Longitudinal associations between parents' prosocial behavior and media use and young children's prosocial development: The mediating role of children's media use.

Research has found that media is associated with children's prosocial behavior (PB) from an early age, and that parents play a key role in children's media use and behavior. However, few studies explore these relations as early as infancy while also controlling for well-established predictors of PB (e.g., empathic concern). Thus, the present study examined longitudinal associations between parents' PB and media use, and prosocial development during early childhood, mediated by children's own media use. Participants were 519 children (M age at Time 1 = 17.77 months) and parents who participated in three timepoints of an ongoing, longitudinal study. A longitudinal path model suggested that children's media use was still significantly associated with PB 1 year later after accounting for factors such as parents' PB, media use, and empathy. These findings have important implications for the early development of behaviors that serve as a foundation for social and moral development.

Building Blocks of Parent-Child Sex Communication: Body Talk During Infancy and Early Childhood.

The current study investigated how foundational conversations about the body and sexuality begin, how they develop longitudinally, and whether parental body talk varies as a function of characteristics of both the parent and child. Participants included 442 mothers (M age = 32.50, SD = 5.61, 93% heterosexual, 85% White) and 337 available father-figures (M age = 33.99, SD = 5.68, 98% heterosexual, 80% White), who were the parents of infants (age at Time 1 = 28.13 months, SD = 6.85, 52% male). Factor analyses suggested that parents engaged in positive, avoidant, and scolding body talk with their young children, and growth curve analyses suggested that frequency of positive body talk increased from when the child was age two to when they were age four for both mother- and father-figures. Results also suggested that the most consistent predictors of body talk included parents' perceptions of whether their child was too young to discuss sexuality, and the child's own questions and behaviors about their bodies and sexuality. The discussion focuses on the frequency of parental body talk and the active role of the child in the early socialization of healthy sexuality.

Variability in infant helping and sharing behaviors across the second and third years of life: Differential roles of target and socialization.

Infants can help and share in the second year of life. However, there is limited knowledge as to variability in these behaviors as a function of target (e.g., caregiver vs. unfamiliar adult) and the influence of caregiver support on infant prosocial behavior. Infants (N = 268, 124 female) at 1-2 years of age (M = 1.47, SD = .27) and again at 2-3 years of age (M = 2.48, SD = .26) participated in a helping task (with the caregiver or unfamiliar experimenter), a sharing task (with either target), and a free-play observation with their primary caregiver from which caregiver support was coded. The racial and ethnic composition of the sample consisted of 3% Asian, 10% Black, 20% Hispanic, 59% White, 1% mixed race, and 6% "other." Median family annual income was $50,000 to $59,000, and median caregiver education level was "some college." Infant helping favored caregivers at both time points. However, infant sharing did not differ by target for 1-2-year-olds, but 2-3-year-olds shared more with their caregivers than an unfamiliar experimenter. Additionally, infants' behaviors antecedent to the act of helping or sharing (e.g., latency to respond, checking behaviors, and looking duration toward the target) differed by target. Concurrent relations between caregiver support and helping and sharing were moderated by age and differed by time point. Caregiver support for 1-2-year-olds also longitudinally predicted an age-moderated relation with 2-3-year-olds' helping toward an unfamiliar experimenter. Theoretical implications for the role of socialization in the emergence of helping and sharing behaviors are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).