Looking on the Bright Side: Children’s Knowledge About the Benefits of Positive Versus Negative Thinking

Abstract

Five- to 10-year-olds (N = 90) listened to 6 illustrated scenarios featuring 2 characters that jointly experience the same positive event (and feel good), negative event (and feel bad), or ambiguous event (and feel okay). Afterward, one character thinks a positive thought and the other thinks a negative thought. Children predicted and explained each character's emotions. Results showed significant development between 5 and 10 years in children's understanding that thinking positively improves emotions and thinking negatively makes one feel worse, with earliest knowledge demonstrated when reasoning about ambiguous and positive events. Individual differences in child and parental optimism and hope predicted children's knowledge about thought-emotion connections on some measures, including their beliefs about the emotional benefits of thinking positively in negative situations.

Do you know how I feel? Parents underestimate worry and overestimate optimism compared to child self-report

“…Children were tested individually by a female experimenter while one parent for each child (84% mothers) filled out questionnaires in a separate room. Although these data are part of a larger study on children's optimism and reasoning about mind-emotion connections (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012) children responded to this measure first during the testing session. The procedure lasted 8-14 minutes.…”

Beyond Sally's Missing Marble

“…Children 7 to 8 years and older demonstrate sophisticated knowledge that mental strategies-including distraction, cognitive reframing, positive thinking (Altshuler & Ruble, 1989;Harris et al, 1985;Pons et al, 2004), and prayer (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2010)-can make people feel better in negative situations. Four-to 6-year-olds exhibit some earlier insights when they are queried about autobiographical events (Davis, Levine, Lench, & Quas, 2010), when they are given a thought bubble prompt (Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009), when they suggest strategies for controlling fears of imaginary creatures (Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009), and when they are asked about ambiguous situations as opposed to clearly negative events (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012). Notably, young children's knowledge of "anticoping" (how negative thoughts can induce negative emotions in a positive event) developmentally precedes their knowledge of "coping" (how positive thoughts can improve emotions in a negative situation) (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012;Lagattuta & Wellman, 2001).…”

“…Four-to 6-year-olds exhibit some earlier insights when they are queried about autobiographical events (Davis, Levine, Lench, & Quas, 2010), when they are given a thought bubble prompt (Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009), when they suggest strategies for controlling fears of imaginary creatures (Sayfan & Lagattuta, 2009), and when they are asked about ambiguous situations as opposed to clearly negative events (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012). Notably, young children's knowledge of "anticoping" (how negative thoughts can induce negative emotions in a positive event) developmentally precedes their knowledge of "coping" (how positive thoughts can improve emotions in a negative situation) (Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012;Lagattuta & Wellman, 2001). Incidentally, the same pattern occurs in children's understanding of how emotions impact thinking.…”

“…To explore more systematically children's beliefs about how different people with different thoughts will feel in response to the same objective situation, Bamford and Lagattuta (2012) presented 5-to 10-year-olds with vignettes featuring two characters who experience negative (e.g., getting hurt), positive (e.g., going on a beach vacation), or ambiguous events (e.g., getting a new teacher). Both characters initially experience the same exact emotion; however, one character then starts to think optimistically, whereas the other thinks pessimistically about the situation.…”

The Meaning of<b><i> Hope</i></b>: Developmental Origins in Early Childhood

“…Parents who view such outcomes as alterable are, presumably, conveying that hope applies even when goals and aspirations go unfulfilled. Parents' optimism may be correlated with how they talk about their children's disappointments and this talk could, in turn, influence children's understanding of how and when to express hope in the context of unfulfilled desires and goals [see Bamford & Lagattuta, 2012]. Recall that a key feature of quantitative measurements of hope is whether children perceive obstacles as surmountable [Snyder et.…”