The Association of Teacher Emotional Expression and Reactions to Emotions and Toddler Emotion Interactions with Peers

Date

2014-10-16

Authors

Plourde, Samantha N.

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Abstract

Dual-working families have become more prevalent in the past decade. Therefore, research on socialization of emotions has shifted focus to include not only parents, but also early childhood educators. Socializers of social-emotional learning (SEL; e.g., effectively interacting with teachers, responding empathetically to peers) can socialize emotions in several ways, including modeling, coaching, and contingent responses to emotions. It is expected that teachers, like parents, provide an affective environment for children to learn the emotional norms of the classroom. The core purpose of this thesis is to examine: 1) the association of teachers’ emotion expression and child emotional expression, 2) the association of teachers’ reactions to emotions and child emotional expression, and 3) the correlation of teachers’ reactions to emotions and child reactions to emotions. Teacher-child emotional interactions and peer emotional interactions were recorded through observations of emotions expressed in the classroom and reactions to these expressed emotions. It was hypothesized that the frequency of positive and negative emotions expressed by teachers in the classroom would be associated with the frequency of positive and negative emotions expressed by their students during peer interactions. It was also predicted that children would express both positive and negative emotions while interacting with classmates when their teachers used comforting and validating reactions to their emotions. Last, it was expected that the types of reactions to emotions that teachers exhibit in the classroom would be similar to those reactions that children use while interacting with their peers. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using Bayesian estimation was conducted to analyze these hypotheses. Results showed that teacher happiness, sadness, and tenderness were negatively associated with anger expressed by children towards their peers. Teacher emotion focused reactions were positively associated with children’s sadness, whereas teacher expressive validation was negatively associated with children’s sadness. Results also showed a negative association between the teachers’ positive reactions and children’s no response reactions to their peers’ emotions and a negative association between teachers’ no response reactions and children’s no response reactions to their peers. Interestingly, results indicated a negative association between teachers’ expressive validations reactions to their students and children’s emotion focused reaction towards their peers.

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Keywords

Emotional Competence, Emotion Socialization, Peers, Social Competence, Teachers, Toddlers

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