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Updated: Jun 11, 2026
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
Weather daily variation in winter and its effect on behavior and affective states in day-care children
Enrica Ciucci1, Pamela Calussi, Ersilia Menesini
1Department of Psychology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. enrica.ciucci@unifi.it
Insights
Winter weather significantly impacts young children's emotions. Higher outdoor humidity correlated with increased frustration and aggression, while sunny days led to happier children, influencing their behavior and affective states.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Environmental Psychology
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Understanding the influence of environmental factors on early childhood development is crucial.
- Winter weather conditions may affect young children's emotional regulation and behavior.
- Limited research exists on the specific impact of meteorological variables on preschooler affective states.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the impact of winter weather conditions on the behavior and affective states of young children.
- To identify specific weather variables that predict emotional and behavioral changes in children aged 24 months.
- To provide insights for parents and educators on optimizing children's environments.
Main Methods:
- Observational study involving 61 children (33 males, 28 females) aged approximately 24 months in Florentine day-care centers.
- Teachers completed questionnaires five times over 3 weeks, documenting children's emotional and behavioral states.
- Multilevel linear models analyzed the relationship between weather data (temperature, humidity, pressure, solar radiation) and child behavior, controlling for age and gender.
Main Results:
- Relative humidity and solar radiation were identified as key predictors of children's emotional and behavioral states.
- Increased outdoor humidity significantly correlated with higher levels of frustration, sadness, and aggression.
- Increased solar radiation showed a significant negative effect on sadness, indicating more cheerful moods on sunny winter days.
Conclusions:
- Winter weather, specifically humidity and solar radiation, demonstrably influences young children's emotional and behavioral states.
- Findings suggest that environmental conditions play a significant role in modulating children's moods and actions.
- Implications for parents and teachers include creating supportive indoor and outdoor environments to mitigate negative weather impacts and enhance children's well-being.
Abstract:
This study aimed to analyze the impact of winter weather conditions on young children's behavior and affective states by examining a group of 61 children attending day-care centers in Florence (Italy). Participants were 33 males, 28 females and their 11 teachers. The mean age of the children at the beginning of the observation period was 24.1 months. The day-care teachers observed the children's behavioral and emotional states during the morning before their sleeping time and filled in a questionnaire for each baby five times over a winter period of 3 weeks. Air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure and solar radiation data were collected every 15 min from a weather station located in the city center of Florence. At the same time, air temperature and relative humidity data were collected in the classroom and in the garden of each day-care center. We used multilevel linear models to evaluate the extent to which children's emotional and behavioral states could be predicted by weather conditions, controlling for child characteristics (gender and age). The data showed that relative humidity and solar radiation were the main predictors of the children's emotional and behavioral states. The outdoor humidity had a significant positive effect on frustration, sadness and aggression; solar radiation had a significant negative effect only on sadness, suggesting that a sunny winter day makes children more cheerful. The results are discussed in term of implications for parents and teachers to improve children's ecological environment.
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