Emotion labelling and generation of emotion regulation strategies: contribution for young children´s adjustment

Natalia Alonso-Alberca & Ana I. VergaraUniversity of the Basque Country

7th European Conference on Positive PsychologyAmsterdam, 1-4 July 2014

Theoretical framework

Emotions

AdaptationPreparingfor action

Social communication

(Izard y Ackerman, 2000)

(Ekman, 1992)

2

Set of abilities to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one's thinking and actions

(Salovey & Mayer, 1990)

Ability model

Perceiving

Understanding

Managing

Using

(Mayer & Salovey, 1997)

(Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008)

(Martins, Ramalho, & Morin, 2010)

(Schutte, Malouff, Thorsteinnson, Bhullar, & Rooke, 2007)

(Zeidner, Roberts, & Matthews, 2008)

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

3

Expression

(Chóliz, Fernández-Abascal, & Martínez-

Sánchez, 2012)

Perception

(Gross y Ballif, 1991; Sorce, Emde, Campos, & Klinnert,

1985)

Understanding

(Izard et al., 2011)

Managing

(Cole, Martin, & Dennis, 2004)

(Denham, Bailey, & Zinser, 2011)(Schultz, Izard, & Abe, 2005)(Zeidner, Matthews, Roberts, & MacCann, 2003)

Emotional intelligence in childhood

4

Social skills

(Bariola, Gullon, & Hughes, 2011; Denham, 2006)

School adjustment

(Garner & Waajid, 2012; Izard & cols., 2001)

Externalizing

(Bariola & cols., 2011; Trentacosta & Fine, 2010)

Internalizing

(Eisenberg & cols., 2001a; Trentacosta & Fine, 2010)

Aims & participants

5

Study the predictive role of emotion knowledge and emotion regulation knowledge on behaviour.

a. Emotional abilities are related to lower externalizing problems.b. Emotional abilities relates to higher of adaptive skills.

N = 250 (3 to 6 years old)

Mmonths = 53,87 (R = 35-72)

Madrid (Spain)

14,4%

14,8%

18,4%16%

18,4%18%

3 years old

5 years old4 years old

BoysGirls

Emotion Matching Task(Izard, Haskins, Schultz, Trentacosta, & King, 2003)(Alonso-Alberca, Vergara, Fernández-Berrocal, Johnson & Izard, 2012)

EMTtotal (Ω = .77)EMT.1. Emotion Association (Ω = .72)EMT.2. Emotion Understanding (Ω = .88)EMT.3. Emotion Labelling (Ω = .87)EMT.4. Emotion Recognition (Ω = .97)

Behaviour

Verbal ability Emotional intelligence

EmotionRegulation

EmotionKnowledge

EMT

Puppets Proc.

Measures

6

Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004)

106 itemsExternalizing (α = .93)Internalizing (α = .80)Adaptive skills (α = .92)

Puppets Procedure(Cole, Dennis, Smith-Simon, & Cohen, 2009)

Two situations: Anger & SadnessER Strategy Recognition (α = .72)ER Strategy Generation (к > .80)

PPVT-III(Dunn, Dunn, & Arribas, 2006)

(Ω = .96)

EMT.1. Emotion matching

EMT.2. Emotionunderstanding

Measures for EI

7

EMT.3. Emotion labelling

EMT.4. Emotion recognition

Strategies Recognition

Strategies Generation

Emotion Matching Task (EMT)

Puppets Procedure

New / RepeatedEffective / Ineffective

Results

Emotion knowledge dimensions

9

5,00

6,00

7,00

8,00

9,00

10,00

11,00

12,00

EMT 1 EMT 2 EMT 3 EMT 4

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

M SD R

AGE (months) 53.87 10.35 35-72

Verbal ability 109.59 11.64 70-145

EMT.1 (Matching) 8.61 1.95 2-12

EMT.2 (Understanding) 7.30 2.06 2-12

EMT.3 (Labelling) 9.11 2.15 0-12

EMT.4 (Recognition) 10.09 1.59 3-12

ADAPTIVE ABILITIES 33.63 9.82 7-54

EXTERNALIZING PROBLEMS 11.76 9.70 0-45

Externalizing problems Adaptive skills

Behaviour prediction

10

R2 = .094 β

Sex ,16*

Inefficient Anger ,14**

Repeated Anger ,20**

Inefficient Sad -,11

Repeated Sad -,19**

R2 = .208 β

Sex -,23**

Verbal ab. ,14*

EMT.3. Labelling ,20**

Recognition (Anger) ,13*

Efficient (Anger) ,15*

Repeated (Anger) -,19**

Repeated (Sad) ,15*

Externalizing problems Adaptive skills

Behaviour prediction

11

R2 = .094 β

Sex ,16*

Inefficient Anger ,14**

Repeated Anger ,20**

Inefficient Sad -,11

Repeated Sad -,19**

R2 = .208 β

Sex -,23**

Verbal ab. ,14*

EMT.3. Labelling ,20**

Recognition (Anger) ,13*

Efficient (Anger) ,15*

Repeated (Anger) -,19**

Repeated (Sad) ,15*

Externalizing problems Adaptive skills

Behaviour prediction

12

R2 = .094 β

Sex ,16*

Inefficient Anger ,14**

Repeated Anger ,20**

Inefficient Sad -,11

Repeated Sad -,19**

R2 = .208 β

Sex -,23**

Verbal ab. ,14*

EMT.3. Labelling ,20**

Recognition (Anger) ,13*

Efficient (Anger) ,15*

Repeated (Anger) -,19**

Repeated (Sad) ,15*

Externalizing problems Adaptive skills

Behaviour prediction

13

R2 = .094 β

Sex ,16*

Inefficient Anger ,14**

Repeated Anger ,20**

Inefficient Sad -,11

Repeated Sad -,19**

R2 = .208 β

Sex -,23**

Verbal ab. ,14*

EMT.3. Labelling ,20**

Recognition (Anger) ,13*

Efficient (Anger) ,15*

Repeated (Anger) -,19**

Repeated (Sad) ,15*

Conclusions

Conclusions

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1. EK & ERK increase knowledge about child´s adjustment.

2. EI can be of help for better understanding child´sbehaviour.

3. Help the child to name emotions, and to generate diverseand effective strategies.

4. Sadness and anger show different profiles in behaviourprediction

5. Interventions design and effectiveness.

6. Usefull for cross-cultural research.

The final aim…is to contribute valuable informationto help children to developresourcesto deal with difficult situations in positive ways…

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Natalia Alonso-Albercanatalia.alonso@ehu.es