Emotion cognition in children and adolescents: introduction to the special issue.
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Adaptation, Psychological↗
Biomedical subjects
Carroll E Izard
Publications and source records attributed to Carroll E Izard.
Children's emotion processing: relations to emotionality and aggression.
We examined the relations between emotionality, emotion processing, and aggression in 182 first- and second-grade children. Consistent with Tomkins' and Izard's theoretical predictions, emotionality correlated with emotion processing. In particular, the happiness component of emotionality correlated with emotion attribution accuracy and empathy, the anger component correlated with anger attribution bias and empathy, and the fear component correlated with fear attribution bias. Multiple emotion processing deficits--including emotion attribution accuracy, anger attribution bias, and self-report of empathy--placed children at risk for heightened levels of teacher-reported aggression. Mediational analyses revealed that an emotion processing risk index fit a model of significant partial mediation between happiness and aggression but not between anger and aggression. The results suggest the multifaceted manner in which children's emotion experiences may influence the development of aggressive tendencies.
Aggression↗
The relations between contextual risk, earned income, and the school adjustment of children from economically disadvantaged families.
This longitudinal study examined the relations between multiple risk indexes representing contextual adversity, income-to-needs ratios, and the elementary school adjustment of children from economically disadvantaged families. The results provide evidence for volatility in family circumstances over 2-year intervals from preschool to 5th grade, for relations between the contextual risk indexes and change in externalizing behavior, and for relations between the income-to-needs ratios and change in academic competence. The results also show differences in the timing of the effects. Little evidence was found for persistence effects. Theoretical implications concern conceptualizations of the diverse and dynamic nature of the family circumstances experienced by disadvantaged children.
Child↗
The relations between persistent poverty and contextual risk and children's behavior in elementary school.
Does persistent adversity over time have effects on children's behavior beyond the effects of intermittent or concurrent adversity? This study examined the relations between school behavior in 5th grade (mean age = 11 years 0 months) and indexes representing persistent poverty and contextual risk. The indexes described 2-year intervals of family adversity. The results showed effects for persistent risk over 2 consecutive intervals for several factors, but only for recent intervals (3rd and 5th grades), and the factors differed for externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, and academic competence. The 3rd interval of risk added little to the outcomes, and most factors did not show persistence effects. The results highlight the need for caution in expecting and interpreting effects for persistent adversity.
Child↗
Developmental changes in facial expressions of emotions in the strange situation during the second year of life.
Infants' expressions of discrete emotions were coded during the more stressful episodes (4 through 8) of the Strange Situation at 13 and 18 months. The data showed a significant decrease in full-face expressions (more complex configurations of movements) and a significant increase in component expressions (simpler and more constrained patterns of movements). The authors interpreted this trend as a developmental change toward more regulated and less intense emotions. Consistent with this view, the aggregate index of infants' full-face negative emotion expressions, interpreted as reflecting relatively unregulated intense emotions, correlated significantly with maternal ratings of difficult temperament. The authors discuss alternative interpretations of the findings in terms of changes in reactivity/arousability and the emerging capacity for self-regulation.
Adult↗
First grade emotion knowledge as a predictor of fifth grade self-reported internalizing behaviors in children from economically disadvantaged families.
In this longitudinal study, we examined the relations between emotion knowledge in first grade, teacher reports of internalizing and externalizing behaviors from first grade, and children's self-reported internalizing behaviors in fifth grade. At Time 1, we assessed emotion knowledge, expressive vocabulary, caregiver-reported earned income, and teacher-rated internalizing and externalizing behaviors in 7-year-old children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 154). At Time 2, when the children were age 11, we collected children's self-reports of negative emotions, depression, anxiety, and loneliness. First grade teacher-reported externalizing behaviors, but not first grade internalizing behaviors, were positively related to children's self-reports of internalizing behaviors in fifth grade. First grade emotion knowledge accounted for a significant amount of variance in children's self-reports of internalizing symptoms 4 years later, after controlling for per capita earned income, expressive vocabulary, and teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors in first grade.
Adolescent↗
Emotion processes in normal and abnormal development and preventive intervention.
We present an analysis of the role of emotions in normal and abnormal development and preventive intervention. The conceptual framework stems from three tenets of differential emotions theory (DET). These principles concern the constructs of emotion utilization; intersystem connections among modular emotion systems, cognition, and action; and the organizational and motivational functions of discrete emotions. Particular emotions and patterns of emotions function differentially in different periods of development and in influencing the cognition and behavior associated with different forms of psychopathology. Established prevention programs have not emphasized the concept of emotion as motivation. It is even more critical that they have generally neglected the idea of modulating emotions, not simply to achieve self-regulation, but also to utilize their inherently adaptive functions as a means of facilitating the development of social competence and preventing psychopathology. The paper includes a brief description of a theory-based prevention program and suggestions for complementary targeted interventions to address specific externalizing and internalizing problems. In the final section, we describe ways in which emotion-centered preventions can provide excellent opportunities for research on the development of normal and abnormal behavior.
Affect↗
Maternal relationship instability and the school behavior of children from disadvantaged families.
This longitudinal study examined the relation between the instability of maternal intimate relationships and the school behavior of 3rd-grade children from economically disadvantaged families. After ecological correlates were controlled, chronic relationship instability predicted externalizing behavior for boys and girls and internalizing behavior for girls, but not academic competence. In addition, past and recent instability had independent effects: Recent instability moderated the relation for past instability, and child adjustment in highly unstable families varied with verbal ability and aspects of the family ecology. The theoretical implications concern conceptualizations of the diverse and dynamic nature of family arrangements experienced by disadvantaged children.
Child↗
Translating emotion theory and research into preventive interventions.
Scientific advances in the field of emotions suggest a framework for conceptualizing the emotion-related aspects of prevention programs that aim to enhance children's socioemotional competence and prevent the emergence of behavior problems and psychopathology. A conception of emotions as inherently adaptive and motivational and the related empirical evidence from several disciplines and specialities suggest 7 principles for developing preventive interventions: the utilization of positive and negative emotions, emotion modulation as a mediator of emotion utilization, emotion patterns in states and traits, different processes of emotion activation, emotion communication in early life, and the development of connections for the modular and relatively independent emotions and cognitive systems. Each principle's practical implications and application in current prevention programs are discussed.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Modeling emotional, cognitive, and behavioral predictors of peer acceptance.
Integrating principles of differential emotions theory and social information-processing theory, this study examined a model of emotional, cognitive, and behavioral predictors of peer acceptance in a sample of 201 early elementary school-age children (mean age = 7 years, 5 months). A path analytic model showed that social skills mediated the effect of emotion knowledge on both same- and opposite-sex social preference, but social skills and verbal ability were more strongly related to opposite-sex peer acceptance. These findings suggest that adaptive social skills constitute a mechanism through which children express their emotion knowledge and achieve peer acceptance. Results also supported findings of previous studies that showed that emotion knowledge mediated the effect of verbal ability on social skills. Findings from the present study have specific implications for emotion-centered prevention programs that aim to improve children's socioemotional competence and enhance the likelihood of peer acceptance.
Affect↗
Continuity and change in levels of externalizing behavior in school of children from economically disadvantaged families.
This study used a person-centered approach to understand continuity and change in the externalizing behavior of children from economically disadvantaged families (N = 134). Groups of children differed in showing high levels of externalizing behavior in first grade (7 years old) that persisted (persistent problem) or decreased (improver) in third grade (9 years old) and low levels in first grade that were stable (unproblematic) or increased (new problem) in third grade. The results showed that verbal ability, behavioral impulsivity, parent maladjustment, and harsh parenting distinguished the persistent problem and unproblematic groups. Family instability was associated with change for the improver and new problem groups. The results suggest the importance of examining changes in the early adjustment to school for children from economically disadvantaged families.
Child↗