Differential Knowledge of Display Rules for Positive and Negative Emotions: Influences from Parents, Influences on Peers

The current study examined different types of display rule knowledge and their relation to parental control of children's emotional expression and children's social competence. A sample of 61 third-grade children (50% Euro-American, 40% Latino, and 10% African-American, Asian-American or other) participated in the current study. Children's knowledge of display rules for positive and negative emotions was explored, as were the different reasons for endorsing the use of display rules. Parental level of control of children's emotions was also examined. Findings indicate that children who endorsed the use of display rules for both positive and negative emotions were rated as more competent by both teachers and peers. Parental control of children's expression of emotion was negatively related to children's knowledge of display rules and better social outcomes.     

Mothers' Reports of Events Causing Anger Differ Across Family Relationships

Mother's reports of anger causes within the family were analyzed in terms of the family relationships of the persons experiencing and eliciting anger and three independent components of the anger-eliciting event—Type of Cause, Focus of Anger, and Temporal Specificity. Mothers' reports suggest substantial differences (a) in anger causes across relationships, (b) depending on whether parents or children were experiencing or eliciting anger events, and (c) for the three independent components of the anger events. For example, for type of cause, mothers' reports indicated more expectancy violations for parents' than children's anger, but more goal blockages for children's than parents' anger. Also, elicitormattered; mothers' reports indicated more goal blockages elicited by parents than by children, but more expectancy violations elicited by children than by parents. These patterns are interpreted in terms of differential power and status within the family.     

Mothers' Emotions and Behavioral Support During Interactions with Toddlers: The Role of Child Temperament

This article examines mothers' support for children's interests and, specifically, emotional processes in mothers that may explain why they display different levels of support with children of different temperaments. We observed 114 mothers and their 14–27 month-old children during a laboratory interaction. Mothers rated children on three dimensions of temperament: activity, anger proneness, and social fearfulness. As expected, activity predicted mothers' anger, disappointment, and low support for children's interests. Social fearfulness predicted mothers' worry, low anger, low disappointment, and high support for children's interests. Mediational tests verified that (1) mothers' emotions often mediated the relation of child temperament to mothers' supportive behavior, and (2) children's compliance often mediated the relation of child temperament to mothers' emotions. Mothers tended to report negative emotion and to display relatively unsupportive behavior with children whose temperaments corresponded to attributes considered relatively undesirable for their sex.     

Emotion Regulation in Low-income Preschoolers

The present study was concerned with identifying the causes of low-income preschoolers' negative emotions and their most common regulation responses. The relations of family socialization practices and temperament to the children's emotion regulation skills were also examined. Ninety predominantly minority low-income preschoolers (46 boys) and their mothers participated. During visits to the children's preschools, observers watched for expressions of anger and sadness, and recorded the causes of the displays and the children's reactions. Mothers reported on their emotion socialization and discipline practices and their children's temperament. Although the children expressed more anger than sadness, they used more constructive reactions in response to sadness and more non-constructive reactions in response to anger. Maternal reports of appropriate family emotion were associated with low levels of non-constructive regulation responses to anger and sadness whereas reports of inconsistent parental discipline were generally associated with non-constructive regulation responses. All in all, the findings of this study are in accord with findings on middle-income children and indicate that low- and middle-income children are more alike than different with regard to the regulation of negative emotion in the peer environment.     

Self-reported Use of Emotional Display Rules in the Netherlands and Iran: Evidence for Sociocultural Influence

Sociocultural differences in children's use and understanding of emotional display rules have been under-researched. In the present study, 56 Dutch and 56 Iranian children aged 10–11 years took part in a structured interview about their experiences of using emotional display rules. In comparison with the Dutch children, the Iranian sample was more likely to report having actually used emotional display rules themselves, more likely to identify family audiences for display rules, and less likely to identify peer audiences. In addition, they were more likely than the Dutch children to identify both prosocial and self-protective motives for concealing emotion from family audiences, and less likely to identify self-protective motives for concealing emotion from peers. Results are interpreted in the light of socialization processes involved in the development of emotion regulation.     

Person × Context Effects on Anticipated Moral Emotions Following Aggression

We investigated person (sex, aggression level), context (witness type, victim reactions), and person × context effects on children's anticipated moral emotions following hypothetical acts of aggression against a peer. Children (N = 378, mean age = 11.3 years) were presented a series of hypothetical vignettes in which the presence of witnesses (no witnesses/most liked classmates/all of the class) and victim's reactions (neutral/ sad/ angry) were manipulated. The results indicated several person effects (e.g., girls anticipated more guilt and shame but less pride than boys; aggressiveness was related to less guilt and shame), as well as context effects (e.g., anticipated shame depended on who witnessed the situation and the emotional reactions of the victim). However, person × context effects predominated. The overall pattern of results indicated that girls and low‐aggressive children were more sensitive to contextual cues than boys and high‐aggressive children. The findings support the importance of a person × context approach to understanding the emotional reactions of different children in different situations.     

Effects of Provocation on Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Preschoolers' Understanding of Moral Transgressions

This study examined maltreated and nonmaltreated preschool children's judgments regarding hypothetical provoked and unprovoked moral transgressions. Maltreated children (17 physically abused and 19 neglected) and 19 matched nonmaltreated children rated the severity and deserved punishment and evaluated affective responses to six hypothetical moral transgressions which were depicted as both unprovoked and provoked by another child's actions. All children rated unprovoked transgressions as more serious and deserving of punishment and as eliciting more happiness and fear and less anger than transgressions that were depicted as provoked by another's actions. No gender or maltreatment status differences in ratings of transgression severity and deserved punishment were found; however, patterns of affective responses to hypothetical transgressions differed as a function of maltreatment subtype. Findings are discussed in terms of previous research on maltreatment and moral judgment development.     

The Role of Second-Order Belief-Understanding and Social Context in Children's Self-Attribution of Social Emotions

Children's self-attribution of social emotions was hypothesised (i) to be related to their second-order belief-understanding and (ii) to be more strongly related to social- conventional than moral rule violations. Thirty children aged between 4 and 7 years were presented with Sullivan, Zaitchik & Tager-Flusberg's (1994) second-order false belief task and with four hypothetical scenarios in which they were required to imagine that they had violated particular moral and social conventional rules. As predicted, the self-attribution of social emotions was significantly related to second-order belief understanding, primarily in social-conventional rather than moral contexts.     

Methods of, and Reasons for, Emotional Expression and Control in Children with Internalizing, Externalizing, and Somatic Problems in Urban India

Although cross-cultural research concerning children's emotions is growing, few studies have examined emotion dysregulation in culturally diverse populations. This study compared 6- to 8-year-old children's reported methods of expressing and controlling anger, sadness, and physical pain, and their justifications for doing so across four groups in urban India: those with internalizing problems (N = 31), externalizing problems (N = 32), somatic complaints (N = 25), and an asymptomatic control group (N = 32). Results revealed that in comparison to physical pain, Indian children were less likely to report expressing anger and sadness through direct facial/verbal means. Control-group children reported expressing anger and sadness through indirect verbal cues more so than pain, whereas the internalizing and externalizing groups considered their expressions of anger and sadness uncontrollable and reported crying and utilizing aggressive behaviors, respectively, more than the control group. The somatic complaints group considered emotions trivial and reported withdrawing more than the control group.     

Understanding Solitude: Young Children's Attitudes and Responses Toward Hypothetical Socially Withdrawn Peers

The goal of the present study was to explore young children's attitudes and responses to different forms of social withdrawal by eliciting responses to hypothetical vignettes. Participants included 137 children (49 boys, 88 girls) in kindergarten and grade 1 classes (M_age = 75.94 months, SD = 9.03) in Ottawa, Canada. Parents rated child characteristics, including shyness, unsociability and aggression. Children were also interviewed individually and presented with a series of hypothetical vignettes describing the behaviors of shy, unsociable, aggressive and socially competent children. In response to each vignette, children were asked a series of questions designed to assess their perceptions, attitudes and responses toward each child behavior. Results suggested that young children made surprisingly sophisticated distinctions between shyness and unsociability, demonstrating differences in terms of attributions of behavioral intent, liking and sympathetic responses. In addition, unsociable children evidenced a distinct pattern of responses to hypothetical peers. These findings add to the growing body of research distinguishing different forms of social withdrawal, and shed some light as to why unsociability in early childhood may not be so benign.     

Emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity as protective factors against hostile attribution bias in anger‐prone children

The present research examined children’s anger proneness, emotion understanding, and maternal sensitivity during toddlerhood as predictors of children’s hostile attribution bias (HAB) during the later preschool years. At 2.8 years (N = 128), maternal sensitivity (e.g., child‐centered behavior) was observed during mother–child play and snack, and parents reported on children’s anger proneness. At 3.3 years, emotion understanding (i.e., ability to identify emotional expressions accurately) was measured via an interactive puppet interview. At 4.8 and 5.4 years, children's HAB was assessed via child responses to hypothetical vignettes of ambiguous peer provocations. Path models revealed that maternal sensitivity predicted fewer hostile attributions. In addition, emotion understanding and maternal sensitivity emerged as buffers against the negative effect of anger proneness on HAB. Specifically, greater anger proneness was associated with more frequent hostile attributions, but only when children had lower emotion understanding or had mothers who were less sensitive. The findings highlight the interplay between intrapersonal and interpersonal factors in early childhood that contribute to a hostile attribution bias during the preschool period.     

Affective Qualities of Sibling Disputes, Mothers' Conflict Attitudes, and Children's Theory of Mind Development

Preschoolers' theory of mind (ToM) was examined in relation to emotional features of their conflicts with siblings, using mothers as privileged informants. Fifty-four children aged 3 to 5 years and their 54 mothers took part. Children were given 10 standard false belief tasks and a standardized language test. Mothers completed questionnaires, rated vignettes, and kept a conflict diary to provide detailed data on siblings' conflicts, mothers' conflict attitudes, and mothers' use of mental state language to talk about children's disputes. Results revealed that children's ToM scores were significantly correlated with affective dimensions of their sibling disputes, including more frequent expression of positive emotion while disagreeing and less post-conflict distress. Logistic regression showed these associations were independent of age and verbal ability. Mothers' conflict attitudes were significantly correlated with the affective outcome of their children's disputes but not with the preschooler's level of ToM understanding. Findings are discussed in relation to possible reciprocal influences between ToM development and the growth of affectively positive and constructive conflict resolution skills.     

A Longitudinal Examination of the Associations between Fathers' and Children's Attributions and Negative Interactions

The present investigation examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between attributions and negative behavioral interactions in the context of the father-child dyad. Participants were 177 fathers and their young adolescents recruited from non-metropolitan counties in the southeast. Results indicated that for children, attributions about their father play a significant role in their negative behavioral interactions with their father both within and across time. Interestingly, father's earlier negative behavioral interactions with their children predicted children's subsequent attributions about their father in the longitudinal analyses. In addition, both attributions and behavioral interactions were highly stable across time for both fathers and children.     

Children's Anger Attribution Bias: Relations to Family Environment and Social Adjustment

We examined the relations of caregiver depression and family instability to preschool children's anger attribution bias and emotion attribution accuracy on a test of emotion situation knowledge. After controlling for age, gender, and verbal ability, caregiver depression and family instability predicted children's anger attribution bias but not the overall accuracy of their emotion attributions. We also divided children into groups low and high on teacher reports of aggression and groups low and high on teacher reports of peer rejection and examined the anger attribution bias of these groups. For boys but not girls, greater anger attribution bias predicted higher levels of aggression. For all children, greater anger attribution bias predicted higher levels of peer rejection. Results suggest that the misattribution of anger to others may be an important component of some children's early emotional and social difficulties.     

Preschoolers’ responses to prosocial opportunities during naturalistic interactions with peers: A cross-cultural comparison

The goal of this study was to better understand similarities and differences in preschool children's expression of needs and prosocial responsiveness to peers’ needs across two culturally distinct contexts. Preschoolers were observed in a semi-naturalistic design across rural Mexico and urban Canada, wherein they were instructed to build a tower with blocks. Three- to 6-year-olds (N = 306; 48% female) were divided into 64 peer groups. We coded for children's expression of needs (instrumental, material, or emotional), responses to prosocial opportunities (prosociality, denial, or no response), prosociality without an apparent need (spontaneous prosociality), and types of prosocial behavior (helping, sharing, or comforting). While instrumental and material needs were expressed similarly across both samples, Tzotzil Maya children expressed fewer emotional needs than Canadian children. Failing to respond to others’ needs, followed by denial, were the most frequent need-provoked response in both countries; surprisingly, only 9% of needs received a prosocial response. Though need-provoked prosociality was rare in both cultural contexts, children engaged in considerable spontaneous prosociality which varied as a function of age, gender, and cultural context. Lastly, Canadian more than Tzotzil Maya children denied emotional and instrumental needs (but not material needs). The findings inform how cultural practices may shape the presentation of needs and prosocial responsiveness in peer interactions.     

Relations between Temperament and Anger Regulation over Early Childhood

Theory suggests temperamental reactivity [negative affectivity (NA)] and regulation [effortful control (EC)] predict variation in the development of emotion regulation (ER). However, few studies report such relations, particularly studies utilizing observational measures of children's ER behaviors in longitudinal designs. Using multilevel modeling, the present study tested whether (1) between‐person differences in mean levels of mother‐reported child NA and EC (aggregated across age) and (2) within‐person changes in NA and EC from the ages of 18 to 42 months predicted subsequent improvements in laboratory‐based observations of children's anger regulation from the ages of 24 to 48 months. As expected, mean level of EC (aggregated across age) predicted longer latency to anger; however, no other temperament variables predicted anger expression. Mean level of EC also predicted the latency to a child's use of one regulatory strategy, distraction. Finally, decreases in NA were associated with age‐related changes in how long children used distractions and how quickly they bid calmly to their mother. Implications for relations between temperament and anger regulation are discussed in terms of both conceptual and methodological issues.     

College Students' Revenge Goals Across Friend,Romantic Partner,and Roommate Contexts: The Role of Interpretations and Emotions

Residential college environments provide young people with distinctive relationship opportunities and challenges. A major purpose of the present study was to learn whether college students respond differently to conflict‐of‐interest vignettes in three different relationship contexts. Students were more likely to make negative interpretations about their romantic partner's behavior than they did about their friend's or roommate's behavior. They were also more likely to feel angry and hurt and to endorse hostile goals and strategies with romantic partners. A second major purpose was to learn about the types of interpretations and emotions associated with revenge goals in conflict‐of‐interest situations. Results indicated that interpreting the other person's actions as disrespectful and as rejecting was related to revenge goals and also predicted to revenge goals beyond the contributions of anger and hurt feelings.     

‘An Earthquake Shocked Up the Land!’ Children's Communication During Play With Siblings and Friends

The construction of shared meanings strategies (e.g., introductions, extensions) and use of internal state language (e.g., references to mental states) during play were examined across two relationship contexts (siblings and friends) in 65 focal kindergarten‐aged children (M age = 56.4 months; SD = 5.71 months). Strategies to construct shared meanings were associated with play session; specifically focal children employed introductions more often with their siblings whereas positive/neutral responses and prosocial strategies were used more frequently with their friends. Findings regarding birth order position indicated that older focal children were more likely to engage in non‐maintenance (e.g., negative) behaviors and explanations with their siblings whereas younger focal children employed extensions of play ideas more often with their siblings than friends. Associations between shared meaning strategies and internal state language were positively correlated across both relationship contexts, with more significant associations found in the sibling play session. Findings highlight the high level of sophisticated play interaction among children during play; these interactions were rich and varied and are discussed in light of recent research and theory.