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Preschool understanding of emotions: contributions to classroom anger and aggression
Author(s) -
Denham Susanne A.,
Caverly Sarah,
Schmidt Michelle,
Blair Kimberly,
DeMulder Elizabeth,
Caal Selma,
Hamada Hideko,
Mason Teresa
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00139
Subject(s) - anger , psychology , aggression , developmental psychology , cognition , social cognition , social information processing , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , social psychology , medicine , environmental health , neuroscience
Background: We sought to identify patterns of social cognitive differences among preschoolers that were related to risk of stable aggressive behavior with peers. Following Lemerise and Arsenio (2000), we considered the emotional components of early social cognition, reasoning that young children's substrate of emotion knowledge serves them in decoding social encounters. Method: One hundred and twenty‐seven children from a longitudinal study from age 3 to 4 though to their kindergarten year were interviewed on their emotional knowledge initially using a puppet procedure and later with stories about mixed emotions and display rule. Each year their anger and antisocial responses to others’ emotions were observed. Teachers also provided information on each child's anger and aggression. Results: Children's deficits in emotion knowledge assessed at age 3 and 4 predicted subsequent years’ aggression. This effect was especially pronounced for boys. Conclusions: The pattern of findings suggests that the processes implicated in Dodge's work with older children may begin earlier than previously thought, with a focus on emotions.