The origins of belonging: social motivation in infants and young children

A novel independence intervention to treat child anxiety: A nonconcurrent multiple baseline evaluation

Rates of child and adolescent anxiety have increased markedly over the past decade (Haidt & Twenge, 2023). Exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy is the gold standard in the treatment of anxious children (Hofmann et al. (2012)). However, many clinicians refrain from using exposure due to concerns about its safety, effectiveness, and ethics (Deacon et al., 2013; Whiteside et al., 2016). We propose a novel treatment approach for child anxiety composed of independence activities (IAs), which are child-directed, fun, unstructured, developmentally challenging tasks performed without parents' help. These tasks are purposely topographically unrelated to the stimuli that cause anxiety, in direct contrast to exposure therapy. Despite this dissimilarity, IAs target putative mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of child anxiety (e.g., parental accommodation and overinvolvement, child avoidance, unhelpful thinking styles). Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, this five-session treatment provided preliminary evidence of high treatment acceptability from children and parents. Medium to large improvements were reported in child anxiety and avoidance, parent and child (behavioral and cognitive) mechanisms involved in the maintenance of child anxiety, and untargeted secondary outcomes such as child happiness. Results may suggest a new treatment paradigm, which is desperately needed, given unabated increases in child and adolescent anxiety despite vast resources being directed toward the problem.

Peer Victimization and Callous-Unemotional Traits: The Impact of Parents and Teachers

Research on the link between peer victimization and callous-unemotional (CU) traits has primarily relied on cross-sectional designs and yielded equivocal findings. In light of the poor outcomes related to peer victimization and CU traits, it is important to determine whether this link is reciprocal in nature and to identify factors that may influence its strength. Accordingly, the current study investigated the bidirectional association between peer victimization and CU traits over a 6-month period, accounting for the moderating effects of parents (i.e., support and hostility) and teachers (i.e., support and conflict). Participants included 284 third- through fifth-grade students (ages 7-12; 51.8% boys; 51.1% Hispanic) and their homeroom teachers. Children provided ratings of peer victimization, parental hostility, and parent and teacher support. Teachers provided ratings of CU traits and student-teacher conflict. A series of cross-lagged panel models were estimated. Results revealed that, at higher levels of parental hostility, peer victimization predicted increases in CU traits over time; in contrast, peer victimization predicted decreases in CU traits at lower levels of parental hostility. Surprisingly, at higher levels of teacher conflict, peer victimization predicted decreases in CU traits over time. CU traits did not interact with parent or teacher variables to predict subsequent peer victimization. Moreover, parental hostility was positively associated with subsequent peer victimization, whereas teacher support predicted decreases in victimization over time. These findings build on previous research examining environmental influences on the expression of CU traits by highlighting peer victimization and parental hostility as potential risk factors.

Using intervention mapping to develop an intervention for multiparty communication with people with congenital deafblindness

BACKGROUND

Due to their dual sensory impairment, people with congenital deafblindness (CDB) are rarely naturally involved in other people's conversations. Their communication partners find it challenging to include them in group conversations. However, overhearing others communicate is important for developing social and communication skills. Hence, we developed an intervention program to guide communication partners in offering multiparty communication to people with CDB. This article describes how the program was developed through an intervention mapping approach.

METHOD

Intervention mapping is a six-step process: logic model, model of change, program design, program production, program implementation plan, and evaluation plan. These six steps were applied to systematically develop a program to foster multiparty communication in people with CDB. Representatives of the involved groups participated in the project group and the working group to ensure feasibility and acceptability.

RESULTS

Following the intervention mapping steps resulted in creation of a program for communication partners that consists of an education session, practicals, and four video-feedback sessions. Information sessions for practitioners and managers were also developed. The program was implemented incrementally with program implementers in each organization. A subjective evaluation and an impact evaluation were done after each implementation phase.

DISCUSSION

Intervention mapping was used to develop a program that connects theory to practice. The program appeared to meet the communication partners' needs and be feasible in terms of time investment. This article offers suggestions for broadening the scope of the program to other settings and for further investigating the effects of the program on the social and communication skills of people with CDB.

Why Should I? Examining How Childhood Callous-Unemotional Traits Relate to Prosocial and Affiliative Behaviors and Motivations

Childhood callous-unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by low empathy, limited prosocial behavior, and restricted social affiliation. However, few studies have investigated whether CU traits are associated with different subtypes of prosocial and affiliative behavior or the specific motivational difficulties underlying these behaviors. We addressed these questions using data from 135 young children (M = 5.48 years old; 58% female) who viewed depictions of adults or children in instrumental need, emotional need, or neutral situations. We assessed recognition, suggested initiation of, and motivation for prosocial or affiliative behavior in response to each depiction. We distinguished between subtypes of prosocial (instrumental and emotional) and affiliative (parallel, cooperative, associative) behavior, as well as self- versus other-orientated motivations. Parents reported on child CU traits and conduct problems. Overall, children accurately recognized prosocial and neutral situations, offered help, and expressed other-orientated motivations for prosocial behavior and social motivations for affiliative behavior. Higher CU traits were related to lower overall recognition accuracy, which was more pronounced for emotional need. Higher CU traits were also related to fewer offers of help and more denial of prosocial behavior, particularly for instrumental need. Finally, CU traits were related to lower probability of initiating affiliative behavior. CU traits were not differentially related to self- versus other-orientated motivations for prosocial or affiliative behavior. Findings demonstrate difficulties of children with CU traits in recognizing need and offering help. Interventions for CU traits could include modules that explicitly scaffold and shape prosociality and social affiliation.

Effects of wearing an opaque or transparent face mask on the perception of facial expressions: A comparative study between Japanese school-aged children and adults

The negative side effects of mask-wearing on reading facial emotional cues have been investigated in several studies with adults post-2020. However, little is known about children. This study aimed to determine the negative influence of mask-wearing on reading emotions of adult faces by Japanese school-aged children, compared to Japanese adults. We also examined whether this negative influence could be alleviated by using a transparent face mask instead of an opaque one (surgical mask). The performance on reading emotions was measured using emotion categorization and emotion intensity rating tasks for adult faces. As per the findings, the accuracy of emotion recognition in children was impaired for various facial expressions (disgust, fear, happy, neutral, sad, and surprise faces), except for angry faces. Conversely, in adults, it was impaired for a few facial expressions. The perceived intensity for happy faces with a surgical mask was weaker in both children and adults than in those without the mask. A negative influence of wearing surgical masks was generally not observed for faces wearing a transparent mask in both children and adults. Thus, negative side effects of mask-wearing on reading emotions are observed for more facial expressions in children than in adults; transparent masks can help remedy these.

Children's affiliation toward peers reflected in their picture drawings

Previous studies have demonstrated that a picture-drawing task can be an indicator of the affiliation children have with their peers. When a child draws himself/herself along with a peer, the distance between them is assumed to represent the extent of the affiliation held by the child toward the peer: the shorter the distance is, the more affiliation the child has. However, some issues remain before the picture-drawing task is established as a way to measure children's affiliation, including the possibility that the instructions might bias the children's responses (Thomas & Gray, 1992), and inconsistency over where to measure in the children's drawings (e.g., Song et al., 2015). In this study, we focused on the above two issues and addressed whether the picture-drawing task can be used for measuring children's affiliation toward peers. We conducted our study in Japanese nursery schools with 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 676), who drew pictures of themselves and a classmate. Teachers rated how much the children had played with the drawn peer. We found that the more a child had an affiliative relationship with a peer, the shorter the distance between the drawn child and peer was when measuring the closest points and the center between the two drawn figures. Our research sheds light on the validity of the picture-drawing task for measuring children's affiliation.

Differentiating Between Us & Them: Reduced In-Group Bias as a Novel Mechanism Linking Childhood Violence Exposure with Internalizing Psychopathology

Strong in-group bonds, facilitated by implicit favoritism for in-group members (i.e., in-group bias), promote mental health across development. Yet, we know little about how the development of in-group bias is shaped by early-life experiences. Childhood violence exposure is known to alter social information processing biases. Violence exposure may also influence social categorization processes, including in-group biases, in ways that influence risk for psychopathology. We examined associations of childhood violence exposure with psychopathology and behavioral and neural indices of implicit and explicit bias for novel groups in children followed longitudinally across three time points from age 5 to 10 years old (n = 101 at baseline; n = 58 at wave 3). To instantiate in-group and out-group affiliations, youths underwent a minimal group assignment induction procedure, in which they were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Youth were told that members of their assigned group shared common interests (in-group) and members of the other group did not (out-group). In pre-registered analyses, violence exposure was associated with lower implicit in-group bias, which in turn was associated prospectively with higher internalizing symptoms and mediated the longitudinal association between violence exposure and internalizing symptoms. During an fMRI task examining neural responses while classifying in-group and out-group members, violence-exposed children did not exhibit the negative functional coupling between vmPFC and amygdala to in-group vs. out-group members that was observed in children without violence exposure. Reduced implicit in-group bias may represent a novel mechanism linking violence exposure with the development of internalizing symptoms.

Quantifying latent social motivation and its associations with joint attention and language in infants at high and low likelihood for autism spectrum disorder

Social motivation-the psychobiological predisposition for social orienting, seeking social contact, and maintaining social interaction-manifests in early infancy and is hypothesized to be foundational for social communication development in typical and atypical populations. However, the lack of infant social-motivation measures has hindered delineation of associations between infant social motivation, other early-arising social abilities such as joint attention, and language outcomes. To investigate how infant social motivation contributes to joint attention and language, this study utilizes a mixed longitudinal sample of 741 infants at high (HL = 515) and low (LL = 226) likelihood for ASD. Using moderated nonlinear factor analysis (MNLFA), we incorporated items from parent-report measures to establish a novel latent factor model of infant social motivation that exhibits measurement invariance by age, sex, and familial ASD likelihood. We then examined developmental associations between 6- and 12-month social motivation, joint attention at 12-15 months, and language at 24 months of age. On average, greater social-motivation growth from 6-12 months was associated with greater initiating joint attention (IJA) and trend-level increases in sophistication of responding to joint attention (RJA). IJA and RJA were both positively associated with 24-month language abilities. There were no additional associations between social motivation and future language in our path model. These findings substantiate a novel, theoretically driven approach to modeling social motivation and suggest a developmental cascade through which social motivation impacts other foundational skills. These findings have implications for the timing and nature of intervention targets to support social communication development in infancy. HIGHLIGHTS: We describe a novel, theoretically based model of infant social motivation wherein multiple parent-reported indicators contribute to a unitary latent social-motivation factor. Analyses revealed social-motivation factor scores exhibited measurement invariance for a longitudinal sample of infants at high and low familial ASD likelihood. Social-motivation growth from ages 6-12 months is associated with better 12-15-month joint attention abilities, which in turn are associated with greater 24-month language skills. Findings inform timing and targets of potential interventions to support healthy social communication in the first year of life.

Paradoxical decrease of imitation performance with age in children

Imitation development was studied in a cross-sectional design involving 174 primary-school children (aged 6-10), focusing on the effect of actions' complexity and error analysis to infer the underlying cognitive processes. Participants had to imitate the model's actions as if they were in front of a mirror ('specularly'). Complexity varied across three levels: movements of a single limb; arm and leg of the same body side; or arm and leg of opposite body sides. While the overall error rate decreased with age, this was not true of all error categories. The rate of 'side' errors (using a limb of the wrong body side) paradoxically increased with age (from 9 years). However, with increasing age, the error rate also became less sensitive to the complexity of the action. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that older children have the working memory (WM) resources and the body knowledge necessary to imitate 'anatomically', which leads to additional side errors. Younger children might be paradoxically free from such interference because their WM and/or body knowledge are insufficient for anatomical imitation. Yet, their limited WM resources would prevent them from successfully managing the conflict between spatial codes involved in complex actions (e.g. moving the left arm and the right leg). We also found evidence that action side and content might be stored in separate short-term memory (STM) systems: increasing the number of sides to be encoded only affected side retrieval, but not content retrieval; symmetrically, increasing the content (number of movements) of the action only affected content retrieval, but not side retrieval. In conclusion, results suggest that anatomical imitation might interfere with specular imitation at age 9 and that STM storages for side and content of actions are separate.

Prosocial motivation can promote the time-based prospective memory of school-age children

In real life, we are often motivated to plan things to be performed at specific times in the future. Some of these intended actions help other individuals, and thus involve time-based prospective memory (TBPM) under prosocial motivational conditions. Children's social development is very rapid, and they have relatively stable prosocial motivation during school age. Few studies have paid attention to this issue. This study focuses on three aspects of this issue: (1) the impact of prosocial motivation on the TBPM of school-age children, (2) whether there are sex differences in this effect, and, for the first time, (3) the processing mechanism by which prosocial motivation affects TBPM in school-age children in the framework of the motivation cognitive model. A total of 112 elementary school students, aged between 8 and 12, participated in the experiment, using a 2 (group: prosocial motivation, control) × 2 (sex: boy, girl) between-subjects design. The results showed that prosocial motivation can significantly reduce children's time difference of TBPM. However, we found no sex differences in the effect of prosocial motivation on TBPM in the above two indicators. With regard to the processing mechanism, we found that the prosocial motivation group paid more attention to external time information throughout the experiment. However, their internal attention and the effectiveness of attention did not improve. These results partially support the motivation cognitive model. Overall, this study found that prosocial motivation relies mainly on external attention to improve the TBPM performance of school-age children.

The sense of belonging reduces ingroup favoritism in children

Belonging is an important motive for intergroup behavior. Adults display pronounced ingroup favoritism when the sense of inclusion by an ingroup is decreased or threatened. The present study investigated whether ingroup belonging reduces ingroup favoritism in 6-year-old children in terms of costly sharing. Children were allocated to a novel group in a minimal-group paradigm. In two conditions, children played a brief ball-tossing game and were either included (ingroup-inclusion condition) or excluded (ingroup-exclusion condition) by their ingroup members. Children in a no-interaction condition did not have any interactions with the members of the ingroup. After this manipulation, we tested the extent to which children shared resources with ingroup and outgroup members. We found that children in the ingroup-exclusion and no-interaction conditions shared more resources with their ingroup member than their outgroup member, while children in the ingroup-inclusion condition shared equally with the ingroup and outgroup members. These results could inform interventions aimed at fostering positive intergroup relations.

Social Abuse in Intimate Partner Relationships: A Hybrid Concept Analysis

Belongingness is a basic human need. The violation of this need has been described in numerous studies on intimate partner violence (IPV). However, it has not been conceptually defined. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and analyze the concept of social abuse in intimate partner relationships. A hybrid model of concept analysis was used for this study consisting of three phases: theoretical, fieldwork, and analytic. In the theoretical phase, a systematic literature review was performed to obtain a working definition of social abuse. In total, 20 articles that met the inclusion criteria were included in the analysis. The findings from the theoretical phase were refined and confirmed by qualitative data collected from the fieldwork phase. In the analytical phase, four attributes of social abuse emerged: cutting off the victim's social relations, limiting the victim's social engagement, interfering with the victim's social relations, and closely watching the victim's social interactions. Possessiveness, escalating suspicion, allegations of infidelity, and fear that the victim will leave were identified as antecedents of social abuse in perpetrators. Additionally, the experience of social abuse had negative consequences on victims' social relationships, mental health, and help-seeking behaviors. This study extends the theoretical framework of IPV and implies a strong need to educate victims and their social acquaintances on social abuse.

The Influence of Social Isolation on Social Orientation, Sociability, Social Novelty Preference, and Hippocampal Parvalbumin-Expressing Interneurons in Peripubertal Rats – Understanding the Importance of Meeting Social Needs in Adolescence

The fulfillment of belonging needs underlies a variety of behaviors. In order to understand how social needs unmet during maturation shape everyday life, we examined social motivation and cognition in peripubertal rats, as a rodent model of adolescence, subjected to social isolation (SI) during early and early-to-mid adolescence. The behavioral correlates of social orientation (social space preference), sociability (preference for social over non-social novelty), and social novelty preference (SNP) were examined in group-housed (GH) and single-housed (SH) rats in a 3-chamber test. The response to social odors was examined to gain insights into the developmental role of social odors in motivated social behavior. Differentiation between appetitive (number of visits/approaches) and consummatory (exploratory time) aspects of motivated social behavior was done to determine which facet of social motivation characterizes maturation when social needs are met and which aspect dominates when social needs are unsatisfied. The SI-sensitive parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PVI) in the hippocampus were examined using immunohistochemistry. The main findings are the following: (1) in GH rats, the preference for social space is not evident regardless of animals’ age, while sociability becomes apparent in mid-adolescence strictly through consummatory behavior, along with complete SNP (appetitive, consummatory); (2) SH promotes staying in a social chamber/space regardless of animals’ age and produces an appetitive preference for it only in early-adolescent animals; (3) SH promotes sociability (appetitive, consummatory) regardless of the animals’ age and prevents the SNP; (4) the preference for a social odor is displayed in all the groups through consummatory behavior, while appetitive behavior is evident only in SH rats; (5) the response to social odors does not commensurate directly to the response to conspecifics; (6) SH does not influence PVI in the hippocampus, except in the case of early-adolescence when a transient decrease in the dentate gyrus is observed. These results accentuate the developmental complexity of social motivation and cognition, and the power of SI in adolescence to infringe social maturation at different functional levels, promoting appetitive behavior toward peers overall but harming the interest for social novelty. The findings emphasize the importance of the fulfillment of basic social needs in the navigation through the social world.

Addressing joint action challenges in HRI: Insights from psychology and philosophy

The vast expansion of research in human-robot interactions (HRI) these last decades has been accompanied by the design of increasingly skilled robots for engaging in joint actions with humans. However, these advances have encountered significant challenges to ensure fluent interactions and sustain human motivation through the different steps of joint action. After exploring current literature on joint action in HRI, leading to a more precise definition of these challenges, the present article proposes some perspectives borrowed from psychology and philosophy showing the key role of communication in human interactions. From mutual recognition between individuals to the expression of commitment and social expectations, we argue that communicative cues can facilitate coordination, prediction, and motivation in the context of joint action. The description of several notions thus suggests that some communicative capacities can be implemented in the context of joint action for HRI, leading to an integrated perspective of robotic communication.

Different types of focus: Caregiver-child interaction and changes in preschool children's attention in two cultures

Social contexts shape the development of attention; however, little is known about joint attention beyond infancy. This study employed behavioral and eye-tracking measurements to investigate cultural variations in how caregivers direct 3- to 4-year-old children's attention and subsequent changes in children's attention to objects and contextual backgrounds in the United States (predominantly non-Hispanic Whites) and Japan (N = 60 mother-child dyads, 29 girls, 31 boys). The findings revealed that caregivers directed children's attention to culturally sensitive information, and significant cross-cultural differences in attention emerged after caregiver-child interaction, with Japanese children shifting their attention to the backgrounds. Results provide new insights into the role of social interaction and cultural diversity in the development of attention.

Neurobiological correlates of the social and emotional impact of peer victimization: A review

Peer victimization is very common during late childhood and adolescence. Despite the relatively reduced number of studies, the neurobiological underpinnings of the negative impact of peer victimization experiences have received increasing attention in recent years. The present selective review summarizes the most recent available evidence and provides a general overview of the impact of peer victimization experiences on social processing and decision-making at the neurobiological level, highlighting the most pressing areas requiring further research. Three key cognitive areas show a clear negative impact of peer victimization and bullying experiences: social valuation processing, reward and reinforcement learning and self-regulation processes. Victims show enhanced activation in key regions of the limbic system including the amygdala, rostral and dorsal anterior cingulate cortices, suggestive of enhanced sensitivity to social stimuli. They also show enhanced recruitment of lateral prefrontal regions crucially involved in cognitive and emotional regulation processes, and abnormal reward-related striatal function. The presence of psychopathology is a complex factor, increased as a consequence of peer victimization, but that also constitutes vulnerability to such experiences.

Priming third-party social exclusion does not elicit children's inclusion of out-group members

This study investigates how culture and priming 3- to 7-year-old children (N = 186) with third-party social exclusion affects their subsequent inclusion of out-group members. Children in societies that tend to value social independence (Germany, New Zealand) and interdependence (Northern Cyprus) were randomly assigned to minimal groups. Next, they watched video stimuli depicting third-party social exclusion (exclusion condition) or neutral content (control condition). We assessed children's recognition of the social exclusion expressed in the priming videos and their understanding of the emotional consequences thereof. We furthermore assessed children's inclusion behaviour in a ball-tossing game in which participants could include an out-group agent into an in-group interplay. Children across societies detected third-party social exclusion and ascribed lower mood to excluded than non-excluded protagonists. Children from Germany and New Zealand were more likely to include the out-group agent into the in-group interaction than children from Northern Cyprus. Children's social inclusion remained unaffected by their exposure to third-party social exclusion primes. These results suggest that children from diverse societies recognize social exclusion and correctly forecast its negative emotional consequences, but raise doubt on the notion that social exclusion exposure affects subsequent social inclusion.

Infants' Preference for Social Interactions Increases from 7 to 13 Months of Age

This study examined 7-to-13.5-month-old middle-class Western infants' visual orienting to third-party interactions in parallel with their social attention behavior during own social interactions (Leipzig, Germany). In Experiment 1, 9.5- to-11-month-olds (n = 20) looked longer than 7- to-8.5-month-olds (n = 20) at videos showing two adults interacting with one another when simultaneously presented with a scene showing two adults acting individually. Moreover, older infants showed higher social engagement (including joint attention) during parent-infant free play. Experiment 2 replicated this age-related increase in both measures and showed that it follows continuous trajectories from 7 to 13.5 months (n = 50). This suggests that infants' attentional orienting to others' interactions coincides with parallel developments in their social attention behavior during own social interactions.

Insight into toddlers' motivation to help: From social participants to prosocial contributors

What drives toddlers' helping behavior? And do toddlers' helping motivations change across time? In line with Dahl and Paulus (2019), we propose that initially, toddlers start helping in ongoing chores driven by their interest in social interactions, and, later on, their helping becomes more concern based, or based on a sense of responsibility. To test this assumption, we used a longitudinal approach to examine the role that social interaction plays in toddlers' motivation to help as they grow older. As such, we investigated whether a disruption to an experimenter during a shared chore task affected toddlers' motivations to continue helping at the ages of 18, 21 and 24 months. Results showed that toddlers at 18 months were less likely to continue helping when the experimenter was disrupted from the shared task, in comparison to toddlers at 21 and at 24 months. These findings support the idea that toddlers develop from socially based participators into more prosocially based contributors.

Competence-based helping: Children's consideration of need when providing others with help

When and how other people's needs influence children's helping is poorly understood. Here we focused on whether children use information about other people's competence in their helping. In Study 1 (N = 128 4- to 8-year-old children), children could provide help to both an incompetent target and a competent target by pushing levers. Whereas older children helped incompetent targets more than competent targets, younger children (<5 years) helped both targets equally. Two further experiments (N = 20 and N = 28) revealed that 4-year-olds understood that the incompetent person needed more help and also understood how they could help. Thus, young children do not, like older children, give more help to those who need it the most. We discuss potential developmental changes toward competence-based helping.

Extracting Latent Subdimensions of Social Communication: A Cross-Measure Factor Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Social communication deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are commonly represented as a single behavioral domain. However, increased precision of measurement of social communication is needed to promote more nuanced phenotyping, both within the autism spectrum and across diagnostic boundaries.

METHOD

A large sample (N = 1,470) of 4- to 10-year-old children was aggregated from across 4 data sources, and then randomly split into testing and validation samples. A total of 57 selected social communication items from 3 widely used autism symptom measures (the Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale [ADOS], Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised [ADI-R], and Social Responsiveness Scale [SRS]) were analyzed in the multi-trait/multi-method factor analysis framework. The selected model was then confirmed with the validation sample.

RESULTS

The 4-substantive factor model, with 3 orthogonal method factors, was selected using the testing sample based on fit indices and then confirmed with the validation sample. Two of the factors, "Basic Social Communication Skills" and "Interaction Quality," were similar to those identified in a previous analysis of the ADOS, Module 3. Two additional factors, "Peer Interaction and Modification of Behavior" and "Social Initiation and Affiliation," also emerged. Factor scores showed nominal correlations with age and verbal IQ.

CONCLUSION

Identification of subdimensions could inform the creation of better conceptual models of social communication impairments, including mapping of how the cascading effects of social communication deficits unfold in ASD versus other disorders. Especially if extended to include both older and younger age cohorts and individuals with more varying developmental levels, these efforts could inform phenotype-based exploration for biological and genetic mechanisms by pinpointing specific mechanisms that contribute to various types of social communication deficits.

Human infants can override possessive tendencies to share valued items with others

Possessiveness toward objects and sharing are competing tendencies that influence dyadic and group interactions within the primate lineage. A distinctive form of sharing in adult Homo sapiens involves active giving of high-valued possessions to others, without an immediate reciprocal benefit. In two Experiments with 19-month-old human infants (N = 96), we found that despite measurable possessive behavior toward their own personal objects (favorite toy, bottle), infants spontaneously gave these items to a begging stranger. Moreover, human infants exhibited this behavior across different types of objects that are relevant to theory (personal objects, sweet food, and common objects)-showing flexible generalizability not evidenced in non-human primates. We combined these data with a previous dataset, yielding a large sample of infants (N = 192), and identified sociocultural factors that may calibrate young infants' sharing of objects with others. The current findings show a proclivity that is rare or absent in our closest living relatives-the capacity to override possessive behavior toward personally valued objects by sharing those same desired objects with others.

Troubling Belonging: The Racialized Exclusion of Young Immigrants and Migrants of Color

In this article, four Latina educators of Color trouble the neutrality of belonging, exploring its politics. They collectively revisit and reflect on their memories and lived experiences as immigrant children of Color and as young children of immigrants and migrants of Color in the United States. They employed pláticas as method to prompt the sharing of memories, experiences, and stories imparting personal knowledge, familial practices, and cultural histories. Through pláticas, they developed a collective understanding of their fragmented memories as situated representations of how belonging engenders othering children of immigrants and migrants of Color. As they reflected on the harm they withstood, named dehumanizing schooling experiences, and reflected on the exclusion and bordering etched in their memories, they noted how belonging had sponsored their marginalization. After audio-recording and transcribing their pláticas, they identified transcript sections associated with heightened emotional displays, shared resonance, and cultural memory. Then, they creatively recombined sections of original transcripts to reveal things about the experiences of young immigrant children of Color and of children of immigrants and migrants of Color that early childhood educators ought to know. Findings unveil the harm enacted by schooling on young immigrant children of Color and young children from immigrant and migrant families of Color in the name of belonging. Implications, offered as poetic advice, urge early childhood education policy and practice to upend the harmful pseudo-neutrality of belonging.

Genetic architecture of reciprocal social behavior in toddlers: Implications for heterogeneity in the early origins of autism spectrum disorder

Impairment in reciprocal social behavior (RSB), an essential component of early social competence, clinically defines autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the behavioral and genetic architecture of RSB in toddlerhood, when ASD first emerges, has not been fully characterized. We analyzed data from a quantitative video-referenced rating of RSB (vrRSB) in two toddler samples: a community-based volunteer research registry (n = 1,563) and an ethnically diverse, longitudinal twin sample ascertained from two state birth registries (n = 714). Variation in RSB was continuously distributed, temporally stable, significantly associated with ASD risk at age 18 months, and only modestly explained by sociodemographic and medical factors (r2 = 9.4%). Five latent RSB factors were identified and corresponded to aspects of social communication or restricted repetitive behaviors, the two core ASD symptom domains. Quantitative genetic analyses indicated substantial heritability for all factors at age 24 months (h2 ≥ .61). Genetic influences strongly overlapped across all factors, with a social motivation factor showing evidence of newly-emerging genetic influences between the ages of 18 and 24 months. RSB constitutes a heritable, trait-like competency whose factorial and genetic structure is generalized across diverse populations, demonstrating its role as an early, enduring dimension of inherited variation in human social behavior. Substantially overlapping RSB domains, measurable when core ASD features arise and consolidate, may serve as markers of specific pathways to autism and anchors to inform determinants of autism's heterogeneity.

Priming third-party ostracism does not lead to increased affiliation in three Serbian communities

Young children rely on establishing and maintaining social relationships. As a consequence, social exclusion poses a significant threat that should be avoided actively. Previous research reports that children react to ostracism with an increased tendency to affiliate. For example, they draw more affiliative pictures and engage in more faithful (over)imitation following primes depicting social exclusion. However, all prior studies to date tested this effect in children from strongly socially independent societies, emphasizing individual freedom and psychological autonomy. The current study tested whether these effects also occur among children growing up in a society where social interdependence is emphasized more strongly. We assessed affiliative reactions to video primes depicting either third-party ostracism or control stimuli among 128 preschoolers (M_age = 4.73 years) from an urban community (Belgrade), a semi-urban community (Pozarevac), and a rural community (Kostolac) in Serbia. Across communities, children detected ostracism when it was depicted in the priming stimuli. However, children neither drew more affiliative pictures nor engaged in more faithful overimitation following primes depicting ostracism as compared with control stimuli. The two measures for affiliation (i.e., affiliative drawings and increased overimitation) were not linked on an individual level. Although these results suggest that young children from diverse societies are capable of recognizing third-party social exclusion, their response to such information is strongly shaped by cultural values on social interdependence.

Why do children essentialize social groups?

The tendency to essentialize social groups is universal, and arises early in development. This tendency is associated with negative intergroup attitudes and behaviors, and has thus encouraged the search for remedies for the emergence of essentialism. In this vein, great attention has been devoted to uncovering the cognitive foundations of essentialism. In this chapter, I suggest that attention should also be turned toward the motivational foundations of essentialism. I propose that considerations of power and group identity, but especially a "need to belong," may encourage children's essentialization of social groups. Namely, from a young age, children are keen to feel members of a group, and that their membership is secure and exclusive. Essentialism is the conceptual gadget that satisfies these feelings. And to the extent that groups are defined by what they do, this motivated essentialism also impels children to be adamant about the maintenance of unique group behaviors.

Botswana children's needs: orphans and vulnerable children dominated child welfare system

Children's needs in Botswana received considerable attention in the past three decades owing to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country. These decades of legal and policy practice processes focused on orphan and vulnerable children (OVC), ensured that the needs of the general population of Botswana children are grossly understudied, underestimated, and therefore, remain unaddressed. This study sought to determine the needs of the general population of children. Fifty-two visual arts, six semi-structured interviews, twenty-six in-depth interviews and two focus group discussions were conducted in two purposively selected sites with children, policy-makers, practitioners, community leaders and caregivers. The data were analyzed using deductive content analysis approach. Children expressed the need for basic, safety, love and belonging needs. Given some pockets of poverty that exists in Botswana, it is likely that children in the general population have needs similar to those of OVC. Therefore, child welfare program should also target children who are not considered OVC.

Stuck in a negative me: fMRI study on the role of disturbed self-views in social feedback processing in borderline personality disorder

BACKGROUND

Interpersonal difficulties in borderline personality disorder (BPD) could be related to the disturbed self-views of BPD patients. This study investigates affective and neural responses to positive and negative social feedback (SF) of BPD patients compared with healthy (HC) and low self-esteem (LSE) controls and how this relates to individual self-views.

METHODS

BPD (N = 26), HC (N = 32), and LSE (N = 22) performed a SF task in a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Participants received 15 negative, intermediate and positive evaluative feedback words putatively given by another participant and rated their mood and applicability of the words to the self.

RESULTS

BPD had more negative self-views than HC and felt worse after negative feedback. Applicability of feedback was a less strong determinant of mood in BPD than HC. Increased precuneus activation was observed in HC to negative compared with positive feedback, whereas in BPD, this was similarly low for both valences. HC showed increased temporoparietal junction (TPJ) activation to positive v. negative feedback, while BPD showed more TPJ activation to negative feedback. The LSE group showed a different pattern of results suggesting that LSE cannot explain these findings in BPD.

CONCLUSIONS

The negative self-views that BPD have, may obstruct critically examining negative feedback, resulting in lower mood. Moreover, where HC focus on the positive feedback (based on TPJ activation), BPD seem to focus more on negative feedback, potentially maintaining negative self-views. Better balanced self-views may make BPD better equipped to deal with potential negative feedback and more open to positive interactions.

Why Does Awe Have Prosocial Effects? New Perspectives on Awe and the Small Self

Awe is an emotional response to stimuli that are perceived to be vast (e.g., tall trees, sunsets) and that defy accommodation by existing mental structures. Curiously, awe has prosocial effects despite often being elicited by nonsocial stimuli. The prevailing explanation for why awe has prosocial effects is that awe reduces attention to self-oriented concerns (i.e., awe makes the self small), thereby making more attention available for other-oriented concerns. However, several questions remain unaddressed by the current formulation of this small-self hypothesis. How are awe researchers defining the self, and what implications might their theory of selfhood have for understanding the "smallness" of the self? Building on theories regarding psychological selfhood, we propose that awe may interact with the self not just in terms of attentional focus but rather at multiple layers of selfhood. We further reinterpret the small self using the notion of the quiet ego from personality psychology. Linking awe to an enriched model of the self provided by personality psychology may be fruitful for explaining a range of phenomena and motivating future research.

Corticosterone administration targeting a hypo-reactive HPA axis rescues a socially-avoidant phenotype in scarcity-adversity reared rats

It is well-established that children from low-income, under-resourced families are at increased risk of altered social development. However, the biological mechanisms by which poverty-related adversities can “get under the skin” to influence social behavior are poorly understood and cannot be easily ascertained using human research alone. This study utilized a rodent model of “scarcity-adversity,” which encompasses material resource deprivation (scarcity) and reduced caregiving quality (adversity), to explore how early-life scarcity-adversity causally influences social behavior via disruption of developing stress physiology. Results showed that early-life scarcity-adversity exposure increased social avoidance when offspring were tested in a social approach test in peri-adolescence. Furthermore, early-life scarcity-adversity led to blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity as measured via adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone (CORT) reactivity following the social approach test. Western blot analysis of brain tissue revealed that glucocorticoid receptor levels in the dorsal (but not ventral) hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex were significantly elevated in scarcity-adversity reared rats following the social approach test. Finally, pharmacological repletion of CORT in scarcity-adversity reared peri-adolescents rescued social behavior. Our findings provide causal support that early-life scarcity-adversity exposure negatively impacts social development via a hypocorticosteronism-dependent mechanism, which can be targeted via CORT administration to rescue social behavior.

The dog (Canis familiaris) as a translational model of autism: It is high time we move from promise to reality

Selecting appropriate animal models for a particular human phenomenon is a difficult but important challenge. The difficulty lies in finding animal behaviors that are not only sufficiently relevant and analog to the complex human symptoms (face validity) but also have similar underlying biological and etiological mechanisms (translational or construct validity), and have "human-like" responses to treatment (predictive validity). Over the past several years, the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) has become increasingly proposed as a model for comparative and translational neuroscience. In parallel to the recent advances in canine behavior research, dogs have also been proposed as a model of many human neuropsychiatric conditions, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this opinion paper we will shortly discuss the challenging nature of autism research then summarize the different neurocognitive frameworks for ASD making the case for a canine model of autism. The translational value of a dog model stems from the recognition that (a) there is a large inter-individual variability in the manifestation of dogs' social cognitive abilities including both high and low phenotypic extremes; (b) the phenotypic similarity between the dog and human symptoms are much higher than between the rodent and human symptoms; (c) the symptoms are functionally analogous to the human condition; and (d) more likely to have similar etiology. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Comparative Psychology Cognitive Biology > Evolutionary Roots of Cognition.

But how does it develop? Adopting a sociocultural lens to the development of intergroup bias among children

We argue that adopting a sociocultural lens to the origins of intergroup bias is important for understanding the nature of attacking and defending behavior at a group level. We specifically propose that the potential divergence in the development of in-group affiliation and out-group derogation supports De Dreu and Gross's framework but does indicate that more emphasis on early sociocultural input is required.

When compliments do not hit but critiques do: an fMRI study into self-esteem and self-knowledge in processing social feedback

The way we view ourselves may play an important role in our responses to interpersonal interactions. In this study, we investigate how feedback valence, consistency of feedback with self-knowledge and global self-esteem influence affective and neural responses to social feedback. Participants (N = 46) with a high range of self-esteem levels performed the social feedback task in an MRI scanner. Negative, intermediate and positive feedback was provided, supposedly by another person based on a personal interview. Participants rated their mood and applicability of feedback to the self. Analyses on trial basis on neural and affective responses are used to incorporate applicability of individual feedback words. Lower self-esteem related to low mood especially after receiving non-applicable negative feedback. Higher self-esteem related to increased posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus activation (i.e. self-referential processing) for applicable negative feedback. Lower self-esteem related to decreased medial prefrontal cortex, insula, anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cingulate cortex activation (i.e. self-referential processing) during positive feedback and decreased temporoparietal junction activation (i.e. other referential processing) for applicable positive feedback. Self-esteem and consistency of feedback with self-knowledge appear to guide our affective and neural responses to social feedback. This may be highly relevant for the interpersonal problems that individuals face with low self-esteem and negative self-views.

The Role of Oxytocin in Social Buffering: What Do Primate Studies Add?

The ability to maintain close social bonds impacts on reproductive success, longevity, stress and health in social mammals, including humans (Silk et al., Curr Biol 20(15):1359-1361, 2010; Crockford et al., Horm Behav 53(1):254-265, 2008; Wittig et al., Horm Behav 54(1):170-177, 2008; Archie et al., Proc R Soc B 281(1793):20141261, 2014; Cameron et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:13850-13853, 2009; Schülke et al., Curr Biol 20:2207-2210, 2010; Silk et al., Science 302:1231-1234, 2003; Holt-Lunstad et al., PLoS Med 7(7):e1000316, 2010). Close social bonds provide an important social support system, at least in part by acting as a buffer against the deleterious effects of chronic exposure to stressors (Young et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 51:18195-18200, 2014; Heinrichs et al., Biol Psychiatry 54:1389-1398, 2003). There is accumulating evidence that individuals that provide predictable affiliation or support to others (bond partners) may moderate the perception of the stressor as well as of the physiological stress response. The neuropeptide, oxytocin, may mediate social buffering by down-regulating HPA activity and thus reducing the stress response. However, much within this process remains unclear, such as whether oxytocin is always released when exposed to a stressor, whether more oxytocin is released if there is social support, what aspect of stress or social support triggers oxytocin release and whether social support in the absence of a stressor also impacts oxytocin release and HPA activity, during everyday life. We review the literature that addresses each of these questions in an attempt to clarify where future research effort will be helpful. A better understanding of these dynamics is likely to have implications for enhancing social and health gains from human social relationships.

Context and Individual Characteristics Modulate the Association between Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism and Social Behavior in Border Collies

Recent studies suggest that the relationship between endogenous oxytocin and social affiliative behavior can be critically moderated by contextual and individual factors in humans. While oxytocin has been shown to influence human-directed affiliative behaviors in dogs, no study investigated yet how such factors moderate these effects. Our study aimed to investigate whether the context and the dogs’ individual characteristics moderate the associations between the social affiliative (greeting) behavior and four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene. We recorded the greeting behavior in three contexts: (1) when the dog first met an unfamiliar experimenter, (2) during a separation from the owner, and (3) after the experimenter approached the dog in a threatening manner. In the latter two contexts (during separation and after threatening), we categorized the dogs into stressed and non-stressed groups based on their behavior in the preceding situations. In line with previous studies, we found that polymorphisms in the OXTR gene are related to the greeting behavior of dogs. However, we also showed that the analyzed SNPs were associated with greeting in different contexts and in different individuals, suggesting that the four SNPs might be related to different functions of the oxytocin system. The -213A/G was associated with greeting only when the dog had no prior negative experience with the experimenter. The rs8679682 was found in association with greeting in all three contexts but these associations were significant only in non-stressed dogs. The -94T/C was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed and had an interaction with the sex of the dog. The -74C/G SNP was associated with greeting only when the dog was stressed during separation and also had a sex interaction. Taken together, our results suggest that, similarly to humans, the effects of oxytocin on the dogs’ social behavior are not universal, but constrained by features of situations and individuals. Understanding these constraints helps further clarify how oxytocin mediates social behavior which, in the long run, could improve the application of oxytocin in pharmacotherapy.

Young Children Are More Likely to Spontaneously Attribute Mental States to Members of Their Own Group

We investigated whether young children were more likely to spontaneously attribute mental states to members of their own social group than to members of an out-group. We asked 5- and 6-year-old children to describe the actions of interacting geometric shapes and manipulated whether the children believed these shapes represented their own group or another group. Children of both ages spontaneously used mental-state words more often in their description of in-group members compared with out-group members. Furthermore, 6-year-olds produced a greater diversity of mental-state terms when talking about their own social group. These effects held across two different social categories (based on gender and geographic location). This research has important implications for understanding a broad range of social phenomena, including dehumanization, intergroup bias, and theory of mind.

Neuroendocrine control in social relationships in non-human primates: Field based evidence

Primates maintain a variety of social relationships and these can have fitness consequences. Research has established that different types of social relationships are unpinned by different or interacting hormonal systems, for example, the neuropeptide oxytocin influences social bonding, the steroid hormone testosterone influences dominance relationships, and paternal care is characterized by high oxytocin and low testosterone. Although the oxytocinergic system influences social bonding, it can support different types of social bonds in different species, whether pair bonds, parent-offspring bonds or friendships. It seems that selection processes shape social and mating systems and their interactions with neuroendocrine pathways. Within species, there are individual differences in the development of the neuroendocrine system: the social environment individuals are exposed to during ontogeny alters their neuroendocrine and socio-cognitive development, and later, their social interactions as adults. Within individuals, neuroendocrine systems can also have short-term effects, impacting on social interactions, such as those during hunting, intergroup encounters or food sharing, or the likelihood of cooperating, winning or losing. To understand these highly dynamic processes, extending research beyond animals in laboratory settings to wild animals living within their natural social and ecological setting may bring insights that are otherwise unreachable. Field endocrinology with neuropeptides is still emerging. We review the current status of this research, informed by laboratory studies, and identify questions particularly suited to future field studies. We focus on primate social relationships, specifically social bonds (mother-offspring, father-offspring, cooperative breeders, pair bonds and adult platonic friendships), dominance, cooperation and in-group/out-group relationships, and examine evidence with respect to the 'tend and defend' hypothesis.

Young children perceive less humanness in outgroup faces

We investigated when young children first dehumanize outgroups. Across two studies, 5- and 6-year-olds were asked to rate how human they thought a set of ambiguous doll-human face morphs were. We manipulated whether these faces belonged to their gender in- or gender outgroup (Study 1) and to a geographically based in- or outgroup (Study 2). In both studies, the tendency to perceive outgroup faces as less human relative to ingroup faces increased with age. Explicit ingroup preference, in contrast, was present even in the youngest children and remained stable across age. These results demonstrate that children dehumanize outgroup members from relatively early in development and suggest that the tendency to do so may be partially distinguishable from intergroup preference. This research has important implications for our understanding of children's perception of humanness and the origins of intergroup bias.

Mechanisms and development of self-other distinction in dyads and groups

This opinion piece offers a commentary on the four papers that address the theme of the development of self and other understanding with a view to highlighting the important contribution of developmental research to understanding of mechanisms of social cognition. We discuss potential mechanisms linking self-other distinction and empathy, implications for grouping motor, affective and cognitive domains under a single mechanism, applications of these accounts for joint action and finally consider self-other distinction in group versus dyadic settings.

Understanding self and others: from origins to disorders

In order to interpret and engage with the social world, individuals must understand how they relate to others. Self-other understanding forms the backbone of social cognition and is a central concept explored by research into basic processes such as action perception and empathy, as well as research on more sophisticated social behaviours such as cooperation and intergroup interaction. This theme issue integrates the latest research into self-other understanding from evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience and psychiatry. By gathering perspectives from a diverse range of disciplines, the contributions showcase ways in which research in these areas both informs and is informed by approaches spanning the biological and social sciences, thus deepening our understanding of how we relate to others in a social world.