Table of Content

15 March 2026, Volume 42 Issue 2

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The Effects of Iconic Gestures on Memory and Generalization of Chinese Action Verbs in 3~4-year-old Children

ZHANG Pan, YANG Juan, WANG Xiaoying

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  153-161.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.01

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The effects of iconic gestures on the memory and generalization of Chinese action verbs in 3~4-year-old children were examined through two experimental tasks: A verb memory test and an improved verb generalization test. [JP3]The results showed that self-produced iconic gestures and observing others’ iconic gestures significantly enhanced the memory of Chinese action verbs in 3~4-year-old children to an equal extent; However, interactive gestures did not improve verb memory performance. Iconic gestures also facilitated the generalization of Chinese action verbs in this age group, and this facilitative effect was delayed. Iconic gestures can enhance children's vocabulary memory by highlighting key features of action verbs, and conveying lexical information in a representational manner. This helps children recognize the core actions denoted by verbs, thereby promoting their understanding of essential verb knowledge and enabling the inference of related verb information. The study suggests that parents and early childhood educators should leverage the positive effects of iconic gestures to facilitate children’s integration of higher-level verb concepts and derivation of subordinate verb knowledge. This approach can enhance the efficiency and flexibility of children’s verb learning.

The Relationship between Maternal Responses and Infant Emotion Regulation Strategies

CHENG Mengting, XU Qinmei, GE Yuqing, MA Sa, YAN Chenyu

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  162-171.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.02

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Emotion regulation is a crucial aspect of infants’ social development. During parent-child interactions, infants can learn emotion regulation through maternal responses to their crying. Which types of maternal responses more effectively contribute to the development of infants’ emotion regulation? This study explored the impact of maternal responses to infant crying on emotion regulation from the perspective of emotion regulation strategies. The study employed interviews to investigate maternal responses to infant crying and utilized behavioral coding to assess the emotion regulation strategies used by infants in a waiting task. The results indicated that infants consistently responded to by their mothers exhibit better utilization of emotion regulation strategies compared to infants who are inconsistently responded to or experience delayed responses. These findings suggest that consistent responsiveness is more beneficial to the development of infant emotion regulation. This study provided a new research perspective and evidence for the topic of responsiveness to infant emotions, offering scientific support for parenting practices.

The Effect of Shame on Adolescent Subjective Well-being: The Role of Prosocial Behavior and Interpersonal Relationships

HE Zhen, ZHAN Lin, ZENG Zihao, HU Yiqiu

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  172-181.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.03

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Using a questionnaire method and a langitudinal research paradigm, a six-month longitudinal survey was conducted on 702 adolescents to examine the mechanisms by which shame influences adolescent subjective well-being. The results show that: (1) Adolescent interpersonal relationships can be categorized into three distinct groups: an advantageous interpersonal relationships group, an average interpersonal relationships group, and a parent-child and peer alienation group; (2) Shame is a significant predictor of adolescent subjective well-being, with a positive correlation between shame and well-being; (3) Prosocial behavior fully mediates the relationship between shame and adolescent subjective well-being; (4) Interpersonal relationship types moderate the effect of prosocial behavior on adolescent subjective well-being. Grounded in traditional Chinese cultural perspectives and incorporating modern psychological research methods, this study investigated the mechanisms underlying adolescent subjective well-being. The study revealed the heterogeneity of adolescent interpersonal relationships and explored the influence of shame on adolescent subjective well-being, as well as the mediating and moderating roles of prosocial behavior and interpersonal relationship types.

Complex Problem-solving: An Investigation into the Dynamic Coupling of Planning and Goal-directed Behaviors

TIAN Wei, GAO Qinhui, XIN Tao, ZHANG Jiahui

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  182-192.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.04

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Enhancing students’ complex problem-solving skills is a crucial focus in contemporary psychological and educational research. This study utilizes computer-simulated tests and behavioral sequence analysis to investigate the dynamic coupling relationship between planning and goal-directed behaviors in complex problem solving among 27802 fifteen-year-old students from 42 countries/economies. The findings are as follows: (1) The successful group demonstrated more goal-directed behaviors, while the unsuccessful group tended to engage in more planning and non-goal-directed behaviors; (2) Both groups exhibited significant typological differences in planning behavior sequences, reflecting the influence of individual differences in engagement motivation, cognitive load, and personality traits; (3) The successful group maintained dynamic coupling between planning and goal-directed behaviors, while the unsuccessful group showed relative inadequacy. These findings highlight the crucial role of maintaining dynamic coupling between planning and goal-directed behaviors in complex problem-solving and provide a theoretical basis for the design of educational intervention strategies.

The Relationship between College Students’ Greed and Self-interest: The Moderating Role of Structural Power

LI Xiaoming, MENG Yuan, ZHANG Siming

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  193-201.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.05

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Greed is a key driver that leads to self-interest, and self-interested behavior often occurs in a certain power context. The present study explored the relationship between greed and self-interested behavior in the context of structural power among college students. The results showed that structural power could negatively moderate the relationship between greed and self-interest. In the low structural power condition, greed positively predicted self-interest. A high level of structure power could inhibit the positive predictive effect of greed on self-interested behavior (Study 1). However, the inhibition effect disappeared when structural power was unstable (Study 2). In conclusion, the results show that structural power can inhibit the externalization of college students’ greed into self-interested behavior, but the instability of power reduces this inhibiting effect.

The Influence of Emotional Arousal on the Intention of Older Adults to Forward Health Rumors

LI Jinfeng, ZHAN Jiechen, WANG Dahua

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  202-211.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.06

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This study focused on older adults, who are considered “digital immigrants”, to examine the influence of emotional arousal on the intention to forward health rumors and further the moderating effect of eHealth literacy on the relationship. The research consisted of a pilot study and a formal study. The pilot study recruited 24 older adults (12 males; mean age: 65.50±4.63 years old) and aimed to design and produce experimental materials (e.g., health rumors) for the formal study. The formal study recruited 69 older adults (22 males; mean age: 65.26±3.81 years old) for a two-stage experiment involving factor design (eHealth literacy: low vs. high; emotional arousal: low vs. high vs. control) and intervention experiments (losing one older adult, i.e., 68 participants; intervention technique: self-alerting to emotional arousal). The results showed that: (1) Emotional arousal increased the intention of older adults to forward health rumors; (2) By self-alerting to emotional arousal, the intention of older adults to forward health rumors could be effectively reduced; (3) There was no moderating effect of eHealth literacy on the relationship between emotional arousal and intention to forward health rumors, indicating that the effect of emotional arousal was consistent across high and low eHealth literacy groups of older adults. In conclusion, emotional arousal had positive influence on intention to forward health rumors, regardless of older adults’ levels of eHealth literacy.

The Influence of Grading Black and Serial Presenting Characters on Transposed-character Effect

ZHANG Yancui, SUN Yue, WANG Jingxin

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  212-221.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.07

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In alphabetic languages, the influence of visual factors such as grading black and serially presenting letters within words, on the transposed-letter effect has gained the attention in relevant studies. However, whether the transposed-character effect is modulated by these visual factors remains unclear. In this study, we conducted two experiments using a single-presentation lexical decision task with real words, transposed-character pseudowords, and substituted-letter pseudowords, manipulating the visual features of the stimuli. In Experiment 1, the characters within words were either monochromatic or grading black. In Experiment 2, the characters were presented either simultaneously or serially, character by character. The results showed that grading black characters did not significantly modulate the transposed-character effect, while serial presentation of characters significantly reduced the transposed-character effect. This is likely due to the increased flexibility in character identity processing under this condition, which reflects the unique characteristics of the Chinese character system. The stable presence of the transposed-character effect suggests that it may be primarily influenced by linguistic factors. These findings will promote the development of related theories like the core processing mechanism of Chinese reading and the Chinese reading model, as well as will provide important insights for improving the learning efficiency of Chinese vocabulary recognition and reading comprehension.

The Impact of Media Multitasking on College Students’ Reading Performance: The Moderating Roles of Task Difficulty and Type

ZHANG Mei, HUANG Yang, YU Jiawen, HUANG Silin

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  222-233.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.08

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To investigate the effects of different types and difficulties of media multitasking on reading performance, three studies were conducted. Through a questionnaire survey of 283 college students, study 1 examined the negative impact of college students’ daily media multitasking on literature reading performance, which was not influenced by the participants’ gender or attention control abilities. Study 2 further explored the impact of media multitasking of varying difficulties on reading performance using an experimental method. The research findings indicated that, On the one hand, the reading performance of the media multitasking group—measured by accuracy in reading questions, reading duration, and accuracy in secondary tasks—was lower than that of the control group. On the other hand, it was found that the task difficulty moderated the relationship between media multitasking and the accuracy of reading questions, meaning that the negative impact of media multitasking on reading performance is mainly evident in high-difficulty tasks, and it has little effect on the reading performance of simple tasks. Study 3 further investigated the impact of types of media multitasking on reading performance using an experimental method. The results showed no significant difference between the active and passive groups in objective measures; however, in subjective measures, participants in the active group perceived less interference and lower loss in reading accuracy rate. In conclusion, this research is based on the social reality of college students’ media multitasking phenomenon, focusing on the controversy over its impact on reading performance, and possesses significant theoretical and practical value.

Static and Dynamic Structural Characteristics of Children Bullying Networks: A Social Network Analysis Perspective

YUAN Wen, ZHANG Xuran, GUO Hui, LI Yanfang

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  234-244.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.09

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Bullying is not only a behavior perceived by individuals, but also a dynamic process that developed between individuals through complex changes in the ties between bullies and victims. In this study, the social network analysis method was used to investigate the static and dynamic structural characteristics, as well as gender and grade differences in children’s bullying network through two times follow-up datasets from two primary schools in Shandong province. The sample included cross-sectional data on 1680 primary school students in grades 3, 4, and 5, and follow-up data on 965 primary school students in 22 classes (52.1% boys, average 9.91 years old at T1). The results showed that in the static structure, about half of the children had bullying ties or victimization ties; The number of bullying ties of boys was significantly higher than that of girls, but there was no significant gender difference on victimization ties. The number of bullying ties and victimization ties decreased as the grade level increased. The children bullying network was sparse and hierarchical, but there was no gender segregation. The change in bullying networks exhibited the significant effects of “reciprocity”, “popularity” and “activity”. This study expands the research perspective in the field of bullying, and for the first time profoundly and comprehensively characterizes the structural characteristics and dynamic changes of children bullying networks in the context of Chinese culture, providing inspiration for the precise interventions targeting school bullying groups.

An Analysis of Cross-lagged on the Relationships between Teacher-student Relationships, School Belonging and Bullied of Senior-grade Pupils

LI Yangjin, LU Zengyan, GUO Junqiao, ZHAO Bihua

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  245-253.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.10

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To investigate the longitudinal relationships among teacher-student relationships, school belonging, and campus bullying, cross-lagged analysis was conducted on the tracking data of 1536 students from grades 4 to 6. The results revealed that: (1) In the dimension of teacher-student intimacy, there was a bidirectional predictive relationship between teacher-student intimacy and school belonging, as well as between school belonging and campus bullying. School belonging T2 played a full mediating role between teacher-student intimacy T1 and campus bullying T2. Similarly, school belonging T2 also served as a full mediator between campus bullying T1 and teacher-student intimacy T2; (2) In the dimension of teacher-student conflict, campus bullying T1 significantly predicts teacher-student conflict T2, and there is a bidirectional predictive relationship between school belonging and campus bullying. The results indicate that school belonging plays a crucial role in the interaction between teacher-student intimacy and campus bullying; experiencing bullying increases teacher-student conflicts. This suggests that educators should not only focus on the prevention and intervention of campus bullying but also pay attention to strengthening teacher-student relationships and enhancing students’ school belonging.

The Relationship between Childhood Abuse and Subjective Well-being of Junior High School Students: The Longitudinal Mediating Role of Peer Attachment

LI Yulin, WU Dehua, QING Yicheng, LI Dan, YIN Huazhan

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  254-263.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.11

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This study aims to examine the developmental trajectories of childhood abuse, peer attachment, and subjective well-being among junior high school students, and further explore the longitudinal mediating role of peer attachment. A longitudinal survey was conducted over one year, involving three waves of self-reported questionnaires completed by 507 junior high school students in Hunan Province. Latent growth modeling was used for analysis. The results from the latent growth model indicated that childhood abuse significantly negatively predicted the initial level of peer attachment among junior high school students and positively predicted the rate of growth in peer attachment over time. Childhood abuse also negatively predicted the initial level of subjective well-being but had no significant impact on its growth rate. Structural equation modeling revealed that peer attachment partially mediated the relationship between childhood abuse, including its various dimensions (emotional abuse, physical abuse, emotional neglect, and physical neglect), and subjective well-being. This suggests that childhood abuse influences the initial level of subjective well-being through peer attachment. These findings provide practical implications for understanding critical periods in adolescent psychological development and promoting mental health.

Bullying, Victimization and Prosocial Behavior: A Cross-lagged Panel Study among Chinese Early Adolescents

LI Beilei, LIN Tong, LAI Meiyan, CHE Meng, DENG Linyuan

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  264-273.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.12

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This study examined the developmental stability and interrelations of bullying, victimization, and prosocial behavior by employing a three-year cross-lagged panel design among 320 Chinese middle school students. Guided by the developmental cascades model, The findings revealed that: (1) Bullying and victimization were relatively stable over the three years of middle school, with a significant bidirectional association from T2 to T3; (2) Prosocial behavior at T1 and T2 predicted lower bullying and victimization in the following year, while only bullying and victimization at T2 negatively predicted prosocial behavior at T3; (3) Significant gender differences were also observed. Among boys, bullying at T2 negatively predicted prosocial behavior at T3, while among girls, victimization at T2 negatively predicted prosocial behavior at T3. This research offered valuable understanding of the interplay between these positive and negative behaviors and emphasized the significance of fostering prosocial behavior and intervening bullying victimization at early adolescence.

The Effect of Childhood Neglect on the Development of Mid-adolescent Relational Victimization: The Longitudinal Mediating Role of Self-esteem

WANG Manlu, WANG Zhi, SHAO Jingjin

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  274-284.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.13

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In this study, 609 students were followed for three times in a year to explore the developmental trajectories and longitudinal relationship between childhood neglect, self-esteem and relational victimization of mid-adolescents. The results showed that: (1) Both self-esteem and relational victimization in the mid-adolescence showed linear growth trends; (2) The initial level and developmental rate of self-esteem negatively predicted the initial level and developmental rate of relational victimization respectively; (3) The longitudinal relationship suggested that childhood neglect directly affected the initial level of relational victimization and the initial level of self-esteem played a mediating role between childhood neglect and relational victimization at baseline. This study revealed the characteristics and dynamic mechanisms about how childhood neglect affected the development of self-esteem and relational victimization in mid-adolescence, enriching the research of relational victimization.

The Influence of Part-list Cuing on Memory Retrieval: Integrated Evolution from Single-to Multi-mechanism

LIU Tuanli, XU Yang, BAI Xuejun

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  285-294.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.14

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Previous studies have explored the underlying mechanisms of part-list cuing on memory retrieval. From the initial focus on the detrimental effect of part-list cuing, researchers have recently begun to focus on the multiple effect of part-list cuing, and accordingly, hypotheses about part-list cuing have undergone an evolution from single-to multi-mechanism: Part-list cuing impair memory retrieval through competition, inhibition, or strategy disruption, while facilitating recall through encoding context reactivation. Based on a review and reflection of the above accounts, it is argued that future research needs to further clarify the interaction effects between the different ways in which encoding contexts are disrupted, to clarify the boundary conditions of the impairment and facilitation effect of part-list cuing, and to decipher how multiple influences affect the role of part-list cuing through cascade effects. At the same time, it is also necessary to focus on how part-list cuing in social interaction contexts affect the memory of others.

Graspable: The Promoting Effect of Tracing Gesture on Learning

KUANG Ziyi, LENG Xiaoxue, WANG Fuxing, HU Xiangen

Psychological Development and Education. 2026, 42(2):  295-304.  doi:10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.02.15

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Tracing gestures are defined as dynamic finger movements that correspond to the learning content. Previous studies have mainly explained the effectiveness of tracing gestures through embodied cognition theory, signaling principles, and cognitive load theory. This study found that tracing gestures significantly enhanced learners’ retention scores (d = 0.41) and transfer scores (d = 0.52) in terms of learning outcomes. Additionally, in terms of subjective experience, tracing gestures reduced learners’ perceived intrinsic cognitive load (d = 0.22) and increased learning motivation (d = 0.22). Future research should further explore the moderating factors of tracing gestures and verify their effectiveness within more objective methodologies.