Preschoolers (N= 322 in preschool, 100 in kindergarten) were assessed longitudinally to examine the self-regulatory roots of emotion knowledge (labeling and situation) and the contributions of emotion knowledge to early school adjustment (i.e., including social, motivational, and behavioral 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.

Examined how aspects of social-emotional learning (SEL)—specifically, emotion knowledge, emotional and social behaviors, social problem-solving, and self-regulation—clustered to typify groups of children who differ in terms of their motivation to learn, participation in the classroom, and other indices of early school adjustment and academic success. 275 four-year-old children from private day schools and Head Start were directly assessed and observed in these areas, and preschool and kindergarten teachers provided information on social and academic aspects of their school success. Three groups of children were identified: SEL Risk, SEL Competent-Social/Expressive, and SEL Competent-Restrained. Group members differed on demographic dimensions of gender and center type, and groups differed in meaningful ways on school success indices, pointing to needed prevention/intervention programming. In particular, the SEL Risk group could benefit from emotion-focused programming, and the long-term developmental trajectory of the SEL Competent-Restrained group requires study.

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-yearolds, 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.Children are constantly attempting to understand their own and others' behavior, and emotions play a role in this understanding, conveying crucial interpersonal information that can guide

Young children’s social information processing (SIP) encompasses a series of steps by which they make sense of encounters with other persons; both cognitive and emotional aspects of SIP often predict adjustment in school settings. More attention is needed, however, to the development of preschoolers’ SIP and its potential foundations. To this end, a new preschool SIP measure, the Challenging Situations Task (CST), was utilized; preschoolers’ (n = 316) self-reported emotional and behavioral responses to hypothetical peer provocation situations on the CST were assessed longitudinally, along with aspects of their self-regulation and emotion knowledge. Age and developmental differences in CST responses were examined. Next, contributions of executive control and emotion knowledge to CST responses were analyzed. Age differences in emotion and behavior choices showed that younger preschoolers were more prone to choose happy responses, whereas older preschoolers chose more adaptive behavior responses. Both self-regulation and emotion knowledge were associated with emotion and behavior responses concurrently and across time. Implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.

As part of a larger longitudinal project on the assessment of preschoolers' social-emotional development, children's social information processing (SIP) responses to unambiguous hypothetical situations of peer provocation were assessed for 298 four-year-olds from Head Start and private childcare settings. Measurement focused on emotions children would feel during these situations, and their behaviour response decisions. Participants most often chose sad and angry emotions, and socially competent and passive behaviours. Relations were found between sad emotion and socially competent behaviour choices, as well as between angry emotion and aggressive behaviour choices. Sad emotion and socially competent behaviour responses contributed to variance in contemporaneous and later school adjustment and kindergarten academic readiness. There was evidence that the contributions of sad emotion responses were mediated by those of socially competent behaviour choices. Results bolstered calls to include emotion in SIP measures, supported predictive validity for this SIP measure in a large representative sample of preschoolers, and pointed to fruitful pathways for future research.