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Young children's coping with interpersonal anger
1Department of Family Resources and Human Development, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287-2502.
Insights
Preschoolers
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Growing interest in children's stress and coping.
- Limited research on children's interpersonal coping strategies.
- Understanding anger expression in early childhood is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine preschoolers' interpersonal coping with anger.
- To identify gender differences in anger coping.
- To explore the relationship between social competence, popularity, and anger coping.
Main Methods:
- Observational study during free-play periods.
- Recorded causes of anger and coping responses in preschoolers (n=69).
- Assessed social competence and popularity.
Main Results:
- Preschoolers' anger coping varied by context and gender.
- Boys tended to vent anger more than girls.
- Girls showed more active assertion than boys.
- Socially competent and popular children used direct, active coping strategies that minimized conflict.
- These strategies preserved social relationships.
Conclusions:
- Children's interpersonal anger coping is context- and gender-dependent.
- Social competence influences adaptive anger management in preschoolers.
- Findings inform understanding of emotion regulation and social interaction in early childhood.
Abstract:
Although interest in children's stress and coping has increased, little attention has been paid to children's interpersonal coping. During free-play periods, we observed and recorded the causes of preschoolers' (M age = 55.43 months) anger and how they reacted to these provocations (n = 69). Measures of social competence and popularity also were obtained. Preschoolers' coping with interpersonal anger varied in meaningful ways in different contexts and varied for boys and girls. For example, boys tended to vent more than girls, whereas girls tended to actively assert themselves more than boys. Moreover, the findings supported the conclusion that socially competent and popular children coped with anger in ways that were relatively direct and active and in ways that minimized further conflict and damage to social relationships. Results were discussed in light of current research on children's abilities to regulate emotions and social interactions and how these may be related to children's anger-related coping responses.