Emotional responsivity to others: behavioral correlates and socialization antecedents

We have proposed that how children deal with emotional arousal in social situations affects the quality of their social interactions. More specifically, we have argued that children who can regulate negative emotions so that they are not overly aroused interact in more adaptive ways. Based on these assumptions, we have started to examine the relations of parental characteristics and practices to children's emotional responding and social behavior. Initial research findings provide partial support for the conclusion that parental encouragement of children's expression of their own sadness, distress, and sympathy, as well as parental practices that teach children ways to deal with negative emotion-eliciting situations and their own negative emotions, are associated with sympathetic emotional responding and with adaptive social behavior. These findings suggest that further examination of the ways in which children learn to manage their emotions in social interactions will serve to augment our understanding of the socialization of social competence.