Issues related to children's ability to conceal their immediate emotional experiences by displaying alternate socially or personally motivated facial expressions are discussed. Four basic categories of dissimulation of emotional experience are specified, and motives for the use of cultural and personal display rules and direct deception are posed.…

Warns that until schools give up their zeal for control, they will continue to wring the emotional life out of many children who will end up untouched by their involvement in school, life, or interpersonal relationships. (Author)

Explored patterns of emotional communication in 70 mother-infant dyads, emphasizing both mother and child roles in affect regulation. Display of maternal positive and negative affects decreased with age; child affects were unchanged. Maternal sensitivity was associated with maternal matching of son's affects and daughter's creation of shared…

Used semiprojective and scenario-based measures to identify evidence for adaptive or maladaptive aspects of guilt and shame in 5- to 12-year olds. Found that shame and projective guilt were related to symptoms as rated by parents, self-blame, and attempts to minimize painful feelings. Scenario-based guilt was related to fewer symptoms in boys but…

This study examined children's responses to several questions about their use of display rules for expressing emotions--i.e., about the circumstances in which they would (1) mask or hide their feelings, (2) dissimulate their feelings through substituting another affective expression, and (3) express their feelings. A total of 60 children, aged 6,…

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…

Examines the influence of socialization figures (parents, friends), emotion type (anger, sadness, physical pain), age, and gender on 66 second-grade and 71 fifth-grade children's reasons for and methods of affect expression. Found that girls reported using verbal means to communicate emotion, whereas boys cited mildly aggressive methods. (MDM)

Examined children's emotional and behavioral regulation and emotional and prosocial responses to a crying infant. Found that children who could regulate their arousal were unlikely to become distressed and more likely than other children to talk to and comfort the crying infant. Girls were more responsive and engaged in more active responses than…

Investigated children's and adolescents' involvement in mutual antipathies. Found that children and boys of all ages were more frequently involved in same-sex antipathies; involvement in mixed-sex antipathies was comparable for both genders. Same-sex antipathies were associated with antisocial behavior and social withdrawal for both age and gender…

Examined emotion regulation decisions and outcome expectations following emotionally expressive behavior in fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders as a function of goals, age, and gender. Found that participants distinguished between vignettes characterized by prosocial versus self-protective goals. Goal type influenced emotional regulation decisions…

A third-year follow-up investigation of socioemotional behaviors of preterm and full-term infants videotaped mother-child and child-peer play sessions. Contributions of gender, birth status, attachment classification, and maternal contingency behavior to children's expressive development were examined. Results suggest that children learn greater…

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…

Investigated effects of age, gender, and peer social status on children's understanding of emotional regulation. Found that children would less openly express negative than positive emotions. Predictions of peer reactions to emotional expressions depended on type of emotion and expression. Girls anticipated more negative peer reactions than did…

Building on previous research indicating that among first, third, and fifth graders, older children expect affective expressive behavior to be regulated, a study was made of children's beliefs about rationales for and consequences of regulated affective expressive behavior. Children's beliefs were examined in conjunction with their parents' (1)…

Investigates children's person-by-situation knowledge of probable causes of emotion in self and in others, and compares this to adults' construals. Shows that children can generate contextual explanations for affective states in self and others that are both shared by other children and adults and selectively related to different kinds of…