Age-related changes in relations between young children's anger and spontaneous speech during a delayed reward task

Age-related declines in nonverbal anger reactivity during early childhood are attributed, in part, to expressive language development (Kopp, 1989). Although relations between language skills and emotion-related outcomes are well-established, how young children's language use evolves and supports emotional development is less understood. Does what children say account for systematic declines in anger reactivity? We investigated changes in relations between different types of speech content and nonverbal anger intensity from 24 to 70 months of age among 120 children from economically strained families during a frustrating waiting task. Multilevel models showed that (a) utterances related to task demands increased between 24 and 48 months and then declined by 70 months, whereas (b) unrelated utterances increased between 24 and 70 months. Controlling for language skills, more frequent use of unrelated utterances was associated with less intense anger, particularly in toddlerhood and preschool age. In contrast, task demand-related utterances were linked to greater anger at younger ages, but this effect diminished by kindergarten age. These findings suggest that how children use language in a frustrating situation where they must wait for a desired gift is distinctly related to their anger expressions. Further, the present study underscores the role of language in emotional development and invites further investigation on the nature of children's spontaneous speech during emotionally challenging situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).