Risk Preferences of Children and Adolescents in Relation to Gender, Cognitive Skills, Soft Skills, and Executive Functions

Children's risk preferences vary across sexes, social contexts, and cultures

People exhibit more risk-prone behaviors when together with peers than when in private. The interplay of social context effects and other variables that alter human risk preferences (i.e., age, sex, or culture) remains poorly understood. Here, we explored risk preferences among Namibian Hai||om and Ovambo children (N = 144; AgeRange = 6-10 years). Participants chose between risky and safe options in private or during peer presence. In a third condition, children collaborated with peers before their risk preferences were assessed in those peers' presence. Children from both societies were risk-averse, but Hai||om children showed greater risk aversion than their Ovambo counterparts. Across cultures and ages, boys were less averse to risks than girls. This effect was most pronounced during peer presence, whereas collaboration did not additionally affect risk preferences. These results suggest a dynamic interplay of individual, social, and cultural factors shaping children's risk preferences.

Factors influencing innovation competence among children and adolescents in China - A multilevel, cross-cohort study

Innovation competence is an essential core literacy skill for 21st century students. While some research exists on innovation competence in college students, there has been relatively little examination of the factors influencing this competence in children and adolescents aged 10 to 15. This study evaluated innovation competence among students from Suzhou, China, focusing on four key social and emotional skills: creativity, curiosity, cooperation, and responsibility. Data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development were utilized for this analysis. Hierarchical linear modelling was applied to analyze potential factors at both individual and school levels influencing innovation competence across family and school environments. We calculated a t-test statistic to compare factors between the two cohorts. Factors significantly influencing children and adolescents' innovation competence included socio-economic status, time spent engaging in online gaming, time spent browsing the Internet for information, and the perceived cooperative climate atschool. Gender significantly influenced only adolescents' innovation competence, while teachers' disruptive behaviors had an impact solely on children's innovation competence. Apart from time spent engaging in online gaming and browsing the Internet for information, the effects of other variables showed significant differences between the groups. The findings highlight the need for targeted support from families, schools, and society to foster students' innovation competence.

Assessment of psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the sensation seeking scale for children in a Norwegian sample

Introduction

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a Norwegian translation of the Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (SSSC), designed for children between 7 and 12 years of age.

Methods

A sample of 393 children (7-10 years old) were recruited to participate in the study. The SSSC was administered through interviews with each child, wherein their responses to the SSSC questionnaire were recorded on a tablet.

Results

Analysis of internal consistency reliability did not show acceptable reliability for all subscales, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that the Thrill Seeking and Behavioral Intensity subscales were associated and somewhat overlapping, while Behavioral Inhibition appeared as a single factor. A further explanatory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a two-factor solution. CFA of the two-factor solution resulted in the removal of some items in both factors due to low factor loadings. The final factors resulting from this analysis were Thrill and Intensity Seeking (13 items) and Behavioral Inhibition (7 items). The results also show that boys scored higher than girls on Thrill and Intensity Seeking while girls scored higher than boys on Behavioral Inhibition. Furthermore, age was positively associated with both subscales, meaning that older children tended to score higher.

Discussion

The results in this study suggest that measures of children's sensation seeking might be sensitive to cultural contexts and that, at least in a Norwegian population, a two-factor solution of the SSSC is recommended.

Optimally generate policy-based evidence before scaling

Social scientists have increasingly turned to the experimental method to understand human behaviour. One critical issue that makes solving social problems difficult is scaling up the idea from a small group to a larger group in more diverse situations. The urgency of scaling policies impacts us every day, whether it is protecting the health and safety of a community or enhancing the opportunities of future generations. Yet, a common result is that, when we scale up ideas, most experience a 'voltage drop'-that is, on scaling, the cost-benefit profile depreciates considerably. Here I argue that, to reduce voltage drops, we must optimally generate policy-based evidence. Optimality requires answering two crucial questions: what information should be generated and in what sequence. The economics underlying the science of scaling provides insights into these questions, which are in some cases at odds with conventional approaches. For example, there are important situations in which I advocate flipping the traditional social science research model to an approach that, from the beginning, produces the type of policy-based evidence that the science of scaling demands. To do so, I propose augmenting efficacy trials by including relevant tests of scale in the original discovery process, which forces the scientist to naturally start with a recognition of the big picture: what information do I need to have scaling confidence?

Effect of Chinese young children's epidemic cognition on their coping behavior: mediating role of emotion

INTRODUCTION

Young children's epidemic awareness and risk prevention about public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 are issues of great importance deserving research.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the effect of young children's epidemic cognition on their coping behavior, and the mediating role of emotion.

METHOD

An online anonymous survey was administrated on 2221 Chinese parents of young children aged three to six during the COVID-19 overwhelming period.

RESULTS

(1) The epidemic cognition (M = 4.17, SD = 0.73), the coping behavior (M = 4.16, SD = 0.65), and the emotion (M = 3.99, SD = 0.81) were at a relatively high level. (2) Young children's epidemic cognition significantly predicted their coping behavior (β = 0.71, t = 45.29, P < 0.001). The positive prediction effect of epidemic cognition on young children's emotion was significant (β = 0.19, t = 8.56, P < 0.001), and emotion had a significant positive predictive effect on young children's coping behavior (β = 0.20, t = 4.89, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Young children's epidemic cognition can significantly predict their coping behavior, and emotion plays a significant mediating role in their relation. It is necessary for practitioners to optimize the contents and methods of epidemic education on young children.

The development of adolescent trust behavior

Interpersonal trust shows developmental changes during adolescence. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the development of trust behavior, the presence of gender differences in these developmental trajectories, and the association between individual differences in these developmental trajectories and perspective-taking abilities. The participants played a trust game with a hypothetical trustworthy partner and a trust game with a hypothetical untrustworthy partner in 3 consecutive years (M_age = 12.55 years, M_age = 13.54 years, and M_age = 14.54 years). Concerning the development of trust behavior, the results showed an age-related increase in initial trust behavior and indicated increasingly adaptive trust behavior with age during untrustworthy interactions, whereas no evidence was found for age-related changes in the adaptation of trust during trustworthy interactions. Gender differences were found for the development of initial trust behavior (with boys showing a stronger increase with age than girls), whereas no support was found for the presence of gender differences in the developmental trajectories of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. Furthermore, no evidence was found for perspective-taking abilities to explain individual differences in the development of initial trust behavior or in the development of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. The results provide evidence that, during adolescence initial trust behavior increased with age, more for boys than for girls, and that both boys and girls showed a stronger adaptive response to the untrustworthy partner but not to the trustworthy partner.

Risks and rewards in adolescent decision-making

Adolescent decision-making has been characterized as risky, and a heightened reward sensitivity may be one of the aspects contributing to riskier choice-behavior. Previous studies have targeted reward-sensitivity in adolescence and the neurobiological mechanisms of reward processing in the adolescent brain. In recent examples, researchers aim to disentangle the contributions of risk- and reward-sensitivity to adolescent risk-taking. Here, we discuss recent findings of adolescent's risk preferences and the associated neural mechanisms. We highlight potential frameworks that target individual differences in risk preferences in an effort to understand adolescent risk-taking, and with an ultimate goal of leveraging undesirable levels of risk taking.

Children Who Experience Unintentional Injuries: Their Functional Profiles

Unintentional injuries are accidents that pose a major health problem among school children. This study compared the functional behavior and executive function characteristics of school-aged children who experienced unintentional injuries with those of controls who had not been injured. We investigated the background characteristics of injured children, injury characteristics, and parents' perceptions of the children's functional behaviors and executive function abilities. The study included 53 children aged 6 years to 18 years. Of them, 32 had experienced unintentional injuries. The 21 children who had not experienced unintentional injuries served as a control group matched for age and living environment. Parents of both groups completed (1) a demographic questionnaire addressing their children's background, daily functional behavior characteristics, and injury characteristics and (2) the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). Sixty percent of the children in the research (injured) group had been prediagnosed with learning disabilities or attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, compared with no child in the control (uninjured) group. Most injuries were limb fractures (60%) and sustained outside the home (50%). Parents of children who had been injured expressed significantly more concerns about their children's daily behavior than did parents of the control group and reported their children as usually, but not always, independent and responsible. Compared with the children in the uninjured group, the children in the injured group had significantly lower executive function abilities in the BRIEF's eight subscales, total behavioral regulation and metacognitive indices, and global executive function scores (p < .001). Children with certain diagnoses, functional behavior features, and deficient executive function abilities may be at risk for unintentional injuries. Raising occupational therapists' awareness of these aspects may contribute to identifying, treating, and preventing accidental injuries among at-risk children.