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Topic Editor: Michael Lewis, PhD, Institute for the Study of Child Development, UMDNJ--Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, USA
Topic funded by: Margaret & Wallace McCain Family Foundation
Emotion- related competencies vary with age. They are also manifested differently across cultures. The culture wherein children grow up tends to influence the intensity and the type of emotions expressed. Specifically, emotion expression and understanding are likely to vary among children depending on the way children are socialized, the presence of comfort of objects, the proximity with parental figures, and situational contexts.
Emotions do not all emerge at the same time. Primary emotions (e.g., fear, anger, sadness, interest, and joy) appear in the first year whereas secondary emotions (e.g., embarrassment, guilt, and shame) are usually expressed by the end of the 2nd year of life. Children’s mental representation about the “self” is acquired around the age of two and the standards, rules, and goals (SRGs) conveyed by their entourage set the stage for self-conscious emotions, such as embarrassment.
Along with environmental factors, emotional competence is also influenced by child factors including cognitive development, temperament, and approach/withdrawal behaviours. Approach refers to behaviours and facial expressions that move a child towards stimuli. Withdrawal refers to behaviours that move a child away from stimuli. Approach emotions (i.e., interest, smiling, joy, and anger) are related to positive aspects of behaviours, such as sustained efforts when minor difficulties are encountered, and they predict emotional competence in children. In contrast, the expression of withdrawal emotions (i.e., sadness and fear) in face of negative events is associated with behavioural difficulties, poor emotion regulation, and helplessness. Withdrawal behaviours are also a risk factor for childhood depression.
Emotions play an important role in the onset of psychopathologies in childhood. Children with a history of negative social experiences, such as maltreatment or insecurity attachment, have a tendency to be hyper vigilant for signs of threats. Accordingly, they display anxiety, and aggressive and fear behaviours as a mean of self-protection. Their negative affectivity, poor emotion regulation, and imbalances in the different emotional systems in the brain (e.g., the fear, the care, the seeking systems) predict both internalizing and externalizing disorders (e.g., depression and aggression, respectively).
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