Knowing about emotions is vital for children's school adjustment, well-being, and future social relationships. Whereas experiencing emotions is a universal psychological process at the biological level, how emotions are categorized and communicated is shaped by culture. Most studies have investigated cultural differences in emotion (knowledge) in…

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether parental daily distress in terms of negative emotions is associated with the daily variation in parental use of psychological control with their children. Whether parental positive emotions play a role in the use of psychological control was also investigated. The participants were 149…

We evaluated whether narrating anger-provoking events promoted learning from those events, as compared with other responses to anger, and whether the effectiveness of narrative depended on age. In addition, we tested relations between anger reduction and learning and, in a subset of participants, between narrative quality and learning. A sample of…

The main purpose of the study was to examine the moderating role of the insecure mother-child attachment in the relations between social withdraw and peer difficulties. Participants were 487 urban children (247 boys, 240 girls) in elementary schools in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Data on attachment-relevant coping styles in insecure…

This study examined whether children understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion depending upon the context. We prepared two contexts for a verbal display task for 70 first-graders, 80 third-graders, 64 fifth-graders, and 71 adults. In both contexts, protagonists had negative feelings because of the behavior of the other…

Children may be capable of understanding the value of emotion regulation strategies before they can enlist these strategies in emotion-evoking situations. This study was designed to extend understanding of children's judgment of the efficacy of alternative emotion regulation strategies. Children aged six and nine ("N" = 97) were…

This study examined how shyness-sensitivity and unsociability were associated with social, school, and psychological adjustment in Chinese children and adolescents. Participants included 564 children (272 boys, M[subscript age] = 9 years) and 462 adolescents (246 boys, M[subscript age] = 13 years) in a suburban region in China. Data were obtained…

The purpose of this study was (1) to evaluate psychometric properties that assess forms of aggression (i.e., relational and physical aggression) across cultures (i.e., Japan and the United States) and (2) to investigate the role of culture in the associations between forms of aggression and social-psychological adjustment problems such as…

This study examined social and psychological adjustment of immigrant and Canadian-born Chinese children in Canada. Participants included a sample of elementary school children (N = 356, M age = 11 years). Data on social functioning, peer relationships, school-related social competence, perceived self-worth, and loneliness were collected from peer…

This paper reports on two exploratory studies of situations that elicit shyness in Mainland Chinese children. In Study 1 (N = 100; M[subscript age] = 10.42) interviews with Chinese children identified three kinds of shyness-eliciting situations: social novelty; negative social evaluation; and public attention. In Study 2 (N = 162, M[subscript age]…

This study investigated 2 questions: (1) do children show consistent styles of appraisal across a range of moderately stressful events?, and (2) what are the adjustment and parenting correlates of individual differences in children's appraisal style? Ninety-nine 3rd though 5th grade children and their mothers participated. For each of 6 vignettes…

The purpose of this study was to examine uncertainty orientation and its relations with school and psychological adjustment in Chinese children. A sample of elementary school children in P.R. China, aged 10 to 12 years, participated in the study. Data concerning uncertainty orientation, academic performance and socio-emotional adjustment were…

Personality and gender differences in close same-sex friendship needs and experiences were investigated in two samples. Participants were 312 university students (217 women, M age = 19.5) and 491 preadolescents (269 girls, M age = 11.87). Participants completed several questionnaires yielding scores for communion and agency (personality), communal…

School-age children's ability to distinguish among the concepts of aloneness, loneliness, and solitude was the focus of this study. This ability has been largely neglected by researchers. Also, the relation of this ability with self-reported loneliness was examined. Individual interviews were conducted with 180 second, fourth, and sixth graders…

Elementary-school children in Cuba and Canada participated in measures of loneliness, sociometric status, friendship, aggression, and social withdrawal. Withdrawal was associated with loneliness in the Cuban data from both cohorts, Grade 4 and Grade 6. In the Canadian data, withdrawal was only linked to loneliness in Grade 6. In contrast with…