SCAFFOLDING YOUNG CHILDRENS PROSOCIAL RESPONSIVENESS - PRESCHOOLERS RESPONSES TO ADULT SADNESS, ANGER, AND PAIN

Children's responsiveness to a female adult's negative emotions was in vestigated in two studies. During individual play sessions with presch oolers (mean age = 44 and 50 months in each study), experimenters enac ted two vignettes involving each of three emotions: anger, sadness, an d pain. The children's reactions to negative emotion, as well as their reactions after it was explained, and after prosocial behaviour was r equested, were rated for level of prosocial response. Overall, prosoci al behaviour increased after such supportive scaffolding from the adul t. Children responded most prosocially to anger, and least prosocially to pain. Requesting help affected prosocial responsiveness only for s adness and anger. The slightly older subjects in Study Two may have ne eded less adult scaffolding of the situation because of their more pro ficient understanding of emotion. The results are discussed with refer ence to the information young children need regarding adult emotional displays, and their need to feel competent to perform prosocial action s.