Individual differences in children’s understanding of emotion: The roles of attachment and language
Abstract
There is accumulating evidence of a relationship between secure attachment and children's understanding of emotion (Fonagy & Target, 1997; Harris, 1999). The current experiment asked if this relationship is particularly evident when the test of emotion understanding includes attachment-related material or is equally marked on tests with and without attachment-related material. Children ranging from 3-6 years were given a novel test of emotion understanding (the Mother-Infant Separation Test Video) that incorporated provocative attachment themes and also an affectively neutral test of emotion understanding. They performed quite consistently on both types of test-either passing both or failing both. In addition, attachment security, measured concurrently by means of the Separation Anxiety Test, contributed to a correct performance on both tests. This contribution remained when other individual differences were controlled for (age, verbal mental age and gender). Possible explanations of the relationship between attachment and emotion understanding are discussed.
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There was a low and significant negative correlation between empathy and avoidance attachment, consistent with previous studies.
“We found a low and significant negative correlation between empathy and avoidance attachment, consistent with previous studies [73,74].”
From The Relationship between Empathy and Attachment in Children and Adolescents: Three-Level Meta-Analyses. (2022) · cites this paper as [74]
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References 29 · Cited by 152
- Authors
- Rosnay, M. D., & Harris, P. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Attachment & Human Development
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2002-05
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 39-54
- ISSN
- 1461-6734 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2988
- OpenAlex
- W2053630164
- Cited by
- 152
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 5.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Attachment & Human Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Attachment and Relationship Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- emotional understanding, attachment security, individual differences, language, separation anxiety, preschool children
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Separation, Awareness, Child, Child Behavior, Child, Preschool, Emotions, Female, Humans, Individuality, Language, Male, Mother-Child Relations, Object Attachment, Psychological Tests, Sampling Studies
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