PRESCHOOL EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE--PATH TO MENTAL HEALTH

情感能力是儿童互动和形成能力的核心 与他人的关系(Parke，1994；Saarni，1990)。AS Saarni(1990) 国家，“……我们谈论的是[儿童]如何在情感上做出反应， 但同时又战略性地运用他们关于情绪的知识 以及他们对与他人的关系的表达，这样他们就可以 协调人际交往，调节情感体验 当然，这些能力还在继续发展。 但学龄前儿童却出奇地熟练 以下是情绪能力的几个组成部分： 辨别自己和他人的情绪状态 用情感的词汇 以同理心介入他人的情绪 意识到内在和外在的情绪状态可能不同 应对令人厌恶或痛苦的情绪 尽管发展心理学家最近才开始明确 调查幼儿对这一令人印象深刻的发展序列的使用 在社会过程中的情感能力，它遵循着情感 能力将有助于成功地与同龄人互动 (即社交能力)。越来越多的证据表明，这是 真理：情绪能干的小孩子更受欢迎 (例如，Denham，McKinley，Couchoud，&Holt，19900。 但是，需要做更多的工作来更好地突出和指定这些关键的 情绪能力里程碑及其社会化，特别是对于 适用的竞技场。拟议的研究将开始满足这些需求。 因此，我们将致力于阐明更广泛的发育序列，从 社交变量对一般社交能力的影响，与父母和 以儿童情绪为组织框架。这一焦点突出了 情绪能力的中心性。它还体现了一种组织 发展社交能力的方法(Waters&Sroufe，1983) 在同伴互动中带来成功的不同行为被强调， 以及对孩子成长过程中重要人物的评价 (例如，教师/照顾者、同龄人)。

Emotional competence is central to children's ability to interact and form relationships with others (Parke, 1994; Saarni, 1990). As Saarni (1990) states, "...we are talking about how [children] can respond emotionally, yet simultaneously and strategically apply their knowledge about emotions and their expression to relationships with others, so that they can negotiate interpersonal exchanges and regulate their emotional experiences as well (p. 116)." Certainly these abilities continue to develop throughout the lifespan, but preschool-aged children are surprisingly adept at several component skills of emotional competence: discerning one's own, and others', emotional states using the vocabulary of emotion empathic involvement in others' emotions realizing that inner and outer emotional states may differ coping with aversive or distressing emotions Although developmental psychologists have only recently begun to explicit investigate young children's use of this impressive array of developing emotional competencies within social processes, it follows that emotional competence would contribute to success in interacting with one's peers (i.e., social competence). Accumulating evidence suggests that this is true: Young children who are emotionally competent are more well-liked (e.g., Denham, McKinley, Couchoud, & Holt, 19900. But, more work is necessary to better highlight and specify these critical emotional competence milestones and their socialization, particularly for the applied arena. The proposed research will begin to meet these needs. Thus, we will work to elucidate broader developmental sequences, from socialization variables to general social competence, with parents'' and children's emotions as the organizing framework. This focus highlights the centrality of emotional competence. it also embodies an organizational approach to developing social competence (Waters & Sroufe, 1983) in which distinct behaviors which bring success in peer interaction are accented, along with the evaluations of important persons in the child's widening world (e.g., teachers/caregivers, peers).