Emotion knowledge as a mediator of school readiness outcomes
Open Access
- Author:
- Ho, Leslie
- Graduate Program:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- August 20, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Karen Linn Bierman, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Erika Sell Lunkenheimer, Committee Member
Yo Jackson, Committee Member
Melvin Michael Mark, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Emotion knowledge
emotional competence
school readiness
social-emotional learning - Abstract:
- Developmental conceptualizations of emotional competence have distinguished emotion knowledge from emotion regulation. Several theoretical models suggest that the acquisition of emotion knowledge supports the development of emotion regulation, as well as enhancing child school readiness in both cognitive and behavioral domains. However, empirical research directly testing these temporal associations remains limited. This study examined the predicted associations in the context of an experimental intervention that used a social-emotional learning program to enhance children’s emotional competence and school readiness. The first goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal associations between emotion knowledge and emotion regulation from preschool to kindergarten and determine whether the intervention influenced those associations. The second goal was to determine whether intervention effects on emotion knowledge mediated intervention effects on kindergarten readiness outcomes in areas of academic performance, learning behaviors, and social adjustment. METHOD: Participants were 356 children (17% Latinx, 25% African American, and 58% European American; 54% girls; Mage = 4.59 years at initial assessment) recruited from 44 Head Start classrooms. Emotion knowledge was measured through direct assessments; emotion regulation was assessed with parent and teacher ratings. RESULTS: Emotion regulation at the start of the preschool year was marginally predictive of emotion knowledge at the end of that year; emotion knowledge at the end of the preschool year was marginally predictive of emotion regulation in kindergarten. Emotion knowledge significantly mediated the effects of explicit SEL intervention on academic performance, prosocial behaviors, and aggressive behaviors, over and above the contributions of emotion regulation. CONCLUSIONS: The findings underscore the utility of examining emotion knowledge as a distinct construct of emotional competence with unique contributions to early school adjustment.