The Contribution of Older Siblings' Reactions to Emotions to Preschoolers' Emotional and Social Competence

SUMMARY

According to Tompkins' (1991) theory on the socialization of emotion, young children's emotional and social competence are influenced by others' reactions to the children's emotions. Patterns of parental reactions to emotions have been shown to account for significant variance in preschoolers' emotion and social competence. However, the impact of others significant in the preschooler's life has been largely ignored. To help fill this gap, associations were examined between older siblings' reactions to 41 preschoolers' emotions and the preschoolers' social-emotional competence (i.e., affective balance, emotion knowledge, positive, prosocial, and provocative responding to peers' emotions, sociometric likability, and teacher-rated social competence). Using a multiple regression strategy, the contributions of sibling reactions and moderating demographic variables to preschooler emotional and social competence were evaluated. Certain sibling reactions, especially positive emotional responsiveness, were shown to play important roles. Many predictions were moderated by age of child, sex of one dyad member     

学前儿童心理理论与情绪理解的发展特点及性别差异

以幼儿园小、中、大班共115 名学前儿童为被试,在进一步考察学前儿童心理理论与情绪理解发展特点及关系的基础上, 主要探讨了学前儿童心理理论与情绪理解发展的性别差异。研究发现：1）在心理理论任务上年龄差异显著,大班学前儿童成 绩显著高于小班学前儿童;在情绪理解任务上年龄差异显著,中班学前儿童成绩显著高于小班学前儿童;大班学前儿童成绩显 著高于中班、小班学前儿童。2）学前儿童心理理论和情绪理解性别差异均显著,女孩心理理论和情绪理解成绩在各个阶段上 均显著高于男孩。3）学前儿童心理理论和情绪理解成绩相关显著。研究结果表明,学前儿童心理理论与情绪理解发展具有相 同的发展趋势,而且学前儿童心理理论与情绪理解发展存在显著的性别差异,在此阶段女孩心理理论与情绪理解发展水平高 于男孩。     

Equality,equity, or inequality duplication? How preschoolers distribute necessary and luxury resources between rich and poor others

The present study investigated preschoolers' multiple sociomoral considerations (equality, equity, and perpetuating inequality) in a third‐party context of social inequality. Using a resource allocation task involving one wealthy and one poor character, we examined how 3–5‐year‐old children (N = 100) allocated either necessary (must‐have) or luxury (nice‐to‐have) resources. In addition, preschoolers' emotions, reasoning, and judgments were assessed. Results indicated that preschoolers distributing more resources to wealthy than poor others displayed a decision‐making pattern distinct from preschoolers allocating equally or equitably and largely matched the numeric proportions of the inequality in their allocations. In addition, preschoolers were sensitive to the differential implications of necessary and luxury resources, thereby considering others' needs in their moral decisions. Emotions were related to reasoning, but did not mediate the relationship between judgment and behavior. These findings demonstrate novel aspects of preschoolers' multifaceted moral considerations in the context of resource inequality.     

From Story to Science: The Contribution of Reading Fiction and Hybrid Stories to Conceptual Change with Young Children

This quasi‐experimental study with 34 preschoolers explores how fictional and hybrid storybooks contribute to conceptual changes in preschoolers' understanding of lunar concepts. Interviews and children's drawings before and after reading sessions provided the data. Findings revealed that (i) young children have intuitive knowledge and alternative explanations from their experiences and lay culture, (ii) storybook messages and illustrations cause misconceptions and (iii) hybrid stories increase protoscientific explanations among children of both genders. Combining accurate scientific information and enjoyable context makes hybrid storybooks effective edutainment for preschoolers.     

Preschool Children's Anticipation of Recipients' Emotions Affects Their Resource Allocation

The present study investigated the impact of preschoolers' anticipation of recipients' emotions on their resource allocation decisions. Three‐ to six‐year‐old children participated in one of three different scenarios before performing a resource allocation task. In the Other condition, children were led to think about another person's emotions when being shared with or not being shared with. In the Self condition, children were led to think about their own emotion when being shared with or not being shared with. In an epistemic control condition, children were asked to think about another person's knowledge state. The results showed that children were able to attribute different emotions to the respective recipient when being shared with or not being shared with. Children in the Other condition and the Self condition were more likely to allocate resources to the other when decisions were not associated with costs. Moreover, correlational analyses demonstrated that the more negatively children rated the emotion of the recipient when not being shared with the more they were to allocate resources to the recipient. This indicates that children's inclination to allocate resources to another person can be promoted by their awareness of a recipient's negative emotions when not being shared with.     

Nonstandard Schedules and Young Children’s Behavioral Outcomes Among Working Low‐Income Families

This article focuses on how maternal employment in nonstandard schedules at night, on the weekends, or that rotate on a weekly basis influence preschoolers’ behavioral outcomes. Examining low‐income working mothers and their children aged 2 – 4 years from the Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three‐City Study (N= 206), we find that maternal nonstandard schedules are associated with negative behavioral outcomes for young children. There is some evidence that the negative effects of nonstandard schedules on behavior problems operate indirectly through increased parenting stress. Moderating influences of child gender and family composition are also detected. These findings are consistent with the small number of studies demonstrating the negative effects of nonstandard schedules on children of varying ages.     

When the Name Says it All: Preschoolers' Recognition and Use of the Gendered Nature of Common Proper Names

By the time they enter preschool children have acquired extensive knowledge of gender stereotypes. There has been little work on their use of this knowledge to make inferences about behavior; there is virtually no information as to how the explicitness of gender-category information influences the reliability of inferences. In two experiments we tested 3-112-year-old children's recognition and use of less-than-explicit, yet highly reliable, cues to gender-category membership: common proper names. In Experiment 1 children reliably associated feminine-stereotyped names with pictures of girls and masculine-stereotyped names with pictures of boys; they did not reliably associate gender-neutral names with pictures of girls and boys. In Experiment 2 children used their knowledge of same-gender-category names to make predictions about the preferences of otherwise sex-unspecified targets; they did not make reliable predictions when the targets were labeled with opposite-gender-category names. In contrast, when the targets were labeled with gendered common nouns (“girl” and “boy”) performance was reliable and was not affected by match or mismatch between the sex of the child and the gender category of the target. The findings indicate differential patterns of development and application of gender-category consistent versus gender-category inconsistent knowledge.     

在京流动人口子女学校学习状况与期望调查报告(下)

随着流动人口尤其是农村剩余劳动力流入城市,流动儿童的数量也在逐年增加。为了把握流动人口中的中小学生的基本状况与未来预期,为北京市委、市政府制定流动人口的相关政策提供决策依据,“北京市流动人口生存状况与未来预期”课题组对北京市10所打工子弟学校的1296名学生进行了随机和集中走访,通过问卷分析认为：流动青少年学生在校学习与适应情况良好,“升学压力太大”和“学习成绩不理想”是流动青少年学生在目前所在学校学习中遭遇的最主要的困扰。“课题组”根据调查结果进行了相关政策思考。     

Is the majority always right? Young children's normative interpretations of majority and dissenting peer behavior

The present study investigates the social-cognitive underpinnings of young children's bias to follow the majority. More specifically, we focus on the question of whether children not only copy the behavior of a majority of peers, but whether they also understand this majority behavior as a social norm that everyone needs to follow. Additionally, we investigated whether seeing a unanimous majority or a majority and dissenting peer makes a difference for children's normative understanding. Participants included 180 preschool-age children (4-to-5 years old) who engaged in a conformity paradigm, where they either saw the behavior of a unanimous majority of peers, or additionally the behavior of a single dissenting peer, or only the behavior of two individual peers behaving differently (Control). Afterward, children mostly copied the unanimous majority and protested against others, when they deviated from this majority, thus indeed interpreting the behavior of a unanimous majority as a norm that others need to follow. However, when they had seen a majority as well as a dissenter, children's protest and copying in favor of the majority dropped. Overall, our findings show that preschool children interpret the behavior of a unanimous majority as normative. However, when children additionally see a dissenter's behavior, this normative interpretation is weakened.