Abstract
Caregivers' emotional responses to children influence children's social and emotional development. This study investigated the association between maternal emotional expressiveness in the context of mother–child interactions and young children's sensitivity to teacher criticism. Sensitivity to teacher criticism was assessed among 53 Japanese preschoolers using hypothetical scenarios in which a puppet child representing the participant made a small error, and a puppet teacher pointed out the error. Self-report questionnaires were used to measure maternal expressiveness. The results demonstrated that negative maternal expressiveness toward one's own children was positively related to children's ratings of their own ability and negatively related to children's motivation to continue with the task after teacher criticism. Positive maternal expressiveness was not related to children's sensitivity to criticism. These findings suggest that children who have experienced more negative emotion from mothers may be more likely to hold negative beliefs about how others will respond to their behavior more generally. This may, in turn, lead to a defensively positive view of one's own abilities and a disinclination to persevere as protection from additional opportunities for teacher evaluation.
Highlights
Starting in the early years of life, children are very sensitive to the emotional signals of others
The present study focused on how the emotional climate in families, especially the maternal emotional expressiveness in mother–child interactions, relate to children’s responses to criticism in extra-familial situations
The data from the memory question in the sensitivity to failure and criticism task showed that all children passed this question, that is, they retained what the puppet teacher said in their memory when they answered the questions following the criticism story
Summary
Starting in the early years of life, children are very sensitive to the emotional signals of others. From about 12 months, infants often use their mothers’ emotional cues to guide their own reactions in ambiguous situations (Saarni et al, 2006). A mother’s emotional expressions serve as a guide to appropriate behavior in ambiguous situations and as feedback to the child about the child’s own behavior (Kelley et al, 2000). Such maternal emotional reactions influence children’s belief systems concerning the acceptability and reasonableness of their behavior (Halberstadt, 1991). The present study focused on how the emotional climate in families, especially the maternal emotional expressiveness in mother–child interactions, relate to children’s responses to criticism (i.e., negative evaluation) in extra-familial situations
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