A study investigated the relationship among four possible mechanisms for children's socialization of emotion: (1) mothers are essentially modeling the expression of emotion; (2) mothers' emotions serve a coaching function; (3) the affective environment to which a child is exposed may impact general social-emotional competence; and (4) mothers'…

Age, specific emotion, and linguistic modality (verbal vs. non-verbal) were predicted to affect knowledge of emotion in young preschoolers (N = 45, mean age = 40.7 mos). Prosocial response to emotion and knowledge of emotion were also predicted to be related, given naturalistic observation and the use of contextually valid emotion knowledge…

Psychometric properties of sociometric nominations used with preschool children were examined, in order to assess their potential usefulness for concurrent and predictive assessment of the social skills and affective components of social competence. In particular, temporal stability, concurrent validity, and boundary conditions (age and gender…

Research was conducted to assess young preschoolers' knowledge of emotion and to explore the relation between children's understanding of emotion and their prosocial behavior. This discussion briefly describes measures devised to investigate knowledge of emotion, and outlines findings. Also discussed are relations between knowledge of emotion and…

Peer nominations and teacher ratings of children's social behaviors were obtained for 36 preschoolers during their first, second, and third years in preschool. Peer nominations showed stability across time, and teacher ratings correlated with peer nominations. (MDM)

This case study recorded and analyzed, during a primary prevention program in an urban day care center, the process of emotional socialization in two 4-year-old children considered at risk for academic failure. It isolated and described influential factors in emotional socialization, described changes in social skills and emotional expression, and…

Implemented a social-emotional intervention for at-risk 4-year-olds in seven day-care classes. Teachers were trained to perform activities associated with relationship building. Compared to children who did not experience the intervention, children who had it were observed showing decreases in negative emotion, greater involvement, and more…

Teachers' ratings are often used as early as the preschool period to provide an overall picture of children's behavioral adjustment and social competence. The goals of this study are to (1) show the relations among general, outcome-oriented observational categories of preschoolers' social competence and (2) specify those discrete emotions and…

The effects of age, response modality, and specific emotion on knowledge of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear in 45 preschoolers of 26-54 months were examined by means of puppet presentations. Results emphasize the emerging but sizable understanding of emotion on the part of young preschoolers. (CB)

The study aims to answer the following questions: (1) What emotions do mothers show in their preschoolers' presence? (2) What are their children's reactions to these emotional displays? (3) How do mothers cope with these feelings? (4) How do mothers evaluate these incidents? (5) Do mothers' methods of coping predict children's adjustment? Twenty…