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Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol. 31, No. 1, February 2003, pp. 7991 ( 2003)
Emotional Competence and Aggressive Behavior in School-Age Children1
Amy M. Bohnert,2,4 Keith A. Crnic,2 and Karen G. Lim2,3
Received July 13, 2000; revision received September 2, 2002; accepted September 10, 2002
Examined emotional competence in 87 children, aged 710 years, who varied with respect to reports of aggressive behavior to determine whether individual differences in emotional competence characterize children with higher levels of aggressive behavior. Emotional competence was assessed during a 1-hr lab visit that included (a) an observational period consisting of a modied disappointment paradigm,(b) assessment of cognitive and language abilities, and (c) 2 structured emotion interviews. Children with higher levels of aggressive behavior exhibited more intense and frequent expressions of anger, both as reported by mothers and as observed during the disappointment paradigm. Less sophisticated ability to identify the causes of emotion also characterized children with higher levels of aggressive behavior. Gender moderated the relation between aggressive behavior and type of emotion identied such that reports of happiness (in response to receiving a disappointing prize) were associated with lower levels of reported aggressive behavior for boys. The value of assessing childrens emotional competence in the context of an emotionally arousing situation is suggested by these ndings.
KEY WORDS: emotional competence; aggressive behavior; emotion understanding.
INTRODUCTION
Recently, there has been much theorizing about the links between emotional competence and externalizing psychopathology, particularly aggressive behavior (e.g., Cole, Michel, & Teti, 1994; Cole & Zahn-Waxler, 1990; Dodge & Garber, 1991). Emotional competence is a complex phenomenon consisting of a number of distinct, yet interrelated component skills including emotion appraisal, emotion expression, and emotion understanding (Saarni, 1990, 1999). The purpose of this study was to explore individual differences among school-age children in emotion appraisal, expression, understanding (i.e., emotional competence) as a function of their aggressive behavior.
1Part of this work was presented at the 1999 biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM.
2Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania.
3Present address: Childrens Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.
4Address all correspondence to Amy Bohnert, Box 3675, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710; e-mail: [email protected].
Emotion Appraisal
Cognitive models of emotion suggest that appraisals of events, in...