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Bennett-Pierre G, Chernuta T, Altamimi R, Gunderson EA. Effects of praise and "easy" feedback on children's persistence and self-evaluations. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 247:106032. [PMID: 39111151 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Revised: 06/25/2024] [Accepted: 06/29/2024] [Indexed: 09/14/2024]
Abstract
Praise is thought to affect children's responses to failure, yet other potentially impactful messages about effort have been rarely studied. We experimentally investigated the effects of praise and "easy" feedback after success on children's persistence and self-evaluations after failure. Children (N = 150; Mage = 7.97 years, SD = 0.58) from the mid-Atlantic region of the United States (73 girls; 79% White) heard one of five types of feedback from an experimenter after success on online tangram puzzles: process praise ("You must have worked hard on that puzzle"), person praise ("You must be good at puzzles"), process-easy feedback ("It must have been easy to rotate and fit those pieces together"), person-easy feedback ("It must have been an easy puzzle for you"), or a control. Next, children failed to complete a harder tangram puzzle. Preregistered primary analyses revealed no differences in persistence and self-evaluation between person and process praise or between person-easy and process-easy feedback. Exploratory analyses showed that hearing process praise led to greater persistence after failure than the control condition (d = .61) and that process-easy feedback led to greater strategy generation than the control condition. The effects of adult feedback after success may be more context dependent than previously thought.
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Affiliation(s)
- Grace Bennett-Pierre
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
| | - Taylor Chernuta
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
| | - Rawan Altamimi
- Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Elizabeth A Gunderson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
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2
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Zhao L, Peng J, Lee K. Bidirectional negative relation between young children's persistence and cheating. Child Dev 2024. [PMID: 39239839 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14159] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/07/2024]
Abstract
This research examined the link between persistence and cheating in 3- to 6-year-old children (2021-2022, N = 200, 100 boys; Mage = 4.85 years; all middle-class Han Chinese). Study 1 used a challenging game to measure whether children would cheat when they were allowed to play the game unsupervised. Results indicated that children's situational, but not trait, persistence negatively correlated with cheating: the higher children's situational persistence, the less likely they cheated. Study 2 not only replicated the results of Study 1 but also discovered that children who cheated became less persistent afterward. Our research reveals a novel bidirectional relation between situational persistence and cheating and underscores the importance of nurturing persistence in early childhood as a strategy to foster honesty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zhao
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China
- Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China
| | - Junjie Peng
- Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China
- Dr. Erick Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Kang Lee
- Dr. Erick Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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3
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McDermott CL, Taylor K, Sharp SDS, Lydon-Staley D, Leonard JA, Mackey AP. Sensitivity to psychosocial influences at age 3 predicts mental health in middle childhood. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13531. [PMID: 38863439 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2023] [Revised: 04/05/2024] [Accepted: 05/06/2024] [Indexed: 06/13/2024]
Abstract
Children vary in how sensitive they are to experiences, with consequences for their developmental outcomes. In the current study, we investigated how behavioral sensitivity at age 3 years predicts mental health in middle childhood. Using a novel repeated measures design, we calculated child sensitivity to multiple psychological and social influences: parent praise, parent stress, child mood, and child sleep. We conceptualized sensitivity as the strength and direction of the relationship between psychosocial influences and child behavior, operationalized as toothbrushing time, at age 3 years. When children were 5-7 years old (n = 60), parents reported on children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Children who were more sensitive to their parents' praise at age 3 had fewer internalizing (r = -0.37, p = 0.016, pFDR = 0.042) and externalizing (r = -0.35, p = 0.021, pFDR = 0.042) problems in middle childhood. Higher average parent praise also marginally predicted fewer externalizing problems (r = -0.33, p = 0.006, pFDR = 0.057). Child sensitivity to mood predicted fewer internalizing (r = -0.32, p = 0.013, pFDR = 0.042) and externalizing (r = -0.38, p = 0.003, pFDR = 0.026) problems. By capturing variability in how children respond to daily fluctuations in their environment, we can contribute to the early prediction of mental health problems and improve access to early intervention services for children and families who need them most. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children differ in how strongly their behavior depends on psychosocial factors including parent praise, child mood, child sleep, and parent stress. Children who are more sensitive to their parents' praise at age 3 have fewer internalizing and externalizing problems at age 5-7 years. Child sensitivity to mood also predicts fewer internalizing and externalizing problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cassidy L McDermott
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Katherine Taylor
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Sophie D S Sharp
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - David Lydon-Staley
- Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering & Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Julia A Leonard
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Allyson P Mackey
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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4
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Koepp AE, Gershoff ET. Leveraging an intensive time series of young children's movement to capture impulsive and inattentive behaviors in a preschool setting. Child Dev 2024. [PMID: 38655639 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/26/2024]
Abstract
Studying within-person variability in children's behavior is frequently hindered by challenges collecting repeated observations. This study used wearable accelerometers to collect an intensive time series (2.7 million observations) of young children's movement at school (N = 62, Mage = 4.5 years, 54% male, 74% Non-Hispanic White) in 2021. Machine learning analyses indicated that children's typical forward acceleration was strongly correlated with lower teacher-reported inhibitory control and attention (r = -.69). Using forward movement intensity as a proxy for impulsivity, we partitioned the intensive time series and found that (1) children modulated their behavior across periods of the school day, (2) children's impulsivity increased across the school week, and (3) children with greater impulsivity showed greater variability in behavior across days.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew E Koepp
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Elizabeth T Gershoff
- Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
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5
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DeJoseph ML, Ellwood-Lowe ME, Miller-Cotto D, Silverman D, Shannon KA, Reyes G, Rakesh D, Frankenhuis WE. The promise and pitfalls of a strength-based approach to child poverty and neurocognitive development: Implications for policy. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 66:101375. [PMID: 38608359 PMCID: PMC11019102 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2023] [Revised: 03/27/2024] [Accepted: 04/04/2024] [Indexed: 04/14/2024] Open
Abstract
There has been significant progress in understanding the effects of childhood poverty on neurocognitive development. This progress has captured the attention of policymakers and promoted progressive policy reform. However, the prevailing emphasis on the harms associated with childhood poverty may have inadvertently perpetuated a deficit-based narrative, focused on the presumed shortcomings of children and families in poverty. This focus can have unintended consequences for policy (e.g., overlooking strengths) as well as public discourse (e.g., focusing on individual rather than systemic factors). Here, we join scientists across disciplines in arguing for a more well-rounded, "strength-based" approach, which incorporates the positive and/or adaptive developmental responses to experiences of social disadvantage. Specifically, we first show the value of this approach in understanding normative brain development across diverse human environments. We then highlight its application to educational and social policy, explore pitfalls and ethical considerations, and offer practical solutions to conducting strength-based research responsibly. Our paper re-ignites old and recent calls for a strength-based paradigm shift, with a focus on its application to developmental cognitive neuroscience. We also offer a unique perspective from a new generation of early-career researchers engaged in this work, several of whom themselves have grown up in conditions of poverty. Ultimately, we argue that a balanced strength-based scientific approach will be essential to building more effective policies.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - David Silverman
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, United States
| | | | - Gabriel Reyes
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, United States
| | - Divyangana Rakesh
- Neuroimaging Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK
| | - Willem E Frankenhuis
- Evolutionary and Population Biology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law, Germany
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6
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Sierksma J. Children perpetuate competence-based inequality when they help peers. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2023; 8:41. [PMID: 37730707 PMCID: PMC10511518 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-023-00192-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/22/2023]
Abstract
Exchanges of help between children are common and often have positive consequences. But not all help is equally beneficial, for example because some help does not provide an opportunity to practice and develop skills. Here I examine whether young children might perpetuate competence-based inequality by providing incompetent peers with less opportunity to practice and improve their skills compared to competent peers. Study 1 (N = 253, 6-9 years) shows that young children understand not all help is equally beneficial: Children think that peers who receive empowerment (hints) vs. non-empowerment (correct answers) help can learn more. Study 2 (N = 80) and 3 (N = 41) then assessed children's (7-9 years) actual helping behavior in a lab-based experiment. Through a cover story, participants were introduced to two unknown, same-age children whom they later overheard were either good or not good at solving puzzles (Study 2) or math (Study 3). Subsequently, participants got to help both of them with a puzzle-quiz (Study 2) or a math-quiz (Study 3) by providing either empowerment or non-empowerment when they asked for help. Across both studies, children were more likely to provide empowerment help to competent peers, and non-empowerment help to incompetent peers. This work suggests that when young children perceive differences in competence (e.g., based on stereotypes), they contribute to maintaining the status quo by providing the most vulnerable students, that would profit the most from improving their skills, less opportunity to do so.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jellie Sierksma
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
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7
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Bennett-Pierre G, Weinraub M, Newcombe NS, Gunderson EA. "This is hard!" Children's and parents' talk about difficulty during dyadic interactions. Dev Psychol 2023; 59:1268-1282. [PMID: 37199920 PMCID: PMC10330425 DOI: 10.1037/dev0001555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Children's beliefs about the contribution of effort and ability to success and failure shape their decisions to persist or give up on challenging tasks, with consequences for their academic success. But how do children learn about the concept of "challenge"? Prior work has shown that parents' verbal responses to success and failure shape children's motivational beliefs. In this study, we explore another type of talk-parent and child talk about difficulty-which could contribute to children's motivational beliefs. We performed secondary analyses of two observational studies of parent-child interactions in the United States (Boston and Philadelphia) from age 3 to fourth grade (Study 1, 51% girls, 65.5% White, at least 43.2% below Federal poverty line) and at first grade (Study 2, 54% girls, 72% White, family income-to-needs ratio M [SD] = 4.41 [2.95]) to identify talk about difficulty, characterize the content of those statements, and assess whether task context, child and parent gender, child age, and other parent motivational talk were associated with the quantity of child and parent difficulty talk. We found that many families did discuss difficulty, with variation among families. Parents and children tended to use general statements to talk about difficulty (e.g., "That was hard!"), and task context affected child and parent difficulty talk. In the NICHD-SECCYD dataset, mothers' highlighting how task features contributed to task difficulty was positively correlated with their process praise, suggesting that this talk could be motivationally relevant. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
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8
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Wang J(J, Bonawitz E. Children’s Sensitivity to Difficulty and Reward Probability When Deciding to Take on a Task. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2022.2152032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jinjing (Jenny) Wang
- Department of Psychology, Rutgers University – New Brunswick, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
- Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University – New Brunswick, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA
| | - Elizabeth Bonawitz
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Park AT, Richardson H, Tooley UA, McDermott CL, Boroshok AL, Ke A, Leonard JA, Tisdall MD, Deater-Deckard K, Edgar JC, Mackey AP. Early stressful experiences are associated with reduced neural responses to naturalistic emotional and social content in children. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2022; 57:101152. [PMID: 36137356 PMCID: PMC9493069 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/25/2022] [Revised: 08/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 01/27/2023] Open
Abstract
How do children's experiences relate to their naturalistic emotional and social processing? Because children can struggle with tasks in the scanner, we collected fMRI data while 4-to-11-year-olds watched a short film with positive and negative emotional events, and rich parent-child interactions (n = 70). We captured broad, normative stressful experiences by examining socioeconomic status (SES) and stressful life events, as well as children's more proximal experiences with their parents. For a sub-sample (n = 30), parenting behaviors were measured during a parent-child interaction, consisting of a picture book, a challenging puzzle, and free play with novel toys. We characterized positive parenting behaviors (e.g., warmth, praise) and negative parenting behaviors (e.g., harsh tone, physical control). We found that higher SES was related to greater activity in medial orbitofrontal cortex during parent-child interaction movie events. Negative parenting behaviors were associated with less activation of the ventral tegmental area and cerebellum during positive emotional events. In a region-of-interest analysis, we found that stressful life events and negative parenting behaviors were associated with less activation of the amygdala during positive emotional events. These exploratory results demonstrate the promise of using movie fMRI to study how early experiences may shape emotional, social, and motivational processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne T Park
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Hilary Richardson
- Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Ursula A Tooley
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Neuroscience Graduate Group, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Cassidy L McDermott
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Austin L Boroshok
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Adrian Ke
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Julia A Leonard
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States; Department of Psychology, Yale University, United States
| | - M Dylan Tisdall
- Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, United States
| | - Kirby Deater-Deckard
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States
| | | | - Allyson P Mackey
- Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, United States.
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10
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Buhr L, Moschko T, Eppinger Ruiz de Zarate A, Schwarz U, Kühnhausen J, Gawrilow C. The Association of Self-Reported ADHD Symptoms and Sleep in Daily Life of a General Population Sample of School Children: An Inter- and Intraindividual Perspective. Brain Sci 2022; 12:440. [PMID: 35447972 PMCID: PMC9026750 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12040440] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Revised: 03/17/2022] [Accepted: 03/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Sleep and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have repeatedly been found to be associated with each other. However, the ecological validity of daily life studies to examine the effect of sleep on ADHD symptoms is rarely made use of. In an ambulatory assessment study with measurement burst design, consisting of three bursts (each 6 months apart) of 18 days each, 70 German schoolchildren aged 10-12 years reported on their sleep quality each morning and on their subjective ADHD symptom levels as well as their sleepiness three times a day. It was hypothesized that nightly sleep quality is negatively associated with ADHD symptoms on the inter- as well as the intraindividual level. Thus, we expected children who sleep better to report higher attention and self-regulation. Additionally, sleepiness during the day was hypothesized to be positively associated with ADHD symptoms on both levels, meaning that when children are sleepier, they experience more ADHD symptoms. No association of sleep quality and ADHD symptoms between or within participants was found in multilevel analyses; also, no connection was found between ADHD symptoms and daytime sleepiness on the interindividual level. Unexpectedly, a negative association was found on the intraindividual level for ADHD symptoms and daytime sleepiness, indicating that in moments when children are sleepier during the day, they experience less ADHD symptoms. Explorative analyses showed differential links of nightly sleep quality and daytime sleepiness, with the core symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, respectively. Therefore, future analyses should take the factor structure of ADHD symptoms into account.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lilly Buhr
- Workgroup School Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (T.M.); (A.E.R.d.Z.); (U.S.); (C.G.)
- LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
- IDeA—Interdisciplinary Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Tomasz Moschko
- Workgroup School Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (T.M.); (A.E.R.d.Z.); (U.S.); (C.G.)
| | - Anne Eppinger Ruiz de Zarate
- Workgroup School Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (T.M.); (A.E.R.d.Z.); (U.S.); (C.G.)
- IDeA—Interdisciplinary Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Ulrike Schwarz
- Workgroup School Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (T.M.); (A.E.R.d.Z.); (U.S.); (C.G.)
- IDeA—Interdisciplinary Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Jan Kühnhausen
- LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
- IDeA—Interdisciplinary Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Department of Child and Adolescence Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Caterina Gawrilow
- Workgroup School Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; (T.M.); (A.E.R.d.Z.); (U.S.); (C.G.)
- LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany;
- IDeA—Interdisciplinary Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60323 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
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