“I Know How You Feel”: Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge contributes to early school success

Abstract

Differences in emotion knowledge by children's age, gender, and socioeconomic risk status, as well as associations of emotion knowledge with executive control, social competence, and early classroom adjustment, were investigated. On emotion knowledge, 4-and 5-year-olds scored higher than 3-yearolds, with girls showing this effect more strongly. Socioeconomic risk status and emotion knowledge were negatively related. Furthermore, executive control was found to contribute to variance in emotion knowledge. Even with age, gender, socioeconomic risk status, and executive control covaried, emotion knowledge contributed to variance in social competence. Given these covariates, it contributed only indirectly to classroom adjustment, via its contribution to social competence. Implications are discussed for practice and policy attention to emotion knowledge within social-emotional curricula and assessment, targeting the period between ages 3 and 4 years, as well as children living in poverty.Children are constantly attempting to understand their own and others' behavior, and emotions play a role in this understanding, conveying crucial interpersonal information that can guide

How Preschoolers' Social-Emotional Learning Predicts Their Early School Success: Developing Theory-Promoting, Competency-Based Assessments

“…In sum, identification of such indirect effects is a strength of this model. Further, as in Denham et al (, ), emotion knowledge predicted emotionally regulated/prosocial behaviour (see also Denham et al, in press‐a; Schultz et al, ). In contrast, emotion knowledge did not predict early school success; however, its contribution to emotionally regulated/prosocial behaviour is one that has been theoretically suggested for decades (e.g., Denham, ).…”

“…Indirect, mediational pathways will also be explored; we would expect that the social–emotional competencies we consider more foundational might have, along with direct effects, indirect contributions to classroom adjustment and academic readiness via more clearly ‘applied skills’ (see Figure ), but little or no research has explored such linkages. In one of the few studies examining how aspects of SEL enumerated here may mediate one another in contributing to early school success, Denham et al () found that emotionally negative/aggressive behaviour mediated relations between aspects of emotion knowledge, as well as HEC, and both concurrent and later school adjustment (see also Denham, Bassett, Brown, Way, & Steed, in press‐a, for the indirect contribution of executive control to social competence via emotion knowledge).…”

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

“…Specifically, social play is related to higher levels of overall social competence and positive psychosocial adjustment (Coolahan, Fantuzzo, Mendez, & McDermott, ; Howes, Rubin, Ross, & French, ; Parker, Rubin, Erath, Wojslawowicz, & Buskirk, ). Further, positive peer interactions in preschool and beyond are related to better school adjustment and academic competence (Baker, ; Buhs & Ladd, ; Denham, Bassett, Brown, Way, & Steed, ; DeRosier & Lloyd, ). In light of these important outcomes, the purpose of the current study was to understand the factors that predict children’s engagement in social play and reticent/uninvolved behaviors.…”

Interpersonal movement synchrony facilitates pro‐social behavior in children's peer‐play

“…Following previous research (Tarr, Launay, Cohen, & Dunbar, ; Valdesolo & DeSteno, ), we hypothesized greater enjoyment of the movement game in the synchrony than in the non‐synchrony condition. It has also been suggested that bodily alignment arising from synchronous movements can enhance empathy (Feldman, ; Valdesolo & DeSteno, ), which strongly predicts children's helping behavior and social bonds with friends (Denham, Bassett, Brown, Way, & Steed, ; Zahn‐Waxler, Radke‐Yarrow, & Brady‐Smith, ). We therefore hypothesized that more helping behavior, mutual smiles, eye contact and empathy would occur following synchronous than non‐synchronous movement.…”