During the opening of the 8th International NEPS Conference this year's NEPS Publication Prize was awarded to researchers from the University of Bamberg (DE), the University of Bristol (UK) and Columbia University (USA) for a joint publication.

The paper was published in September 2022 in the renowned journal "Current Psychology". Under the title "Explaining gaps by parental education in children's early language and social outcomes at age 3-4 years: evidence from harmonized data from three countries", the authors investigated which factors of the socio-economic family background influence differences in early childhood development.

To this end, harmonized data from large-scale longitudinal studies from the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany (NEPS) were used to investigate educational differences in children's early language development and social skills. Twelve family-, child- and care-related factors were then systematically evaluated as explanatory factors.

The NEPS Publication Prize, which comes with prize money of 1,000 euros, is awarded annually at the NEPS conference for outstanding publications using NEPS data.

Congratulations to the winners!

Volodina, A., Weinert, S., Washbrook, E. et al. Explaining gaps by parental education in children’s early language and social outcomes at age 3–4 years: evidence from harmonised data from three countries. Curr Psychol 42, 26398–26417 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03754-z