How Children Negotiate the Worlds of Emotions and Social Relationships
Cogniţie, Creier, Comportament / Cognition, Brain, Behavior Copyright © 2007 Romanian Association for Cognitive Science. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1224-8398 Volume XI, No. 1 (March), 1 - 48 INVITED ARTICLE DEALING WITH FEELINGS: HOW CHILDREN NEGOTIATE THE WORLDS OF EMOTIONS AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS Susanne A. DENHAM* George Mason University, Department of Psychology, Fairfax, VA USA ABSTRACT This review details the developmental progression of emotional competence from preschool age through middle childhood, and provides extant evidence for its relation to social competence, mental health, and academic success. Intra- and interpersonal contributors to emotional competence are then detailed. Within interpersonal contributors, the relational context in which socialization takes place – whether parent-child, teacher-child, peer group, or friendship dyad – is first considered. Finally, extant information is detailed on the modeling, contingency, and teaching mechanisms of socialization of emotions within these relationships. The review ends with a discussion of hoped-for continued advances in research and applications of this vital set of abilities. KEYWORDS: emotional competence, social competence, relationships, early childhood, middle childhood. Children’s need to master emotional and social developmental tasks, in order to succeed in school, has been highlighted recently by both researchers and policy analysts (Huffman, Mehlinger, & Kerivan, 2000). In this article I seek to elucidate the key elements of emotional competence, it relation to social and academic success, and the ways in which adults and peers contribute to its development, from theoretical, research, and applied perspectives. To begin, I offer a preliminary definition of emotional competence: “Emotional competence” includes expressing emotions that are, or are not, experienced, regulating emotions in ways that are age and socially appropriate, and decoding these processes in self and others (Halberstadt, Denham, & Dunsmore, 2001).
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