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Children's responses to angry adult behavior as a function of experimentally manipulated exposure to resolved and unresolved conflict
Author(s) -
ElSheikh Mona,
University Auburn,
Cummings E. Mark
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9507.1995.tb00052.x
Subject(s) - anger , psychology , developmental psychology , affect (linguistics) , argument (complex analysis) , social psychology , communication , biochemistry , chemistry
Children's past experiences with anger between adults are likely to affect their reactions to ongoing conflict episodes. Four‐ to ten‐year‐olds' responses to interadult anger were examined as a function of experimentally manipulated exposures to resolved and unresolved anger. To manipulate exposure histories, children were first presented with videotaped segments of both resolved and unresolved angry interactions. They were then presented with arguments between the two couples that were interrupted in progress; children were interviewed next. At the point of argument interruption, the couple with a history of unresolved anger was perceived by girls as more sad, expected by children to be more sad in the future, and expected to be less likely to either have a positive future outcome or to resolve their disputes, in comparison to the couple with a resolved anger history. Similarly, children tended to expect to feel sad themselves in the future, in response to the discordant versus the harmonious couple. Several age differences in affective responding were found.