Two Studies on Autobiographical Narratives about an Emotional Event by Preschoolers: Influence of the Emotions Experienced and the Affective Closeness with the Interlocutor

This paper presents a study of the relationship between emotions and autobiographical narratives by preschoolers (aged three to five years). We designed a laboratory situation in which the children actively participated in a short scenario (the Geneva Emotion-Eliciting Scenario). This scenario's central theme is the separation of two friends, which is an emotionally salient event for children of this age. Two emotional variables were studied: (i) emotions experienced by the child throughout the scenario; and (ii) "affective closeness" between the child and its interviewer, either an experimenter or the child's mother. The coding of children narratives was based on a content analysis. Results showed that: (i) the expression of emotions congruent to the events encountered throughout the scenario is not related to the content of the narrative, apart from in the case of the specific "separation" event; and (ii) narratives are longer and their emotional content more elaborate when the interviewer is the child's mother rather than an experimenter.

Keywords:

• Autobiographical Narratives
• Preschoolers
• Emotions
• Separation