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Emotion Knowledge Skills in Low‐income Elementary School Children: Associations with Social Status and Peer Experiences
Author(s) -
Miller Alison L.,
Gouley Kathleen Kiely,
Seifer Ronald,
Zakriski Audrey,
Eguia Maria,
Vergnani Michael
Publication year - 2005
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.1467-9507.2005.00321.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , social skills , social competence , curriculum , competence (human resources) , vocabulary , sociometry , social functioning , sociometric status , intervention (counseling) , peer group , social change , social psychology , interpersonal relationship , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy , psychiatry , economics , economic growth
This short‐term longitudinal study examined relations between emotion knowledge and social functioning in a sample of low‐income kindergarten and 1st graders. Individual differences in spontaneous emotion naming and emotion recognition skills were used to predict children's social functioning at school, including peer‐nominated sociometric status, and child self‐reports of negative experiences with peers in school (peer victimization and rejection). Children who had greater emotional vocabulary and recognized emotions more accurately had better outcomes in all areas, and many of the associations between fall emotion knowledge skills and spring social functioning outcomes held after covarying grade and children's previous status with regard to these outcomes. Results are discussed with regard to implications for prevention and intervention programs (e.g., the PATHS curriculum) that focus on teaching emotion knowledge skills in order to foster high‐risk children's social competence.