The Contribution of Older Siblings' Reactions to Emotions to Preschoolers' Emotional and Social Competence

According to Tompkins' (1991) theory on the socialization of emotion, young children's emotional and social competence are influenced by others' reactions to the children's emotions. Patterns of parental reactions to emotions have been shown to account for significant variance in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marriage & family review 2002, Vol.34 (3-4), p.182-212
Main Authors: Sawyer, Katharine Strandberg, Denham, Susanne, Blair, Kimberly, Levitas, Jennifer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child development
emotion
Emotional development
Emotional responsiveness
Emotions
Families & family life
Households
Human relations
Interpersonal communication
Parents & parenting
Personal relationships
Preschool Children
preschoolers
Siblings
Significant Others
Social Competence
Socialization
Socialization Agents
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Summary:According to Tompkins' (1991) theory on the socialization of emotion, young children's emotional and social competence are influenced by others' reactions to the children's emotions. Patterns of parental reactions to emotions have been shown to account for significant variance in preschoolers' emotion and social competence. However, the impact of others significant in the preschooler's life has been largely ignored. To help fill this gap, associations were examined between older siblings' reactions to 41 preschoolers' emotions and the preschoolers' social-emotional competence (i.e., affective balance, emotion knowledge, positive, prosocial, and provocative responding to peers' emotions, sociometric likability, and teacher-rated social competence). Using a multiple regression strategy, the contributions of sibling reactions and moderating demographic variables to preschooler emotional and social competence were evaluated. Certain sibling reactions, especially positive emotional responsiveness, were shown to play important roles. Many predictions were moderated by age of child, sex of one dyad member
ISSN:0149-4929
1540-9635
DOI:10.1300/J002v34n03_01