Young Children's Perceptions and Responses to Negative Emotions

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In this study, the perceptions and responses of 136 kindergarten children from middle SES families were recorded in one-to-one interviews about the cause, reasons for expression, and responses to negative emotions. Results showed that children perceived he causes of anger and sadness as 'interpersonal events' and they perceived he cause of fear to be 'fantasy/scary events'. The children tended not to express their negative emotions because they expected negative responses from their peers and mothers, but when they did, the expressed their negative emotions to their mothers rather than to peers. Children responded to the negative emotions of their peers with 'problem-solving focused strategies', but they responded to their mothers' negative emotions with passive strategies, such as 'emotion focused response' and 'avoidance'.