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The current study investigated how foundational conversations about the body and sexuality begin, how they develop longitudinally, and whether parental body talk varies as a function of characteristics of both the parent and child. Participants included 442 mothers ( M age = 32.50, SD  = 5.61, 93% heterosexual, 85% White) and 337 available father-figures ( M age = 33.99, SD  = 5.68, 98% heterosexual, 80% White), who were the parents of infants (age at Time 1 = 28.13 months, SD  = 6.85, 52% male). Factor analyses suggested that parents engaged in positive, avoidant, and scolding body talk with their young children, and growth curve analyses suggested that frequency of positive body talk increased from when the child was age two to when they were age four for both mother- and father-figures. Results also suggested that the most consistent predictors of body talk included parents' perceptions of whether their child was too young to discuss sexuality, and the child's own questions and behaviors about their bodies and sexuality. The discussion focuses on the frequency of parental body talk and the active role of the child in the early socialization of healthy sexuality.

Research has found that media is associated with children's prosocial behavior (PB) from an early age, and that parents play a key role in children's media use and behavior. However, few studies explore these relations as early as infancy while also controlling for well-established predictors of PB (e.g., empathic concern). Thus, the present study examined longitudinal associations between parents' PB and media use, and prosocial development during early childhood, mediated by children's own media use. Participants were 519 children (M age at Time 1 = 17.77 months) and parents who participated in three timepoints of an ongoing, longitudinal study. A longitudinal path model suggested that children's media use was still significantly associated with PB 1 year later after accounting for factors such as parents' PB, media use, and empathy. These findings have important implications for the early development of behaviors that serve as a foundation for social and moral development., (© 2023 International Congress of Infant Studies.)