Are There Gender Differences in Emotion Comprehension? Analysis of the Test of Emotion Comprehension

Although attachment plays a key role in children's socio-emotional development, little attention has been paid to the role of children's attachment to their father. This study examined whether insecure attachment to each parent was associated with reduced emotion understanding in children and whether children showed consistent attachments to their mother and father. We measured children's attachment to each parent using the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task and child emotion understanding using the Test of Emotion Comprehension (children's M = 5.64 years, SD = 0.84). The results indicated that insecure father-child attachment and insecure mother-child attachment were each associated with lower emotion understanding in children after controlling for parent's depressive symptoms and children's age. There was significant concordance of child attachment to mother and father. The findings provide support for convergence of children's attachment across parents and suggest that father-child attachment is an important factor to consider when examining children's emotion understanding. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Secure mother-child attachment is positively associated with children's emotional competence. Children form similar representations of attachment to their mother and father. What the present study adds Both mother-child and father-child attachment are associated with children's emotion understanding. The study's findings highlight the importance of father-child attachment in their children's emotion understanding. The study provides support for concordance of children's attachment across parents.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Children's emotion understanding in relation to attachment to mother and father

Psychogiou

Nath

Kallitsoglou

et al. 2018

“…Thus, children can achieve a minimum of zero and a maximum of six points for the abridged test. Recent findings corroborate earlier results showing no gender differences on the TEC (e.g., Fidalgo, Tenenbaum, & Aznar, ). Guttman's greatest split‐half reliability of the TEC was .72 at T1, .70 at T2, and .66 at T3.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The next step was to create a model of the development of emotion knowledge while controlling for age. We did not control for gender because – just as in recent analyses (Fidalgo et al ., ) – the male and female participants did not differ in their emotion knowledge scores at any time, t (527) = 0.869, p = .385. We tested a model in which we controlled behavioural self‐regulation for gender, because the correlation between gender and behavioural self‐regulation was significant, but the model fit did not differ from the fit of the final model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 91%

Native‐born German and immigrant children's development of emotion knowledge: A latent growth curve analysis

Voltmer

Salisch

2018

Young children in immigrant families tend to face more challenges and can often call upon fewer resources than their native-born peers. This situation adversely affects their social-emotional development. In this study, the development of emotion knowledge of 576 immigrant and native-born German children, aged 3-6 years, was compared at three time points over a 12-month period by means of a latent growth curve analysis. Language abilities and behavioural self-regulation were examined as mediators of the relation between immigration background and emotion knowledge. The immigrant children showed less emotion knowledge than did their native-born peers at each point of measurement. These effects were partially mediated by their behavioural self-regulation and their language abilities. How behavioural self-regulation and language abilities affect the development of emotion knowledge and what this effect means for interventions are discussed. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Emotion knowledge develops rapidly between the ages of three and six. Emotion knowledge develops similarly in different cultures. What does this study adds? This study compares the development of emotion knowledge between immigrant children and native-born children. It includes language skills as mediator on the development of emotion knowledge. It also includes behavioural self-regulation as mediator on the development of emotion knowledge.

“…Although most studies do not find gender differences in EU (Fidalgo, Tenenbaum, & Aznar, ), socialization processes of EU might be different in boys compared to girls (Aznar & Tenenbaum, ; Chaplin & Aldao, ), as parents might use more emotion talk when talking to daughters than to sons (Aznar & Tenenbaum, ). Boys tend to watch more TV (Özmert, Toyran, & Yurdakök, ), game more (Lee, Bartolic, & Vandewater, ), and watch more cartoons and action adventures than girls (Huston, Wright, Rice, Kerkman, & St Peters, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Screen time and the development of emotion understanding from age 4 to age 8: A community study

Skalická

Hygen

Stenseng

et al. 2019

Recent increase in children's screen activities has raised concerns that screen time may replace face-to-face interaction, and hence impair children's development of emotion understanding. This longitudinal community study of 960 Norwegian 4-yearolds, followed up at ages 6 and 8, examined bidirectional relations between screen use and emotion understanding. Results revealed that more screen time at age 4 predicted lower levels of emotion understanding at age 6. In addition, television in children's bedroom at age 6 forecasted lower levels of emotion understanding at age 8. The effect of TV watching on emotion understanding was gender moderated, with stronger effects of TV watching observed among girls, but no significant effects detected among boys. In contrast, gaming forecasted lower level of emotion understanding in boys, not girls. Results are discussed in the light of the importance of face-to-face interaction to preserve the development of social-emotional competence among young children. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?We know that children's screen activities correlate with poorer social competence and with decrease of the quantity and quality of interaction with parents and siblings. The capacity to understand emotions in others is primarily learned through interaction with primary caregivers, but little is known how children's screen use influences development of emotion understanding.What the present study adds?We found that more TV watching among girls at age 4 predicted lower levels of emotion understanding at age 6. Furthermore, TV in child's bedroom at age 6 forecasted lower levels of emotion understanding at age 8.