The Impact of Developing Social Perspective-taking Skills on Emotionality in Middle and Late Childhood

Hans Bengtsson (1) , Åsa Arvidsson (2)

1 Department of psychology
2 Department of psychology

Abstract A sample of 209 children was followed longitudinally to examine the impact of growing perspective-taking skills on positive and negative emotionality in middle and late childhood. Perspective-taking skills were assessed through interviews. Teachers rated children's emotional reactivity and capacity to regain a neutral state following emotional arousal. Analyses of contemporaneous data revealed that more developed perspective-taking skills were associated with moderate levels of emotional reactivity. In addition, in children with high emotional reactivity, good perspective-taking skills were associated with good capacity to regain a neutral affective state following emotional arousal. Longitudinal analyses revealed that children who made gains in perspective-taking skills over a two-year-period became more moderate in negative emotional reactivity and improved their ability to down-regulate strong positive emotions. The overall findings support the notion that children use perspective-taking skills as a tool for optimal regulation of emotional responses.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Hans Bengtsson, Åsa Arvidsson. The Impact of Developing Social Perspective-taking Skills on Emotionality in Middle and Late Childhood. Social Development, 2011, 20 (2), pp.353. ⟨10.1111/j.1467-9507.2010.00587.x⟩. ⟨hal-00609006⟩