ABSTRACT
The present research evaluated a conceptual model that links temperament, emotional knowledge, and family expressiveness to preschoolers' emotion regulation ability. The emotional understanding of 82 preschoolers was assessed with 2 separate tasks. After the second emotional knowledge task, the children were presented a "disappointing" prize, and their facial displays of positive and negative affect were recorded. The children and their mothers also participated in a game designed to elicit maternal expressive behavior. Mothers provided information about the preschoolers' temperament and about the frequency of positive and negative affect expressed within their families. Results indicated that children's positive displays when presented the "disappointing" prize were inversely related to the temperamental dimension of emotional intensity and positively associated with children's understanding of emotion. Maternal reports of sadness within the family were inversely related to children's positive affective displays. Children's negative emotional displays in the disappointment situation were inversely related to observed maternal positive emotion. The findings from this study give greater specification to the unique and joint contributions of temperament, emotional knowledge, and family expressiveness in predicting preschoolers' expressive control of emotion.
Subject(s)
Affect , Child, Preschool , Family , Knowledge , Temperament , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Fifty-five toddlers (mean age = 17.7 months) were observed in a modified strange situation that included their preschool-age older siblings (mean age = 50.6 months). The toddlers were observed while interacting with their older siblings and again with the siblings and a stranger. Differences in the toddlers' emotional lability, latency to distress, self-soothing behavior, and comfort-seeking behavior across the two situations were examined. The linkage between the family's reported expression of positive emotion, sadness, and anger and the toddlers' emotion regulation behaviors was evaluated. The results revealed that the toddlers were more emotionally regulated in the presence of the siblings and the stranger than when they were alone with their siblings. In addition, mother-reported positive expressiveness within the family was related to higher levels of self-soothing behavior in the siblings-alone condition, and mother-reported sadness within the family was inversely related to toddlers' self-soothing behavior in both conditions. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of social-context factors and family expressiveness for the development of emotion regulation.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Emotions , Family/psychology , Social Environment , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Mother-Child Relations , Personality Assessment , Sibling RelationsABSTRACT
Two studies were designed to investigate the relation between emotion socialization variables, social cognitive knowledge, and children's social competence. In Study 1, the expression and situation knowledge of 46 low-income preschoolers were assessed. Peer competence within the preschool setting was also evaluated. Mothers completed questionnaires designed to assess negative emotion socialization practices. Results showed that maternal reports of their emotion socialization practices were related to sad and angry situation knowledge. The aggregate measure of situation knowledge predicted peer competence. In Study 2, 41 low-income preschoolers were observed in a caregiving situation with their younger siblings. The preschoolers' rate of caregiving behavior was recorded and measures of their situation knowledge, emotional role taking, and caregiving script knowledge were obtained. Mothers completed emotion socialization questionnaires. Situation knowledge was the social cognitive variable that predicted sibling caregiving behavior. However, only the maternal emotion socialization variables were directly related to sibling caregiving behavior. These findings highlight the importance of situation knowledge and emotion socialization practices for low-income children's social competence with peers and siblings and provide much needed information on the social development of low-income children.
Subject(s)
Emotions , Poverty/psychology , Social Behavior , Socialization , Black or African American/psychology , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Internal-External Control , Male , Mexican Americans/psychology , Mother-Child Relations , Parenting/psychology , Peer Group , Personality Development , Sibling Relations , White People/psychologyABSTRACT
Compared a group of school-age children with spina bifida (n = 15) between the ages of 6 and 12 years with an age- and IQ-matched control group of normal children (n = 15). As predicted, the spina bifida children spent less time using goal-directed behaviors and more time in simple manipulation of the toys compared to the normal children. There were no group differences between the spina bifida and normal children's perceived competence but parents of the spina bifida children rated their children as having lower cognitive and physical competence. Associations were found between goal-directed behaviors and perceived self-competence for children in the spina bifida group but not the normal group.
Subject(s)
Psychomotor Performance , Self Concept , Spinal Dysraphism/psychology , Child , Child Development , Cognition , Female , Humans , Intelligence , Male , Play and Playthings , Problem Solving , Task Performance and Analysis , Videotape RecordingABSTRACT
Medically high-risk (HR), low birth weight (LBW) preterm infants (n = 11) with significant degrees of intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) were seen at 12 and 24 months of age. This HR group was compared with a low-risk (LR) LBW preterm group (n = 16) with respiratory distress syndrome or mild grades of IVH, and a normal full-term (FT) group (n = 12). Infants and their mothers were observed in a 10-min toy-centered play interaction to determine if more advanced exploratory play occurred in association with specific maternal attention-directing behaviors. Results showed that the FT infants were able to respond with advanced exploratory play to unstructured as well as structured strategies, but that higher level play for the LR infants was associated with structured strategies. The HR infants showed fewer play responses than the other two infant groups regardless of whether mothers used structured or unstructured strategies. All infant groups showed more exploratory play behavior in relation to mothers' maintaining versus redirecting behavior.
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Cerebral Hemorrhage/psychology , Cerebral Ventricles/physiopathology , Exploratory Behavior , Infant, Low Birth Weight/psychology , Maternal Behavior , Birth Weight , Brain Damage, Chronic/physiopathology , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Cerebral Hemorrhage/physiopathology , Exploratory Behavior/physiology , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Gestational Age , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn/physiopathology , Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Newborn/psychologyABSTRACT
The Pediatric Examination of Educational Readiness (PEER) is an assessment instrument specifically designed for use by pediatricians in assessing the development of preschool children. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of the PEER. Specifically, factor analyses of items from the Developmental Attainment and Associated Observation components of the test were performed. The PEER was administered to 69 preschool children. Three major factors were identified as making up the Developmental Attainment portion of the test: perceptual-motor, verbal-cognitive, and gross motor. The Associated Observations component was found to be composed of only one factor, attention. Children's performance on only two of these four factors was associated with their performance on the McCarthy Scales, the Woodcock-Johnson skills cluster, and the Minnesota Child Development Inventory. Discussion focused on the validity and utility of the PEER.
