Parenting by Lying.

Parenting by lying is a practice in which parents lie to their children to influence their emotions or behavior. Recently, researchers have tried to document the nature of this phenomenon and to understand its causes and consequences. The present research provides an overview of the research in the emerging field, describes some key theoretical and methodological challenges in studying this topic, and proposes a theoretical framework for understanding parenting by lying and for guiding future research to advance our knowledge about this understudied parenting practice.

Parenting by lying and children's lying to parents: The moderating role of children's beliefs.

How are children socialized about lying? One way is parental modeling of lying given that parents tell various lies to their children for parenting purposes, which is a practice known as parenting by lying. Importantly, how children perceive and interpret the lying behavior around them may be crucial to how they then learn to lie. Yet, we do not know how children's perceptions of different types of parental lies drive this socialization. In a comprehensive birth cohort of parent-child dyads (N = 564; children aged 11 and 12 years) in Singapore, we collected multi-informant reports of instrumental lies (parental lies told for child compliance) and white lies (parental lies told to instill positive emotions), children's belief in parental lies, and children's lying to parents. We found greater consistency in parent and child reports of instrumental lies than of white lies and that children reported greater belief in instrumental lies than in white lies. Children's reported exposure to instrumental lies was associated with greater lying to parents. However, for white lies this relationship was evident only when children had moderate to low beliefs in parental lies. Examining the interplay between parental lies and children's beliefs in those lies, the current study illuminates the potential pathways to children's lying behaviors.

Perceptions of sexism interact with perceived criticism on women's response to sexist remarks in different relationship types.

Sexism is a widespread form of gender discrimination, which can take the form of criticism towards women based on gender stereotypes. However, little is known about how perceived criticism and sexism shape one's construal of criticism from various interpersonal sources. The present study investigated whether perceived criticism, perceived sexism and the source of criticism (mother, father, workplace supervisor, romantic partner) interact to influence upset levels in response to criticism. 178 participants completed perceived criticism (PC) ratings for the four relationships and 95 female participants also completed the Schedule of Sexist Events scale. Participants read experimental vignettes describing scenarios of criticism from different sources and rated how upset they would feel in each scenario. Perceived sexism significantly moderated the effect of PC on upset levels only for sexist-related criticism from romantic partners and supervisors. Female participants with low perceived sexism show higher levels of upset as PC increased for sexist-related criticism from supervisors whereas female participants with high perceived sexism show lower levels of upset as PC increased for sexist-related criticism from romantic partners. These findings contribute towards understanding how perceived criticism and perceived sexism influence affective reactions to criticism across interpersonal sources.

A voxel-based morphometry study on gray matter correlates of need for cognition and exploratory information seeking.

BACKGROUND: Need for cognition (NFC) represents interindividual differences in tendencies to engage and enjoy cognitive endeavors. Exploratory information seeking (EIS) refers to individual tendencies to attain cognitive stimulation through acquiring information related to consumer products or services out of curiosity. METHODS: The current study aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the relationship between NFC and EIS and extend this relation to determine neuroanatomical correlates of NFC and EIS. This study proposed two central hypotheses: (1) NFC and EIS scores are positively correlated and (2) the gray matter volume (GMV) of brain regions implicated in motivation, valuation, and reward systems are positively associated with both NFC and EIS. Self-report and structural MRI data of 91 Singaporean Chinese participants were utilized for the study. RESULTS: No statistically significant correlation was revealed between NFC and EIS scores. Neuroanatomical associations of the GMV of brain regions implicated in visuospatial, attentional, and reward processing with individual constructs of interest were explored. When examining NFC and EIS scores, larger GMV in the right pallidum and left fusiform gyrus was found in participants that reported higher levels of NFC (vs. lower NFC levels), larger GMV in the left precuneus in those with greater tendencies to engage in EIS (vs. lower EIS levels), and larger GMV of the left fusiform gyrus associated with greater endorsement of both NFC and EIS. When investigating the exploratory factor analysis-generated factors of NFC and EIS, similar patterns of associations were found between self-reported levels of agreement against factors and GMV of brain regions implicated. CONCLUSIONS: Correlational analysis and exploratory factor analysis indicated the absence of a relationship between NFC and EIS. Additionally, voxel-based morphometry whole-brain analysis revealed neuroanatomical correlates of the GMV of brain regions implicated in visuospatial, attentional, and reward processing with NFC and EIS.

Physical discipline as a normative childhood experience in Singapore.

BACKGROUND: The cultural normativeness theory posits that specific parenting behaviors can be interpreted as displays of appropriate parenting in contexts where they are deemed normative. Previous studies suggest high acceptance of physical discipline in Singapore, where strict parenting could be interpreted as care for the child. However, there is a lack of studies on the local prevalence and implications of physical discipline. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Singaporean children experiencing parental physical discipline, longitudinal changes in this prevalence, and how exposure to physical discipline relates to children's evaluation of their parents' parenting. METHODS: Participants were 710 children with parental reports of physical discipline at one or more assessments at ages 4.5, 6, 9, and 11 years in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes birth cohort study. Parental reports of physical discipline were obtained using the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire or the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire across the four assessments. Child reports of their parents' care and control were obtained using the Parental Bonding Instrument for Children at the age 9 assessment. Prevalence was specified as being exposed to at least one physical discipline at any frequency. A generalized linear mixed model was performed to examine whether children's age predicted their exposure to physical discipline. Linear regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether children's exposure to physical discipline predicted their evaluation of their parents' parenting. RESULTS: The prevalence of children experiencing at least one physical discipline was above 80% at all ages. There was a decrease in this prevalence from age 4.5 to 11 years (B = - 0.14, SE = 0.01, OR = 0.87, p < 0.001). The more frequent the paternal physical discipline children were exposed to, the more likely they were to report lower levels of care (B = - 1.74, SE = 0.66, p = 0.03) and higher levels of denial of psychological autonomy by fathers (B = 1.05, SE = 0.45, p = 0.04). Maternal physical discipline was not significantly associated with children's evaluation of their mothers' parenting (ps ≥ 0.53). CONCLUSIONS: Physical discipline was a common experience among our Singaporean sample, consistent with the notion that strict parenting could be regarded as a form of care. However, exposure to physical discipline did not translate to children reporting their parents as caring, with paternal physical discipline being negatively associated with children's evaluations of paternal care.

Does extended experience with other-race nannies predict racial bias in the preschool years?

Most existing studies on racial bias reduction have used short-term interracial interaction interventions with fleeting effects. The current natural experiment examined whether daily interactions with other-race nannies relate to reduced racial bias in the preschool years. We capitalized on a unique child-rearing situation in Singapore whereby children are often cared for by other-race nannies since infancy. Singaporean Chinese 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 100) completed explicit and implicit racial bias measures assessing their preferential bias favoring own-race adults over adults of their nannies' race. Differential findings were obtained for children's explicit and implicit racial bias. Extensiveness, but not mere presence, of other-race nanny experience was associated with lower levels of explicit racial bias in children. In contrast, neither presence nor extensiveness of other-race nanny experience was associated with children's implicit racial bias. Together, these findings suggest that long-term and extensive contact with an other-race caregiver could have subtle mitigating effects on children's explicit, but not implicit, racial bias.

Exposure to Multicultural Context Affects Neural Response to Out-Group Faces: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

Recent migration and globalization trends have led to the emergence of ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse countries. Understanding the unfolding of social dynamics in multicultural contexts becomes a matter of common interest to promote national harmony and social cohesion among groups. The current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study aimed to (i) explore the neural signature of the in-group bias in the multicultural context; and (ii) assess the relationship between the brain activity and people's system-justifying ideologies. A sample of 43 (22 females) Chinese Singaporeans (M = 23.36; SD = 1.41) was recruited. All participants completed the Right Wing Authoritarianism Scale and Social Dominance Orientation Scale to assess their system-justifying ideologies. Subsequently, four types of visual stimuli were presented in an fMRI task: Chinese (in-group), Indian (typical out-group), Arabic (non-typical out-group), and Caucasian (non-typical out-group) faces. The right middle occipital gyrus and the right postcentral gyrus showed enhanced activity when participants were exposed to in-group (Chinese) rather than out-group (Arabic, Indian, and Caucasian) faces. Regions having a role in mentalization, empathetic resonance, and social cognition showed enhanced activity to Chinese (in-group) rather than Indian (typical out-group) faces. Similarly, regions typically involved in socioemotional and reward-related processing showed increased activation when participants were shown Chinese (in-group) rather than Arabic (non-typical out-group) faces. The neural activations in the right postcentral gyrus for in-group rather than out-group faces and in the right caudate in response to Chinese rather than Arabic faces were in a significant positive correlation with participants' Right Wing Authoritarianism scores (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the activity in the right middle occipital gyrus for Chinese rather than out-group faces was in a significant negative correlation with participants' Social Dominance Orientation scores (p < 0.05). Results are discussed by considering the typical role played by the activated brain regions in socioemotional processes as well as the role of familiarity to out-group faces.

Negative emotional reactions to criticism: Perceived criticism and source affects extent of hurt and relational distancing.

Criticism is commonly perceived as hurtful and individuals may respond differently to criticism originating from different sources. However, the influence of an individual's perception of criticism in their social relationships on negative emotional reactions to criticism has not been examined across different relational contexts. The present study investigated the influence of perceived criticism and relational contexts-mother, father, romantic partner, and workplace supervisor-on the feelings of hurt and relational distancing experienced upon receiving criticism. Participants (N = 178) completed the Perceived Criticism Measure and read vignettes describing scenarios of personally directed criticism in the four relational contexts. Significant main effects of perceived criticism and source were found on levels of relational distancing. Participants who perceived their relational partner to be more critical experienced greater distancing upon receiving criticism from them. Greater relational distancing was experienced for criticism received from workplace supervisors compared to mothers, fathers and romantic partners. Results indicate that emotional reactions and relationship outcomes in response to criticism can differ based on individual differences and relational context, suggesting their role in relationship maintenance and development of psychopathology.

The developmental trajectories of racial categorization and explicit racial biases in Singapore.

The present study investigated the development of racial categorization and explicit racial biases in Singaporean Chinese preschoolers (N = 73). Three- to six-year-olds were found to be generally adept at categorizing novel faces by race and displayed significant improvements in their racial categorization abilities at six years old. Additionally, the strength of children's racial preferences varied along the developmental trajectory. While three- and four-year-olds did not exhibit own-race preferences, five- and six-year-olds preferred to befriend own-race children and preferentially assigned desirable jobs to own-race adults. None of the age groups, however, displayed preferences for either race when assigning undesirable jobs to adults, pointing to an absence of negative outgroup bias from three to six years old. Lastly, children who were better able to categorize novel faces by race also showed stronger tendencies to assign undesirable jobs to other-race adults and thus stronger outgroup negativity. Together, our findings suggest that ingroup positivity precedes outgroup negativity, and that racial categorization plays an important role in the development of negative outgroup bias, hence providing further support for developmental theories on intergroup bias formation.

Stronger brain activation for own baby but similar activation toward babies of own and different ethnicities in parents living in a multicultural environment.

Specific facial features in infants automatically elicit attention, affection, and nurturing behaviour of adults, known as the baby schema effect. There is also an innate tendency to categorize people into in-group and out-group members based on salient features such as ethnicity. Societies are becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, and there are limited investigations into the underlying neural mechanism of the baby schema effect in a multi-ethnic context. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine parents' (N = 27) neural responses to (a) non-own ethnic in-group and out-group infants, (b) non-own in-group and own infants, and (c) non-own out-group and own infants. Parents showed similar brain activations, regardless of ethnicity and kinship, in regions associated with attention, reward processing, empathy, memory, goal-directed action planning, and social cognition. The same regions were activated to a higher degree when viewing the parents' own infant. These findings contribute further understanding to the dynamics of baby schema effect in an increasingly interconnected social world.

Gene-Environment Interactions in Face Categorization: Oxytocin Receptor Genotype x Childcare Experience Shortens Reaction Time.

Human faces capture attention, provide information about group belonging, and elicit automatic prepared responses. Early experiences with other-race faces play a critical role in acquiring face expertise, but the exact mechanism through which early experience exerts its influence is still to be elucidated. Genetic factors and a multi-ethnic context are likely involved, but their specific influences have not been explored. This study investigated how oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) genotypes and childcare experience interacted to regulate face categorization in adults. Information about single nucleotide polymorphisms of OXTR (rs53576) and experiences with own- and other-race child caregivers was collected from 89 Singaporean adults, who completed a visual categorization task with own- versus other-race faces. Participants were grouped into A/A homozygotes and G carriers and assigned a score to account for their type of child caregiver experience. A multivariate linear regression model was used to estimate the effect of genetic group, child caregiver experience, and their interaction on categorization reaction time. A significant interaction of genetic group and child caregiver experience (t = 2.48, p = 0.015), as well as main effects of both genetic group (t = -2.17, p = 0.033) and child caregiver experience (t = -4.29, p < 0.001) emerged. Post-hoc analysis revealed that the correlation between categorization reaction time and child caregiver experience was significantly different between the two genetic groups. A significant gene x environment interaction on face categorization appears to represent an indirect pathway through which genes and experiences interact to shape mature social sensitivity to faces in human adults.

The acquisition of the gender-brilliance stereotype: Age trajectory, relation to parents' stereotypes, and intersections with race/ethnicity.

Past research has explored children's gender stereotypes about specific intellectual domains, such as mathematics and science, but less is known about the acquisition of domain-general stereotypes about the intellectual abilities of women and men. During 2017 and 2018, the authors administered Implicit Association Tests to Chinese Singaporean adults and 8- to 12-year-olds (N = 731; 58% female) to examine the gender stereotype that portrays exceptional intellectual ability (e.g., genius, brilliance) as a male attribute. This gender-brilliance stereotype was present among adults and children and for both Chinese and White stereotype targets. It also was stronger among older children and among children whose parents also showed it. This early-emerging stereotype may be an obstacle to gender equity in many prestigious employment sectors.

Developmental disabilities across the world: A scientometric review from 1936 to 2020.

BACKGROUND: Developmental disabilities have been largely studied in the past years. Their etiological mechanisms have been underpinned to the interactions between genetic and environmental factors. These factors show variability across the world. Thus, it is important to understand where the set of knowledge obtained on developmental disabilities originates from and whether it is generalizable to low- and middle-income countries. AIMS: This study aims to understand the origins of the available literature on developmental disabilities, keeping a focus on parenting, and identify the main trend of research. METHODS AND PROCEDURE: A sample of 11,315 publications from 1936 to 2020 were collected from Scopus and a graphical country analysis was conducted. Furthermore, a qualitative approach enabled the clustering of references by keywords into four main areas: "Expression of the disorder", "Physiological Factors", "How it is studied" and "Environmental factors". For each area, a document co-citation analysis (DCA) on CiteSpace software was performed. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Results highlight the leading role of North America in the study of developmental disabilities. Trends in the literature and the documents' scientific relevance are discussed in details. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Results demand for investigation in different socio-economical settings to generalize our knowledge. What this paper adds? The current paper tries to provide insight into the origins of the literature on developmental disabilities with a focus on parenting, together with an analysis of the trends of research in the field. The paper consisted of a multi-disciplinary and multi-method review. In fact, the review tried to integrate the analysis of the relation between developmental disabilities with a closer look at the scientific contributions to the field across the world. Specifically, the paper integrates a total of 11,315 papers published on almost a century of research (from 1936 to 2020). An initial qualitative analysis on keywords was combined to a subsequent quantitative approach in order to maximize the comprehension of the impact of almost a century of scientific contributions. Specifically, documents were studied with temporal and structural metrics on a scientometric approach. This allowed the exploration of patterns within the literature available on Scopus in a quantitative way. This method not only assessed the importance of single documents within the network. As a matter of fact, the document co-citation analysis used on CiteSpace software provided insight into the relations existing between multiple documents in the field of research. As a result, the leading role of North America in the literature of developmental disabilities and parenting emerged. This was accompanied by the review of the main trends of research within the existing literature.

An Analysis of the Generalizability and Stability of the Halo Effect During the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak.

The influence on the global evaluation of a person based on the perception of a single trait is a phenomenon widely investigated in social psychology. Widely regarded as Halo effect, this phenomenon has been studied for more than 100 years now, and findings such as the relationship between aesthetic perception and other personality traits-such as competence and trustworthiness-have since been uncovered. Trustworthiness plays an especially crucial role in individuals' social interactions. Despite the large body of literature published on the Halo effect, and especially on the relationship between aesthetic appearance and perceived trustworthiness, little is known about the overall generalizability of the effect, as almost all of the studies have been conducted on adult participants from Western countries. Moreover, little is known about the stability of the effect over time, in the event of major destabilization, such as the outbreak of a pandemic. In this work, the cross-cultural generalizability of the Halo effect is investigated before and during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of the generalizability and stability over time of the Halo effect is presented. Participants (N = 380, N = 145 Asians, N = 235 Caucasians) have been asked to rate the aesthetic appearance and perceived trustworthiness of a set of human faces of different ages, gender, and ethnicity. Result of our analysis demonstrated that the Halo effect (Aesthetic × trustworthiness) is influenced by the age of presented faces, but not by their gender or ethnicity. Moreover, our results show that the strength of the effect can be affected by external events and that the volatility is higher for adults' than children's faces.

Recalled Parental Bonding Interacts with Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphism in Modulating Anxiety and Avoidance in Adult Relationships.

Early interactions with significant individuals affect social experience throughout the course of a lifetime, as a repeated and prolonged perception of different levels of care, independence, or control influences the modulation of emotional regulatory processes. As many factors play a role in shaping the expectations and features of social interaction, in this study, we considered the influence of parental bonding and genetic allelic variation of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (rs53576) over levels of experienced anxiety and avoidance in 313 young adults belonging to two different cultural contexts, namely Italy and Singapore. Results highlighted a major effect of maternal characteristics, care, and overprotection, with differences between the two cultural groups. Additionally, the interaction between rs53576 and maternal overprotection suggested different environmental susceptibility in the Italian sample and the Singaporean one. Implications for clinical work and future steps are described in the Conclusion.

Contrasting lexical biases in bilingual English-Mandarin speech: Verb-biased mothers, but noun-biased toddlers.

Is noun dominance in early lexical acquisition a widespread or a language-specific phenomenon? Thirty Singaporean bilingual English-Mandarin learning toddlers and their mothers were observed in a mother-child play interaction. For both English and Mandarin, toddlers' speech and reported vocabulary contained more nouns than verbs across book reading and toy playing. In contrast, their mothers' speech contained more verbs than nouns in both English and Mandarin but differed depending on the context of the interaction. Although toddlers demonstrated a noun bias for both languages, the noun bias was more pronounced in English than in Mandarin. Together, these findings support early noun dominance as a widespread phenomenon in the lexical acquisition debate but also provide evidence that language specificity also plays a minor role in children's early lexical development.

A Machine Learning Approach for the Automatic Estimation of Fixation-Time Data Signals' Quality.

Fixation time measures have been widely adopted in studies with infants and young children because they can successfully tap on their meaningful nonverbal behaviors. While recording preverbal children's behavior is relatively simple, analysis of collected signals requires extensive manual preprocessing. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using different Machine Learning (ML)-a Linear SVC, a Non-Linear SVC, and K-Neighbors-classifiers to automatically discriminate between Usable and Unusable eye fixation recordings. Results of our models show an accuracy of up to the 80%, suggesting that ML tools can help human researchers during the preprocessing and labelling phase of collected data.

Child disability and caregiving in low and middle income countries: Big data approach on open data.

BACKGROUND: The presence of child disabilities might affect the amount of caregiving attention the child receives, with potential ramifications on the development of the child and increasing the likelihood of developing a more severe condition. Little is known about the association between child disabilities and caregiving practices in less developed countries, penalized by both lack of data and a research bias toward western societies. METHOD: In this study, we apply data mining methods on a large (N = 29,525) dataset from UNICEF to investigate the association between caregiving practices and developmental disabilities of the children, and highlight the differences between intellectual and other disabilities. RESULTS: Our results highlight that, compared to other types of disabilities, intellectual disabilities increased the risk of being neglected by the caregiver in those activities oriented to the cognitive development. The education of the caregiver and the socioeconomical development of the country are actively involved in the moderation of the risk. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that educational policies of parental training, such as psychoeducation regarding intellectual disabilities and destigmatization campaigns, are needed to benefit parental practices in low- and middle-income countries.

Parents' Past Bonding Experience with Their Parents Interacts with Current Parenting Stress to Influence the Quality of Interaction with Their Child.

Healthy dyadic interactions serve as a foundation for child development and are typically characterised by mutual emotional availability of both the parent and child. However, several parental factors might undermine optimal parent-child interactions, including the parent's current parenting stress levels and the parent's past bonding experiences with his/her own parents. To date, no study has investigated the possible interaction of parenting stress and parental bonding history with their own parents on the quality of emotional availability during play interactions. In this study, 29 father-child dyads (18 boys, 11 girls; father's age = 38.07 years, child's age = 42.21 months) and 36 mother-child dyads (21 boys, 15 girls; mother's age = 34.75 years, child's age = 41.72 months) from different families were recruited to participate in a 10-min play session after reporting on their current parenting stress and past care and overprotection experience with their parents. We measured the emotional availability of mother-child and father-child play across four adult subscales (i.e., sensitivity, structuring, non-intrusiveness, non-hostility) and two child subscales (i.e., involvement and responsiveness). Regression slope analyses showed that parenting stress stemming from having a difficult child predicts adult non-hostility, and is moderated by the parents' previously experienced maternal overprotection. When parenting stress is low, higher maternal overprotection experienced by the parent in the past would predict greater non-hostility during play. This finding suggests that parents' present stress levels and past bonding experiences with their parents interact to influence the quality of dyadic interaction with their child.