Title:
Regretting the Decision to Have Children: Prevalence, Causes, and Consequences

Chair:
Konrad Piotrowski, PhD, SWPS University, Poland, https://english.swps.pl/konrad-piotrowski

Professor Konrad Piotrowski is a psychologist, specializing in developmental psychology, in particular psychology of adolescence and early adulthood. He researches psychological aspects of parenthood, perfectionism, and personality development. Recently, he has been focusing on personality determinants of parental burnout and a regret of having children.

Brief description:
Parenthood regret, defined as a persistent and profound wish that one had not become a parent, is an emerging area of research that challenges traditional narratives of unconditional parental fulfillment. Despite its significance, the phenomenon has received very limited empirical attention, resulting in a fragmented understanding of its prevalence, causes, and consequences. The birth of a first child, followed by subsequent children, presents individuals with one of the most paramount developmental tasks: assuming the role of a parent and fulfilling this responsibility over many years. While parenthood often fosters a sense of purpose in life for many individuals (Nelson et al., 2014), recent studies increasingly underscore that in contemporary, particularly highly developed countries, parenthood is becoming a burden and even a source of suffering for many people (Nomaguchi & Milkie, 2020). Investigations into parental burnout have revealed that as many as 10% of parents in developed countries, particularly women, experience this syndrome at profoundly elevated levels (Roskam et al., 2021), with up to 30% of parents being at risk of burnout (Piotrowski, 2023). Studies on parental burnout have recently spurred research into another facet of parental challenges: regretting the decision to have children. Several important publications on this subject have emerged in recent years (Bodin, 2023; Meil et al., 2023; Piotrowski, 2021; Piotrowski, Mikolajczak, & Roskam, 2023), revealing that as many as 15% of people may regret their choice to become parents and that parental regret can have serious consequences for the entire family system. Regretful parents often have traumatic experiences from their own childhood and a negative view of parenthood (Piotrowski, Naude et al., 2023), they are strongly burned out and at risk of depression (Piotrowski, Mikolajczak, & Roskam, 2023), and they grapple with a sense of identity loss (Donath, 2015). During the symposium, a team of researchers will present the results of recent studies, including longitudinal and cross-cultural research, and present the latest findings in parenthood regret investigations.

Presentations:

• Konrad Piotrowski, Moïra Mikolajczak, & Isabelle Roskam
  Parenthood Regret: Definition, Measurement, and the State of the Art

• Isabelle Roskam, Moïra Mikolajczak, Konrad Piotrowski, & the IIPB consortium
  Parental Burnout and Parenthood Regret: Differentiating Two Constructs and Mapping Their Global Prevalence
  
  
• Nicola Carone, Jacopo Tracchegiani
  Primary caregiving mothers who regret their decision to have children in the age of climate crisis
  
  
• Konrad Piotrowski, Jakub Duras, Nina Jasiek, Moïra Mikolajczak, & Isabelle Roskam
  Parenthood Regret as a Dyadic Experience: A Polish Longitudinal Study of Couples Transitioning into Parenthood (PL-STUDY)

Title:
Centering Majority World in Developmental Science

Chair:
Dr. Vaishali Raval, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA

Dr. Vaishali Raval is professor of psychology and affiliate of global and intercultural studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA where she has been a faculty member for 17 years. She received a PhD in clinical developmental psychology from University of Windsor  and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cultural psychology and human development at the University of Chicago. She is a cultural clinical developmental psychologist committed to internationalizing psychological science through her research, teaching, and service. Her program of research focuses on cultural and contextual foundations of parenting, with a focus on emotion processes and how they relate to child and adolescent mental health outcomes,  contextual understanding of psychopathology, and culturally informed mental health training and intervention approaches, primarily in India, with some research in China, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea.  She currently serves as the chair of the international committee of the  Society for Research in Child Development, and chair of the U.S. National Committee for Psychological Sciences, a committee of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She also promotes internationalization through her role as the associate editor of Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Journal of Research on Adolescence. Her mentorship was recently recognized by Henry David International Mentoring Award from the American Psychological Association Division 52.

Brief description: 
Child development research from the Majority World (Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean), where 85% of the world’s population resides continues to be highly underrepresented in our published scholarship. Journal analyses demonstrate the continued dominance of the Minority World (North America, Western Europe, Oceania) in developmental science journals (Moriguchi, 2022; Nielsen et al., 2017), with research from Majority World progressing on the margins. Although not home to a majority of the global population, Eastern and Central Europe also tend to be underrepresented in published research in developmental science. Despite the well-recognized need for inclusivity to ensure a theoretically comprehensive and globally applicable developmental science, little progress has been made over the past two decades in addressing this underrepresentation. Colonial roots of our science in the Minority World contribute to the dominance of Minority World samples, researchers, theoretical frameworks, and methods. It is important to confront this dominance and create space at the center for Majority World research.

The first paper in this symposium discusses the drivers and consequences of underrepresentation of research from Majority World, along with survey findings regarding challenges researchers experience in publishing research with Majority World communities (Raval et al., 2024). Based on the recommendations, the second paper discusses concrete ways in which researchers from Minority World and Majority World can help promote globally relevant science. The third paper discusses concrete ways in which reviewers and editors of peer-reviewed journals, and program officers and panel reviewers of funding agencies can help promote a globally relevant science. Our overarching goal is to facilitate Majority World child development research to reduce barriers to publishing this work. We will invite a conversation with the audience on ways to center Majority World perspectives, enable research with Majority World communities and its dissemination, and support Majority World scholars.

Presentations:

• Vaishali V. Raval, Philip Baiden, Graciela Espinosa-Hernandez, Lucia Magis-Weinberg, Amanda Nguyen, Peter Titzmann, & Yao Zhang
  Majority World Developmental Science Research: Challenges and Recommendations
  
  
• Shanu Shukla, Graciela Espinosa- Hernández, and Vaishali V. Raval
  What can authors do to center Majority World research in Developmental Science?
  
  
• Graciela Espinosa- Hernández, Shanu Shukla, and Vaishali V. Raval
  What can reviewers and editors do to center the Majority World research in Developmental Science?

Title:
Peer Relations and Empathy in Adolescence: Individual and Contextual Contributors

Chair:
Carla Martins, PhD, University of Reading, UK

Carla Martins holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Reading (UK) and is Assistant Professor with Habilitation in the Department of Basic Psychology at the School of Psychology, University of Minho, Portugal, since 2003. She integrates the Development and Psychopathology Laboratory at the Center for Research in Psychology (CIPsi), University of Minho, Portugal, has coordinated/participated in various funded projects, has published numerous scientific papers in impact factor journals, and has successfully supervised many master and doctoral students.
The main goal of her research has been to investigate the longitudinal development of social cognition from infancy to childhood and, more recently, adolescence from a socio-constructivist point of view.

Abstract:
Peers play a crucial role in adolescence, shaping social development, self-identity, and emotional well-being. Indeed, peer relationships become very significant as adolescents seek validation and acceptance from them. In turn, empathy is a socio-cognitive process that goes through an important development during adolescence, significantly impacting social functioning, emotional well-being and resilience. Finally, disruptions of the attachment process during early years can have major effects on neural development and emotional regulation skills.

This symposium presents results from three studies, two of which longitudinal, that aim to offer insights into emotional and socio-cognitive skills relevant for peer relations and empathy in adolescence. Presentation 1 focuses on individual and relational correlates of empathy in a large sample of 14- to 19-year-olds. Results revealed that sex, mentalization, emotion regulation skills, and relationships with peers based on acceptance and communication predict adolescents’ cognitive and affective empathy. Presentation 2 offers evidence of longitudinal links between mentalization and emotion regulation skills at preschool and better relationship quality with peers in adolescence. Both theory of mind and emotion regulation and recognition at preschool age are related to higher communication and proximity with peers, as well as higher mutual acceptance and comprehension in adolescence. Finally, presentation 3 seeks for potential roots of emotional regulation and rejection sensitivity in early life adversity in a sample of institutionally reared adolescents. Preliminary results indicate that institutionalized adolescents react more negatively to distress and social exclusion images than normative controls. Besides, they also showed higher sensitivity to social rejection at younger ages, particularly in the anxiety components related to expecting rejection. Taken together, these presentations provide evidence for the role of early and concurrent emotion regulation and mentalization in adolescents’ peer relations and empathy.

Presentations:

• Carolina Aparício Araújo, Carla Martins, Jean-Louis Nandrino
  Empathy in adolescence: How do sociocognitive, emotional, and relational dimensions impact its development?
  
  
• Carla Martins, Carolina Aparício Araújo, Ana Osório, Joana Baptist, Liliana Capitão, Karyn Doba, & Jean-Louis Nandrino
  The impact of mentalization and emotion regulation on the quality of relationships with peers: from preschool to adolescence
  
  
• Natividade S. Couto Pereira, Inês Carvalho^, Marlene Nogueira, Sónia Sousa, Isabel Soares, Adriana Sampaio, Ana Raquel Mesquita
  Emotion regulation and rejection sensitivity in adolescents: is there an impact of early life adversity?

Title:
LGBTQ+ Youth and Families: Growing up in the Context of Stigma 

Chair:
Dr Susie Bower-Brown, University College London, United Kingdom https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/91721-susie-bowerbrown

Dr Susie Bower-Brown is a Lecturer in Social Psychology at the Social Research Institute, University College London. Susie is a critical psychologist, whose interdisciplinary qualitative research explores LGBTQ+ identities and diverse family forms. Susie’s work has particularly focussed on the social experiences of trans and non-binary parents and adolescents, and how they resist and navigate stigma. Susie has also explored the experiences of parents pursuing novel paths to parenthood, including assisted reproductive technologies and elective co-parenting, where individuals share parenting with a friend or acquaintance.

Abstract:
More and more youth are identifying as LGBTQ+, with recent survey data indicating that 17% of Generation-Z identify as LGBTQ+ (Ipsos, 2024). Simultaneously, shifts in social attitudes and advancements in fertility treatments mean that more children are growing up with LGBTQ+ parents. Despite these growing numbers of LGBTQ+ youth, parents and families, developmental psychology has historically been centered on the experiences of cisgender, heterosexual individuals, leaving significant gaps in our understanding of LGBTQ+ populations. In a global context where restrictions around gender-affirmative healthcare are increasing and the rights of LGBTQ+ parents are under threat, it is now more important than ever for developmental psychology to engage with the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, parents and families.

Drawing on qualitative and quantitative research from Belgium, the Netherlands, UK and US, this symposium will explore wellbeing, social relationships and stigma amongst LGBTQ+ youth, parents and families. Maisie Matthews will examine international survey data on child and parent wellbeing in bisexual father families, providing one of the first empirical insights into family functioning in this understudied group. Dr Jessie Hillekens will explore the demographic characteristics and social relationships of non-binary youth in the Netherlands and Belgium, providing much needed evidence that contradicts reductive stereotypes. Dr Susie Bower-Brown will explore the UK’s media and political discourse around gender diverse children, drawing on the  concept of ‘moral panic’ and ecological systems theory to understand the impact of this hostile discourse on gender-diverse youth.

Together, these presentations offer new theoretical and empirical insights into the wellbeing and social experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, parents and families, in the context of societal stigma. The symposium will conclude by outlining key directions for research, policy, and practice, discussing the factors necessary to ensure that all young people, regardless of their family structure, gender identity and/or sexual orientation, can thrive.

Presentations:

• Maisie Matthews
  Social, familial, and psychological factors affecting wellbeing in bisexual father families

• Jessie Hillekens, Fernando Salinas-Quiroz, & Lysanne te Brinke
  Nonbinary identities are not ‘elitist’ or ‘woke’: Demographic characteristics and social relationships of nonbinary youth in three community samples in the Netherlands and Belgium

• Susie Bower-Brown
  A Trans Moral Panic? Exploring the media and policy backlash against gender-diverse youth in the UK

Title:
Origins and Consequences of Individual Differences in Mentalizing among School-aged Children: International Findings.

Chair:
Prof. Claire Hughes, Newnham College, University of Cambridge.

Claire Hughes is a Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Cambridge.  She is a Fellow of Newnham College, where she is Director of Studies for Psychology & Behavioural Sciences. She is also Deputy Head of the Psychology Department, with special responsibility for wellbeing, equality and diversity.  Formerly, Claire worked at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre, Kings College London, and held a research fellowship at the Fyssen Foundation in Paris, France (Université Paris V). Previously, she has won UK awards for (a) ‘Woman of the Year’ (2011 – WOTY is an organization designed to recognise women who inspire others across multiple career paths) and (b) British Psychological Society Book of the Year (2013, for her book ‘Social Understanding, Social Lives: from Toddlerhood to the Transition to School).  Other books include “Why Siblings Matter”, “Executive Function in Childhood” and most recently, “The Psychology of Starting School” and a new picture book “How I Feel About My School”.  Her research applies longitudinal and international designs to examine the interplay between children’s social experiences and cognitive development.

Abstract:
Responding to growing research interest in mentalizing skills in middle childhood, this international symposium expands the geographical scope of evidence regarding individual differences in theory-of-mind skills in school aged children and young adolescents. In the first paper, Xu, Pei, Wu and Hughes test the cultural universality of reported intergenerational associations in mentalizing by drawing on data from 307 mother-child dyads for kindergarten-aged children living in mainland China and England to compare how, within each site, two markers of maternal mentalizing – mind-mindedness and mental state talk- relate to individual differences in children’s theory of mind. The next three papers all consider school-relevant correlates of theory of mind skills. Firstly, Lecce reports on a meta-analytic review of associations between individual differences in theory of mind and two measures of academic success (maths and reading). Next, building on a previous report that theory of mind and executive function in British children show specific links with gains in social and academic success respectively (Devine et al, 2024), Hughes et al report on findings from a parallel longitudinal study of 5-year-olds in Hong Kong. Lastly, Smogorzewska and Lecce report on a new study involving 250 Polish and Italian 10- to 11-year-olds in which a novel adaptation of the Strange Stories paradigm has been applied describing a story character as disabled affects children’s mentalizing performance. Overall, this symposium will therefore address key questions concerning the nature and universality of associations between maternal and child mentalizing skills, the social and educational importance of child mentalizing, and factors that contribute to differences between competence and performance. 

Presentations:

• Chengyi Xu, Tianyi Pei, Zhen Wu, Claire Hughes
  Do Chinese mothers’ mind-mindedness and mental state talk predict children’s theory-of-mind skills?

• Serena Lecce, Serena Stagnitto, Valentina Lampis, Sara Mascheretti, Rory Devine
  Theory of mind and academic success: Meta-analytic finding
  

• Claire Hughes, Rory Devine, Laure Lu Chen, Siu Ching Wong, Chengyi Xu Are individual differences in theory of mind and executive function equally salient as predictors of early gains in academic and social success for children living in England and Hong Kong?

• Joanna Smogorzewska, Grzegorz Szumski, Serena Lecce
  How differences shape our understanding of others: The role of theory of mind in understanding peers with and without disabilities