Children's Emotional Responses Research Articles

How mothers talk to their children about failure, mistakes and setbacks is related to their children's fear of failure.

Many people fear failure and making mistakes. This fear can be transmitted from parents to children, suggesting that parental communication regarding failures and setbacks may play a critical role in shaping a child's perception of mistakes. In this study, we investigated how everyday parent-child conversations about setbacks influence children's fear of making mistakes. Drawing on the large pre-birth Growing Up in New Zealand cohort, we focused on a sub-sample of 231 mother-child dyads who engaged in a recorded conversations about a "recent disappointment or setback" when the children were 8 years old. Conversations between mothers and children about the recent disappointments were coded to identify whether parents recognised or acknowledge their child's emotional response, if action plans were discussed, and the types of resources that the child could draw on. The children also completed a questionnaire about their global self-worth and their fear of making mistakes. The discussion of clear action plans, in the absence of a discussion about collaborative resources, was found to be associated with an increased fear of making mistakes among children. Conversely, when mothers clearly acknowledged their child's emotions and discussed ways to work collaboratively with their child on future problems, there was a notable decrease in the child's fear of mistakes. However, it is noteworthy that many mothers in our study either minimally acknowledged or dismissed their child's emotions(40%), rarely discussed action plans (55%), or collaborative resources (79%)when discussing the recent setback.

Convergent and divergent parental emotion socialization processes shape children's emotional responding

AbstractParents have an essential role in shaping children's emotional responses, a process called emotional socialization. Typically, researchers measure parental socialization behaviors via self‐report and in‐laboratory observations. However, the extent to which there is convergence between parents’ reported and enacted socialization practices is an open question. The aims of the current study were (1) to quantify the convergence/divergence in parents’ reported and enacted emotional socialization practices and (2) to analyze how convergence/divergence in specific parent socialization practices relates to children's emotional responding across different contexts (alone and with a parent). Participants were a diverse sample of 181 parent‐child dyads (children ages 3–11). We analyzed emotion socialization strategies (problem‐focused reactions, emotion‐focused reactions, expressive encouragement, punishing reactions, minimizing reactions, and distress reactions) as they related to children's behavioral and physiological responding to an emotional challenge. We found an overall pattern of divergence for most socialization strategies, but convergence for problem‐focused reactions. For children's observed distress, a convergent pattern of reported and enacted minimizing specifically was related to more distress while alone. For children's physiological reactivity, enacted problem‐solving was related to greater parasympathetic decreases across social context (from being alone to being with parent). Taken together, our findings suggest that convergence and divergence in parental emotional socialization practices may capture unique variability in how parents contextually respond to children's feelings, and children's emotional responding.

What are topic emotions? A comparison of children's emotional responses to climate change, climate change learning and climate change picturebooks

AbstractPekrun and his colleagues highlight the significance and diversity of emotion in education. Their analysis suggests that these emotions can be categorised by their stimuli into those related to the classroom: activities, outcomes, relationships, topics and knowledge processes (epistemic). Most research in this area has focused on achievement emotions, with relatively limited research exploring topic emotions. This paper develops a framework for conceptualising topic emotions. It reports on a design‐based study that captured children's expressions of emotion in response to a climate change education programme using picturebooks. The data brought together emotional responses to climate change, to learning about climate change and to climate‐related picturebooks. Qualitative analysis of these responses highlights how they differ not only with regard to the emotions expressed, but also the structure of the emotional experience. Emotional responses to the broad topic of climate change were expressed as ongoing analytical judgements, where those related to learning about climate change were immersive and finite. Reading climate‐related picturebooks involved exploring how emotion is communicated and evoked. This supported quasi‐emotional experiences, where the reader imagines the emotions of the characters. The picturebooks are also shown to create vicarious emotional experiences, involving ethical‐based responses to the behaviour and circumstances depicted. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes a framework for disaggregating these differing emotional experiences related to topic.

PERAN ORANG TUA DALAM MEMBENTUK KEPRIBADIAN ANAK USIA 4-5 TAHUN

This journal explores the pivotal role parents play in shaping the personalities of children aged 4-5 years. Through a synthesis of recent research, it focuses on the impact of parental interactions on the development of a child's personality during this critical stage. Employing qualitative approaches, surveys involving various parents, and observations of parent-child interactions, the study aims to pinpoint specific strategies employed by parents to nurture key aspects of personality during this developmental phase. The comprehensive analysis encompasses diverse parenting methods influencing a child's cognitive patterns, behaviors, and emotional responses. Moreover, this journal underscores the significance of effective parental role modeling in fostering self-confidence, independence, and social skills in preschool-aged children. Within this effort, the correlation between the quality of parental interactions and the characteristics of a child's personality takes center stage. Additionally, the article discusses practical strategies for parents to enhance emotional bonds, support positive development, and establish a robust foundation for a child's personality development. The findings provide profound insights into the vital role of parents in shaping the personalities of 4-5-year-old children, offering practical implications for fostering nurturing parenting styles that support optimal growth.

Mother-child dyadic responses to children facing challenges: An examination across ethnicities.

The current study (a) examined ethnic differences in mothers' and children's responses to children's performance in a challenging task, (b) tested the associations among children's desire for assistance, maternal control, and children's emotional responses to the challenge, and (c) explored whether these associations held across three ethnicities-Asian Americans (AA), Latinx Americans (LA), and European Americans (EA). Results showed that children's emotional arousal significantly increased and emotional valence became significantly less positive over the course of children experiencing repeated challenges in front of their mothers. In terms of ethnic differences, LA mothers exhibited more control than EA mothers, but LA children responded less negatively to the challenging task than EA children. AA dyads did not significantly differ from LA or EA dyads on any maternal or child responses. However, regardless of ethnicity, stronger child desire for assistance was associated with greater maternal control and greater maternal control was associated with less emotional arousal and more positive child emotional valence. These findings suggest that, in a challenging context, maternal control is likely experienced by children as guidance that mitigates decreases in positive emotion. Our work has implications for interventions to encourage more emotionally responsive parental involvement with children in late childhood and early adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of finger puppet on pain and emotional manifestation for venous blood collection in the pediatric emergency department: A randomized controlled trial

AimTo determine the effect of distraction with a finger puppet for venous blood collection in the pediatric emergency department on children's pain and emotional manifestation. MethodsRandomized controlled trial with 80 children (aged 3–6 years) who applied to the pediatric emergency department between October 2021 and March 2022. The attention of child was distracted from the procedure by playing with finger puppets before and during the venous blood collection in the finger puppet group. The children in the control group underwent routine blood collection. The procedural pain was measured with the Face, Legs, Activity, Cry, Consolability Scale (FLACC) and the emotional response was measured with the Children’s Emotional Manifestation Scale (CEMS). ResultsThe mean FLACC pain scores of the children in the finger puppet group were statistically significantly lower than the children in the control group (p < 0.001). It was also found that the finger puppet group’s mean scores of CEMS before and during the procedure were statistically lower than those of the control group (p < 0.001). ConclusionsFinger puppets can be used to reduce pain and positively change children's emotional responses during painful procedures such as blood collection.

Emotional regulation and aggression in children: The regulatory role of Turkish mothers' emotion socialization reactions

AbstractObjectiveThe main aim of this research is to determine whether positive or negative maternal reactions in the field of emotional socialization play an intermediary role in the relationship between a child's emotional regulation skills and aggressive behavior.BackgroundPrevious findings show the effects of children's emotion regulation skills and parents' emotional socialization responses on aggressive behavior. However, researchers have not reported how children's emotion regulation skills influence maternal emotional socialization responses or investigated the mediating role of maternal emotional socialization responses on emotion regulation and aggressive behavior.MethodThe study was conducted with 285 mothers of 60‐ to 72‐month‐old children attending preschool. Research data were collected using the Children Aggression Scale—Parent Version, Dealing With Negative Emotions of Children, Emotional Regulation Checklist, Attachment Insecurity Screening Inventory, Parental Attitude Scale, and Child–Parent Relationship Scale.ResultsPositive and negative responses of mothers play a mediating role in the relationship between children's aggression and emotional regulation. Mothers' positive responses were effective in reducing the aggression level of children with a low level of emotional regulation. In addition, even if children's emotional regulation skills are low, positive responses are effective in reducing mothers' negative reactions and thus children's aggression levels.ImplicationsGiven the importance of promoting positive development in children, this study may have important implications for intervention and prevention programs. In particular, family‐based interventions that encourage mothers to use emotional socialization applications and education/techniques that encourage parents' emotional regulation strategies are recommended.

Effects of In-Store Decorative Elements on Children Shopping Behaviour

Children play a significant role in determining the family's shopping expenses, which is as important as an adult's. However, the research found that having a child companion can reduce positive shopping values due to the child's behaviour. The focus of this research is to understand the effects of in-store decorative elements on children aged between three to seven years of shopping experience. The qualitative methodology using ethnography studies is employed to identify key factors affecting children's emotional and behavioural responses. It also discusses research insight that could help to improve business strategy for children customers. Keywords: Children's shopping experience; shopping atmospheric variables; in-store decorative elements; ethnography studies. eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning &amp; Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI7%20(Special%20Issue).3759

The ontogeny of children's social emotions in response to (un)fairness.

Humans have a deeply rooted sense of fairness, but its emotional foundation in early ontogeny remains poorly understood. Here, we asked if and when 4- to 10-year-old children show negative social emotions, such as shame or guilt, in response to advantageous unfairness expressed through a lowered body posture (measured using a Kinect depth sensor imaging camera). We found that older, but not younger children, showed more negative emotions, i.e. a reduced upper body posture, after unintentionally disadvantaging a peer on (4,1) trials than in response to fair (1,1) outcomes between themselves and others. Younger children, in contrast, expressed more negative emotions in response to the fair (1,1) split than in response to advantageous inequity. No systematic pattern of children's emotional responses was found in a non-social context, in which children divided resources between themselves and a non-social container. Supporting individual difference analyses showed that older children in the social context expressed negative emotions in response to advantageous inequity without directly acting on this negative emotional response by rejecting an advantageously unfair offer proposed by an experimenter at the end of the study. These findings shed new light on the emotional foundation of the human sense of fairness and suggest that children's negative emotional response to advantageous unfairness developmentally precedes their rejection of advantageously unfair resource distributions.

Is feeling bad good enough? Ethical guilt and callous-unemotional traits in childhood.

Lacking the capacity for guilt is a defining characteristic of callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Although guilt is a multifaceted construct, past CU research has rarely considered the reasons underlying children's negative emotional responses to wrongdoing. The present study investigated how different forms of guilt were associated with CU traits during early and middle childhood in a Canadian community sample. We interviewed 4- and 8-year-olds (N = 300; 50% female) to assess their emotion attributions and reasoning in response to hypothetical acts of aggression. Interview responses were used to calculate variables representing undifferentiated, ethical, and non-ethical guilt ratings. Caregivers rated children's CU tendencies at baseline and again 3 years later. Higher ethical guilt was associated with lower CU scores concurrently and 3 years later. Higher non-ethical guilt was associated with higher CU scores at baseline (for older children) and 3 years later (for all children). Undifferentiated guilt was not associated with CU after controlling for demographic variables.

Early exposure to parent-perpetrated intimate partner violence predicts hypervigilant error monitoring

Early exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) places children at risk for ongoing emotional difficulties, including problems with self-regulation and high levels of internalizing symptoms. However, the impact of IPV exposure on children's error monitoring remains unknown. The present study utilized electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the impact of exposure to IPV in infancy on error monitoring in middle childhood. Results indicated that parents' perpetration of IPV against their romantic partners when children were under 24 months of age predicted hypervigilant error monitoring in children at age 8 (N = 30, 16 female), as indexed by error-related neural activity (ERN and Pe difference amplitudes), above and beyond the effects of general adversity exposure and parental responsiveness. There was no association between partner perpetration of IPV and children's error monitoring. Results illustrate the harmful effects of early exposure to parent-perpetrated IPV on error monitoring and highlight the importance of targeting children's and parents' cognitive and emotional responses to error commission in psychotherapy.

Effectiveness of the use of threats in communication with children (aged from 8 to 12)

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the ability of threatening communication to favorably modify children’s preventive behavior (8–12 years old) in the context of dental hygiene. It also seeks to identify the type of threat that promotes the most children's persuasion (physical/social threat). Multi-method qualitative study was conducted followed by an experimental study to test the influence of threatening communication (social or physical) on children's emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. First, multi-method qualitative study was used to explore the experience of children's exposure to threatening dental hygiene communications (focus groups, projective technique, individual interviews with dentists, etc.). Then, an experimental study based on a survey data collection to 1496 schoolchildren was conducted to test the influence of threatening communications (social or physical) on children's emotional, cognitive and behavioral responses. Indeed, different experimental situations were created by varying at each time the type of ads to which children were exposed.FindingsResults indicate that using threat communications can be a powerful way to convince children to adopt healthy dental hygiene behaviour, and that physical threats are more effective than social threats.Originality/valueThe originality of this study is to focus on children’s’ affective and cognitive reactions to threatening dental health communication. This by emphasizing the nature of the threat used in communication (physical or social threat).

The impact of surgical cancellations on children, families, and the health system in an Australian paediatric tertiary referral hospital.

Reasons for elective surgery cancelations and their impact vary from one institution to another. Cancelations have emotional and financial implications for patients and their families. Our service has a particularly broad and geographically diverse patient population; hence, we sought to examine these impacts in our service. We identified families with procedural cancelations and administered a telephone questionnaire. Survey items included the reason for and timing of cancelation, how the family was informed, the mode of transport and distance traveled to the hospital, associated leave from work, expenses, whether the child was required to fast, missed school, as well as the child's and parent's emotional responses to the cancelation, along with overall parental satisfaction with how the cancelation was handled. During our study period, a total of 7870 procedures were booked. 6734 (86%) of these were completed and 1136 (14%) were canceled, with 6% canceled on the day of surgery. In 750 (66%) of these cancelations, families were successfully contacted by telephone and agreed to participate. Of these 305 (41%) cancelations were family-initiated and 444 (59%) were hospital-initiated, with these hospital-initiated cancelations occurring closer to scheduled surgery. The most common cause of cancelation was that the child could not undergo the procedure due to illness (22%) or being unable attend the hospital (14%). The greatest disruption to families and children occurred when procedures were canceled late, particularly when the cancelation occurred on the day of the planned procedure.

Changes in emotions and worries during the Covid-19 pandemic: an online-survey with children and adults with and without mental health conditions

BackgroundThe novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has spread quickly worldwide with dramatic consequences on our daily lives. Adverse psychosocial consequences of Covid-19 might be particularly severe for children and adolescents, parents of young children and people with mental health conditions (mhc), who are more prone to the experience of psychosocial stress and who are more dependent on the access to professional psychosocial support. The present survey therefore aimed to explore perceived stress and the emotional responses of children and adolescents as well as adults with and without mhc during the social restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.MethodsThe survey gathered information about 284 children and adolescent (parent-on-child-reports) and 456 adults (including 284 parents, self-reports). The participants were allocated to four groups: children and adolescents with mhc, children and adolescent without mhc, adults with mhc and adults without mhc. The survey included general questions about socio-demographic characteristics and mental health status, the CoRonavIruSHealth Impact Survey and the Perceived Stress Scale (only data on adults). Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used for comparing the emotional responses during the Covid-19 pandemic with emotions before the Covid-19 pandemic. Independent sample t-test were used to compare the level of perceived stress between the adult groups, linear regression analyses were conducted to examine which variables predicted perceived stress during the Covid-19 restrictions.ResultsAn increase to the worse during the Covid-19 restrictions was observed for most emotions and worries in all four groups (children and adolescents with mhc, children and adolescents without mhc, adults with mhc, adults without mhc). Contrary to our expectations, a greater number of emotions worsened significantly for children and adolescents as well as adults without mhc as compared to those with mhc. We found higher perceived stress in parents as compared to adults without children in the same household and in adults with mhc as compared to those without mhc.DiscussionCovid-19-related social restrictions and potential health risks seem to affect emotions and perceived stress in children, adolescents and adults. Especially, Covid-19 seems to be have worsened the mental well-being of children and adolescent and their families, who were mentally healthy before the Covid-19 pandemic.

A Pilot Study of Responses to Interparental Conflict in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research supports that parents of children with ASD experience higher rates of marital conflict compared to parents of neurotypically developing (NT) children; however, no known research examining reactions to interparental conflict in children with ASD exists. This study compared emotional, behavioral, and physiological responses to interparental conflict in ASD (n = 21) and NT children (n = 29). Children were presented with videotaped interactions (constructive vs. destructive conflict) of actors and their reactions were measured. Children with ASD reported higher levels of negative emotions following constructive conflict compared to NT children. Parents of children with ASD rated their child's emotional and behavioral responses to interparental conflict more negatively than parents of NT children. Comparable levels of physiological reactivity were found across both groups.

Keep it to yourself? Parent emotion suppression influences physiological linkage and interaction behavior.

Parents can influence children's emotional responses through direct and subtle behavior. In this study we examined how parents' acute stress responses might be transmitted to their 7- to 11-year-old children and how parental emotional suppression would affect parents' and children's physiological responses and behavior. Parents and their children (N = 214; Ndyads = 107; 47% fathers) completed a laboratory visit where we initially separated the parents and children and subjected the parent to a standardized laboratory stressor that reliably activates the body's primary stress systems. Before reuniting with their children, parents were randomly assigned to either suppress their affective state-hide their emotions from their child-or to act naturally (control condition). Once reunited, parents and children completed a conflict conversation and two interaction tasks together. We measured their sympathetic nervous system (SNS) responses and observed interaction behavior. We obtained three key findings: (a) suppressing mothers' SNS responses influenced their child's SNS responses; (b) suppressing fathers' SNS responses were influenced by their child's SNS responses; and (c) dyads with suppressing parents appeared less warm and less engaged during interaction than control dyads. These findings reveal that parents' emotion regulation efforts impact parent-child stress transmission and compromise interaction quality. Discussion focuses on short-term and long-term consequences of parental emotion regulation and children's social-emotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sleep restriction alters children's positive emotional responses, but effects are moderated by anxiety.

An abundance of cross-sectional research links inadequate sleep with poor emotional health, but experimental studies in children are rare. Further, the impact of sleep loss is not uniform across individuals and pre-existing anxiety might potentiate the effects of poor sleep on children's emotional functioning. A sample of 53 children (7-11years, M=9.0; 56% female) completed multimodal, assessments in the laboratory when rested and after two nights of sleep restriction (7 and 6hr in bed, respectively). Sleep was monitored with polysomnography and actigraphy. Subjective reports of affect and arousal, psychophysiological reactivity and regulation, and objective emotional expression were examined during two emotional processing tasks, including one where children were asked to suppress their emotional responses. After sleep restriction, deleterious alterations were observed in children's affect, emotional arousal, facial expressions, and emotion regulation. These effects were primarily detected in response to positive emotional stimuli. The presence of anxiety symptoms moderated most alterations in emotional processing observed after sleep restriction. Results suggest inadequate sleep preferentially impacts positive compared to negative emotion in prepubertal children and that pre-existing anxiety symptoms amplify these effects. Implications for children's everyday socioemotional lives and long-term affective risk are highlighted.

. Social Robots For Reinforcing Attention And Forming Emotional Knowledge Of Children With Special Educational Needs

Emotional child-robot interaction helps catching quickly child attention and enhance information perception during learning and verbalization in children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). This will improve the pedagogical rehabilitation for these children and also develop their emotional knowledge and memory by play-like activities mediated by emotion-expressive social robots. The designed EEG-based portable Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) measures and features in real time the brain electrical activity in order to analyze the correlated attentional or emotional states of a child. The output performance scores are used either by special educators for assessment of the emotional states and cognitive performance of a child or as inputs for robot control in the play-learning scenarios. BCI is a new technology for human-robot interaction and it can evolve into technology for self-regulatory training of attention and emotional skills via neurofeedback exposed on the robot. This study marks a first step towards how to use the advantages of educational theater in Social Robotics to facilitate the perceptual processing of a child and at the same time to augment the emotional talent of an actor to an emotion-expressive robot. A low resolution EMOTIV brain-listening headset is used to translate the head/face movements or child brain activity into robot commands. Then, they are wirelessly transmitted to robot sensors, modules and controllers. Since the attention or emotional responses of children with SEN make robots to act, these skills are naturally reinforced in the play.

Interrelatedness of Children's Psychological and Physiological Responses to Interparental Conflict: A Moderating Role of Harsh Parenting.

Children's psychological and physiological responses to interparental conflict have received considerable attention due to their implications for later adjustment, yet limited research has investigated the interplay between these two response systems. This study investigates patterns of association between children's psychological responses (e.g., emotional distress) and cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict, including possible moderations by negative caregiving environment. Participants included 193 families (mother, father, and child). Parents completed questionnaires relating to their caregiving behaviors toward the child (107 girls and 86 boys, M age = 7.99 years, SD = 0.53 years) and children's psychological responses to interparental conflict. Children provided three saliva samples over the course of watching videos depicting conflicts between two adults, whom children were asked to pretend were their parents. Based on a series of Latent Growth Curve Models, only children's emotional responses to interparental conflict (indicated by increased distress) were associated with greater cortisol reactivity. Additionally, fathers' harsh parenting behavior moderated the relation between children's emotional reactivity and cortisol reactivity, yet the moderation effect was not found for mothers' parenting. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of exploring both psychological and physiological reactivity to conflict and the possible moderating role of harsh parenting.

Discusiones Metodológicas en el Estudio del Desarrollo de la Intencionalidad Compartida en Niños: Una Revisión Sistemática

Research on children's cognitive abilities yielding evidence in support of shared intentionality has greatly increased in recent years. The present article discusses the methodologies used in the field by reviewing research published between 2005 and 2017 whose main topic was shared intentionality. As a result, a distinction between 2 approaches is proposed: those methodologies that are active or require behavioral responses that include infant movement and those that are passive or are based on children's visual or emotional responses. A critical analysis of the use of these methodologies, their implications, and their limitations is presented. Finally, it is proposed that tensions and discussions at the methodological level may be due to theoretical differences regarding the study of the phenomenon.