Prosocial Tendencies among Chinese American Children in Immigrant Families: Links to Cultural and Socio‐demographic Factors and Psychological Adjustment

The present study examined relations between prosocial tendencies (dispositional sympathy and prosocial behavior) and psychological adjustment using a multi‐method and multi‐informant approach in a socioeconomically diverse sample of first‐ and second‐generation Chinese American children from immigrant families (N = 238, M age = 9.2 years). We tested the concurrent associations between: (a) children's dispositional sympathy (rated by parents, teachers, and children, and observed prosocial behavior), (b) psychological adjustment (parent‐ and teacher‐reported externalizing problems and social competence); and (c) cultural and socio‐demographic factors (children's Chinese and American orientations, family Socioeconomic Status (SES), only child status, and children's age, sex, and social desirability). Results from correlations and structural equation modeling suggested that different measures of prosocial tendencies related differently to children's psychological adjustment. Parent‐ and teacher‐rated sympathy were associated with higher child social competence and lower externalizing problems within, but not across, reporter. By contrast, child‐rated sympathy was associated with higher teacher‐rated social competence, and observed prize donation was associated with lower teacher‐rated externalizing problems. Different measures of prosocial tendencies also showed different relations to cultural and socio‐demographic factors. These findings suggest that prosocial tendencies are not a unitary construct in Chinese American immigrant children: the manifestations of prosocial tendencies and their adjustment implications might depend on the context and/or targets of these tendencies.     

Emotional Climate in Families Experiencing Homelessness: Associations with Child Affect and Socioemotional Adjustment in School

This study examined associations among family‐level risks, emotional climate, and child adjustment in families experiencing homelessness. Emotional climate, an indirect aspect of emotion socialization, was indexed by parents’ expressed emotion while describing their children. Sociodemographic risk and parent internalizing distress were hypothesized to predict more negativity and less warmth in the emotional climate. Emotional climate was expected to predict observer‐rated child affect and teacher‐reported socioemotional adjustment, mediating effects of risk. Participants were 138 homeless parents (64 percent African‐American) and their four‐ to six‐year‐old children (43.5 percent male). During semi‐structured interviews, parents reported demographic risks and internalizing distress and completed a Five Minute Speech Sample about their child, later rated for warmth and negativity. Children's positive and negative affect were coded from videotapes of structured parent‐child interaction tasks. Socioemotional adjustment (externalizing behavior, peer acceptance, and prosocial behavior) was reported by teachers a few months later. Hypotheses were partially supported. Parent internalizing distress was associated with higher parent negativity, which was linked to more negative affect in children, and parent warmth was associated with children's positive affect. Neither emotional climate nor child affect predicted teacher‐reported externalizing behavior or peer acceptance, but parental negativity and male sex predicted lower prosocial behavior in the classroom. Future research directions and clinical implications are discussed.     

Emotion Knowledge Skills in Low-income Elementary School Children: Associations with Social Status and Peer Experiences

This short‐term longitudinal study examined relations between emotion knowledge and social functioning in a sample of low‐income kindergarten and 1st graders. Individual differences in spontaneous emotion naming and emotion recognition skills were used to predict children's social functioning at school, including peer‐nominated sociometric status, and child self‐reports of negative experiences with peers in school (peer victimization and rejection). Children who had greater emotional vocabulary and recognized emotions more accurately had better outcomes in all areas, and many of the associations between fall emotion knowledge skills and spring social functioning outcomes held after covarying grade and children's previous status with regard to these outcomes. Results are discussed with regard to implications for prevention and intervention programs (e.g., the PATHS curriculum) that focus on teaching emotion knowledge skills in order to foster high‐risk children's social competence.     

Self‐report of emotional experience and peer nominations of expressivity: Predictability of change in teacher‐rated social behavior

We investigated individual differences in self‐reported emotional experience and peer‐perceived expressivity among children in mid‐ to late‐elementary school years. Specifically, we examined the constructs’ correspondence and temporal stability and also compared the degree to which each predicts change in classroom social behavior over 2 years. Participants were 199 children (Mage = 10 years, Time 1) and their classroom teachers who have participated in two times of assessment. We used self‐report of emotional experience and peer nominations of expressivity regarding happiness, anger, and sadness. Teachers rated children's social skills, externalizing problems, and internalizing problems. The correspondence was generally small in magnitude between self‐reported experience and peer nominations of expressivity. The stability of peer nominations of emotional expressivity was medium and comparable to that of self‐reported experience with the exception of happiness. The predictability of change in social behavior was more robust for peer nominations of expressivity than for self‐reported experience. We discussed the relevance of different dimensions of emotionality as well as informants in understanding the predictability of social behavior from emotionality. We also discussed the role of sociodemographic variables in emotional experience and expressivity and offered practical implications of peer nominations in the assessment of children's emotionality.     

Attachment to Mothers and Fathers during Middle Childhood: Associations with Child Gender, Grade, and Competence

Attachment relationships of first, third, and fifth graders with their mothers and fathers, and their associations with self‐perceived and teacher‐rated competence, were investigated. Children rated their attachment security with mothers and fathers using the Kerns security scale. Children's perceptions of academic and peer competence were measured using Harter's self‐perception profile, and teachers also rated children's competence. Girls felt greater attachment security to their mothers than to their fathers, and boys felt greater attachment security to their fathers than did girls. Greater attachment security with both mothers and fathers was associated with children's perceptions of greater peer and academic competence, and this association was stronger for older children. A greater sense of attachment security with both parents was associated with greater competence than a sense of attachment security with only one parent. Teacher‐rated competence was significantly related to attachment security with mothers but not fathers.     

European‐American and African‐American Mothers' Emotion Socialization Practices Relate Differently to Their Children's Academic and Social‐emotional Competence

The current study examines whether the relation between mothers' responses to their children's negative emotions and teachers' reports of children's academic performance and social‐emotional competence are similar or different for European‐American and African‐American families. Two hundred mothers (137 European‐American, 63 African‐American) reported on their responses to their five‐year‐old children's negative emotions and 150 kindergarten teachers reported on these children's current academic standing and skillfulness with peers. Problem‐focused responses to children's negative emotions, which have traditionally been considered a supportive response, were positively associated with children's school competence for European‐American children, but expressive encouragement, another response considered supportive, was negatively associated with children's competence for African‐American children. The findings highlight the need to examine parental socialization practices from a culturally specific lens.     

Relations among Sadness Regulation,Peer Acceptance,and Social Functioning in Early Adolescence: The Role of Gender

Using a multi‐informant approach, this study examined emotion regulation within the social context of White and Black adolescent peer groups by assessing two aspects of sadness expression management (i.e., inhibition, disinhibition) and their linkages to peer acceptance and social functioning as a function of gender and ethnicity. Seventh‐ and eighth‐grade adolescents (N = 155, 52 percent female, 54.8 percent Black) completed self‐reports and peer nominations of sadness management and sociometric ratings of peer acceptance. Parents rated their child's social competence and social problems. Results revealed specific patterns of sadness regulation across informants that were associated with social functioning and varied by gender, but not ethnicity. Boys were more likely than girls to minimize sadness displays; boys who violated this pattern had lower peer acceptance and higher parent‐rated social problems. In contrast, although girls were rated as displaying overt sadness more frequently than boys, this was unrelated to peer acceptance.     

Mother–Child Reminiscing About Peer Experiences and Children's Peer‐related Self‐views and Social Competence

This study examined mother–child reminiscing about children's experiences with peers and its relation to children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. Sixty‐three mothers and their preschool‐aged children discussed at home two specific past events involving the child and his or her peers, one event being positive and one negative. The children's self‐views in peer relationships were assessed at school during individual interviews, and their social competence was rated by mothers. Both maternal and child participation in the reminiscing, in terms of reminiscing style and content, were uniquely associated with children's peer‐related self‐views and social competence. The results suggest the important role of family narrative practices in children's social development.     

Aggressive and Prosocial Peer Group Functioning: Effects on Children's Social,School, and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined the effects of aggressive and prosocial contexts of peer groups on children's socioemotional and school adjustment. Data on informal peer groups, social functioning, and different aspects of adjustment were collected from multiple sources in a sample of elementary school children (149 boys, 181 girls; M age = 10 years). Multilevel analyses indicated that group aggressive and prosocial orientations made direct contributions to children's social, school, and psychological functioning. Group contexts also moderated the individual‐level relations between social behavior and self‐perceptions; prosocial behavior was associated with social or scholastic self‐perceptions more evidently in low prosocial and high aggressive groups. The results suggest that the peer group is an important context for children's performance and adjustment in various domains.     

Black‐White Biracial Children's Social Development from Kindergarten to Fifth Grade: Links with Racial Identification,Gender, and Socioeconomic Status

In this study, we investigated trajectories of Black‐White biracial children's social development during middle childhood, their associations with parents’ racial identification of children, and the moderating effects of child gender and family socioeconomic status (SES). The study utilized data from parent and teacher reports on 293 US Black‐White biracial children enrolled in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS‐K). Growth curve models suggested increasing trajectories of teacher‐reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors between kindergarten and fifth grade. Parents’ racial identification of children predicted child externalizing behavior trajectories such that teachers rated biracially identified children's externalizing behaviors lower relative to those of Black‐ and White‐identified children. Additionally, for White‐identified biracial children, the effect of family SES on internalizing behavior trajectories was especially pronounced. These findings suggest that in the USA, how parents racially identify their Black‐White biracial children early on has important implications for children's problem behaviors throughout the elementary school years.     

Parasympathetic Regulation and Parental Socialization of Emotion: Biopsychosocial Processes of Adjustment in Preschoolers

Variations in parents' emotion socialization have been linked to children's social competence (SC) and behavior problems, but parental influences do not act independently of children's characteristics. A biopsychosocial model was tested, in which children's parasympathetic regulation of cardiac function and paternal and maternal socialization of negative emotions were examined as joint predictors of young children's SC and behavior problems at daycare and preschool. Mothers and fathers responded differently to children's emotions, and cardiac vagal tone moderated the relations between parents' emotion socialization and children's behavior in early childcare settings. Both maternal and paternal emotion socialization strategies were more strongly associated with preschool adjustment for children with relatively less parasympathetic self‐regulatory capacities than for more self‐regulated children. Paternal reactions to children's anger, and maternal responses to children's sadness and fear, were particularly closely tied to variations in SC and internalizing and externalizing problems.     

Parent emotion socialization and children's socioemotional adjustment: when is supportiveness no longer supportive?

Parents' supportive emotion socialization behaviors promote children's socioemotional competence in early childhood, but the nature of parents' supportiveness may change over time, as children continue to develop their emotion‐related abilities and enter contexts that require more complex and nuanced social skills and greater autonomy. To test whether associations between parents' supportiveness of children's negative emotions and children's socioemotional adjustment vary with child age, 81 parents of 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children completed questionnaires assessing their responses to children's negative emotions and their children's emotion regulation, lability, social competence, and behavioral adjustment. As predicted, child age moderated the associations between parents' supportiveness and children's socioemotional adjustment. For younger children, parents' supportiveness predicted better emotion regulation and less anxiety/internalizing and anger/externalizing problems. However, for older children, these associations were reversed, suggesting that socialization strategies which were supportive for younger children may fail to foster socioemotional competence among 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children. These results suggest the importance of considering emotion socialization as a dynamic, developmental process, and that parents' socialization of children's emotions might need to change in response to children's developing emotional competencies and social demands.     

Social Competence with Peers in Third Grade: Associations with Earlier Peer Experiences in Childcare1

The early developmental antecedents of individual differences in children's social functioning with peers in third grade were examined using longitudinal data from the large‐scale National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) study of early child care. In a sample of 1,364 children, with family and child factors controlled, the frequency of positive and negative peer interactions in childcare between 24 and 54 months and the number of hours spent in childcare peer groups of different sizes (alone, dyad, small, medium, large) predicted third graders' peer competence at three levels of analysis: individual social skills, dyadic friendships, and peer‐group acceptance. Children who had more positive experiences with peers in childcare had better social and communicative skills with peers in third grade, were more sociable and co‐operative and less aggressive, had more close friends, and were more accepted and popular. Children with more frequent negative experiences with peers in childcare were more aggressive in third grade, had lower social and communicative skills, and reported having fewer friends. When children spent more time in small‐sized peer groups in childcare (four or fewer children at 24 months of age up to seven or fewer at 54 months), they were more sociable and co‐operative in third grade, but their teachers rated them as more aggressive, suggesting that such children may be more socially outgoing and active both positively and negatively. Like those who spent more time in small peer groups, children who spent more hours in medium‐sized groups received higher ratings for peer aggression by their third‐grade teachers. Children who spent more time with one other child in childcare or in small peer groups had fewer classroom friends in third grade as reported by the teacher but not according to maternal report or self‐report. There were no significant associations between the amount of time children spent in large childcare‐based peer groups and third‐grade peer social competence.     

Emotion Knowledge,Loneliness, Negative Social Experiences,and Internalizing Symptoms Among Low‐income Preschoolers

Children with poor emotion knowledge (EK) skills are at risk for externalizing problems; less is known about early internalizing behavior. We examined multiple facets of EK and social‐emotional experiences relevant for internalizing difficulties, including loneliness, victimization, and peer rejection, in Head Start preschoolers (N = 134; M = 60 months). Results based on multiple informants suggest that facets of EK are differentially related to negative social‐emotional experiences and internalizing behavior and that sex plays a moderating role. Behavioral EK was associated with self‐reported loneliness, victimization/rejection, and parent‐reported internalizing symptoms. Emotion recognition and expressive EK were related to self‐reported loneliness, and emotion situation knowledge was related to parent‐reported internalizing symptoms and negative peer nominations. Sex moderated many of these associations, suggesting that EK may operate differently for girls vs. boys in the preschool social context. Results are discussed with regard to the role of EK for social development and intervention implications.     

Caregiver Emotional Expressiveness,Child Emotion Regulation,and Child Behavior Problems among Head Start Families

The present study examined the relationships between caregivers' self‐reported positive and negative emotional expressiveness, observer assessments of children's emotion regulation, and teachers' reports of children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a sample of 97 primarily African American and Hispanic Head Start families. Results indicated that higher caregiver negativity and lower child emotion regulation independently predicted more internalizing behavior problems in children. Additionally, children's externalizing behavior problems were negatively predicted by caregivers' self‐reports of positive emotional expressiveness. Importantly, results also suggested that caregivers' emotional expressiveness and children's behavioral problems may be non‐linearly related, and that child gender may play an important moderating role. These results emphasize the importance of family emotional climate and child emotion regulation in the behavioral development of preschool‐age children, and highlight the need for improved theoretical and practical understanding of socioemotional development in diverse populations.     

Associations between sleep consolidation in infancy and peer relationships in middle childhood

Sleep plays an important role in many aspects of children's development. Research on children's sleep and their peer relationships has begun to emerge in the last years. However, these studies are mostly cross‐sectional. The current study aimed to investigate the associations between infant sleep and peer relationships in middle childhood. The sample comprised 72 children. Sleep was measured at 1 year using a sleep diary completed by mothers. In the second and third grades of elementary school (7 and 8 years of age), mothers and fathers reported on their children's functioning with peers. When they were in third grade, children were interviewed regarding their friendship quality with a best friend. Results revealed negative associations between children's sleep consolidation (i.e., ratio of nighttime sleep) and parent‐reported peer problems, and positive associations between sleep consolidation and perceived friendship quality. These findings suggest that well‐regulated sleep in infancy may help children develop the skills necessary for later appropriate social functioning in peer contexts.     

Self-perceived Social Acceptance and Peer Social Standing in Children with Aggressive–Disruptive Behaviors

Examining children's perceptions of their social acceptance in conjunction with others’ ratings of their peer social standing can enhance our understanding of the heterogeneity in children exhibiting disruptive behavior problems. Using a sample of 213 youth rated in the top 31 percent of their class on aggressive–disruptive behaviors, the current study examined the interaction between children's perceptions of their social acceptance and their peer‐rated social standing in predicting emotional and behavioral problems. Overall, lower peer‐rated social standing was associated with higher levels of antisocial behavior, academic problems, and hyperactivity/inattention. On the other hand, higher self‐perceived social acceptance was associated with increased levels of peer‐rated fighting at school. For children who were rated as having high social standing among their peers, poorer self‐perceived social acceptance was associated with increased oppositional behaviors and conduct problems at home. In addition, children who reported lower self‐perceived social acceptance exhibited increased levels of depressive symptoms, even when they were relatively well liked by their peers. The potential implications for working with subgroups of children with aggressive–disruptive behaviors are discussed.     

Associations among Maternal Behavior,Delay of Gratification,and School Readiness across the Early Childhood Years

This study examined the developmental pathways from maternal behavior to school readiness within a sample of 1007 children, with a specific focus on the mediating role of delay of gratification (DoG). Maternal behavior across the first 36 months of age was explored as a predictor of children's DoG at 54 months as well as their behavioral and academic competence in kindergarten. Results support sensitivity as a predictor of children's DoG and indicate significant associations between DoG and teacher‐reported externalizing behavior, social skills, and academic skills. Moreover, DoG partially mediated the associations between maternal sensitivity and school readiness skills, with the highest percentage of mediation reported for social skills. Findings indicate maternal sensitivity and DoG as potential targets for efforts aimed at enhancing school readiness among young children.     

Family Emotional Processes and Adolescents' Adjustment

This study examined associations between parents' emotion coaching and emotional expressiveness, and adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. The sample included 131 16‐year‐olds and their mothers and fathers. Adolescents completed an open‐ended interview about their parents' emotion coaching. Adolescents rated parents' negative emotional expressiveness, and parents and adolescents reported on adolescents' adjustment. Results indicated that mothers were more accepting and supportive of their children's expression of negative emotions than were fathers. Parents' coaching of emotions was associated with fewer adolescents' internalizing symptoms and was unrelated to their externalizing symptoms. Parents' negative emotional expressiveness was positively linked to adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Parents' emotion coaching and negative emotional expressiveness explained unique variance in adolescents' internalizing symptoms. Results highlight the importance of the family's emotional climate for adolescents' well‐being.     

Domestic Violence, Emotional Competence, and Child Adjustment

This article examined emotion competence in children exposed to domestic violence (DV). It also examined the hypothesis that children's emotional competence mediates relations between DV and children's later difficulties with peers and behavioral adjustment. DV was assessed when children were at the age of five, emotional competence was assessed at the age of 9.5, and peer quality and behavioral adjustment were obtained at the age of 11. Children from homes with greater DV were less aware of their own emotions and more emotionally dysregulated at the age of 9.5. Emotional awareness mediated the relationship between DV at the age of five and children's friendship closeness and internalizing problems at the age of 11. Emotion dysregulation mediated the relationship between DV at the age of five and children's negative peer group interactions, social problems, and internalizing and externalizing problems at the age of 11. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of DV on children's emotional development and the role that different aspects of emotional competence play in children's socio‐emotional adjustment.