Understanding mind and emotion: longitudinal associations with mental-state talk between young friends

Emotion regulation and understanding: implications for child psychopathology and therapy

This paper considers the role of emotion regulation (i.e., extrinsic and intrinsic monitoring and adjusting of emotion) and emotion understanding (i.e., comprehension of the signs of, causes of, and ways to regulate emotion) in childhood adjustment. Developmental and clinical research focused on emotion regulation and emotion understanding are reviewed with an emphasis on studies including psychopathological samples. The implications of emotion research for the study of child psychopathology and child therapy are examined.

Acquisition of mental state language in Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking children

Children's theory of mind appears to develop from a focus on desire to a focus on belief. However, it is not clear (a) whether this pattern is universal and (b) whether it could also be explained by linguistic and sociocultural factors. This study examined mental state language in 10 Mandarin-speaking (21-27 months) and 8 Cantonese-speaking (18-44 months) toddlers. The results suggest a pattern of theory-of-mind development similar to that in English, with early use of desire terms followed by other mental state references. However, the Chinese-speaking children used desire terms much earlier, and the use of terms for thinking was very infrequent, even for Mandarin-speaking adults. This finding suggests a consistency in the overall sequence, but variation in the timing of beginning and end points, in children's theory-of-mind development across cultures.

Individual differences in understanding emotion: the role of attachment status and psychological discourse

Recent studies have shown how children develop an understanding of emotion: pre-school children identify and talk accurately about the basic emotions and increasingly appreciate the way that desires and beliefs give rise to those emotions. However, children also display stable individual differences in their understanding. Two different interpretations of such individual differences are discussed. Caregivers show more or less sensitivity to their children's emotions. One interpretation, therefore, is that early variation in caregiver sensitivity is responsible for individual differences in children's attachment status; in turn, children's attachment status leads to enduring differences in their understanding of emotion. A second interpretation focuses on the fact that children grow up in families that vary in the manner and extent to which feelings are put into words. Accordingly, early differences in family discourse about emotion, especially on the part of the primary caregiver, may lead to variation among children in their understanding of emotion. Evidence supporting or undermining these two different interpretations is reviewed.