Kindergarten children with language impairment (LI) and age-matched controls were asked to label facial expressions depicting various emotions and then to infer emotional reactions from stories presented either verbally, visually, or combined. Results suggest that inference errors made by children with LI during early stages of social processing…

Reports on a study of the relative importance of gender role identity, gender role attitudes, and biological gender in determining the intensity of emotional response to hypothetical situations in a sample of 120 6- to 12-year-old children. Found gender role identity a more powerful determinant of feelings than biological gender. (DM)

Developmental changes in the conceptualization of empathy were studied by testing and interviewing kindergartners, first graders, and fourth graders in Sweden. (PCB)

The emotional impact of televised interpersonal dramas was investigated, with specific emphasis being given to age- and gender-related differences in children's spontaneous nonverbal expressive reactions. Participants were 27 female and 22 male children in three age groups: 4-5, 7-8, and 13-14 years. Facial expressions were unobtrusively…

Eight congenitally blind children (ages 6-11), individually matched with 8 sighted children (ages 4-10), were tested for their ability to identify vocal expressions of emotion and the sounds of a range of nonemotional objects. They had specific difficulty recognizing emotions according to vocal qualities. (Author/DB)

Three studies explored age, sex, and individual differences in children's defensiveness about four feelings: happiness, anger, sadness, and fear. Also investigated was the relation between children's defensiveness and their mothers' comfort with and expression of feelings. Participants included children ranging in age from 4 through 11 years of…

This paper explores important conceptual issues that confront researchers who wish to study the role of empathy in parent-child interaction. Part I reviews the major existing theories of parent empathy offered by the psychoanalytic-object relations and the client-centered schools of thought. In part II, a new processing model derived from the…

Preschool, third-grade and sixth-grade children, and adults were shown vignettes depicting eight types of experiences and asked for their own (for children) or the children's (for adults) expected emotional reactions. Overall, adults showed an absence of developmental considerations in their implicit theories of children's emotional…

Investigates a proposed four-stage developmental sequence that describes how children explain changes in sad and angry feelings and how their ability to understand is related to their theories of how feelings change. (HOD)

Examines the capability and motivation of 18- and 24-month-old infants to share, help, comfort, and cooperate with their older siblings; the frequency of such prosocial behavior by both siblings; and the children's response to sibling distress. The relationship between prosocial and conflict behavior was also studied. (HOD)

Subjects, ages 3 to 5 and 9 to 11, were shown a videotape that presented either a frightening stimulus directly or a character's fearful response to a threatening stimulus that was suggested rather than shown directly. Both self-reported emotional reactions and physiological responses were consistent with a cognitive-developmental view of the…

A nonclinical sample of Australian adults (n=239) was surveyed for the incidence of traumatic childhood events, availability of emotional support, and the presence of a dissociative coping style. Findings suggested that lack of emotional support is an important mediator, but not a primary cause of the development of dissociative tendencies.…

Investigated were school children's recognition of social class distinctions, cues they used, and the relationship of their ideas about social class to other beliefs and attitudes about the social world. An ethnically mixed group of 201 male and female subjects participated in the study. Five age groups were represented: second, fifth, and sixth…

Young children's nonverbal affective expression and communication reveals an emotional complexity and sensitivity which exceeds their verbal abilities. To investigate the development of nonverbal emotional communication in young children, two studies were undertaken. In the first study, equal numbers of 5- and 11-year-old children from two schools…

This article presents a theoretical and testable model of psychological processes in child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse. It proposes that sexual abuse leads to shame through mediation of cognitive attributions which leads to poor adjustment. Three factors--social support, gender, and developmental period--are hypothesized to moderate the…