Children's use and knowledge of display rules for anger following hypothetical vignettes versus following live peer interaction

Our primary goal was to examine the correspondence between children self-re ported use and knowledge of display rules for anger following hypothetical vignettes versus following live peer interactions. Our secondary, goal was to investigate whether children self-reported experience and self-reported expression of anger were related their observed anger expression, considere d an observational measure of use of display rules for angel: Participants were 274 second-grade children. Children were first interviewed about their use and knowledge of display rules for anger in game-playing situations de picted through hypothetical vignettes. Several months later children intera cted with a confederate in standardized games designed to simulate the vign ettes and answered the same questions about display, rules. Children respon ses were moderately related across the two contexts. However; following the live interactions, compared to the hypothetical vignettes, children report ed feeling less angel; expressing less anger; intending to hide their anger more, and dissembling their anger more. In addition, there were difference s in the quality and quantity of strategies for hiding anger that children generated across the two contexts. Observations of anger expression were no t related to self-reports of either the experience or expression of anger.