Hideko H. Bassett

Assessing social-emotional development in children from a longitudinal perspective.

This paper provides an overview of methodological challenges related to the epidemiological assessment of social-emotional development in children. Because population-based studies involve large cohorts and are usually multicentre in structure, they have cost, participant burden and other specific issues that affect the feasibility of the types of measures that can be administered. Despite these challenges, accurate in-depth assessment of social-emotional functioning is crucial, based on its importance to child outcomes like mental health, academic performance, delinquency and substance abuse. Five dimensions of social-emotional development in children are defined: (1) social competence; (2) attachment; (3) emotional competence; (4) self-perceived competence; and (5) temperament/personality. Their measurement in a longitudinal study and associated challenges are discussed. Means of making valid, reliable assessments while at the same time minimising the multiple challenges posed in the epidemiological assessment of social-emotional development in children are reviewed.

Observing Preschoolers’ Social-Emotional Behavior: Structure, Foundations, and Prediction of Early School Success

ABSTRACT Social-emotional behavior of 352 3- and 4-year-olds attending private childcare and Head Start programs was observed using the Minnesota Preschool Affect Checklist, Revised (MPAC-R). Goals of the investigation included (a) using MPAC-R data to extract a shortened version, MPAC-R/S, comparing structure, internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and stability of both versions; and, using the shortened measure, to examine (b) age, gender, and risk status differences in social-emotional behaviors; (c) contributions of emotion knowledge and executive function to social-emotional behaviors; and (d) contributions of social-emotional behaviors to early school adjustment and kindergarten academic success. Results show that reliability of MPAC-R/S was as good, or better, than the MPAC-R. MPAC-R/S structure, at both times of observation, included emotionally negative/aggressive, emotionally regulated/prosocial, and emotionally positive/productive behaviors; MPAC-R structure was similar but less replicable over time. Age, gender, and risk differences were found. Childrens emotion knowledge contributed to later emotionally regulated/prosocial behavior. Finally, preschool emotionally negative/aggressive behaviors were associated with concurrent and kindergarten school success, and there was evidence of social-emotional behavior mediating relations between emotion knowledge or executive function, and school outcomes. The importance of portable, empirically supported observation measures of social-emotional behaviors is discussed along with possible applications, teacher utilization, and implementation barriers.

Preschoolers' emotion knowledge: self-regulatory foundations, and predictions of early school success.

Preschoolers (N=322 in preschool, 100 in kindergarten) were assessed longitudinally to examine the self-regulatory roots of emotion knowledge (labelling and situation) and the contributions of emotion knowledge to early school adjustment (i.e., including social, motivational, and behavioural indices), as well as moderation by age, gender, and risk. Age, gender, and risk differences in emotion knowledge were also examined. Emotion knowledge skills were found to be more advanced in older children and those not at economic risk, and in those with higher levels of self-regulation. Overall, the results support the role of emotion knowledge in early school adjustment and academic success even with gender, age, and risk covaried, especially for boys, older preschoolers, and those at economic risk.

Factor structure of self-regulation in preschoolers: Testing models of a field-based assessment for predicting early school readiness

The importance of early self-regulatory skill has seen increased focus in the applied research literature given the implications of these skills for early school success. A three-factor latent structure of self-regulation consisting of compliance, cool executive control, and hot executive control was tested against alternative models and retained as best fitting. Tests of model equivalence indicated that the model held invariant across Head Start and private child-care samples. Partial invariance was supported for age and gender. In the validity model, because of a substantial amount of shared variance among latent factors, we included a second-order factor explaining the two types of executive control. Higher order executive control positively predicted teacher report of learning behaviors and social competence in the classroom. These findings are discussed in light of their practical and theoretical significance.

Preschoolers’ Emotion Expression and Regulation: Relations with School Adjustment

ABSTRACT Childrens expression and regulation of emotions are building blocks of their experiences in classrooms. Thus, the authors’ primary goal was to investigate whether preschoolers’ expression or ability to regulate emotions were associated with teachers’ ratings of school adjustment. A secondary goal was to investigate how boys and girls differed across these associations. Childrens social-emotional behaviors in Head Start and private childcare center classrooms were observed, and using a series of measures, teachers’ ratings of childrens social competence, attitudes toward school, positive teacher relationships, and cooperative participation were collected. Three factors of childrens school adjustment were extracted from these indicators. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that emotion expression and regulation were indeed associated with childrens reported school adjustment, with the strongest associations stemming from childrens negative emotion expression and their emotion dysregulation. Many of these associations were also different for boys and girls. The results corroborate and extend the authors’ earlier findings, and have implications for social-emotional programming to maximize childrens early school success.

The Structure of Preschoolers’ Emotion Knowledge: Model Equivalence and Validity Using a Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Research Findings: A theory-based 2-factor structure of preschoolers’ emotion knowledge (i.e., recognition of emotional expression and understanding of emotion-eliciting situations) was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Compared to 1- and 3-factor models, the 2-factor model showed a better fit to the data. The model was found to be equivalent for gender, race, age, and socioeconomic risk. Theory and the high correlation between the 2 latent factors suggested a hierarchical nature of development, in which a higher level of emotion knowledge is built upon a lower level. In our validity model, we found significant paths from the recognition to the situation factor and from the situation factor to teachers’ reports of preschoolers’ learning behaviors and social competence. Results provide further evidence of the significant role emotion plays in preschoolers’ school readiness. Practice or Policy: Early childhood educators can benefit from knowing that recognition of expressions and understanding of emotion-eliciting situations are appropriately teachable in this age range and can focus such teaching upon negative emotions and those that may vary across individuals. Furthermore, relations between these aspects of emotion knowledge and school readiness add to accumulating evidence that early childhood programming focusing upon emotion knowledge has multiple benefits.

Relations among Teachers’ Emotion Socialization Beliefs and Practices, and Preschoolers’ Emotional Competence

Research Findings: Utilizing a 3-part model of emotion socialization that included modeling, contingent responding, and teaching, this study examined the associations between 44 teachers’ self-reported and observed emotion socialization practices and 326 preschoolers’ emotion knowledge and observed emotional behavior. Multilevel analyses revealed that the majority of the variance in the childrens emotion knowledge scores and observed emotional behavior was predicted by factors within, rather than between, classrooms. Teachers’ use of all 3 emotion socialization techniques did contribute to the prediction of the childrens scores; however, the nature of these associations differed by childrens age and gender. Practice or Policy: The development of childrens emotional competence is a complex, multifaceted process in which many interaction partners play a role. Early childhood teachers act as emotion socialization agents for the children in their care by modeling emotions, responding either supportively or punitively to childrens expressions of emotions, and engaging in direct instruction regarding emotional experience. This research may provide a basis for potential future interventions designed to assist teachers in developing their own emotion socialization skills so that they can be more effective emotion socialization agents for the children in their care.

“I Know How You Feel”: Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge contributes to early school success

Differences in emotion knowledge by children’s age, gender, and socioeconomic risk status, as well as associations of emotion knowledge with executive control, social competence, and early classroom adjustment, were investigated. On emotion knowledge, 4- and 5-year-olds scored higher than 3-year-olds, with girls showing this effect more strongly. Socioeconomic risk status and emotion knowledge were negatively related. Furthermore, executive control was found to contribute to variance in emotion knowledge. Even with age, gender, socioeconomic risk status, and executive control covaried, emotion knowledge contributed to variance in social competence. Given these covariates, it contributed only indirectly to classroom adjustment, via its contribution to social competence. Implications are discussed for practice and policy attention to emotion knowledge within social–emotional curricula and assessment, targeting the period between ages 3 and 4 years, as well as children living in poverty.

Relations between executive function and emotionality in preschoolers: Exploring a transitive cognition-emotion linkage

Emotions play a crucial role in appraisal of experiences and environments and in guiding thoughts and actions. Moreover, executive function (EF) and emotion regulation (ER) have received much attention, not only for positive associations with children’s social–emotional functioning, but also for potential central roles in cognitive functioning. In one conceptualization of ER (Campos etal., 2004), processes of ER, and those of emotional expression and experience (hereafter referred to as emotionality) are highly related and reciprocal; yet, there has been little research on young children’s EF that focuses on emotionality, although it is easily observed within a classroom. The two goals of the study were to: (1) investigate the relatively unexplored role of emotionality in the development of EF in early childhood and (2) assess the relations between an observational rating of EF obtained after direct assessment with a standardized EF rating scale. We predicted that observed emotionality and EF would both demonstrate stability and predict one another within and across time. 175 children aged 35–60 months were recruited from Head Start and private childcare centers. Using partial least squares modeling, we chose T1 emotionality as the exogenous variable and tested pathways between emotionality and EF across two time points, 6 months apart. Results showed that both T1 observed EF and emotionality predicted their respective T2 counterparts, supporting the idea that both constructs build upon existing systems. Further, T1 emotionality predicted T1 observed EF and the T2 BRIEF-P composite. In turn, T1 observed EF predicted emotionality and the T2 BRIEF-P composite. These findings fit with literature on older populations in which EF and emotionality have been related, yet are the first to report such relations in early childhood. Last, T1 observed EF’s positive prediction of the T2 BRIEF-P composite lends credence to the use of both EF measures in applied and research settings.

Social and emotional information processing in preschoolers: Indicator of early school success?

To better connect emotional development and social cognition literatures, in this study, the intersection of preschoolers’ emotion and behaviour response choices to hypothetical peer conflicts was examined among 305 4½-year-olds in private childcare and Head Start. Latent class analyses identified five subgroups of children with connections between their emotion and behaviour response choices (happy/passive, sad/socially competent, angry/passive, angry/aggressive, and sad/passive). Subgroup membership differed across genders and economic risk statuses and was also a predictor of early school success (i.e. social competence, classroom adjustment, and academic readiness). Overall, even after accounting for the associations between known predictors of young childrens behaviour and school success (i.e. gender and socioeconomic status), membership in the subgroups in preschool was uniquely predictive of both concurrent and later social competencies, classroom adjustment, and academic readiness. Furthermore, preschool social competence partially mediated contributions of subgroup membership in kindergarten classroom adjustment. These findings are discussed in relation to existing social information processing and emotional development literatures, including potential implications for understanding young childrens early school success.