PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

N Eisenberg

Publications and source records attributed to N Eisenberg.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Mothers' emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: mediation through children's regulation.

The relations between mothers' expressed positive and negative emotion and 55-79-month-olds' (76% European American) regulation, social competence, and adjustment were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to test the plausibility of the hypothesis that the effects of maternal expression of emotion on children's adjustment and social competence are mediated through children's dispositional regulation. Mothers' expressed emotions were assessed during interactions with their children and with maternal reports of emotions expressed in the family. Children's regulation, externalizing and internalizing problems. and social competence were rated by parents and teachers, and children's persistence was surreptitiously observed. There were unique effects of positive and negative maternal expressed emotion on children's regulation. and the relations of maternal expressed emotion to children's externalizing problem behaviors and social competence were mediated through children's regulation. Alternative models of causation were tested; a child-directed model in which maternal expressivity mediated the effects of child regulation on child outcomes did not fit the data as well.

Affect↗

Parental socialization of children's dysregulated expression of emotion and externalizing problems.

The relations of parents' warmth, emotional expressivity, and discussion of emotion to 2nd-5th graders' regulation of emotional expressivity, externalizing problem behaviors, and expressivity were examined. Parents' and children's facial expressions to evocative slides were observed, as was parents' discussion of the slides, and parents and teachers provided information on children's regulation of expressivity and problem behavior. Analyses supported the hypothesis that the effect of parental variables on children's problem behavior was at least partly indirect through their children's regulation of emotion. Children's low negative (versus positive) facial expressivity to negative slides was associated with problem behavior for boys. A reversed model did not support the possibility that children's functioning had causal effects on parenting. The findings suggest that parents' emotion-related behaviors are linked to children's regulation of expressivity and externalizing behaviors.

Affect↗

The relations of parental emotional expressivity with quality of Indonesian children's social functioning.

In Western societies, parental expression of positive emotion has been positively related to the quality of children's social functioning, whereas their expression of negative emotion has been negatively or inconsistently related. The relations of parental expressivity to 3rd-grade Indonesian children's dispositional regulation, socially appropriate behavior, popularity, and sympathy were examined. Parents, teachers, and peers reported on children's social functioning and regulation, and parents (mostly mothers) reported on their own expression of emotion in the family. Generally, parental expression of negative emotion was negatively related to the quality of children's social functioning, and regression analyses indicated that the relations of parental negative expressivity to children's popularity and externalizing behaviors might be indirect through their effects on children's regulation. Unexpectedly, parental expression of positive emotion was unrelated to children's social functioning.

Adult↗

Dispositional emotionality and regulation: their role in predicting quality of social functioning.

Individual differences in emotionality and regulation are central to conceptions of temperament and personality. In this article, conceptions of emotionality and regulation and ways in which they predict social functioning are examined. Linear (including additive) and nonlinear effects are reviewed. In addition, data on mediational and moderational relations from a longitudinal study are presented. The effects of attention regulation on social functioning were mediated by resiliency, and this relation was moderated by negative emotionality at the first, but not second, assessment. Negative emotionality moderated the relation of behavior regulation to socially appropriate/prosocial behavior. These results highlight the importance of examining different types of regulation and the ways in which dispositional characteristics interact in predicting social outcomes.

Child↗

Emotion, regulation, and moral development.

Research and theory on the role of emotion and regulation in morality have received considerable attention in the last decade. Much relevant work has concerned the role of moral emotions in moral behavior. Research on differences between embarrassment, guilt, and shame and their relations to moral behavior is reviewed, as is research on the association of these emotions with negative emotionality and regulation. Recent issues concerning the role of such empathy-related responses as sympathy and personal distress to prosocial and antisocial behavior are discussed, as is the relation of empathy-related responding to situational and dispositional emotionality and regulation. The development and socialization of guilt, shame, and empathy also are discussed briefly. In addition, the role of nonmoral emotions (e.g. anger and sadness), including moods and dispositional differences in negative emotionality and its regulation, in morally relevant behavior, is reviewed.

Emotions↗

Right hemisphere dysfunction: therapeutic intervention from acute care to home health.

This article discusses clinical practice variances in speech-language treatment of patients with right hemisphere dysfunction by therapeutic milieu. With an eye toward enhanced cost effectiveness, a model of intervention is presented that takes a patient from acute care management through rehabilitation. Issues discussed include assessment, family training, goal setting, and documentation. A right hemisphere screening tool is included in an appendix for use in acute and transitional care settings where in-depth testing might be inappropriate because of time constraints or the acute or transitory nature of the patient's symptoms.

Acute Disease↗

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare--right hemisphere screen.

This article consists of a screening test that has been developed and used by the speech-language pathologists at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. It is an informal tool designed to quickly determine the cognitive and communication status of right hemisphere-injured patients and is most appropriate for use in acute care and transitional care settings, where speech-language pathologists are asked to determine whether or not a full evaluation is warranted.

Brain Diseases↗

Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children's sympathy from dispositional regulation and emotionality.

The relation of 8- to 10-year-olds' teacher-reported dispositional sympathy to regulation and emotionality was examined with a longitudinal sample. In general, sympathy was correlated with adults' reports of regulation and low negative emotionality contemporaneously and, to some degree, 2 and 4 years prior. General emotional intensity interacted with some aspects of regulation in predicting sympathy; for example, attention focusing predicted sympathy but only for children low in general emotional intensity. In general, the pattern of correlations changed little from age 6-8 to age 8-10 years, although parent-reported negative emotionality was more highly negatively related to sympathy at the older age. Dispositional sympathy was associated with verbal or physiological markers of sympathy in a laboratory setting.

Arousal↗

Shyness and children's emotionality, regulation, and coping: contemporaneous, longitudinal, and across-context relations.

The relations of teachers' and parents' reports of children's shyness (i.e., social inhibition) at ages 6-8, 8-10, and 10-12 years to dispositional regulation, emotionality, and coping were examined. Shyness was positively related to internalizing negative emotion, coping by doing nothing, and, for parent-rated shyness, behavioral inhibition/nonimpulsivity, attention focusing, and avoidant coping; it was negatively related to positive emotionality, instrumental coping, seeking support from teachers (at younger ages), and for teacher-rated shyness, attentional control. Often prediction held over several years and/or across reporters. Parent-reported internalizing negative emotion at age 4-6 predicted shyness at ages 6-8 and 8-10, but primarily for children low in attention shifting. Teacher-rated shyness was related to low social status; parent-rated shyness correlated with boys' adult-rated social status at age 4-6 and with style of social interaction, particularly for girls. The relation between parent- and teacher-reported shyness decreased with age. The overall pattern of findings was partially consistent with the conclusion that parent-rated shyness reflected primarily social wariness with unfamiliar people (i.e., temperamental shyness), whereas teacher-rated shyness tapped social inhibition due to social evaluative concerns.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Developmental differences in the understanding of and reaction to others' inhibition of emotional expression.

In Study 1,160 individuals from kindergarten (kd), 3rd, 6th, 9th, and college grades were presented story protagonists who facially expressed or did not express sadness/fear when encountering events that likely caused (relevant-inhibitory cause) or did not cause (irrelevant cause) the inhibition of the expression of emotion. In Study 2, 108 kd, 3rd-, and 6th-grade children viewed peers engaging in real interactions similar to the stories. In both studies, kindergartners judged that relevant-inhibitory causes decreased a peer's emotions. Older individuals displayed an understanding of the inhibition of emotional expression by ascribing greater emotion to the peer under relevant-inhibitory than irrelevant causal conditions. In Study 2, age differences in children's search for social information and prosocial behavior paralleled judgments of emotion.

Adolescent↗

Regulatory control and adults' stress-related responses to daily life events.

In this study, the authors examined the relations of regulatory control to adults' daily stress-related responses. A physiological index of regulatory control (vagal tone) and daily reports of stress and coping were obtained from 92 college students. The results of the study generally confirmed the prediction that individuals who are high in regulatory control were relatively unlikely to experience high levels of negative emotional arousal in response to stressors, but this relation held only for moderate- to high-intensity stressors. Moreover, under conditions of moderate to high stress, highly regulated individuals were likely to cope constructively with the stressor. Mediational analyses suggested that the relation of regulatory control to constructive coping was partially mediated by negative emotional arousal. The results support the conclusion that individual differences in regulatory control interact with situational factors in influencing the prediction of stress-related responses.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The relations of regulation and emotionality to resiliency and competent social functioning in elementary school children.

The relations of regulation and emotionality to elementary school children's social functioning were examined. Teachers and peers reported on children's social functioning; 1 parent and teacher rated children on various measures of regulation, resiliency, and emotionality; and a behavioral index of regulation was obtained. The effects of individual differences in attentional regulation on social status and socially appropriate behavior were mediated by resiliency, and dispositional negative emotionality moderated the positive relation between attentional control and resiliency (with this path being stronger for children high in negative emotionality). The effects of behavioral regulation were not mediated by resiliency; however, the relation of behavioral regulation to socially appropriate behavior (but not social status) was moderated by negative emotionality, with effects being significant and higher for children high in negative emotionality.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Contemporaneous and longitudinal prediction of children's social functioning from regulation and emotionality.

Relations of regulation and emotionality to social functioning were examined for 77 children followed from early to middle school age. Parents and teachers reported on children's social behavior, emotionality, and regulation, and children engaged in analogue peer conflict situations (i.e., with puppets). High-quality social functioning was predicted by high regulation and low levels of nonconstructive coping, negative emotionality, and general emotional intensity. Prediction often was obtained across reporters and time, although prediction was strongest within context (home versus school). Moreover, measures of regulation and emotionality frequently contributed unique variance to the prediction of social functioning. Contemporaneous correlations at age 8-10 were similar to those obtained at age 6-8, and prediction of later social functioning from emotionality and regulation at age 4-6 was similar at ages 6-8 and 8-10.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The relations of dispositional regulation and emotionally to elder's empathy-related responding and affect while volunteering.

Researchers recently have proposed that various empathy-related reactions are differentially related to individual differences in emotional intensity and regulation. This idea was tested with a sample of elderly hospital volunteers. As predicted, dispositional sympathy was associated with high levels of both dispositional regulation and negative emotional intensity. Personal distress was linked with low regulation and high negative emotional intensity, and cognitive perspective taking was associated with high regulation. Perspective taking moderated the relation of emotional intensity to sympathy and personal distress. In addition, elders' negative affect when volunteering at a hospital was correlated with low regulation and high levels of regulation and dispositional sympathy. The results demonstrate the findings pertaining to vicarious emotional responding are generalizable to nonstudent populations engaged in planned, sustained helping behavior.

Affect↗

Getting angry at peers: associations with linking of the provocateur.

We examined how preschoolers coped with anger in interactions with well liked and not well liked peers. The free-play interactions of preschool-aged children (M age = 66.27 months) were observed for 6 months. The frequency, causes, and intensity of children's anger, as well as their anger-related reactions, were compared for incidents provoked by peers who were "really liked" to those provoked by peers who were liked only " a little bit." Although there were no differences in the intensity of anger provocations by well liked and not well liked provocateurs, children's responses to provocations by well liked peers were more controlled than was the case for anger provoked by peers who were not well liked. In general, boys were more responsive to how they felt about the provocateur than were girls. These findings suggest that anger episodes with well liked children were less stressful than those with peers who were not well liked.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

The relations of children's dispositional prosocial behavior to emotionality, regulation, and social functioning.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of a measure of children's dispositional prosocial behavior (i.e., peer nominations) to individual differences in children's negative emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Children with prosocial reputations tended to be high in constructive social skills (i.e., socially appropriate behavior and constructive coping) and attentional regulation, and low in negative emotionality. The relations of children's negative emotionality to prosocial reputation were moderated by level of dispositional attentional regulation. In addition, the relations of prosocial reputation to constructive social skills and parent-reported negative emotionality (for girls) increased with age. Vagal tone, a marker of physiological regulation, was negatively related to girls' prosocial reputation.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Children's reactions to the receipt of direct and indirect help.

First, third, and fifth graders' (N = 201) reactions to 2 types of aid (direct help [answers] and indirect help [hints]) commonly used by helpers to assist children were examined. The children were randomly assigned to receive either direct or indirect help on a task, and then were asked to try a similar task immediately and again a few days later. Direct help was expected to elicit dependency, whereas indirect help was expected to elicit independent reactions. Age and/or sociocognitive level were predicted to moderate the effects of help. Direct help resulted in feelings of threat, low perceived control, and high dependency help-seeking for girls, but not for boys. Boys who received indirect help and understood the notion of consistency of personality requested less dependent help than did boys with less of this sociocognitive skill. Moreover, children high in the understanding of consistency of personality were more autonomous (i.e., helped themselves more) in the indirect than in the direct help condition.

Child↗