Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

07:10
At-Risk Butterfly Captive Propagation Programs to Enhance Life History Knowledge and Effective Ex Situ Conservation Techniques
Published on: February 11, 2020
Rethinking "local" and "in situ" in WILD among migrant children
1School of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China dingxuechen@shnu.edu.cn.
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|July 3, 2026
Summary
The WILD framework needs updates to include migrant children, as their experiences challenge traditional ideas of "local" and "in situ" development. Reconceptualizing these terms is key for inclusive developmental science.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Sociology
- Migration Studies
Background:
- The WILD framework promotes inclusivity in developmental science.
- Existing frameworks may not fully capture the complexities of migrant children's development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To critically evaluate the WILD framework's applicability to migrant children.
- To propose reconceptualizations of key developmental constructs for migrant populations.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of the WILD framework.
- Examination of migration's impact on developmental contexts.
Main Results:
- The WILD framework's constructs of 'local' and 'in situ' are insufficient for migrant children.
- Migrant children's developmental contexts are fluid and multi-sited, requiring new theoretical approaches.
Conclusions:
- Developmental science must adapt theories to incorporate the unique challenges and contexts of migrant children.
- Reconceptualizing 'local' and 'in situ' is crucial for culturally robust and inclusive developmental theories.
Related Concept Videos
Migration
Migration is long-range, seasonal movement from one region or habitat to another. This common strategy, carried out by many different organisms around the world, is an adaptive response that typically corresponds to changes in an organism’s environment, like resource availability or climate. Migrations can involve huge groups of thousands of animals as well as single individuals traveling alone and can range from thousands of kilometers to just a few hundred meters.
Habitat Fragmentation
Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.
Conservation of Small Populations
Small population sizes put a species at extreme risk of extinction due to a lack of variation, and a consequent decrease in adaptability. This weakens the chances of survival under pressures such as climate change, competition from other species, or new diseases. Large populations are more likely to survive pressures such as these, as such populations are more likely to harbor individuals that have genetic variants that are adaptive under new stresses. Small populations are much less likely to...
Naturalistic Observations
If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...
Robbers Cave
During the 1950s, the landmark Robbers Cave experiment demonstrated that when groups must compete with one another, intergroup conflict, hostility, and even violence may result. At the Oklahoman summer camp, two troops of boys—termed the Rattlers and the Eagles—took part in a week-long tournament. During this time, their negativity culminated in derogatory name-calling, fistfights, and even vandalism and destruction of property. However, this work also revealed that such tension could be...
Conservation of Declining Populations
Conservation of declining population focuses on ways of detecting, diagnosing, and halting a population decline. The approach uses methods to prevent populations from going extinct.