The relations of children's positive emotion and positive parenting to socioemotional and cognitive outcomes

The present study is a longitudinal investigation into 3 potential outcomes of young children's (approximately 3.5, 4.5, and 6 years of age) positive emotion: (a) self-esteem, (b) planning ability, and (c) social competence. This study is unique because of its use of longitudinal methodology and multi-method data (e.g., reported and observed measures) to examine positive emotion and correlates/outcomes. In addition to children's positive emotion predicting outcomes, the role of children's positive emotion as a mediator in the relations of aspects of positive parenting (positive expressivity and sensitivity) to child outcomes was considered; this is another area that has not been extensively examined.;Children's positive emotion was reported by mothers and non-parental caregivers/teachers when children were approximately 54 and 72 months, and children's potential outcomes (self-rated self-esteem, planning assessed with two observational tasks, and social competence assessed with mothers' and teachers' ratings) were assessed at 72 months (social competence also was rated by adults at 54 months). Mothers' sensitivity and positive expressivity were observed at 42 and 54 months; additionally, positive expressivity was reported by mothers on three occasions.;Based on structural equation modeling, there was a lack of support for the prediction of: (a) children's outcomes from children's affect; (b) children's affect from parenting; and (c) children's outcomes from parenting. However, 42-month parenting predicted 54-month children's affect in all models and 42-month parenting predicted 54-month social competence. These models did not vary as a function of demographic variables. This study has implications for early childhood and parenting interventions pertaining to socioemotional and cognitive development.