SOCIALIZATION OF PRESCHOOLERS EMOTION UNDERSTANDING

Contributions to individual differences in preschoolers' identificatio n of basic emotional expressions and situations, emotion language, and their self-generated causes for basic emotions (happy, sad, angry, an d afraid) were investigated across parts of 2 preschool years (N = 47; initial M age = 41 months). An aggregate of preschool emotion underst anding was predicted by the intrapersonal predictors, child age and ov erall cognitive-language ability. Observed socialization, including ex planations about emotions, and positive and negative responsiveness to child emotions predicted the aggregate of emotion understanding, even with age and cognitive-language ability partialed. The contribution o f socialization predictors to emotion understanding was moderated by s ex only for negative emotional responsiveness, and children with the l owest emotion understanding scores had mothers who showed more anger.