The relations of emotional role taking, affective/moral attributions, and emotional display rule knowledge to low-income school-age children's social competence

Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that emotional knowledge is positively related to peer competence and prosocial behavior in early childhood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether emotional understanding continues to impact children's social competence once they reach middle childhood. Thirty-nine low-income third and fourth graders were administered three emotional knowledge tasks: (a) emotional role taking, (b) knowledge of affective attributions, and (c) knowledge of emotional display rules. The children also reported on the quality of their peer relations and teachers provided ratings of the children's prosocial behavior. Results revealed that children's attributions of aggression and denial were positively related to their reports of negative peer interactions. Children's prosocial behavior was positively predicted by emotional role-taking ability and knowledge of prosocial display rules. This study identifies the affective variables that are most relevant for the development of healthy peer relationships and responsible prosocial behavior for school-age children. These findings underscore the importance of emotional knowledge for children's social functioning across early and middle childhood.