Young children's affect attunement and understanding of others'mind shown in confronting or playful communication with their mothers or siblings

受试者是7个第一出生的孩子和8个后来出生的孩子及其家人，他们是从婴儿早期起就玩耍的纵向研究的一部分。在孩子S 18、30和42个月的时候，他们在家庭背景下的情感交流被录制下来。录像的重点是儿童在日常生活中如何与父母、兄弟姐妹或朋友进行交流，分析他们的对峙和玩耍交流。和谐和不和谐的片段被提取和转录。结果表明，情感交流的质量反映了家庭关系的差异。父母对他们的情绪有同情心的儿童更容易表现出戏谑的调侃，并且能够很好地调节情绪。他们也非常理解别人的情绪和意图。经常与兄弟姐妹发生冲突的孩子不能很好地调节自己的情绪，也不能很好地读懂别人的思想。这些结果表明，孩子们在每个家庭的情绪氛围中的情感丰富的经历可能会促进或阻碍理解他人心理的发展。

The subjects were 7 first-born and 8 later-born children and their families who are part of a longitudinal study of playful teasing from early infancy. At 18, 30, and 42 months of children' s age, their emotional transactions within the family context were video-taped. The focus of videotaping was on how the children communicated with their mothers, fathers, siblings, or friends in their daily life.Their confronting and playful communication were analyzed. Harmonious and disharmonious episodes were extracted and transcribed. Pretend play, playful teasing, imitation, exaggerated emotion and/or actions, disputes, or conflicting emotion and/or actions were shown in the episodes.Results indicated that the quality of emotional communication reflected the differences in family relationship. Children who have empathic parents to their emotion expressed playful teasing more often and could attune emotion very well. They also understood others' emotion and intentions very well. Children who showed frequent conflicting episodes with their siblings were not able to attune their emotion and read others' mind well. These results suggest that the children's emotionally-charged experience within each family's emotional climate is likely to facilitate or impede the development of understanding others' mind.