SOCIALIZATION OF PRESCHOOLERS EMOTION UNDERSTANDING

Contributions to individual differences in preschoolers' identification of basic emotional expressions and situations, emotion language, and their self-generated causes for basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, and afraid) were investigated across parts of 2 preschool years (N = 47; initial M age = 41 months). An aggregate of preschool emotion understanding was predicted by the intrapersonal predictors, child age and overall cognitive-language ability. Observed socialization, including explanations about emotions, and positive and negative responsiveness to child emotions predicted the aggregate of emotion understanding, even with age and cognitive-language ability partialed. The contribution of socialization predictors to emotion understanding was moderated by sex only for negative emotional responsiveness, and children with the lowest emotion understanding scores had mothers who showed more anger.