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A performance-based assessment of the structure and complexity of emotional awareness was developed, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C). A pilot study (N = 6, ages 9-12, M^sub age^ = 10.2 years) was conducted to construct, trial, and select scenarios suitable for the scale. A larger validity study (N = 51, ages 10-11, M^sub age^ = 10.3 years) examined the relationship between the LEAS-C and two emotion knowledge tasks: emotion expressions and emotion comprehension; two verbal tasks: vocabulary and verbal productivity; and a cognitive developmental measure: the Parental Descriptions Scale (PDS). Gender differences in LEAS-C performance were also examined. The LEAS-C was significantly related to emotion comprehension, and the verbal tasks. Consistent with adult studies, females reported significantly higher LEAS-C scores compared with males. Gender effects remained when controlling for the two verbal tasks. Preliminary support for the validity of the LEAS-C as an objective assessment of emotional complexity in children is found in this study. Results also suggest that gender differences in emotional awareness occur at a young age.
Emotional awareness (EA), may be the skill most fundamental to emotional intelligence (Lane, 2000). Lane and Schwartz (1987) have defined EA as the ability to identify and describe one's own emotions, and those of other people. The construct is derived from the developmental levels of emotional awareness (LEA) model, and focuses on the structure and complexity of emotion representations. That is, the capacity to differentiate emotions from one another, and the level of emotion complexity inherent in the description of emotion experiences.
EA is viewed as a cognitive skill that undergoes a developmental process similar to that described by Piaget for cognition in general (Flavell, 1963). According to the LEA model, emotional awareness is structured from cognitive schemata. The complexity of the schemata (the degree of integration and differentiation) differs between individuals, and reflects an individual's past experience with the language of emotion. The function of the schemata is to filter and process external and internal emotional information. An individual's conscious awareness or experience of emotions is founded on this structural organization. Five levels of experience are described in the model: bodily sensations, action tendencies, single emotions, blends of emotion, and combination of blends (Lane & Schwartz, 1987).
The Levels of...