Social-Emotional Learning Interactions in High-Risk and Normative Youth Using Cross-Lagged Panel Modeling

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Emotion knowledge is a key component of social adjustment. However, children who have behavior problems may be susceptible to developmental delays in emotion knowledge, which is typically mastered in the preschool years (for a meta-analysis, see Trentacosta & Fine, 2010). More specifically, children who have externalizing problems have been shown to have lower levels of emotion knowledge, but the effects for this relationship are small and somewhat inconsistent (for a meta-analysis, see Trentacosta & Fine, 2010). Part of the reason for these inconsistencies is that few studies have the robust longitudinal data necessary to compare the growth of emotion knowledge in children with behavior problems to a direct normative comparison group. Having this direct comparison would enable a better understanding of group differences regarding the developmental interaction of emotion knowledge and social adjustment. Thus, the present study (N = 754) used secondary data to run a cross-lagged panel model to examine the development and interaction of emotion knowledge and social adjustment in school. The data were collected from kindergarten to third grade (T1-T4) and compared two groups of children: a high-risk group with behavior problems and a normative comparison group. Modeling demonstrated that children with behavior problems had poorer emotion knowledge skills at every timepoint in comparison to their normative peers. This confirms previous research demonstrating that children with behavior problems have a delay in emotion knowledge (Denham et al., 2002; Trentacosta & Fine, 2010). Of greater interest, emotion knowledge did not predict social adjustment in the normative group at any timepoints, as the literature suggests that it does in preschool (Denham et al., 2014; Izard et al., 2001). Instead, for children with behavior problems, development in emotion knowledge continued to predict development in social adjustment through first grade (T2; see Figure 1). The model suggests that children with behavior problems are still actively mastering emotion knowledge and using it to scaffold their burgeoning social adjustment. In contrast, their normative peers have mastered emotion knowledge and it is no longer a taxing aspect of social adjustment for them. Thus, the present study adds to the literature demonstrating the role of emotion knowledge in scaffolding social adjustment for children with behavior problems as late as first grade. Most SEL curricula and interventions focus on emotion knowledge in the preschool years, and by kindergarten and first grade, more advanced aspects of SEL like emotion regulation are emphasized, with reduced focus on basic emotion knowledge skills (e.g. PATHS, Kam, Greenberg, & Kusche, 2004; Kusche & Greenberg, 1994). However, the present study shows that, for this special population, a more sustained and intensive focus on emotion knowledge may be necessary.

Authors

• Carmen Brown Farrell, University of South Carolina Beaufort
  Presenting Author

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Edward Lochman, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Non-Presenting Author