This article offers a critique of social-emotional learning programs through the lens of psychoanalytic theory and with a particular focus on the theoretical contributions of Kleinian psychoanalysis. In particular, the article draws on concepts of affective positions to show that social-emotional learning is mired in a paranoid-schizoid mentality…

Research Findings: Young children's relationships with their sisters and brothers offer unique and important opportunities for learning about emotions and developing emotional understanding. Through a critical analysis, this article examines sibling interaction in 3 different but normative contexts (conflict/conflict management, play, and…

This study examined emotion understanding and reconciliation in 47 (24 girls) 4-6-year-old preschool children. Participants first completed emotion recognition tasks and then answered questions regarding reconciliation tendencies and affective perspective-taking in a series of overt and relational aggressive conflict scenarios. Children's teachers…

This study represents part of an extended research program designed to explore the various parameters of imaginative play in children and their relationship to the later development of daydreaming and various cognitive skills or personality characteristics. The specific focus of this investigation was on role of adult intervention represented…

Examined the play activities of 49 at-risk (AR) and non-at-risk (NAR) elementary school students, using the Smilansky Scale for Evaluation of Dramatic and Sociodramatic Play measure. Found that AR students displayed higher levels of hostile acting out behaviors than did NAR students, whereas the NAR group engaged in more verbal communication…

Research suggests that both emotion-laden discourse and positive affect facilitate the construction of emotional and relational understanding. Despite this, research has not typically examined simultaneously the connections among affect, emotional discourse, and socioemotional development. In this study, 51 preschool children (M age = 52.80…

Investigates the influence of children's affective dispositions and knowledge of emotions on their ability to use nonaggressive conflict resolution strategies, exploring connections between autonomy and socioemotional development. Finds that individual differences in affective dispositions and emotional knowledge influence children's abilities to…

How games influence the psychological and social development of children is examined. It is pointed out that the current emphasis on competition and winning at all costs is harmful and that competition is not instinctive but a learned response to society's expectations. Other cultures such as the Eskimo and Chinese are presented as examples of…

Noting recent interest in girls' social or "relational" aggression, this volume offers a balanced, scholarly analysis of scientific knowledge in this area. The book integrates current research on emotion regulation, gender, and peer relations, to examine how girls are socialized to experience and express anger and aggression from infancy…

Considers eight models for the study of pubertal change that explore possible links between hormones and negative affective experiences, such as depression and aggression. Notes that hormonal effects, though small, have demonstrated stability and have interacted with psychological and social factors, implicating hormonal changes in the development…

Results of a longitudinal study provide several insights into the idealization of motherhood, the idealization of mothers' relationships with their children in the years from 1 to 4, and the development of children of women who idealize motherhood. In the mother, idealization is associated with low self-esteem, denial of ambivalent feelings and…

Two studies examined the development of display rules for anger and the relationship between the use of display rules for anger and aggressiveness as rated by school peers. Findings indicate that the phenomenon of display rules for anger is complex and depends on the way display rules are defined and the age and gender of the subjects. (GLR)

Examined relative roles of aggression and other dysregulated behaviors in predicting adolescent peer problems and antisocial behavior. Found that aggression and withdrawal were stable and linked to peer difficulties in elementary school and adolescence, but indicated significant risk for adolescent rejection, victimization, and antisocial activity…

Investigated sociometric status, aggression, and gender differences in African American second-graders' expression of anger, happiness, and sadness during a competitive game. Found that rejected children expressed more facial and verbal anger than average-status children and more nonverbal happiness, but only during turns that were favorable to…

Examined the connection between adolescents' expressions of negative affect and their attempts to meet the developmental task of establishing autonomy and relatedness in interactions with their parents. Longitudinal observational data and interviews of 96 adolescents and their parents revealed that difficulties establishing autonomy and…