Two studies investigated children's responsiveness to an adult's negative emotions (anger, sadness, and pain). The studies also evaluated effects of adult scaffolding (labeling and explaining negative emotions, and requesting help). In the first study, subjects were 55 preschool children between the ages of 33 and 56 months. During individual play sessions, the experimenter enacted two vignettes involving each of the three negative emotions. Children's reactions to the negative emotion, as well as their reactions after it was explained and after prosocial behavior was requested, were rated for level of prosocial response. In the second study, subjects were 58 preschool children between the ages of 39 and 66 months. Emotional displays were enacted, as in the first study. In addition, children were assigned to one of three conditions: the experimenter displayed the emotion; the experimenter displayed the emotion and explained how she felt; or the experimenter displayed the emotion, explained how she felt, and requested help from the child. Videotaped recordings of the interactions were rated for children's responsiveness to each emotion display. Analysis revealed that overall, subjects in both studies exhibited moderate levels of spontaneous prosocial response to negative emotion. Prosocial behavior increased after the emotion was explained. Children responded most prosocially to anger and least prosocially to pain. (MM)