The Relationship between Children's Gender, Age, Temperament, Mothers' Emotionality, and Emotional Development

The purpose of this research was to identify the importance of emotional development in early childhood, in children ages three to five, by examining the relationship between the variables in the children such as gender, age, and temperament, as well as their mothers' emotionality, in relation to emotional development. The participants included a total of 72 children between three and five years of age. The major findings are as follow: First, there were significant differences in emotional expression and emotional recognition between the boys and the girls. Additionally, the emotional recognition of the children increased as age increased, and more positive strategies for emotional regulation were used with the increasing age of the children. Temperament characteristics did not have any relationship with emotional expression or emotional recognition, while the strategies for emotional regulation were related to the temperament characteristics. Second, the emotional expressivity of the mother was related to the emotional expression and recognition of the child, but wes not associated with strategies for emotional regulation. The emotional reactivity of the mother was related to a child's strategies for emotional regulation, but not to emotional expression or recognition. Third, emotional development of the children wes influenced by the individual child variables and emotionality of the mother.