Predicting early emotion knowledge development among children of colour living in historically disinvested neighbourhoods: consideration of child pre-academic abilities, self-regulation, peer relations and parental education

• Main Authors: Brotman, L.M (Author), Dawson-McClure, S. (Author), Siegel, J. (Author), Ursache, A. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2019
• Subjects: African American; African Americans; Article; autoregulation; Black person; child; child behavior; child development; Child Development; child parent relation; Child, Preschool; color; early childhood; educational status; Educational Status; emotion; Emotion knowledge; emotionality; Emotions; facial expression; female; Female; follow up; Follow-Up Studies; human; human relation; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; kindergarten; Longitudinal Studies; longitudinal study; lowest income group; male; Male; neighborhood; parent; Parents; peer group; Peer Group; peer relations; poverty; Poverty; pre-academic abilities; preschool child; primary school; priority journal; psychology; race difference; racism; self control; Self-Control; self-regulation; social competence; social environment; social status; urban area; urban population; Urban Population
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Emotion knowledge, the ability to accurately perceive and label emotions, predicts higher quality peer relations, higher social competence, higher academic achievement, and fewer behaviour problems. Less is known, however, about predictors of early development of emotion knowledge. This study examines emotion knowledge development among children attending pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten programmes in high-poverty urban schools. The study considers child pre-academic abilities, self-regulation, peer relations and parental education as predictors of emotion knowledge development over two years. The sample (n = 1034) of children living in historically disinvested neighbourhoods was primarily Black (85%) and low-income (∼61%). The sample was part of a longitudinal follow-up study of a cluster (school) randomised controlled trial in ten public elementary schools. Children’s emotion knowledge was assessed with a series of tasks three times over a two-year period. At baseline, parents and teachers reported on peer relations, children completed a test of pre-academic abilities, independent observers rated child self-regulation, and parents reported on their educational attainment. Results demonstrate that emotion knowledge increases over time, and pre-academic abilities, self-regulation, peer relations, and parent education independently predict children’s emotion knowledge. This study highlights multiple factors that predict emotion knowledge among primarily Black children living in historically disinvested neighbourhoods. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.