Emotional Knowledge Development in Preschoolers Receiving Head Start Services

This study examined the ability of 3to 5-year-olds (N = 76; 37 males, 39 females) receiving Head Start services to freely label six emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise) using photographs of facial expressions in condition 1 or stories containing an emotion-eliciting event and behavioral consequence in condition 2. The presentation of a story elicited better performance than the presentation of a facial expression for anger, fear, and disgust. After hearing the story, performance significantly improved for participants who initially incorrectly labeled photographs of facial expressions of anger, fear, disgust, and surprise, F(1, 68) = 119.10,p<. OOl. The addition of stories to the curriculum of current Head Start emotion knowledge programs may increase program effectiveness. Emotional Development 4 Emotional Development in Preschoolers Receiving Head Start Services As children develop, they acquire the ability to identify the emotion portrayed by a particular facial expression and the emotion typically elicited by a certain situation. With adequate emotion knowledge, children are capable of responding to emotional situations in a socially appropriate manner. Children who are able to respond appropriately to social situations due to their emotion knowledge increase their chances of academic and social success (Denham et al., 2003; Raver, 2002; Shields et al., 2001). While it is apparent that emotion knowledge is correlated with later success, the manner in which children acquire emotion knowledge is unknown. Currently, there exist two main theories explaining emotion knowledge acquisition. The perceptual bedrock theory emphasizes the necessity of facial expressions, while the script theory examines the possibility that different cues may be more helpful for identification based upon the specific emotion. The process of emotion acquisition can be best understood through research examining the emotion knowledge of children at different age levels. However, procedural difficulties limit the ages of children which can be reliably studied. Researchers hypothesize that infants as young as one month can differentiate between emotions. However, the subjective measures utilized by a majority of the research limit the resulting validity. Due to the subjectivity of measures involving very young children, , a majority of the research concerning emotional development focused on emotional development in children between the ages of2 and 5 years. Since children of these ages can speak and answer questions, researchers are able to collect internally valid data. Emotional Development 5 Stressors faced by children living in poverty place these children at risk for abnormal emotional development. As a result, a growing body of research has examined emotional development in children receiving Head Start services (programs created for children from low-income families) (Raver, 2002; Shields et al., 2001; Izard, Fine, Schultz, Mostow, Ackerman, & Youngstrom, 2001). Results indicated not only that preventative programs positively affect development, but also that programs designed specifically to facilitate emotional development are effective in increasing emotion knowledge (Izard, Trentacosta, King, & Mostow, 2004). The present study examined emotional development in children receiving Head Start services. By gathering data specific to the Head Start population, trends in emotional development for this specific group of children were examined. Analyzed results yielded information in support of one of the two major theories and also information explaining which cues were most helpful for children when identifying emotions. This information can tnen supplement previously implemented programs intended to facilitate emotional development. Theories ofEmotional Development Researchers agree that between the ages of 2 to 5 years, children acquire the ability to nonverbally recognize the emotions portrayed by common facial expressions , and the emotions typically elicited by certain situations. Soon after, children are able to transform these nonverbal responses into verbal labels for emotions (Denham, 1998). However, the manner in which children gain emotional knowledge remains a point of conflict for researchers. In an attempt to explain children's acquisition of emotional Emotional Development 6 knowledge, two main theories emerged. These two theories are the most current in emotional development and most pertinent to the current research question. Perceptual bedrock theory. One theory emphasizes the role of facial expressions in emotion development. This theory is based upon the view of emotions as biologically given response modules which correspond with inherent or even innate emotional facial expressions (Izard, 1978). In early infancy, children begin to perceive changes in face, voice, and posture in the emotional displays ofothers (Field & Walden, 1982). Once this perceptual ability is acquired, infants are able to differentiate between emotional expressions. Differentiation then facilitates the recognition and labeling of basic facial expressions (Bowlby, 1969, 1988; Denham, 1998; Izard, 1971; Harris, 1989). By the time a child reaches the preschool years (ages 3 to 5 years) he or she is often able to label the facial expressions of the basic emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, and fear) with above chance accuracy (Denham & Couchoud, 1990; Harrigan, 1984; Markham & Adams, 1992; Russell & Widen, 2002; Widen & Russell, 2003). Researchers theororize that the ability to label facial expressions is necessary for further emotional development and serves as the "perceptual bedrock" for all later understanding of emotion (Denham, 1998). Specifically, once a child can appropriately recognize and label a facial expression, he or she, can then associate additional emotion information with the appropriate facial expression. Additional emotion information includes the cause, consequence, and appropriate label for the particular emotion (Denham, 1998). In summary, this theory proposes that children's knowledge of emotion develops out of their ability to recognize the emotional meaning of facial expressions. Emotional Development 7 Some of the most compelling evidence for the perceptual bedrock theory resulted from studies in which researchers presented two groups of children with different sources of emotion information (Denham & Couchoud, 1990; Widen & Russell, in press). Such studies presented one group of children with facial expressions of emotion and the other group with emotional situations, and then asked the children to identify the emotion being presented. Significant effects for the source of information indicated that children presented with facial expressions were better able to identify the relevant emotions than their counterparts who were presented with emotional situations (Denham & Couchoud, 1990; Widen & Russell, in press). Facial expression identification may not only be easier than situation identification, but also more helpful for children when labeling emotions. Hoffner and Badzinski (1989) presented children with a facial expression that displayed one emotion and a behavioral story that described another emotion. Children were then asked to examine the conflicting emotion cues and determine which emotion was being portrayed. An overwhelming 89% of 3to 5-year-olds responded with the emotion presented by the facial expression. Thus, Hoffner and Badzinski (1989) concluded that 3to 5-year-old children rely more heavily on facial expressions than on behavioral stories to identify emotions. Instances in which an advantage of faces over stories occurs serve as evidence of a facial superiority effect (Denham & Couchoud, 1990; Widen & Russell, in press). The facial superiority effect is a prediction of the perceptual bedrock theory and proposes that in all instances, facial expressions of emotion are more helpful than emotion stories for Emotional Development 8 preschoolers when identifying emotions and also that facial expressions produce more correct responses than emotion stories. In an attempt to provide further evidence for the perceptual bedrock theory, Camras and Allison (1985) presented preschool children with stories concerning a fictitious character and asked the preschoolers to identify the emotion being presented. Dependent upon condition, participants were asked to respond either by choosing an appropriate emotion label or by choosing the photograph depicting the corresponding facial expression. Results showed no support for the face superiority effect proposed by the perceptual bedrock theory. In fact, the opposite was found. When asked to identify emotions based on various emotion cues, the children presented with emotion labels performed significantly better than the children presented with a photograph of a facial expressIOn. Widen and Russell (2004) provided further criticism of the perceptual bedrock model in their study which reversed the methods used by Camras and Allison (1985). In their study, Widen and Russell presented children with facial expressions, behavioral consequences, and emotion labels: Children were then asked to attribute possible causes to each of these aspects of emotion. If the perceptual bedrock theory were valid, significantly more correct responses would be produced by the children presented with facial expressions than the children in other situations. However, a higher percentage of correct responses were obtained from children in the behavioral consequence and label conditions than in the facial expression condition. These results provided evidence of a label superiority effect and a behavioral consequence superiority effect. These effects Emotional Development 9 indicated that both labels and behavioral consequences were stronger cues to the overall cause of emotion. Script theory. In light of Camras and Allison's findings (1985), as well as similar evide