Children’s Social Behaviors: Developmental Mechanisms and Implications

Abstract

During the socialization process in family and school contexts, children display a wide variety of social behaviors with parents and peers. Yet the developmental trajectory, the predictors and outcomes, and the neural basis of those social behaviors are largely under-investigated. To address these problems, we invited experts in the field to submit their latest findings to tell this story. The current Special Issue is a collection of papers highlighting the complexity for various social behaviors, with a focus on the complex mechanisms that link social behaviors to child socio-emotional adjustment and mediating/moderating factors among the associations. Thirteen papers illustrate empirical work in the field, two papers present new methodological concerns, and one paper that provides a comprehensive review of the literature.