Preschoolers' Understanding of Parents' Emotions: Implications for Emotional Competence.

We investigated preschoolers' understanding of their parents' emotions, and the relations of these conceptions to their emotional competence (i.e., reactions to others' emotions, regulation of their own emotions). 70 children (mean age = 55 mos) participated in a dollhouse assessment of understanding of parents' emotions. Teachers rated them on empathy and peer relations, and children were observed reacting to a familiar adult's emotions in a naturalistic play session. Children demonstrated coherent understandings that different parental emotions have differing causes and child responses, and suggested specific strategies to change parents' emotions. Their beliefs about their parents' expressive patterns, and about their own reactions and interventions ia response, were coherently related to their emotional competence in two settings.