Carolien Rieffe

Trait emotional intelligence, psychological well-being and peer-rated social competence in adolescence

The trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) framework provides comprehensive coverage of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions. In this study, we investigated the relationship between trait EI and four distinct socioemotional criteria on a sample of Dutch adolescents (N = 282; 136 girls, 146 boys; mean age = 13.75 years). As hypothesized, trait EI was positively associated with adaptive coping styles and negatively associated with depressive thoughts and frequency of somatic complaints. It was also negatively associated with maladaptive coping styles, in boys only. Adolescents with high trait EI scores received more nominations from their classmates for being co-operative and girls gave significantly more nominations to classmates with high trait EI scores for having leadership qualities. The discussion focusses on the operationalization of trait emotional self-efficacy in adolescents.

Parent-child picture-book reading, mothers' mental state language and children's theory of mind

This study focuses on parent-child book reading and its connection to the development of a theory of mind. First, parents were asked to report about frequency of parent-child storybook reading at home. Second, mothers were asked to read four picture-books to thirty-four children between 4;0 and 5;0. Both frequency of parent-child storybook reading at home, and mothers use of mental state terms in picture-books reading tasks were significantly associated with success on false belief tasks, after partialling out a number of potential mediators such as age of children, verbal IQ, paternal education, and words used by mothers in joint picture-book reading. Among the different mental state references (cognitive terms, desires, emotions and perceptions), it was found that the frequency and variety of cognitive terms, but also the frequency of emotional terms correlated positively with childrens false belief performance. Relationships between mental state language and theory of mind are discussed.

Emotion regulation and internalizing symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorders

The aim of this study was to examine the unique contribution of two aspects of emotion regulation (awareness and coping) to the development of internalizing problems in 11-year-old high-functioning children with an autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) and a control group, and the moderating effect of group membership on this. The results revealed overlap between the two groups, but also significant differences, suggesting a more fragmented emotion regulation pattern in children with HFASD, especially related to worry and rumination. Moreover, in children with HFASD, symptoms of depression were unrelated to positive mental coping strategies and the conviction that the emotion experience helps in dealing with the problem, suggesting that a positive approach to the problem and its subsequent emotion experience are less effective in the HFASD group.

Attention to facial emotion expressions in children with autism

High-functioning children in the autism spectrum are frequently noted for their impaired attention to facial expressions of emotions. In this study, we examined whether attention to emotion cues in others could be enhanced in children with autism, by varying the relevance of children’s attention to emotion expressions. Twenty-eight high-functioning boys with autism and 31 boys from a control group were asked to sort photos depicting smiling or frowning faces of adults. As found in earlier studies, in neutral conditions children with autism were less attentive to emotion expressions than children from a control group. This difference disappeared when children were explicitly asked to make a socially relevant decision. These findings suggest that the attention of children with autism to emotion expressions in others is influenced by situational factors. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Don't anger me! Bullying, victimization, and emotion dysregulation in young adolescents with ASD

The purpose of this study was to increase our knowledge regarding the role that emotional functioning can play in the genesis of bullying and victimization at school for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, we examined the unique associations of basic emotions (anger and fear) and moral emotions (shame and guilt) with bullying and victimization in children with an ASD and a control group with typically developing (TD) children. The study included 130 children and young adolescents (64 with ASD, 66 TD, M age 140 months), who filled out self-report questionnaires. The main findings showed that in both groups less guilt and more anger were associated with more bullying. More fear was associated with more victimization in TD children only. Yet, more anger was also strongly and uniquely associated with more victimization in children with ASD, but not in TD children. These outcomes support the idea that lack of guilt is a pivotal antecedent of bullying for TD and ASD children. However, unlike TD children, the dysregulation of anger seems to play an important role in victimization as well as bullying in children with ASD.

Emotion understanding in children with frequent somatic complaints

The assumption that an impaired ability to identify and express emotions (“alexithymia”) is related to a lack of physical well-being in children was investigated. Two groups of children (mean age 10 years), who differed in their reported frequency of somatic complaints, were asked to fill out a mood questionnaire and respond to emotion-evoking situations. The findings showed that the number of somatic complaints in children was unrelated to their ability to identify their own emotions when asked about hypothetical conflicting situations. Yet, both groups identified different emotions. Children with more somatic complaints reported more fear and fewer anger reactions. They also reported experiencing more negative emotion-evoking situations with peers. Fear suggests a stronger tendency for withdrawal, whereas the anger reaction of the healthier group implies a stronger tendency to approach (negative) emotion evoking situations. Consequently, the conflicting situation continues for the first group, whereas the second group will be more likely to solve it. Strong or long-lasting arousal has a negative effect on bodily functioning: it can disturb biological subsystems and bring about organic changes. The possibility that fewer social skills, for expressing emotions in a socially constructive way, or fewer coping strategies in the group who reported more somatic complaints also influence the intensity and duration of negative emotions is discussed.

Theory of mind-based action in children from the autism spectrum

In this study we investigated whether task interest facilitated the application of Theory of Mind capacities in high-functioning children from the autism spectrum. Children were invited to carry out two simple tasks. Sabotage of both tasks by a third party resulted in the experimenter appearing to have a false belief. Whereas pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) children tended to correct the experimenters false belief in the rewarded task condition, children with autism were not influenced by task condition. These results highlight the role played by social and communicative factors in the application of Theory of Mind knowledge in the former clinical group.

Emotion Understanding in Deaf Children with a Cochlear Implant

It is still largely unknown how receiving a cochlear implant affects the emotion understanding in deaf children. We examined indices for emotion understanding and their associations with communication skills in children aged 2.5-5 years, both hearing children (n = 52) and deaf children with a cochlear implant (n = 57). 2 aspects of emotion understanding were examined: (a) emotion recognition in facial expressions and (b) emotion attribution in a situational context. On all emotion-understanding tasks, children with a cochlear implant were less proficient than children with normal hearing. In children with normal hearing, performance and language skills were positively associated. In children with cochlear implants, language was positively associated only with tasks in which a verbal demand was made on children. These findings indicate that hearing loss in children, despite a cochlear implant, affects all aspects of emotion understanding measured in this study, including their nonverbal emotion-understanding skills.

Anger communication in deaf children

In this study, we investigated how deaf children express their anger towards peers and with what intentions. Eleven-year-old deaf children (n=21) and a hearing control group (n=36) were offered four vignettes describing anger-evoking conflict situations with peers. Children were asked how they would respond, how the responsible peer would react, and what would happen to their relationship. Deaf children employed the communicative function of anger expression differently from hearing children. Whereas hearing children used anger expression to reflect on the anguish that another child caused them, deaf children used it rather bluntly and explained less. Moreover, deaf children expected less empathic responses from the peer causing them harm. Both groups did, however, expect equally often that the relationship with the peer would stay intact. These findings are discussed in the light of deaf childrens impaired emotion socialization secondary to their limited communication skills.

Depression in hearing-impaired children

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of depressive symptoms and the unique contribution of two aspects of emotion regulation (coping and mood states) to the development of depression in hearing-impaired children and a control group. METHODS In order to compare the groups, self-report questionnaires concerning symptoms of depression, coping strategies, and mood states were used. The study group consisted of 27 children with cochlear implants, 56 children with conventional hearing aids, and 117 normally hearing children. RESULTS Hearing-impaired children reliably reported more symptoms of depression than their normally hearing peers. Degree of hearing loss, socioeconomic status, gender, and age were unrelated to the level of depressive symptoms. But attending mainstream schools or using exclusively speech for communication were related to fewer depressive symptoms. The associations with depressive symptoms differed between the groups. For hearing-impaired children, the cognitive aspects (coping) and the affective aspects (mood states) of emotional functioning contributed separately to the prediction of depressive symptoms. For normally hearing children an integration of cognitive and affective aspects was detected: adequate coping skills prevented the development of negative mood states and in turn depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Hearing-impaired children reported more depressive symptoms than normally hearing children. Prevention and treatment of depression in hearing-impaired children could focus on the use of coping strategies adequately, because these strategies have a direct relation with the level of depression.