Children's Concordant Emotions and Cognitions in Response to Observed Emotions

Abstract

Children's emotional and cognitive responses to observed scenarios were examined in 2 studies (N = 138 5-13-year-olds) investigating hypothesized developments in concordant emotion with stimulus persons, cognitive attributions for these emotions, and the effects of emotional intensity in self and stimulus persons. Results across studies confirmed age-related increases in children's emotional and cognitive responses. There were limited increases with age in concordant emotion, and continuous increases in the frequency and kinds of attributions explaining such emotion. Results also confirmed a model ordering expected developments in children's emotion attributions. As expected, stimulus persons' emotional intensity correlated with children's emotion intensity and affect match. However, as expected, empathy with others was lower when children's own intensity was higher than stimulus persons'. Present findings contribute to investigations of children's understanding of emotions and have implications for developmental studies of empathy.