Scaffolding Young Children's Prosocial Responsiveness: Preschoolers' Responses to Adult Sadness, Anger, and Pain

Abstract

Children's responsiveness to a female adult's negative emotions was investigated in two studies. During individual play sessions with preschoolers (mean age = 44 and 50 months in each study), experimenters enacted two vignettes involving each of three emotions: anger, sadness, and pain. The children's reactions to negative emotion, as well as their reactions after it was explained, and after prosocial behaviour was requested, were rated for level of prosocial response. Overall, prosocial behaviour increased after such supportive scaffolding from the adult. Children responded most prosocially to anger, and least prosocially to pain. Requesting help affected prosocial responsiveness only for sadness and anger. The slightly older subjects in Study Two may have needed less adult scaffolding of the situation because of their more proficient understanding of emotion. The results are discussed with reference to the information young children need regarding adult emotional displays, and their need to feel competent to perform prosocial actions.

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