READING and FEELING: the effects of a literature-based intervention designed to increase emotional competence in second and third graders.

Irina R Kumschick,Gisela Klann-Delius,Luna Beck,Georg Witte,Isabella Heuser,Michael Eid,Rã¼Diger Steinlein,Winfried Menninghaus

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01448

Abstract

Emotional competence has an important influence on development in school. We hypothesized that reading and discussing children’s books with emotional content increases children’s emotional competence. To examine this assumption, we developed a literature-based intervention, named READING and FEELING, and tested it on 104 second and third graders in their after-school care center. Children who attended the same care center but did not participate in the emotion-centered literary program formed the control group (n = 104). Our goal was to promote emotional competence and to evaluate the effectiveness of the READING and FEELING program. Emotional competence variables were measured prior to the intervention and 9 weeks later, at the end of the program. Results revealed significant improvements in the emotional vocabulary, explicit emotional knowledge, and recognition of masked feelings. Regarding the treatment effect for detecting masked feelings, we found that boys benefited significantly more than girls. These findings underscore the assumption that children’s literature is an appropriate vehicle to support the development of emotional competence in middle childhood.

Highlights

Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the importance of emotional competence in adults and in children
This paper uses the definition suggested by Saarni (1999, p. 5) who conceptualized emotional competence as a set of eight skills: (1) Awareness of one’s emotional state, including the knowledge that it is possible to experience mixed feelings
The interaction of the group and sex variables correlated with the factor group (r = 0.67, p < 0.01) and with sex (r = 0.53, p < 0.01)

Summary

Introduction

Over the past two decades, there has been an increasing interest in the importance of emotional competence in adults and in children. Children with a high level of emotional competence are more able to regulate their feelings and are more successful at interacting with their peer group (Schultz et al, 2001; Smith, 2001; Trentacosta and Fine, 2010). They are quite popular among their classmates and make more friends but they have better relationships with teachers (Ladd et al, 1999; Hamre and Pianta, 2001) and perform better academically (Gumora and Arsenio, 2002; Trentacosta and Izard, 2007; Denham et al, 2012). This paper uses the definition suggested by Saarni (1999, p. 5) who conceptualized emotional competence as a set of eight skills:

Methods

Results

Conclusion