| The present study is a longitudinal investigation of children's emotion situation knowledge at three time points from first through fifth grade. Although researchers have determined that skills related to emotion situation knowledge are somewhat developed by age six, several cross-sectional studies have shown that children in later childhood identify a range of emotions that situations elicit with more accuracy than children in early and middle childhood. However, few researchers have investigated continuous, within-individual growth of emotion situation knowledge across the years from middle to late childhood, and none have collected data from more than two time-points. Few studies have focused on the development of emotion situation knowledge in a sample of economically disadvantaged children. Results showed that emotion situation knowledge and the subscales of joy, fear, anger, shame, and interest exhibit significant positive growth from first to fifth grade. Verbal ability predicted first grade emotion situation knowledge and subscale scores for joy, fear, and anger, and growth in subscale scores for shame across time. Behavioral control predicted first grade emotion knowledge, and negative emotional intensity predicted less growth in emotion situation knowledge and subscale scores for anger and shame. First grade scores and growth in emotion situation knowledge did not predict teacher-reported behavioral outcomes of social skills, academic competence, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors in fifth grade. |
