ERIC Number: EJ1136149
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1040-9289
EISSN: N/A
Does Training Toddlers in Emotion Knowledge Lead to Changes in Their Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior toward Peers at Nursery?
Ornaghi, Veronica; Brazzelli, Elisa; Grazzani, Ilaria; Agliati, Alessia; Lucarelli, Maria
Early Education and Development, v28 n4 p396-414 2017
Research Findings: Within the flourishing area of research demonstrating the efficacy of emotion-based interventions carried out by trained teachers in educational contexts in increasing children's emotional skills, this study makes an original contribution to the existing literature by focusing on the effects of this kind of intervention on toddlers' prosocial and aggressive behavior. Ninety-five 26- to 36-month-olds participated in a 2-month intervention in which trained teachers read emotion-based stories to small groups of children and then either involved them in conversations about emotions (experimental condition) or did not (control condition). Even after we controlled for age and general language ability, the children in the experimental condition were found to outperform the control group on measures of emotion knowledge and emotional-state talk. Furthermore, the intervention fostered gains in prosocial behavior, whereas it did not have a significant effect on the frequency of aggressive actions, which was lower at posttest in both groups. The positive effect of the training program on participants' prosocial behavior was no longer significant when we controlled for gains in emotion knowledge and emotional-state talk. Practice or Policy: The results encourage the implementation of early educational programs focused on emotion knowledge in order to foster children's prosocial behavior toward peers.
Descriptors: Toddlers, Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, Intervention, Emotional Development, Story Reading, Teaching Methods, Preschool Teachers, Control Groups, Experimental Groups, Group Discussion, Outcomes of Education, Peer Relationship, Role, Language Skills, Video Technology, Language Tests, Foreign Countries, Statistical Analysis, Pretests Posttests, Observation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Preschool Education; Early Childhood Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A