Chan Megan, Taw Michelle, Eisenberg Nancy, Zhou Qing
Department of Psychology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA.
Children (Basel). 2025 Jan 2;12(1):52. doi: 10.3390/children12010052.
: Preschool children learn to express emotions in accordance with sociocultural norms. Parental emotion talk (ET) has been theorized to shape these processes. Limited research has examined preschoolers' observed emotion expressions and emotion-related behaviors in culturally diverse samples. We sought to explore the following: (1) cultural group differences and similarities in observed emotion expressions (anger, sadness, and positive emotions) and emotion-related behaviors between Chinese American and Mexican American preschoolers, and (2) the concurrent links between parental ET and children's emotion expressions. : In a sample of 86 children (age range = 38 to 70 months, 62% girls) from low-income immigrant families (Mexican Americans/MA = 43 and Chinese Americans/CA = 43), the observed children's emotion expressions and emotion-related behaviors were coded based on a frustration-eliciting task. Parental ET quality and quantity were coded from transcripts of a parent-child shared reading task. : MA children expressed more anger and sadness, but the two groups did not differ on positive emotions or emotion-related behaviors. Multiple regressions showed that children whose parents engaged in more ET expressed higher levels of anger and sadness and used more non-feeling state languages than children whose parents engaged in less ET. : The results revealed cultural variations in preschool-age children's emotion expressions and provided support for associations between parental ET and children's emotion expressions.
学龄前儿童学习根据社会文化规范来表达情绪。理论认为，父母的情绪谈话（ET）会影响这些过程。有限的研究考察了不同文化背景样本中学龄前儿童的观察到的情绪表达和与情绪相关的行为。我们试图探究以下问题：（1）华裔美国人和墨西哥裔美国学龄前儿童在观察到的情绪表达（愤怒、悲伤和积极情绪）以及与情绪相关行为方面的文化群体差异和相似之处，以及（2）父母情绪谈话与儿童情绪表达之间的同步联系。：在一个来自低收入移民家庭的86名儿童样本（年龄范围 = 38至70个月，62%为女孩）中（墨西哥裔美国人/MA = 43名，华裔美国人/CA = 43名），根据一项引发挫折的任务对观察到的儿童情绪表达和与情绪相关行为进行编码。父母情绪谈话的质量和数量从亲子共读任务的文字记录中进行编码。：墨西哥裔美国儿童表达出更多的愤怒和悲伤，但两组在积极情绪或与情绪相关行为方面没有差异。多元回归分析表明，与父母情绪谈话较少的儿童相比，父母进行更多情绪谈话的儿童表现出更高水平的愤怒和悲伤，并且使用更多非情感状态语言。：结果揭示了学龄前儿童情绪表达的文化差异，并为父母情绪谈话与儿童情绪表达之间的关联提供了支持。
