10.2

Understanding Emotions

In addition to the development of children’s capacity to feel emotions, another key influence on children’s emotional reactions and regulation is their understanding of emotion—that is, their understanding of how to identify emotions, as well as their understanding of what emotions mean, their social functions, and what factors affect emotional experience. Because an understanding of emotion affects social behavior, it is critical to the development of social competence. Children’s understanding of emotions is primitive in infancy but develops rapidly over the course of childhood.

Identifying the Emotions of Others

The first step for children to develop an understanding of emotion is to recognize different emotions in others. By 3 months of age, infants can distinguish facial expressions of happiness, surprise, and anger (Grossmann, 2010). This ability has been studied through the use of the habituation paradigm, which was first discussed in Chapter 5. Three- or 4-month-olds who were first habituated to pictures of happy faces before being presented with a picture of a face depicting surprise showed renewed interest by looking longer at the new picture.

By 7 months of age, infants appear to discriminate a number of additional expressions, such as fear, sadness, and interest (Grossmann, 2010). For example, 7-month-olds exhibit different patterns of brain waves when they observe fearful and angry facial expressions, a finding that suggests some ability to discriminate these emotions (Kobiella et al., 2008).

One experiment compared a group of 12- to 14-month-olds with a second group of 16- to 18-month-olds to examine when infants develop the ability to relate facial expressions of emotion and emotional tones of voice to events in the environment (Martin et al., 2014). Individually, the children were shown an object and a video of a facial expression at the same time; specific toys were associated with each of six different emotional expressions—anger, fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, and a neutral expression.

The children were then presented with both an emotion-paired toy and a neutral toy that had not been paired with an emotion; experimenters observed which toy the children reached for. An age difference clearly emerged. The 12- to 14-month-old children did not differentiate between objects that had been associated with each emotion; they reached for all of them at about the same rates. However, children just a few months older, at 16 to 18 months of age, strongly preferred the toys associated with surprise and happy faces, and they strongly avoided toys that had been associated with anger or fear (Martin et al., 2014).

Social Referencing

Such skills are evident in children’s social referencing—that is, their use of a parent’s or other adult’s facial expression or vocal cues to decide how to deal with novel, ambiguous, or possibly threatening situations. In laboratory studies of this phenomenon, infants are typically exposed to novel people or toys while their mother, at the experimenter’s direction, shows a happy, fearful, or neutral facial expression. In studies of this type, 12-month-olds tend to stay near their mother when she shows fear, to move toward the novel person or object if she expresses positive emotion, and to move partway toward the person or object if she shows no emotion (Carver & Vaccaro, 2007).

By 14 months of age, the emotion-related information obtained through social referencing has an effect on children’s touching of the object even an hour later (Hertenstein & Campos, 2004). Children seem to be better at social referencing if they receive both vocal and facial cues of emotion from the adult, and the use of vocal cues seems to be more effective than just the use of visual cues alone (Vaillant-Molina & Bahrick, 2012; Vaish & Striano, 2004).

Labeling Emotions

By age 3, children in laboratory studies demonstrate a rudimentary ability to label a fairly narrow range of emotional expressions displayed in pictures or on puppets’ faces (Denham, 1986). Young children—even 2-year-olds—are skilled at labelling happiness (usually by pointing to pictures of faces that reflect happiness; Michalson & Lewis, 1985). The ability to label anger, fear, and sadness emerges and increases in the next 1 or 2 years, and the ability to label surprise and disgust gradually appears in the late preschool and early school years (Widen & Russell, 2003, 2010).

Most children cannot label the self-conscious emotions pride, shame, and guilt until early to middle elementary school (Saarni et al., 2006), but the scope and accuracy of their emotion labelling improve thereafter into adolescence (Montirosso et al., 2010).

Children’s facility for reading others’ emotions can also be determined by their environments. Children who grow up in environments with violence or without adults they can trust may develop heightened awareness to emotional cues of conflict. A study of children in Sierra Leone who were orphaned and experiencing homelessness found that they were much more likely than children living in homes with families to detect anger in facial expressions and less likely to detect sadness (Ardizzi et al., 2015).

These tendencies, sadly, are likely important aspects of self-preservation for living without a home and parents. Children’s ability to recognize the facial expression of disgust in others develops over time; very few children of preschool age recognize disgust, but one-third of 12- to 14-year-olds recognize it, and three-quarters of 15- to 17-year-olds do (Widen & Russell, 2013).

Cultural Differences in Emotion Recognition

There are cultural differences as well: cross-cultural comparisons have found that school-age French children are more likely to correctly match a disgust face to a story about a disgusting event than are American children, who in turn do so more readily than Palestinian children (Widen & Russell, 2013). The exact reason for such cultural differences is not clear, although it may be affected by the languages spoken in each culture and by how widespread expressions of disgust are within a given culture.

It is important to note that the emotion recognition abilities previously described may look different amongst neurodivergent children. For example, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), a hallmark of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is difficulties with interpersonal communication and interaction, including difficulties expressing one’s own emotions and responding to emotions in others (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2022).

A review and meta-analysis of research found that individuals with ASD show differences in their ability to recognize all six of the basic emotions in human faces and in verbal communication compared to neurotypical individuals (Leung et al., 2022). These differences may be related to theory of mind, which is the ability to appreciate that other people have thoughts and feelings (see Box 7.1): a study in Italy of 4- to 9-year-old children found that autistic children differed in performance on theory of mind, including emotion recognition, compared to both neurotypical children and children with language impairments (Bulgarelli, Testa, & Molina, 2022).

Innovative Approaches to Aid Neurodivergent Children

Innovative approaches aimed at helping neurodivergent children become more attentive to emotions are being tested. In one randomized controlled trial (the gold standard for evaluating interventions) conducted in the United States, autistic children aged 6 to 12 wore Google Glass smart glasses (with projected computer screens on the lenses) that showed them when people in their environment were expressing different emotions. Children who used the glasses showed improvements in their social skills compared to those who did not (Voss et al., 2019).

Another randomized controlled trial in Italy found that autistic children who interacted with a child-size, humanoid robot that delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (under the guidance of a trained therapist) experienced large increases in their ability to understand the emotions and thoughts of other people (Marino et al., 2020). These are but two examples of how technology may be able to help neurodivergent children improve their emotion recognition and social behaviours.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The widespread use of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic led many caregivers to worry that young children would be less able to recognize facial emotions. A study in Switzerland found that preschool children were slightly better at recognizing joy and sadness in people who did not wear masks than in those with masks, but that they were equally likely to recognize anger with or without a mask (Schneider et al., 2022). This study suggests that young children who experienced the pandemic were generally able to develop emotion recognition abilities, despite the prevalence of mask wearing, perhaps because they were able to develop these abilities at home with their unmasked families.

The ability to read peers’ facial expressions provides children with information about a peer’s motives, which helps children respond appropriately in a potential conflict situation. Studies suggest that this ability persisted despite the use of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children’s inability to recognize emotions in others has been linked with the development of mental health problems: one study found that 1st-grade children who were low in emotion recognition ability had high levels of loneliness, perhaps because they misinterpreted others’ emotional cues and thus had difficulties in relationships (Castro et al., 2018).

Emotional Intelligence

Cognitive intelligence, as discussed in Chapter 8, refers to the ability to reason about, learn from, and remember verbal or visual information. Emotional intelligence refers to individuals’ ability to cognitively process information about emotions and to use that information to guide both their thoughts and behaviours (Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade, 2008).

Importantly, emotional intelligence involves the ability to understand one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others, as perceived through their facial expressions, body movements, and verbal tone. To measure emotional intelligence in children and adolescents, researchers typically ask participants to respond to direct statements about themselves and their abilities.

One commonly used measure, known as the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, asks adolescents to rate the truth of statements such as “I can control my anger when I want to” and “I’m good at getting along with my classmates” (Petrides et al., 2006).

Emotional intelligence has been linked to a range of positive outcomes in both childhood and adolescence. Children high in emotional intelligence are better able to manage their own emotions and are less likely to engage in aggressive behaviour than are children with lower emotional intelligence (Lomas et al., 2012).

A review of studies conducted in a diverse set of countries (Australia, China, Spain, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, and the United States) found that children high in emotional intelligence in adolescence have fewer mental health problems, lower risk behaviours, and better strategies for coping with stress than do children low in emotional intelligence (Resurrección, Salguero, & Ruiz-Aranda, 2014). Emotional intelligence also appears to predict these positive outcomes over and above other related factors such as self-esteem, personality, and cognitive intelligence (Resurrección et al., 2014).

Such findings have led researchers to develop interventions to promote emotional intelligence as a way of reducing aggressive and antisocial behaviour. One notable program is Roots of Empathy (ROE), targeted at children in kindergarten through grade 8 (Gordon, 2009).

This program began as a small project in Toronto in 1996 but is now implemented in every province in Canada, in rural, urban, and remote communities, including Indigenous communities. ROE, which lasts for the school year, is built around monthly class visits by an infant–parent pair who are “adopted” by the class. During each monthly visit, children learn about the baby’s development through interaction and observation.

A ROE program instructor, who visits the classroom 3 times each month—before, during, and after the infant–parent visit—provides lessons that focus on emotional understanding, empathy, problem solving, perspective taking, effective parenting, infant development, and caring for others. The lessons and activities vary with the age of the baby and the developmental level of the students in the classroom. Apart from the instructor visits, classroom teachers incorporate information and ideas from the ROE lessons into their regular lessons (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2012).

An evaluation of the program, which studied 585 children from grades 4 to 7 and included reports from peers and teachers, yielded promising results. Children who participated in ROE demonstrated a greater understanding of why infants cry. Peer reports indicated increases in prosocial behaviour, and teacher reports pointed to more proactive behaviour and less relational aggression. Children’s own reports of empathy and perspective taking did not show significant changes (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2012).

A more recent report on the program highlighted how participation in ROE influenced children during the COVID-19 pandemic: 78% of participants reported that they better understood how the pandemic impacted both themselves and others (Roots of Empathy, 2021).

Another intervention for middle and high school students in Spain focuses on enhancing aspects of emotional intelligence, such as perceiving emotions in others and being aware of how emotions influence thought processes. For example, one activity uses emotionally laden music, poems, and short stories as a springboard for a discussion of the role and usefulness of emotion in daily life (Castillo et al., 2013).

In an experimental evaluation, students who participated in the intervention engaged in less verbal and physical aggression and reported fewer mental health problems than did students who were not in the program (Castillo et al., 2013; Salguero, Palomera, & Fernández-Berrocal, 2012).

As this research shows, emotional intelligence is a helpful concept for understanding how emotion-related skills affect children’s interactions with others and provides a useful target for interventions aimed at improving children’s social-emotional skills and mental health.

Understanding Real and False Emotions

An important component in the development of emotional understanding is the realization that the emotions people express do not necessarily reflect their true feelings. The beginnings of this realization are seen in 3-year-olds’ occasional (and usually transparent) attempts to mask their negative emotions when they receive a disappointing gift or prize (Cole, 1986).

By age 5, children’s understanding of false emotion has improved considerably; in one study, a group of 3- to 5-year-olds were presented with stories that involved children feeling emotions, such as the following:

Michelle is sleeping over at her cousin Johnny’s house today. Michelle forgot her favorite teddy bear at home. Michelle is really sad…. But, she doesn’t want Johnny to see how sad she is because Johnny will call her a baby. So, Michelle tries to hide how she feels. (Banerjee, 1997)

After the children were questioned to ensure that they understood each story, they were presented with illustrations of various emotional expressions and given instructions such as “Show me the picture for how Michelle really feels” and “Show me the picture for how Michelle will try to look on her face.” Although only half of 3- and 4-year-olds chose the appropriate pictures for four or more of the stories, more than 80% of 5-year-olds chose correctly (Banerjee, 1997).

These findings suggest that the younger children did not appreciate that someone could express one emotion while feeling another, whereas the older children did. Studies with both Japanese children and children from several Western countries also confirm that between 4 and 6 years of age, children increasingly understand that people can be misled by others’ facial expressions (Gardner et al., 1988; Gross & Harris, 1988).

Part of the improvement in understanding false emotion involves a growing understanding of display rules, which are a social or cultural group’s informal norms about when, where, and how much one should show emotions, as well as when and where displays of emotion should be suppressed or masked by displays of other emotions (Cole & Jacobs, 2018; Saarni, 1979).

Display rules sometimes require that children express an emotion that is not matched with their felt emotion. The two main strategies for engaging in display rules are simulating an emotion, typically in order to be nice to someone else (such as pretending to love an aunt’s cooking), and masking an emotion as a self-protective measure (such as pretending not to be afraid of an approaching bully). Displaying context-appropriate emotion and avoiding uncontrolled emotions are key to successful social interactions (Saarni et al., 2006).

Children as young as years of age can recognize exaggerated and fake emotional displays (Walle & Campos, 2014). Over the preschool and elementary school years, children develop a more refined understanding of when and why display rules are used (Wu, Wang, & Liu, 2017). With age, children also better understand that people tend to break eye contact and avert their gaze when lying, and they are increasingly able to use this knowledge to conceal their own deception (McCarthy & Lee, 2009).

In order to determine how display rules develop, researchers conducting a study of 4-, 6-, and 8-year-olds in Germany devised a scenario to encourage children to fake emotions in order to win a prize (Kromm, Färber, & Holodynski, 2015). The children were shown three boxes with lids. One box had an attractive gift (e.g., a glitter tattoo), one had an unattractive gift (e.g., a broken pencil), and the third had no gift at all. The children were instructed to look in each box and then try to trick the experimenter into thinking one of the boxes without the attractive toy was in fact the box with the attractive toy; if they succeeded in tricking the experimenter, they could keep the attractive toy.

In fact, the experimenter always “guessed” incorrectly, and so all children got to take home the preferred toy, but the experimenters video-recorded the children’s facial expressions during the task. They found that the 4-year-olds were not successful in following display rules; they were unable to mask their disappointment, and they were unable to simulate joy to trick the experimenter.

Yet, as children became older, they increasingly demonstrated a better understanding, and nearly 60% of 8-year-olds could simulate joy to trick the experimenter while only 28% failed to mask their disappointment with the unattractive toy (Kromm et al., 2015). This study provides clear evidence that children experience a steep increase in their understanding and implementation of display rules in middle childhood.

Cultural Influences on Display Rules

These age-related advances in children’s understanding of real versus false emotion and display rules are linked to increases in children’s cognitive capacities (Flavell, 1986; Harris, 2000). However, social factors also seem to affect children’s understanding of display rules. For example, 10-year-olds in Iran are more likely to report using display rules around happiness, fear, and sadness than are 10-year-olds in the Netherlands (Novin et al., 2009).

In many cultures, display rules are somewhat different for boys and men than for girls and women, and reflect societal beliefs about how members of each gender should feel and behave (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006; Van Beek, Van Dolderen, & Demon Dubas, 2006). This is especially true for girls from cultures such as India, where they are expected to be deferential and to express only socially appropriate emotions (Joshi & MacLean, 1994). Differences are also found in the United States, where elementary school girls are more likely than boys to feel that openly expressing emotions such as pain is acceptable (Zeman & Garber, 1996).