Introduction. Within the flourishing area of research demonstrating the efficacy of emotion-based interventions carried out by trained teachers in increasing children’s socio-emotional skills (Domitrovich et al, 2007; Ornaghi et al., 2015), this study makes an original contribution by focusing on the effects of training toddlers in emotion knowledge on both their prosocial and aggressive behavior. Method. The study consisted in three phases: pre-test, intervention, and post-test. A total of ninety-five 26- to 36-month-olds (Mage at pre-test = 30.05) took part in the study. They were pre-and post-tested with measures assessing their general language ability, use of emotional-state lexicon (ESL), and emotion knowledge (EK). Children were video-observed for 20 minutes before and after the intervention in order to assess their prosocial (helping, sharing, and comforting) and aggressive (reactive and proactive) behavior. All toddlers participated in a 2-month intervention in which trained teachers read emotion-based stories to small groups of children and then either involved them in conversations about emotions (experimental condition) or did not (control condition). Results. After controlling for age and language ability, the children in the experimental condition were found to outperform the control group on measures of EK (F1,93=23.13, p<.0001, ηp2=.32.) and EST (F1, 93=7.47, p=.009, ηp2=.13). Furthermore, the intervention fostered gains in prosocial behavior (F1, 93=5.19, p=.02, ηp2=.11), whereas it did not have a significant effect on the frequency of aggressive actions, which was lower at post-test in both groups. Exploratory mediation analyses showed that the intervention had an indirect effect on participants’ prosocial behavior; such a relation was mediated by children’s gains in EK (F5, 89=3.97, p=.03). Conclusions. The results encourage the implementation of early educational programs focused on EK in order to foster children’s socio-emotional learning
Ornaghi, V., Agliati, A., Grazzani, I. (2017). The effects of an emotion-knowledge training on toddlers’ prosocial and aggressive behavior. In 18th European Conference on Developmental Psychology. Abstract Book (pp.150-150).
The effects of an emotion-knowledge training on toddlers’ prosocial and aggressive behavior
ORNAGHI, VERONICA MARIA;AGLIATI, ALESSIA;GRAZZANI, ILARIA
2017
Abstract
Introduction. Within the flourishing area of research demonstrating the efficacy of emotion-based interventions carried out by trained teachers in increasing children’s socio-emotional skills (Domitrovich et al, 2007; Ornaghi et al., 2015), this study makes an original contribution by focusing on the effects of training toddlers in emotion knowledge on both their prosocial and aggressive behavior. Method. The study consisted in three phases: pre-test, intervention, and post-test. A total of ninety-five 26- to 36-month-olds (Mage at pre-test = 30.05) took part in the study. They were pre-and post-tested with measures assessing their general language ability, use of emotional-state lexicon (ESL), and emotion knowledge (EK). Children were video-observed for 20 minutes before and after the intervention in order to assess their prosocial (helping, sharing, and comforting) and aggressive (reactive and proactive) behavior. All toddlers participated in a 2-month intervention in which trained teachers read emotion-based stories to small groups of children and then either involved them in conversations about emotions (experimental condition) or did not (control condition). Results. After controlling for age and language ability, the children in the experimental condition were found to outperform the control group on measures of EK (F1,93=23.13, p<.0001, ηp2=.32.) and EST (F1, 93=7.47, p=.009, ηp2=.13). Furthermore, the intervention fostered gains in prosocial behavior (F1, 93=5.19, p=.02, ηp2=.11), whereas it did not have a significant effect on the frequency of aggressive actions, which was lower at post-test in both groups. Exploratory mediation analyses showed that the intervention had an indirect effect on participants’ prosocial behavior; such a relation was mediated by children’s gains in EK (F5, 89=3.97, p=.03). Conclusions. The results encourage the implementation of early educational programs focused on EK in order to foster children’s socio-emotional learning
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