Parallel paths and developmental Divides
Reviewing the research on Children’s identification with real people and media characters
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19386016 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Courtney C Baugh (0000-0002-8116-9785, University of Houston - Downtown, corresponding author), Molly A Schlesinger (0000-0002-6653-5118, University of California, Riverside), Rebekah A Richert (0000-0002-0686-9378, University of California, Riverside) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 80 |
| Pages | 101253 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developmental Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0273-2297 • E-ISSN: 1090-2406 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.dr.2026.101253 |
| OpenAlex | W7134804377 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 84 |
Research methodology · Task Analysis · Child and Animal Learning Development · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Psychological Testing and Assessment
Representation of the Gender of Human Faces by Infants
The tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbance
Empathy development from 8 to 16 months
Newborns' preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline
Children's developmental understanding of ethnicity and race
Nature and Nurture in Own-Race Face Processing
Eye contact detection in humans from birth
The Other-Race Effect Develops During Infancy
Children’s Interpretation of Facial Expressions
Parent–infant synchrony and the construction of shared timing; physiological precursors, developmental outcomes, and risk conditions
Development of infants’ attention to faces during the first year
A Capacity Model of Children's Comprehension of Educational Content on Television
Do 15-Month-Old Infants Understand False Beliefs?
Imitation of Facial and Manual Gestures by Human Neonates
Meta-Analysis of Theory-of-Mind Development
The Mirror-Neuron System
The Social Sense
Children's wishful identification and parasocial interaction with favorite television characters
The origins of empathic concern
Does Neonatal Imitation Exist? Insights From a Meta-Analysis of 336 Effect Sizes
Gender Encoding in Gender Diverse and Gender Conforming Children
Learning From Video
Presumed Influence on Peer Norms
The moral self of infancy
Two‐Month‐Old Infants' Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Mother–Infant and Stranger–Infant Interaction
Understanding Others, and Individual Differences in Friendship Interactions in Young Children
Television Cartoons
Does Media Type Matter? The Role of Identification in Adolescent Girls’ Media Consumption and the Impact of Different Thin-Ideal Media on Body Image
Development of Gender Differences in Children's Responses to Animated Entertainment
Baby Empathy
Sympathy through affective perspective taking and its relation to prosocial behavior in toddlers
Children's conscience during toddler and preschool years, moral self, and a competent, adaptive developmental trajectory
Intervening variables in the TV violence–aggression relation
Developmental changes in young children’s willingness to copy the antisocial actions of ingroup members in a minimal group context
I wish I were a warrior
Committed compliance, moral self, and internalization
Developmental differences in responses to a television character's appearance and behavior
The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives
Part I
The 'like me' framework for recognizing and becoming an intentional agent
Defining Identification
Understanding audience involvement
Individual and mass behavior in extreme situations
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |