Emotion Processes in Ethnic Minority Children

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research will increase our understanding of cultural influences on emotion processes and socioemotional outcomes. Research in emotion development has established clear links between maladaptive emotion processes and poor social and behavioral outcomes. However, what is maladaptive or adaptive depends on the cultural context in which the emotion takes place. For instance, while mainstream American culture promotes open emotion expression, Chinese culture emphasizes emotion moderation. Since most of research in emotion development uses European American samples, we know little about 1) the way in which children from different cultures express and regulate their emotions, 2) how children acquire these behaviors from their culture, and 3) the emotion behaviors associated with later social and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, it is unknown how ethnic minority children who live in two contexts with largely opposing goals for emotion (e.g. immigrant Chinese home, mainstream American school) develop these emotion processes. This study has the potential to design effective intervention for ethnic minority children by identifying the specific factors in culture and emotion that predict poor socioemotional outcomes.