Addresses: Cognitive Development
BOTH qualitative and quantitative
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Aim: to investigate the relationship between prosocial behavior in infancy along with cognitive and social skills with sharing behavior
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Procedure:
A longitudinal study with 72 children from white, middle-class families in urban areas of Germany were tested at the ages of 7 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 48 months, and 60 months.
Measures: Cognitive Development: Goal-encoding, working memory
Social Development: instrumental helping, empathic reasoning, gift delay, inhibitory control, perspective taking, and sharing behavior.
Results: Sharing= prosocial play with peers\* (the role of peers and play)
* Found a relationship between delay of gratification at 24 months and inhibitory control at 30 months with sharing behavior at 5 years.
* Found a relationship between distress understanding at 24 months and sharing with friends at preschool age
* Found a relationship between goal encoding at 7 months and sharing with a disliked other at 5 years
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Implications: \*Overall, shows relationships between object manipulation and pretend play stages
\*Supports Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development as interconnected with sociocultural factors / the environment
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