The role of story structure variables in children's understanding of the causes of emotion in text

One of the developmental issues with regard to emotional experience is how children's knowledge of the causes of emotion progresses. In the present study, the development of the ability to understand the causes of story characters' emotions was investigated. Specifically, the perceived impact of certain story structure variables on the emotions of characters was examined. These story structure variables were (1) the number of causal connections associated with a story event, and (2) the story grammar category of the event. According to recent network theories of text comprehension, these two story structure variables influence the perceived importance of story events. In recent studies it has been found that sensitivity to these variables increases systematically with age. Newly developed theories of emotion comprehension in narratives hypothesize that the events that determine emotions in stories are likely to be in certain story grammar categories and to be more connected to other events in the story.;The present study was designed to combine the theories of story comprehension and narrative emotion studies to investigate the development of children's Understanding of the causes of emotion in text. Participants in grades 1 and 2, as well as college students, listened to a narrative, determined characters' emotions at different points in the story, and razed story events for their importance for causing these emotions. Using general linear models analyses, the effect of the story structure variables was determined.;The results revealed few systematic developmental differences in the types of information used to determine the causes of emotion in text. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the development of emotional understanding and story comprehension.