The understanding of sadness, guilt, and shame in 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old children

Children's understanding of sadness and guilt and of guilt and shame were examined in two separate studies, each involving a total of 60 Italian children aged 5-6, 7-8, and 9-10 years. For each emotion, the children were individually interviewed; they were asked to describe antecedents, thoughts characterizing the emotion that was the subject of the interview, and the action tendencies a person might use in response to the emotion. The children were also asked if, and if so, how, the presence of a parent might affect the emotion, and how they would cope with the situation. Results showed that at all the ages considered in this study, the children knew about the three emotions, although there were some age differences related to the depth of their understanding. Such data show that children's understanding of social emotions occurs earlier than claimed in previous studies that have focused mainly on antecedents.