Children's understanding of emotion in speech

Children's understanding of emotion in speech was explored in three experiments. In Experiment 1, 4- to 10-year-old children and adults (N = 165) judged the happiness or sadness of the speaker from cues conveyed by propositional content and affective paralanguage. When the cues conflicted (i.e., a happy situation was described with sad paralanguage), children relied primarily on content, in contrast to adults, who relied on paralanguage. There were gradual developmental changes from 4-year-olds' almost exclusive focus on content to adults' exclusive focus on paralanguage. Children of all ages exhibited greater response latencies to utterances with conflicting cues than to those with nonconflicting cues, indicating that they processed both sources of emotional information. Children accurately labeled the affective paralanguage when the propositional cues to emotion were obscured by a foreign language (Experiment 2, N = 20) or by low-pass filtering (Experiment 3, N = 60). The findings are consistent with children's limited understanding of the communicative functions of affective paralanguage.     

Children's responses to everyday marital conflict tactics in the home

Mothers' and fathers' reports of marital conflicts in the home were obtained (n = 1,638 and 1,281 conflicts, respectively), including conflicts in front of the children (n = 580 and 377, respectively). Participants were 116 families with children 8 to 16 years old (M = 10.82 years, SD = 2.17; 58 boys, 58 girls). Children's emotional responses indicated distinctions between distressing conflict tactics (i.e., threat, personal insult, verbal hostility, defensiveness, nonverbal hostility, marital withdrawal, physical distress) and those that increased their emotional security (i.e., calm discussion, support, affection). Analyses based on cross-reporter informants of parental conflict and child responses strengthened confidence in the findings. Conflict tactics were related to marital functioning, and children's emotional reactions during marital conflicts were associated with their adjustment.     

Children's judgments of emotion from conflicting cues in speech: why 6-year-olds are so inflexible

Six-year-old children can judge a speaker's feelings either from content or paralanguage but have difficulty switching the basis of their judgments when these cues conflict. This inflexibility may relate to a lexical bias in 6-year-olds' judgments. Two experiments tested this claim. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds (n = 40) were as inflexible when switching from paralanguage to content as when switching from content to paralanguage. In Experiment 2, 6-year-olds (n = 32) and adults (n = 32) had more difficulty when switching between conflicting emotion cues than conflicting nonemotional cues. Thus, 6-year-olds' inflexibility appears to be tied to the presence of conflicting emotion cues in speech rather than a bias to judge a speaker's feelings from content.     

Children's Appraisals of Marital Conflict: Initial Investigations of the Cognitive-Contextual Framework

2 studies examined children's appraisals of marital conflict. In Study 1, 45 11- and 12-year-olds reported cognitive, affective, and coping responses to conflicts varying in content and intensity. When conflict concerned the child, children reported more shame and fear of being drawn into the conflict and tended to endorse coping responses that involved direct intervention in it. More intense conflicts led to greater negative affect and perceived threat. In Study 2, 112 12-year-olds responded to conflicts that included a parent-blaming or child-blaming explanation or gave no explanation for the conflict. Explanations that absolved the children of blame for the conflict decreased their fear of becoming involved in the conflict and their desire to intervene in it. These findings show that appraisals of marital conflict are influenced by its content, intensity, and cause and suggest that the meaning of conflict to children is an important determinant of its impact.     

How Do Sibling Conflicts End?

The endings of sibling conflicts were investigated in 40 families at 2 time periods. Each family included 2 children, studied when they were 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 years of age, and 2 years later, at 4 1/2and 6 1/2 years. Four types of conflict endings were observed in sibling conflicts: Compromise, Reconciliation, Submission, and No Resolution. Results indicate that at both time periods conflicts typically ended with No Resolution, followed by Submission, Compromise, and finally, Reconciliation. Submissions decreased and No Resolutions increased over the two time periods; no changes were observed in either Compromise or Reconciliation. Parents' interventions led directly to a resolution of 16% of the children's disputes (Parent Ending). In those cases, there was a greater likelihood of conflicts ending in Compromise or Reconciliation than when parents did not intervene. Conflicts in which parents intervened but the children ultimately resolved the conflicts themselves (Child Ending with Intervention) occurred 42% of the time. Such conflicts ended more often with No Resolution and less often with children's Submissions to their siblings. The implications of these findings for the development of children's conflict resolution skills and the role of parent involvement are discussed.     

Children's Reactions to Marital Conflict in Israel and in the United States

Objective. Gaps in cross-cultural study limit understanding of whether effects of marital discord on children are culturally universal. Design. Israeli (39 boys; 40 girls) and U.S. (97 boys; 118 girls) kindergarteners responded to analog presentations of resolved and unresolved marital conflicts. Results. Children reacted negatively to marital conflict across cultures and were sensitive to the topics of conflict, whether or not it was escalating and whether or not conflict was resolved. Modest differences in responding also emerged: U.S. children reported more happiness for resolved conflicts and more distressed emotions and coping responses to unresolved conflicts. Moreover, only the expectations of U.S. children about future marital relations were affected by resolution. Conclusions. The evidence mostly supported similarities between the United States and Israel with regard to children's responding to conflicts, extending findings based on extensive research in the U.S.     

How Do Sibling Conflicts End?

The endings of sibling conflicts were investigated in 40 families at 2 time periods. Each family included 2 children, studied when they were 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 years of age, and 2 years later, at 4 1/2and 6 1/2 years. Four types of conflict endings were observed in sibling conflicts: Compromise, Reconciliation, Submission, and No Resolution. Results indicate that at both time periods conflicts typically ended with No Resolution, followed by Submission, Compromise, and finally, Reconciliation. Submissions decreased and No Resolutions increased over the two time periods; no changes were observed in either Compromise or Reconciliation. Parents' interventions led directly to a resolution of 16% of the children's disputes (Parent Ending). In those cases, there was a greater likelihood of conflicts ending in Compromise or Reconciliation than when parents did not intervene. Conflicts in which parents intervened but the children ultimately resolved the conflicts themselves (Child Ending with Intervention) occurred 42% of the time. Such conflicts ended more often with No Resolution and less often with children's Submissions to their siblings. The implications of these findings for the development of children's conflict resolution skills and the role of parent involvement are discussed.     

Sources of inflexibility in 6-year-olds' understanding of emotion in speech

When utterances contain conflicting emotion cues, 6-year-olds judge emotion from content, even when instructed to judge emotion from paralanguage (Morton & Trehub, 2001). Two experiments examined the nature of this bias. In Experiment 1, priming paralanguage reversed 6-year-olds' normal bias to content. In Experiment 2, 6-year-olds were instructed to listen to paralanguage under various conditions. Children were more likely to follow instructions delivered with feedback than instructions delivered alone. Children who described conflicts between content and paralanguage were more likely to follow instructions than children who did not describe these conflicts. Results suggest that 6-year-olds can judge emotion from paralanguage in the presence of competing content but often remain focused on content because of the way they represent the instructions.     

Children's reports of conflict between simultaneous opposite-valence emotions

This study investigated children's reports of their experiences of simultaneous different-valence emotions and examined whether such reports included indications of internal conflict or ambivalence. A structured interview and a procedure to assess internal emotional conflict were developed and administered to children aged 9-12. Our findings call into question previous assumptions about the necessary presence of conflict. Children reported conflict in slightly less than half of the multiple-emotion experiences they described. When conflict was reported, children convincingly recounted a dynamic interaction between the 2 feelings, often personifying the feelings as arguing over what to do or which feeling should predominate. When children described the absence of conflict, they often emphasized the lack of distress accompanying the feelings or pointed out that the situation was relatively unimportant. Reports of conflict were related to the degree to which the positive or negative emotion was stronger and to the perceived similarity or dissimilarity of the 2 emotions: Conflict was most likely when the negative emotion was reported to be equal to or more intense than the positive emotion and when the 2 emotions were perceived to be different.     

Experiential influences on multimodal perception of emotion

The impact of 2 types of learning experiences on children's perception of multimodal emotion cues was examined. Children (aged 7-12 years) were presented with conflicting facial and vocal emotions. The effects of familiarity were tested by varying whether emotions were presented by familiar or unfamiliar adults. The salience of particular emotional expressions was tested by contrasting the performance of physically abused and nonabused children. Children exhibited a preference for auditory expressions produced by their mothers but not by strangers. Additionally, abused children were biased to rely on auditory cues when their own abusive mother was expressing anger. These results are discussed in terms of the impact of both typical and atypical early experiences on the development of emotion perception.     

Early Attachment Relationships as Predictors of Preschool Children's Emotion Regulation with a Distressed Sibling

The present study examined (1) the emotion regulation of preschool children by observing their emotional responses to a distressed younger sibling during a separation episode; (2) whether children's regulatory responses were related to sibling interaction observed during the separation episode, and (3) whether individual differences in these children's regulatory responses and the quality of sibling interaction could be predicted from early attachment relationships. Older siblings who ignored their younger siblings' distress were more likely to experience personal distress and use avoidant coping strategies. Emotion regulation strategies were related to the quality of sibling interaction such that older siblings who offered comfort to a distressed younger sibling were more likely to express positive affect in sibling interaction, whereas older siblings seeking adult assistance were less likely to engage in conflict and hostile behavior with a younger sibling. Preschool children who had an insecure-resistant infant-mother attachment at 1 year, were more likely to seek comfort from their younger siblings and engaged in more sibling conflict and hostility when they were 4 years old. The quality of infant-father attachment relationships was not significantly related to the child's emotion regulation at 4 years of age. Results are discussed with respect to the social origins of preschool children's emotional self-regulation and the consequences of emotional dysregulation in preschool settings.     

Early Attachment Relationships as Predictors of Preschool Children's Emotion Regulation with a Distressed Sibling

The present study examined (1) the emotion regulation of preschool children by observing their emotional responses to a distressed younger sibling during a separation episode; (2) whether children's regulatory responses were related to sibling interaction observed during the separation episode, and (3) whether individual differences in these children's regulatory responses and the quality of sibling interaction could be predicted from early attachment relationships. Older siblings who ignored their younger siblings' distress were more likely to experience personal distress and use avoidant coping strategies. Emotion regulation strategies were related to the quality of sibling interaction such that older siblings who offered comfort to a distressed younger sibling were more likely to express positive affect in sibling interaction, whereas older siblings seeking adult assistance were less likely to engage in conflict and hostile behavior with a younger sibling. Preschool children who had an insecure-resistant infant-mother attachment at 1 year, were more likely to seek comfort from their younger siblings and engaged in more sibling conflict and hostility when they were 4 years old. The quality of infant-father attachment relationships was not significantly related to the child's emotion regulation at 4 years of age. Results are discussed with respect to the social origins of preschool children's emotional self-regulation and the consequences of emotional dysregulation in preschool settings.     

Tears for girls and teeth for boys: the influence of gender on children’s depiction of sadness and anger in their drawings

Up to now, very few studies investigated the influence of gender on the depiction of emotions in children’s drawings. However, the literature on emotions reveals differences between boys and girls in various kinds of tasks (e.g. recognising emotional facial expressions, understanding an emotional situation, etc.). Therefore, we examined the impact of gender on the depiction of sadness and anger. We took into account children’s gender but also the gender of the character expressing the target emotion. Forty-four boys and forty-seven girls aged 7–8 and thirty-six boys and fifty-three girls aged 9–10 were asked to listen to stories where the main character (either a male or a female) was feeling sad or angry and then to draw the facial cues corresponding to the target emotion. Two methods were used to rate the drawings: judges assessed the correct vs. incorrect depiction of the two target emotions and a content analysis was then conducted on the correct drawings so as to reveal the type of facial cues used by children. By showing the major influence of children’s gender on their depiction of sadness and anger, our findings offer promising lines of research in educational and clinical settings.     

Managing emotion in a maltreating context: a pilot study examining child neglect

OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this pilot study was to examine emotion management skills (i.e., emotional understanding, emotion regulation) in children who had experienced neglect and a control group to determine the ways that neglect may interfere with children's emotional development. METHOD: Participants included children 6--12 years of age and their mothers (neglect group, N=24; control, N=24). Participants completed questionnaires and an interview that assessed children's emotional understanding and emotion regulation. RESULTS: Findings indicated that neglected children, compared to their non-maltreated peers, demonstrated lower understanding of negative emotions (i.e., anger, sadness) and fewer adaptive emotion regulation skills. Further, neglected children expected less support and more conflict from mothers in response to displays of negative emotion and reported that they were more likely to attempt to inhibit the expression of negative emotion. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that neglect may interfere with the normal acquisition of emotional understanding and emotion regulation skills, highlighting the importance of addressing these skills in the context of clinical intervention with neglected children.     

Conflict in the Dyadic Play of 3-Year-Old Children

Episodes of conflict provide a rich source of information about children's development of interactive skills. In the present study, 184 3-year-old children were observed in dyadic play and the 287 conflicts that occurred during their play were transcribed and coded. In general, children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief, lasting less than 15 seconds. Most disputes concerned toy possession, and almost 80% were ended by the simple withdrawal of one or the other children from the conflict. When children responded with emotional intensity to conflict, their conflicts lasted longer and were more likely to be followed by continued negative interaction. Individual difference data were available for one member of each dyad observed in play. Children rated in infancy as having difficult temperaments were found to be more intense during conflict, to spend more time in conflict, and to score higher on an index of conflict resolution competence, whereas concurrent social behavior was not related to conflict variables. Girls scored higher than boys on competence at conflict resolution, and children with better language skills spent less time in conflict. The more time children spent in nonmaternal child care up to age 3, the less likely they were to initiate conflict.     

The Vestiges of Childhood Interparental Conflict: Adolescent Sensitization to Recent Interparental Conflict

This study examined whether childhood interparental conflict moderated the mediational pathway involving adolescent exposure to interparental conflict, their negative emotional reactivity to family conflict, and their psychological problems in a sample of 235 children (M_age = 6 years). Significant moderated-mediation findings indicated that the mediational path among Wave 4 interparental conflict during adolescence, change in youth negative reactivity (Waves 4–5), and their psychological problems (Waves 4–6) was significant for teens who experienced low, rather than high, levels of childhood interparental conflict (Waves 1–3). Supporting the stress sensitization model, analyses showed that adolescents exposed to high interparental conflict during childhood evidenced greater increases in negative reactivity than their peers when recent parental conflicts were mild.     

Conflict in the Dyadic Play of 3-Year-Old Children

Episodes of conflict provide a rich source of information about children's development of interactive skills. In the present study, 184 3-year-old children were observed in dyadic play and the 287 conflicts that occurred during their play were transcribed and coded. In general, children's conflicts arose in the context of ongoing play and were brief, lasting less than 15 seconds. Most disputes concerned toy possession, and almost 80% were ended by the simple withdrawal of one or the other children from the conflict. When children responded with emotional intensity to conflict, their conflicts lasted longer and were more likely to be followed by continued negative interaction. Individual difference data were available for one member of each dyad observed in play. Children rated in infancy as having difficult temperaments were found to be more intense during conflict, to spend more time in conflict, and to score higher on an index of conflict resolution competence, whereas concurrent social behavior was not related to conflict variables. Girls scored higher than boys on competence at conflict resolution, and children with better language skills spent less time in conflict. The more time children spent in nonmaternal child care up to age 3, the less likely they were to initiate conflict.     

Adrenocortical Underpinnings of Children’s Psychological Reactivity to Interparental Conflict

This study examined interrelationships among children’s cortisol reactivity and their psychological reactivity to interparental conflict in a sample of 208 first graders (mean age = 6.6 years). Assessments of children’s psychological reactivity to conflict distinguished among their distress, hostile, and involvement responses across multiple methods (i.e., observation, questionnaire) and informants (i.e., observer, parent). Relative to other forms of conflict reactivity, children’s distress responses to interparental conflict were consistent, unique predictors of their elevated cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict even after inclusion of demographic factors as moderators and covariates. Moderator analyses further revealed that associations between distress and elevated cortisol levels in response to interparental conflict were particularly pronounced when children exhibited high levels of involvement in conflicts.     

When you shouldn't do what you want to do: young children's understanding of desires, rules, and emotions

This research investigated 4- through 7-year-olds' and adults' (n = 64) concepts about the emotional consequences of desire fulfillment versus desire inhibition in situations where people's desires conflict with prohibitive rules. Results revealed developmental increases in attributing positive or mixed emotions to story characters that make willpower decisions and negative or mixed emotions to characters that transgress. These developmental changes in emotion predictions were accompanied by age-related differences in emotion explanations. Whereas 4- and 5-year-olds largely explained emotions in relation to the characters' goals, 7-year-olds and adults further explained how rules and future consequences influence emotions. Results are discussed in relation to connections among children's psychological, deontic, and future-oriented reasoning about emotions as well as the development of self-control.     

Children's responses to angry adult behavior as a function of marital distress and history of interparent hostility

Responses of 2-5-year-old children to angry adult behavior were examined as a function of parental report of marital distress, history of interparent verbal hostility, and history of interparent physical hostility. A trained actor engaged the child's mother in an emotionally expressive verbal exchange while the child played in the same room. The exchange was standardized and consisted of a 7-episode sequence of shifting background conditions (no emotion, friendly, no emotion, angry, no emotion, reconciliation, no emotion). Preoccupation with anger, expressed concern and support-seeking, and accepting of social responsibility (e.g., providing physical or verbal comfort to the mother) were greater in response to background anger than in response to prosocial conditions. The parents' marital adjustment was positively associated with expressed concern and support-seeking by children in response to anger. Form and degree of marital conflict interacted with age and sex in predicting children's response to anger as well. In particular, children whose parents engaged in physical aggressiveness showed increased preoccupation, concern and support-seeking, and social responsibility responses with increasing age. Implications of these findings for the study of the effects of marital discord on children are discussed.