Leonhardt Anja, Könen Tanja, Dirk Judith, Schmiedek Florian
Department of Education and Human Development, German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF).
Department of Psychology, Goethe University.
Psychol Assess. 2016 May;28(5):575-85. doi: 10.1037/pas0000195. Epub 2015 Aug 17.
Research on the structure of children's affect is limited. It is possible that children's perception of their own affect might be less differentiated than that of adults. Support for the 2-factor model of positive and negative affect and the pleasure-arousal model suggests that children in middle childhood can distinguish positive and negative affect as well as valence and arousal. Whether children are able to differentiate further aspects of affect, as proposed by the 3-dimensional model of affect (good-bad mood, alertness-tiredness, calmness-tension), is an unresolved issue. The aim of our study was the comparison of these 3 affect models to establish how differentiated children experience their affect and which model best describes affect in children. We examined affect structures on the between- and within-person level, acknowledging that affect varies across time and that no valid interpretation of either level is feasible if both are confounded. For this purpose, 214 children (age 8-11 years) answered affect items once a day for 5 consecutive days on smartphones. We tested all affect models by means of 2-level confirmatory factor analysis. Although all affect models had an acceptable fit, the 3-dimensional model best described affect in children on both the within- and between-person level. Thus, children in middle childhood can already describe affect in a differentiated way. Also, affect structures were similar on the within- and between-person level. We conclude that in order to acquire a thorough picture of children's affect, measures for children should include items of all 3 affect dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record
关于儿童情感结构的研究有限。儿童对自身情感的感知可能不如成年人那样具有分化性。对积极情感与消极情感的双因素模型以及愉悦-唤醒模型的支持表明，童年中期的儿童能够区分积极情感与消极情感，以及效价和唤醒。儿童是否能够像情感三维模型（好坏情绪、警觉-疲惫、平静-紧张）所提出的那样，进一步区分情感的其他方面，这是一个尚未解决的问题。我们研究的目的是比较这三种情感模型，以确定儿童对情感的体验有多分化，以及哪种模型最能描述儿童的情感。我们在个体间和个体内层面上研究情感结构，承认情感会随时间变化，并且如果两者相互混淆，那么对任何一个层面的有效解释都是不可行的。为此，214名8至11岁的儿童连续5天每天在智能手机上回答情感项目。我们通过二级验证性因素分析对所有情感模型进行了测试。尽管所有情感模型的拟合度都可以接受，但三维模型在个体内和个体间层面上都最能描述儿童的情感。因此，童年中期的儿童已经能够以分化的方式描述情感。此外，情感结构在个体内和个体间层面上是相似的。我们得出结论，为了全面了解儿童的情感，针对儿童的测量应该包括所有三个情感维度的项目。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
