Showing and telling about emotions: Interrelations between facets of emotional competence and associations with classroom adjustment in Head Start preschoolers

Abstract

In this study of low income preschoolers (N =  60), we examined relations between three facets of emotional competence: emotion knowledge, level of negative emotion expression, and emotion regulation; and their associations with indicators of classroom adjustment. Emotion knowledge was positively related to positive emotion regulation but was not related to negative emotion expression or negative dysregulation. Negative emotion expression related to emotion regulation variables in expected directions. Negative emotion expression was associated with aggression and social skills after covarying verbal ability, age, and emotion knowledge. Negative dysregulation was related in expected directions to aggression, anxiety, and social skills after covarying verbal ability, age, emotion knowledge, and negative emotion expression. Positive emotion regulation was related negatively to anxiety and positively to social skills after covarying all other variables in the model. Results are discussed with regard to using the emotional competence domain to understand how emotion processing relates to early childhood adjustment.

Acknowledgments

Drs Miller and Gouley conducted this work while supported by NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowships (T32) granted to Brown University from the National Institute of Mental Health. We would like to thank the New Visions for Newport County Head Start programme staff, especially Kathy Stack, Ann Connery, and Cindy Larson. We would also particularly like to thank the teachers, children, and families who participated in this project.