transformation over the past years. However, not everyone may be ready for this, including older Filipinos. If they are not able to cope society’s digital transformation, then it is possible for them to have fewer opportunities to experience ginhawa or the sense of capability to overcome challenges while aging. After all, information communication technologies (ICTs) may help address older adults’ unmet needs for financial security, healthcare services, age-friendly environments, and familial support and may contribute to the experience of ginhawa. Using Selective Optimization with Compensation as a theoretical framework, this review explored the different ways ICTs may be used by older Filipinos to achieve their selected goals, optimize opportunities to achieve these goals, and to compensate for loss of resources. Despite the potential of ICTs to help older Filipinos address their needs, it would still be important to consider possible barriers when using ICTs, effective ways to assist and empower older Filipinos to use ICTs, and supportive policies and interventions related to ageing.

Background

Digital technologies hold development-promoting potential (e.g. autonomous living), but digital skills must first be available in order to develop this potential. Acquiring these skills can be particularly challenging for people in old age, partly due to a historical deficit in learning opportunities. Younger family members often take on a supporting role here. The resulting - at best reciprocal - intergenerational teaching-learning dyad is associated with challenges, but also potential, for both sides.

In this study, the learning situation is characterized from both perspectives (younger/older family members) and analysed on the basis of the following questions:

Which focal points of support can be identified, which family members are involved in the processes and which opportunities and challenges arise within the identified focal points of support.

Method

The two samples will each consist of n=150 people aged 14-64 (younger people) and >=65 (older people). Thirteen technology categories (e.g. e-health, communication) will be used to determine where support was provided/received. For each category, the frequency, the family members involved and the type of support (e.g. learning vs. “troubleshooting”) are surveyed. In addition, a specific situation is surveyed in more detail and perceived difficulties (e.g. stereotypical ideas) and opportunities (e.g. feeling of safety) are recorded.

On the basis of descriptive-statistical analyses, an overview of the technology categories in question is provided, support priorities are examined in more detail with regard to selected elements of the specific study situations and finally compared between the samples.

Results

The survey is currently being carried out and the first results are expected in March.

Discussion

The investigation of support priorities in the context of familial, intergenerational teaching-learning dyads is intended to contribute to drawing a true-to-life picture of digital competence acquisition processes and to discuss possibilities for considering the identified risks and opportunities in counseling contexts.

The increasing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in everyday life raises important questions about its impact on pupils’ well-being. This study aims to examine the association between the use of AI technologies, AI literacy, and the well-being of pupils in Croatia. This study is a part of research activity within the Croatian Academic and Research Network-CARNET project “Application of AI-based digital technologies in education-BrAIn”. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from a representative sample of elementary and high school students through focus groups and an online questionnaire. The questions for focus groups and the online questionnaire were developed for the project BrAIn. The findings highlight variations in AI literacy levels and frequency of AI use across age groups and their potential effects on well-being, including both benefits and risks such as misinformation and privacy concerns. The findings highlight the need for structured AI education and policies as well as balanced and informed use of AI to ensure that pupils can safely and effectively engage with AI while mitigating potential risks. This research provides valuable insights for educators and policymakers in developing strategies to enhance AI literacy while safeguarding pupils' well-being.

The increase in social media usage comes along with many benefits as well as some problems including compulsive internet use which is defined as one’s indulgency for online activities with excessive internet usage. One of the main factors shaping children’s and adolescents’ compulsive internet use is their cognitive skills. Research shows that higher levels of executive function skills may provide higher control toward addiction. On the other hand, higher executive function may also require higher stimulus, thus it may lead to addiction. This question remains in the dark, and the conflict continues.

This study aims to examine whether children’s and adolescents’ compulsive internet use depends on their executive function skills. A total of 5041 children and adolescents aged between 8-18, from 185 schools in 61 provinces of Türkiye were included in the study. Executive function skills were measured with Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS) and children completed Compulsive Internet Use Scale. Children and adolescents were separated into three groups (low, moderate, high) based on their EF skills with median analysis to compare their compulsive internet use according to their executive function score. Results indicated that only children with moderate levels of EF showed the lowest levels of compulsive internet use. The results were also examined based on age and gender.

This research is important in terms of helping to define the main question regarding the relationship between compulsive internet use and cognitive skills of children and adolescents. According to the results, children and adolescents with both high and low levels of EF may be a risk group for CIU. The findings are discussed within the scope of the limitations and contributions of the study based on previous research.

Parasocial relationships, unreciprocated connections with media figures, have gained significance with the rise of digital technologies and social media. Adolescence is a developmental stage where parasocial relationships happen often and it is important to understand adolescents’ motives for parasocial relationships. Also, the figures with whom adolescents establish parasocial relationships may be a significant factor in their self-development. While it may support them in developing adaptive coping strategies, it may also negatively affect their well-being with an increased tendency towards social comparison. Thus, understanding adolescents' parasocial relationships is important for enhancing mental health services tailored to their needs.

The present study aims to investigate adolescents' experiences regarding parasocial relationships, their causes, and consequences. Purposive sampling was used to select adolescents (13–18) who reported admiration for and parasocial relationships with media figures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using a 14-question protocol, developed by the researchers, reviewed by experts, and refined through a pilot study to ensure validity. The study group consists of 5 adolescents. Interview recordings were transcribed and systematically coded. Codes were then grouped into categories, from which broader themes were generated through thematic analysis. Interviews revealed categories such as the onset age (approximately 10) and duration of parasocial relationships, reasons for admiration (e.g., talent, success), the perception of social support, the development of positive behaviors through modeling admired figures, and the similarity of parasocial relationships to real-life relationships in terms of closeness, while participants remained aware of their one-sided nature. Interviews are ongoing as the data has not yet reached saturation. The findings will be discussed holistically considering the needs leading to a parasocial relationship and the negative and positive aspects of experiencing this type of relationship.

This presentation is supported by TÜBİTAK 2224-A Grant Program for participation in scientific meetings abroad.

The development of emotion regulation (ER) in early childhood is essential for later life functioning, making it critical to enhance ER skills beginning in preschool. Outdoor environments offer opportunities to enhance ER, but these associations have not been extensively studied in preschool-aged children.

Our study examines whether increased outdoor time improves ER and its development in young children. We hypothesize that more time spent outdoors will correlate with higher levels of ER and a more positive development of ER over time.

We conducted three measurements during one school year with 92 children (age: 44.9±6.7 months; 56.5% girls). Observed-ER was assessed by observations in a semi-standardized individual play situation, and reported-ER was assessed by questionnaires completed by teachers. Outdoor time was measured by parents questionnaires and categorized by educational setting (N=25: outdoor preschool; N=17: half time outdoor; N=50: indoor only). The hypothesis will be tested using Multilevel Growth Models for developmental analysis.

These benefits of outdoor learning and the growing need in improving ER, may encourage educational systems, parents and educators to allow children with more opportunities for outdoor time already in early preschool.

Introduction. Research shows that essential oils (EOs) - aromatic substances of plant origin - influence human emotions, cognitive function and behavior. Odors can be perceived as pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. Olfactory stimuli can trigger memories. Memories triggered by smells are experienced more emotionally than those triggered by verbal, visual or tactile stimuli. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have shown that unpleasant smells evoke more negative emotions and trigger deeper memories. Inhaling 'nostalgic' smells stimulates positive emotions and autobiographical memories. The perception of an EA scent as pleasant or unpleasant may be influenced by a person's emotional state at the time of exposure, the duration and environment of the exposure and cultural factors. Olfactotherapy – integration of psychology and aromatherapy. The aim of the study - to assess the effect of the chosen EA on the heart rate variability (HRV) of the organism and to determine at what developmental stage and with what valence the memories are evoked.

Methodology. The participants were 5 psychologists (1 male, 4 female) selected by convenience sampling. The effects of Benzoin (Styrax benzoin) EA were investigated. Subjects inhaled EA from a paper strip for 2 minutes. The LifePulse Pro functional diagnostics equipment measured the HRV before and shortly after EA administration. Subjective reaction to the smell (pleasant/neutral/unpleasant), the approximate age of evoked autobiographical memories and the change in HRV recorded.

Results. 4 participants rated the smell of EA as pleasant and 1 as unpleasant. Those who rated the smell positively experienced an increase of HRV after EA exposure. For those who rated the smell as negative it decreased. For 3 participants EA triggered childhood memories.

Conclusions. 1. Participants' reactions to EA were individual. 2. Those who liked the smell of EA showed an increase of HRV. 3. EA evoked childhood memories in some participants.

Parentification means reversing roles between a child and parent(s). It is a complex, immersed-in-culture and intergenerational process that can be based on family loyalties, and its transmission across family generations is well described in case studies from psychotherapeutic practice. However, little research estimates the strength of the relation based on the level of parentification experienced by the parent and the level of parentification experienced by the adolescent.

There were 170 family triads consisting of adolescents aged 12-16 and their parents/caregivers. The adolescents were aged 12-16 (M=13.35; SD=.85); among them, 52.9% (N=90) were girls, and 47.1 % (N=80) were boys. Parentification was measured with the Polish adaptations of the Parentification Inventory by Hooper (2009) – the retrospective version for adults (Borchet et al., 2022) and the parallel, current version for adolescents (Borchet et al., 2023). In both versions, the scale produces three orthogonal parentification dimensions. The study aimed to investigate the intergenerational transmission of parentification from parents to adolescents.

Neither relationship between maternal nor fraternal childhood parentification and adolescent current parentification was statistically significant. Further analyses investigated family-structure-related moderating variables. Summing up, the mechanism of intergenerational transmission of parentification seems to be indirect; thus, it suppresses the need to contextualize studies on parentification.

Non-directive play therapy is based on the idea that children have the capability and natural tendency to develop mature, necessary behavior in order to solve their problems, including inner conflicts. Such an orientation necessitates an accepting, respectful, and permissive therapeutic relationship with appropriate limits between the psychotherapist and the child. Also, the discourse of the parents toward the child has a strong impact to mediate both child’s position within the play, and therapeutic relationship. Although parents may consciously want the best for their children, their discourse about the therapeutic relationship or their children's problems may indicate an unconscious tendency to perpetuate their children's problems. The aim of this study is to demonstrate this proposition through a first session analysis of 7-year-old girl and her mother. As this single session demonstrates, the mother's discourse conveys messages that the child continuously needs psychological help, ultimately leading the child to refuse to play and resulting in dropout after this very first session. Lacan states that the child’s symptom functions in relation to what is symptomatic within the family. The position of the mother, therefore, can be considered as a resistance to the therapeutic process. By analyzing the session in depth -including the therapist’s own resistance- this study aims to highlight the possible resistance components within the discourse of the parents, that should also be addressed in the child’s psychotherapy process. Finally, recommendations will be provided, especially for novel play therapists, on balancing the child’s needs with parental resistance.

The term “castration complex” was first introduced by Freud as part of his broader theory of psychosexual development, particularly during the phallic stage which takes place between the ages of 3 to 6. Freud argued that the castration complex refers to the fear of losing one's penis, which is often symbolically linked to the threat of punishment for inappropriate sexual desires, particularly in relation to the Oedipus complex. On the other hand, Lacan later expanded this concept and stated that it was not just about the fear of losing the penis but symbolized a deeper relationship of a subject to the symbolic order. Symbolic castration occurs when the child enters the symbolic order which is the realm of language, law, and social structures. In this process, the name of the father is introduced as a third party into the dyadic relationship between the mother and the child, establishing a boundary that enables the seperation between the mother and the child. This allows the child to enter the symbolic order, and to become a desiring subject. However, this process also contains an element of threat and fear in itself and evokes anxiety for the child. In line with this, aggressive or frightening elements were observed during nondirective play therapy with a five year old girl. For instance, wild animals trying to eat the offsprings, or the cars crashing and causing accidents, or trying to crush the young animals, can be given as examples of threatening elements in play sessions. Furthermore, these were also evident in drawings that involves phallic associations, such as sharp protrusions like wings, teeth, tails, and claws, or images with harsh and definitive lines. This study focuses on how traces of castration complex show itself during nondirective play therapy sessions and to discuss them from a psychoanalytic perspective.