SOCIALIZATION OF EMOTION - PATHWAY TO PRESCHOOLERS EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE

Aspects of 47 preschoolers' emotional competence-their patterns of emo tional expressiveness and reactions to others' emotion displays-were o bserved in two settings, with mother and with peers, and their general social competence was rated by their preschool teachers. Intrapersona l and interpersonal (i.e., socialization correlates of children's emot ional competence were identified, and a causal model incorporating dir ect and indirect influences on social competence was evaluated. Matern al patterns of expressiveness, reactions to children's emotion display s, and self-reported affective environment were associated with childr en's emotional competence in the preschool. Children's emotional compe tence with mother predicted their emotional competence in the preschoo l somewhat less strongly, suggesting that emotional competence may dif fer according to the interpersonal relationship studied. Taken as a wh ole, findings reassert the importance of the domain of emotional expre ssion to the development of social competence.