“When I have a Bad Dream, Mommy Holds Me”: Preschoolers’ Conceptions of Emotions, Parental Socialisation, and Emotional Competence

Abstract

Described preschoolers’ conceptions of the consequences of their own emotions within the family demonstrated the linkage between this aspect of social cognition and emotional competence with peers, and examined contributions of parental emotion to both child variables. A total of 77 4- and 5-year-olds enacted dollhouse vignettes depicting consequences of their emotions. Parents completed questionnaires on negative emotion and sharing of positive affect, and teachers rated children’s emotional competence with peers. Children attributed plausible parental reactions to their own emotions; affective sharing/distress relief conceptions of parents’ reactions were most strongly associated with emotional competence in the preschool classroom. Socialisation of emotion indices exerted both direct and indirect influences on emotional competence, and conceptions of parents’ positive reactions also exerted a direct effect, as expected.