Children's understanding of conflicting emotions: a training study

Children's emotion understanding: A meta-analysis of training studies

BACKGROUND

In the course of development, children show increased insight and understanding of emotions-both of their own emotions and those of others. However, little is known about the efficacy of training programs aimed at improving children's understanding of emotion.

OBJECTIVES

To conduct an effect size analysis of trainings aimed at three aspects of emotion understanding: external aspects (i.e., the recognition of emotional expressions, understanding external causes of emotion, understanding the influence of reminders on present emotions); mental aspects (i.e., understanding desire-based emotions, understanding belief-based emotions, understanding hidden emotions); and reflective aspects (i.e., understanding the regulation of an emotion, understanding mixed emotions, understanding moral emotions).

DATA SOURCES

A literature search was conducted using PubMed, PsycInfo, the Cochrane Library, and manual searches.

REVIEW METHODS

The search identified 19 studies or experiments including a total of 749 children with an average age of 86 months (S.D.=30.71) from seven different countries.

RESULTS

Emotion understanding training procedures are effective for improving external (Hedge's g = 0.62), mental (Hedge's g = 0.31), and reflective (Hedge's g = 0.64) aspects of emotion understanding. These effect sizes were robust and generally unrelated to the number and lengths of training sessions, length of the training period, year of publication, and sample type. However, training setting and social setting moderated the effect of emotion understanding training on the understanding of external aspects of emotion. For the length of training session and social setting, we observed significant moderator effects of training on reflective aspects of emotion.

CONCLUSION

Emotion understanding training may be a promising tool for both preventive intervention and the psychotherapeutic process. However, more well-controlled studies are needed.

Improving Low-Income Preschoolers' Theory of Mind: A Training Study

This study examined the efficacy of training theory of mind via storybook interactions focused on characters' mental states (i.e., beliefs and emotions) in a sample of 73 low-income preschoolers, and determined if training transferred to social competence. Children in the experimental group participated in experimenter-led book interactions in which characters' false beliefs and emotions were discussed. Children in the first control group were read the same stories, but without the embedded discussions; children in the second control group were not read books. Children's false belief understanding, emotion understanding, and social competence were assessed at pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest two months later. Children in the experimental group outperformed both controls on false belief understanding, but not emotion understanding or social competence, at both posttests.

Children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotions: a training study

The effects of two types of training on 4-year-old children's understanding of the distinction between experienced positive affect and neutral or negative display were examined. One type of training provided first-hand experience of possible discrepancies between facial expression and actual affect. The other training focused on the sorts of motives that might prompt the concealment of positive affect. Compared with a control group, both experimental groups showed modest gains.