Exploring the Bidirectionality of Emotion Understanding and Classroom Behavior with Spanish‐ and English‐speaking Preschoolers Attending Head Start

Abstract

The present study investigated time-dependent relationships between emotion understanding and the behavioral adjustment of preschoolers over a single school year using a latent variable structural equation modeling framework. Teacher reports of child behavior (hyperactivity, emotion symptoms, conduct problems, peer problems, and prosocial behavior) and performance assessments of emotion understanding were obtained twice at a 6-month interval for a sample of 281 preschoolers (159 boys and 122 girls, with mean age = 52.40 months) from English-(N = 158) and Spanish-speaking (N = 123) backgrounds. Emotion understanding and behavior were stable over time, and cross-sectional associations between them were in expected directions. Cross-lagged paths revealed that the behavior variables significantly associated with emotion understanding across time were hyperactivity, emotion symptoms, and peer problems, and that behavior variables were generally better predictors of emotion understanding than vice versa. Differences across gender and language groups suggest a stronger and more complex bidirectional relationship between emotion understanding and behavior for girls and for Spanishspeaking children compared wth boys and English-speaking children. Results are discussed with respect to the value of exploring cross-lagged relationships and the potential importance of gender and culture as determinants of those relationships. MeasuresEmotion Understanding. The more complex of the two EUA factors was used to estimate emotion understanding in the present study (Howlin et al., 1999). This factor Emotion Understanding and Classroom Behavior 5 Note: RMSEA = root mean square error of approximation; SDQ = Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; SRMR = standardized root mean square residual.

The relations of children’s emotion knowledge to their observed social play and reticent/uninvolved behavior in preschool: Moderation by effortful control

“…Consistent with this perspective, researchers have found that relations between teacher‐reported social competence and children’s academic achievement were mediated by gains in emotion knowledge (Torres, Domitrovich, & Bierman, ). Other researchers have investigated bidirectional relations between aspects of preschoolers’ behavior and emotion knowledge and found relations from children’s behavior to emotion knowledge, but not the other way around (Strand, Barbosa‐Leiker, Arellano Piedra, & Downs, ). Researchers should examine associations between social knowledge and social competencies longitudinally so as to be able to control for earlier levels of social abilities.…”

Pathways to behavior problems in Norwegian kindergarten children: The role of parent emotion socialization and child emotion understanding

“…For boys, emotion understanding mediated the relationship between emotion socialization and children’s internalizing behaviors. A more recent cross‐cultural study of emotion understanding in 281 preschoolers (159 boys; M age = 4 years) from English ( N = 158) and Spanish‐speaking ( N = 123) backgrounds investigated the relationship between child emotion understanding and externalizing child behavior problems at different time points over 6 months (Strand, Barbosa‐Leiker, Piedra & Downs, 2015). They found evidence of a stronger and more complex bi‐directional relationship between child emotion understanding and behavior problems for Spanish‐speaking girls compared to boys and for all English‐speaking children.…”

Parents' beliefs about children's emotions, children's emotion understanding, and classroom adjustment in middle childhood

“…Both recognition and knowledge are critical to children's understanding of the actual emotional experiences of the self and others within specific situations (both emotion‐eliciting and nonemotion eliciting) and likely affects how children understand and represent significant personal experiences (Frijda, ; Wang, ). Numerous studies show that children's emotion understanding is an important predictor of children's social functioning and classroom adjustment (Denham et al, ; Garner & Waajid, ; Miller et al, ; Schultz, Izard, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, ; Strand, Barbosa‐Leiker, Arellano Piedra, & Downs, ). The majority of these studies, however, focus on the emotion recognition component of emotion understanding, and specifically in early childhood.…”