Poster #130 - Germany-Israel comparison: Children's emotion knowledge by ATEM

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Emotion knowledge is central to children’s school adjustment and achievements relates to their well-being, and predicts future social relationships and quality of life (Izard et al., 2001; Saarni, 1999; Voltmer & von Salisch, 2017). Children learn about emotions from a wide variety of experiences within their society and environment. The environment includes a variety of elements, such as: family, educational framework, community, and culture (Schapira et al., 2019). Even though emotion is a universal psychological process that is underlined by physiological and neurological mechanisms, culture plays a significant role in shaping how emotion is defined, experienced, and represented (Yang & Wang, 2019). Most of the studies that investigated cultural differences in emotion were with diverse cultures such as Western and Eastern (e.g., Louie, et al, 2015). Our study focused on two Western countries -- Germany and Israel. These countries are similar in terms of technological and economic progress, and share Western individualistic values of autonomy and independence (Hofstede et al., 2010). At the same time, Germany and Israel tend to show some differences regarding family structure and family values, which results in larger families in Israel (Suckow, 2005). We examined potential differences in the emotion knowledge of children from Germany and Israel, in two age groups: preschool and first grade. Emotion knowledge was assessed with the ATEM (Voltmer & von Salisch, 2021). The ATEM is a newly developed test for children that encompasses 7 components of emotion knowledge in a way that is fun for 3- to 9-year-olds. There were 585 children from Germany and 100 children from Israel. 437 preschools: Germany M= 12.16 (.47) Israel M=18.79 (.48) and 258 children in first grade: Germany M= 19.63 (.62) Israel M=25.74 (.61). In order to examine the differences between the countries, we conducted Generalized Linear Models. Results revealed a main effect for age. While there was no main effect for country, there was an interaction effect between age and country. Age influences the relation between country and emotion knowledge. Differences were found between Germany and Israel in the two age groups, except for one comparison between Germany in first grade to Israel preschool). In addition, there were differences between Germany and Israel in the seven components of the ATEM. It seems that the emotion knowledge level of children in Israel is higher compared to Germany. The study highlights the importance of cultural differences between Western countries. It is important to determine the various factors and the socialization in the family and education frameworks that influence emotion knowledge in Germany and Israel.

Authors

• Rotem Schapira, Levinsky College of Education and Tel-Aviv university, Israel
  Presenting Author

• Maria von Salisch, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

• Katharina Voltmer, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg