Presenting an overview of current research and theory in developmental psychology, this book contains chapters written by prominent researchers and academics on their own areas of expertise.

This third edition of Child Psychology continues the tradition of showcasing cutting-edge research in the field of developmental science, including individual differences, dynamic systems and processes, and contexts of development. While retaining a similar structure to the last edition, this revision consists of completely new content with updated programmatic research and contemporary research trends and interests. The first three sections highlight research that is organized chronologically by age: Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence. Within each section, individual chapters address contemporary research on a specific area of development, such as learning, cognition, social, and emotional development at that period in childhood. The fourth section, Ecological Influences, emphasizes contextual influences relevant to children of all ages, including risk and protective processes, family and neighborhood context, race and ethnicity, peer relations, the effects of poverty, and the impact of the digital world. Child Psychology also features a unique focus on four progressive themes. First, emphasis is placed on theory and explanation—the "why and how" of the developmental process. Second, explanations of a transactional and multidimensional nature of development are at the forefront of all chapters. Third, the multi-faceted approach to development highlights contextual influences and cultural diversity among children from different communities and backgrounds. Finally, methodological innovation is a key concern, and research tools presented across chapters span the full array available to developmental scientists who focus on different systems and levels of analysis. The thoroughness and depth of this book, in addition to its methodological rigor, make it an ideal handbook for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and advanced students across a range of disciplines, including psychology, education, economics and public policy.

Current Topics in Developmental Biology

Developmental psychopathology involves the study and prediction of maladaptive behaviors and processes across time. This new edition of the Handbook furthers the goal of integrating developmental processes into the search for adequate categorical systems for understanding child mental health problems and the trajectories that lead to adult psychopathology. The editors respond to contemporary challenges to place individual behavior in a biological and social context. By including a range of approaches, this volume encompasses the complexity of the growing developmental literature. At the same time, it includes the most recent efforts to produce concise child diagnostic categories. In a thoroughgoing revision of the first edition of this classic text and reference, published by Plenum in 1990, the editors have assembled a distinguished roster of contributors to address such topics as issues and theories; context and mental health; biology and mental illness; disorders of early childhood; disruptive behavior disorders; emotional disorders; control disorders; pervasive developmental disorders; and trauma disorders. Clinicians, researchers, and students in such diverse fields as developmental and clinical psychology, child and adolescent psychiatry, social work, and educational and counseling psychology will benefit from the concepts, investigations, and challenges presented in this state-of-the-art compendium.

Caribbean Childhoods: From Research to Action is an annual publication produced by the Children s Issues Coalition at the University of the West Indies, Mona. The series seeks to provide an avenue for the dissemination of research and experiences on children s health, development, behaviour and education, and to provide a forum for the discussion of these issues.

Fundamentals of Development: The Psychology of Childhood outlines the main areas of developmental psychology, following a thematic approach and offering a broad overview of contemporary interest in the subject. Straightforward language and ample illustrations introduce the reader to the key areas in child development. The material is carefully organized to be as student-friendly as possible. Each chapter addresses a topic, such as perception, verbal communication, and theory of mind. Therefore, chapters are self-contained and comprehensive in their coverage of each aspect of development. This replacement for the highly successful Psychology of Childhood has been thoroughly revised with additional material based on articles appearing in the best academic journals, and covers the major studies which have stood the test of time. The book makes an excellent companion for courses introducing developmental psychology, and serves as an accessible yet comprehensive introduction for students and professionals who may have no background knowledge of the subject. This textbook is accompanied by a CD-ROM of instructor resources which is free of charge to university departments that adopt this book as their text. It includes chapter-by-chapter lecture slides, an interactive chapter-by-chapter multiple-choice question test bank, and multiple-choice questions in paper and pen format.

As a whole, the essays in this book address theoretical and empirical issues related to children's learning and cognition. The first essay, titled Learning in Cognitive Niches, treats the process of sense making on a theoretical level, discussing the complexity of factors that give rise to children's learning. It is followed by an essay, titled Using the Dynamics of a Person-Context System to Describe Children's Understanding of Air Pressure, that applies ideas from complexity science and dynamics-systems theory to children's learning about science. The next four essays summarize and synthesize already published findings, in an effort to go beyond individual viewpoints and present a more nuanced picture of children's sense making. In particular, two of these summaries, Preschoolers Learning Science: Myth or Reality? and The Emergence of Scientific Reasoning, focus on children's ability to make sense of their physical environment. The essay Cognition and the Child Witness: Understanding the Impact of Cognitive Development in Forensic Contexts seeks to shed light on children's sense making relevant to forensic issues. And the essay Beyond the Black-and-White of Autism: How Cognitive Performance Varies with Context ventures in the area of autism, a disorder that demonstrates atypical processes of combining pieces of information. The final two essays provide original data to add to the discussion of what factors affect cognitive functioning. In particular, the essay Cognitive Fitness in Young Adult Video Game Players seeks to re-assess the often-assumed relation between video gaming and various aspects of thinking, memory, intelligence, and visual-spatial abilities. And the essay Impact of Moving Away from Home on Undergraduate Metacognitive Development explicitly connects life circumstances to the ability to monitor and control one's thinking. Together, the collection of essays are a further step towards understanding the process of sense making as children and young adults interact with their environment.