THE RELATION OF YOUNG CHILDRENS VICARIOUS EMOTIONAL RESPONDING TO SOCIAL COMPETENCE, REGULATION, AND EMOTIONALITY

The relation of preschool and kindergarten children's vicarious emotio nal responding to their social competence, regulation (attentional and coping styles), and emotionality (negative emotional intensity and di spositional negative affect) was examined. Vicarious responding was as sessed by means of facial reactions to a film about a peer in a social conflict and children's reported negative affect to viewing peers' re al-life negative emotion. Mothers and teachers reported on children's regulation and emotionality, social competence was assessed with socio metric nominations, teachers' reports, and observations of children's real-life anger reactions. Facial concerned attention during the film was associated with various measures of social competence, regulation, and low or moderate negative emotionality. Although negative vicariou s emotional responding in real contexts was infrequently related to me asures of interest, girls who reported intense negative vicarious emot ional responses were relatively unregulated and low in social competen ce. Finally, with age, regulation of vicarious emotional responding wa s increasingly related to children's sociometric status and to girls' coping at school. Thus, as they get older, children's abilities to reg ulate emotions may take on increasing importance in others' evaluation s of their social competencies.