"Research Findings": Early childhood workers (ECW's) play a pivotal role in shaping children's emotional competence. This study examined the efficacy of Tuning in to Kids for Kindergarten Teachers (TIK-KT) used with CLASS observations to improve ECW's emotion socialization, kindergarten emotional climate and children's functioning. Five…

In this study we investigated how early childhood teachers' emotion socialization behaviors contribute to children's social-emotional competence (SEC), as well as whether these contributions differ by culture. Participants included 117 teachers and 381 preschoolers in US or Italian classrooms. Teachers' and children's emotions and reactions to…

Research Findings: Emotion regulation is a strong predictor of both short- and long-term peer relationships and social competence and is often targeted in preschool curricula and interventions. Pretense is a natural activity of childhood that is thought to facilitate the development of socialization, perspective taking, language, and possibly…

Research Findings: Emotional and social competence are critical to a child's current and future well-being. A. D. Paterson et al. (2012) studied a sample of mothers and proposed that an adult's approach to the socialization of a child's emotions can be summarized in his or her parenting style as measured by the Emotion-Related Parenting Styles…

Research Findings: Utilizing a 3-part model of emotion socialization that included modeling, contingent responding, and teaching, this study examined the associations between 44 teachers' self-reported and observed emotion socialization practices and 326 preschoolers' emotion knowledge and observed emotional behavior. Multilevel analyses…

Research Findings: We examined associations among Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, maternal beliefs, mother-child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in 40 Latino preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers self-reported Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, and beliefs about the value/danger of children's emotions and…

We examined the influence of children's peer relationships and maternal emotional socialization on children's development of emotion knowledge. Children's emotion knowledge was assessed at the beginning (time 1) and end (time 2) of their first semester of kindergarten. Children's peer interactions were measured through observations and teacher…

Summarizes this special issue on how children develop emotional and social strengths, as well as difficulties. Highlights three areas of focus among the seven articles: (1) the relation of emotional competence to social competence; (2) the socialization of emotional competence; and (3) attachment as the foundation. (SD)

Investigated linkages between aspects of emotional competence and preschoolers' social skills with peers, as well as parental emotion socialization practices as predictors of social skill. Found that emotional competence variables were meaningfully related to the peer variables and that, for non-constructive anger reactions, maternal reports of…

Examined how child care teachers' socialization practices and child characteristics jointly predicted children's sympathetic-prosocial responding. Found that child characteristics and socialization practices played an important role in children's interpersonal functioning, and the ability of the teacher to interact in a warm, affectionate way was…