Marta Giménez-Dasí

Intimations of immortality and omniscience in early childhood

Children aged three, four and five years, drawn equally from one secular and one religious school in Spain, were questioned about the psychological and biological constraints that apply to two different types of person: an ordinary human being (their best friend) and an extraordinary being (God). Children were asked to assess whether: (1) the knowledge available to either being is constrained by perceptual processes and (2) the life cycle of either being is constrained by biological processes. Three year olds provided few signs of distinguishing between the two types of being. Five year olds, on the other hand, were quite systematic in their differentiation. They judged that the knowledge available to a friend—but not to God—would be constrained by the need for perceptual access and they judged that the life cycle of a friend—but not that of God—would be constrained by the biological processes of birth, growth and death. Implications for current accounts of childrens conceptual development are discussed.

The Impact of Abuse and Learning Difficulties on Emotion Understanding in Late Childhood and Early Adolescence

ABSTRACT Childrens affective experiences and cognitive abilities have an impact on emotion understanding. However, their relative contribution, as well as the possibility of an interaction between them, has rarely been examined. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of severe abuse and learning difficulties on simple and complex components of emotion understanding in late childhood and early adolescence. A total of 28 older children and young adolescents were selected for the study. Half of the participants had suffered from severe abuse, and half of these abused children additionally had learning disabilities. The remaining half of the sample had no history of abuse but were matched with the abused children on learning difficulties, age and gender. The participants’ emotion understanding was assessed with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC). Results showed that (a) learning difficulties but not abuse had an impact on emotion understanding, (b) there was no interaction effect of abuse and learning difficulties on emotion understanding, and (b) the observed effects of learning difficulties were most apparent for the understanding of relatively complex components of emotion and not for simple components. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.

Improving Social Competence Through Emotion Knowledge in 2-Year-Old Children: A Pilot Study

Research Findings: The goal of this study was to determine the efficacy of an educational intervention program to improve emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and social competence in 2-year-old Spanish children. This study makes two original contributions because there are no validated education programs for such young children and because it aims to show how an intervention focused on emotion-related aspects affects children’s social competence. The pilot study was conducted on 57 Spanish 2-year-olds divided into an experimental group (n = 38) and a control group (n = 19). The children were assessed for overall development, emotion knowledge, emotion regulation, and social competence before and after the intervention. The program was carried out in the classroom in 30-min weekly sessions over a 6-month period. The findings showed significant progress in emotion knowledge and social competence as well as slight progress in emotion regulation. Practice or Policy: Our results show that emotions should be part of the curriculum starting in early childhood. On the one hand, 2-year-olds can benefit from planned interventions that improve social competence through emotion knowledge. On the other hand, 24 months is developmentally speaking the perfect age to start acquiring emotion knowledge through the simplest components.

'Competencia' social, 'competencia' emocional : una propuesta para intervenir en Educación Infantil

Resumen La definición de las competencias sociales y emocionales no ha sido tarea fácil para los psicólogos. Existen varios criterios e indicios que permiten evaluar en qué medida los niños y los adultos se comportan de forma competente. No obstante, la educación formal recibida para alcanzar dichas competencias es, por lo general, muy escasa o nula. Los resultados de los programas clásicos basados en el aprendizaje de técnicas específicas indican que se produce muy poca generalización a contextos naturales y que la duración de los efectos de mejora es muy corta. Existen, sin embargo, otro tipo de intervenciones que apoyándose en la filosofía e incitando a los niños a reflexionar deforma crítica, proporcionan una formación más profunda y resultados más duraderos. Nuestra propuesta defiende un currículo centrado en la mejora de estas competencias durante el segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil (3–6 años) trabajando desde un enfoque basado en el programa Filosofía para Niños pero que también ofrezca la posibilidad de aprender pautas concretas de conducta, cognitivas y de relación con los demás.

Toddlers’ understanding of basic emotions: identification, labeling and causality / La comprensión temprana de las emociones básicas: identificación, etiquetado y causalidad

Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore the early acquisition pattern of the understanding of basic emotions. Many studies indicate that three-year-old children identify emotions such as joy or sadness, but it is not known how this knowledge arises. Fifty-seven boys and girls between 21 and 32 months were assessed using the Brunet-Lezine-R developmental scale (BL-R) (Josse, 1997) and the Affective knowledge Test (AKT) (Denham, 1986). Through this test we evaluated the children’s knowledge of four basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger and fear) in three of its components (identification, causality and linguistic labeling). In order to track knowledge acquisition longitudinally, a small subgroup of 19 children was evaluated again six months later. The result of the evaluation by emotions and components allows some conclusions: first, the emotion that older children better understand is anger, followed by happiness and sadness. Second, the first component that children manage is the identification of facial expressions. They then progressively incorporate knowledge about typical causality, and finally, the linguistic labels together with some understanding of atypical causality. The results are discussed from a developmental point of view. This typical developmental pattern also allows some educational and clinical implications.

Children’s understanding of depreciation in scenarios of envy and modesty

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore children’s understanding of depreciation when being presented with scenarios of envious or modest behavior. 123 Spanish children, six to eight years of age, decided how a character should respond when faced with a situation of envy or modesty. These situations were described in vignettes. The children chose between a response of either depreciation or admiration in the case of envy and between a response of either modesty or immodesty when faced with modest behavior. They were then asked to explain the reasons for their choices. Generally speaking, the results indicated that children rated self-depreciation in scenarios of modesty more highly than they did depreciation of another in situations of envy. An interaction effect showed that eight-year-old chose modest responses more than immodest ones, in contrast to the six-year-old. Conversely, age differences were not observed for the scenarios of envy. We discuss these results in light of the children’s explanations. Furthermore, the acquisition of emotional display rules is discussed, as well as the ability to manage emotions. Also, we discuss the truths and falsehoods of expression within the framework of social pragmatism in the selection of responses in both scenarios.

Thinking emotions with two-year-old children: an educational programme to improve emotional knowledge in young preschoolers / Pensando las emociones con niños de dos años: un programa educativo para mejorar el conocimiento emocional en primer ciclo de Educación Infantil

Abstract This article aims to present preliminary data to validate and show the effectiveness of the educational programme Thinking emotions with a sample of children aged two years. To test its effectiveness, a sample of 57 children was selected. The sample was divided into experimental group (N = 38) and control group (N = 19). Participants were evaluated for overall development (Brunet-Lezine) and emotional understanding through two tests (AKT and TEC) before and after the implementation of the programme in the classroom. The tutors implemented the programme during school hours in weekly 45-minute sessions over six months. The results show significant advances in emotion understanding of children in the experimental group versus the control group. Results are discussed considering the implications of early education on emotions and the consequences on psychological wellbeing.

Bryant's Empathy Index: Structure and Measurement Invariance across Gender in a Sample of Primary School-Aged Children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the dimensional structure and measurement invariance of Bryants Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IECA) (Bryant, 1982) across gender in a representative sample of primary school-aged children in Spain. The sample consisted of 2,050 children (50.80% girls), with a mean age of 9.80 years (SD = 1.24), recruited from 27 primary schools. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. The model that presented the best fit indices was Lasa, Holgado, Carrasco, and del Barrios (2008) three-factor model: Understanding Feelings, Feelings of Sadness, and Tearful Reaction. The levels of internal consistency for the subscales ranged from .76 to .83. In addition, the results partially support the measurement invariance of the IECA across gender. When the latent means of the empathy dimensions were compared across gender, statistically significant differences were found. These results coincide with those found in the literature showing the multidimensionality of the IECA. Specifically, the findings support its three-factor structure and its invariance across gender, making it a very useful instrument for exploring the expression of empathy in primary school children.

Effects of a Dialogue-Based Program to Improve Emotion Knowledge in Spanish Roma Preschoolers.

Romas are one of the largest minority groups in Spain and Europe, but no specific data on childrens socioemotional learning are available. Our goal was to determine the level of socioemotional knowledge of a group of 4- and 5-year-old Roma children and to implement an intervention program at school. Forty-three Roma children participated (experimental: N = 21; control: N = 22). We implemented the intervention program Thinking emotions (M. Giménez-Dasí, M. Fernández-Sánchez, & M.-F. Daniel, 2013a). This program is based on Philosophy for Children (M. Lipman, A. M. Sharp, & F. S. Oscanyan, 1980) and aims to promote emotion knowledge, regulation strategies, and social competencies through peer-to-peer dialogue. Pre- and posttest measures were taken. Results showed low levels of initial knowledge and a clear pattern of improvement after the intervention.

What Makes a Defender? A Multilevel Study of Individual Correlates and Classroom Norms in Explaining Defending Behaviors

Abstract This study examines the interplay between individual characteristics (social status, provictim attitudes, and family messages about conflict resolution) and classroom descriptive and injunctive norms (peer victimization behaviors and bullying-related beliefs, respectively) in explaining defending behavior. For this purpose, we used a representative sample of 2,050 Spanish primary school children (50.80% girls) from grades 3–6 (M = 9.80 years; SD = 1.24), nested within 103 classrooms in 27 schools. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that both individual and class characteristics helped to explain defending behavior. In addition, random slopes revealed that children with a high social status were more likely to support victims in classrooms where bullying was less accepted. These results expand previous findings in this field, demonstrating the need for a multilevel and interactive approach to the study of defending behavior.