Promoting Young Children’s Understanding of the Situations and Prosocial Responses Related to Jealousy

• Published in: Early childhood education journal 2019-09, Vol.47 (5), p.571-584
• Main Authors: Pieng, Patrick, Okamoto, Yukari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child development; Control Groups; Early childhood education; Education; Emotions; Experimental Groups; Grade 1; Kindergarten; Learning and Instruction; Prosocial Behavior; Psychological Patterns; Sociology; Sociology of Education; Student Attitudes; Video Technology; Visual Stimuli; Young Children
• ISSN: 1082-3301; 1573-1707
• DOI: 10.1007/s10643-019-00953-5

The present study investigated the effects of two emotion trainings on young children’s knowledge about jealousy. Participants were 53 kindergarten and first-grade children who were assigned to one of two experimental conditions or a control condition. Children in the first experimental condition (video condition) received discussions about the components of jealousy paired with the presentation of dynamic visual stimuli (i.e., animated video clips). Children in the second experimental condition (video and role-play condition) received role-play exercises along with the discussions and video clips. Children in the control condition participated in their typical school curriculum. After receiving three emotion-training sessions of 15 min each, children in both experimental conditions made significant gains in their knowledge of the situations and prosocial cognitive/behavioral responses related to jealousy when compared to children in the control condition. The two experimental conditions made similar gains, showing that both trainings were equally effective at helping children improve their knowledge about jealousy. Implications for supporting young children’s understanding of emotions are discussed.