In this competing renewal application, funds are requested to continue analysis of how young children learn to recognize and interpret the feelings of others and the role of parents, subculture, and psychological variables in this process. Funds are also requested to expand our understanding of the emotion socialization process through two studies which will explore the role of additional socialization agents, namely, peers and television. The major purposes of this renewal are to: (1) expand the original proposal's scope by analyzing data from an additional subculture, i.e., how Japanese-American mothers impart information about emotions to their young children; (2) examine specific psychological dimensions within the family which may be associated with emotion labeling (e.g., self-expressiveness); and (3) explore the role of extrafamilial sources of socialization about emotions by: (a) examining how peers impart information about emotions to one another; and (b) analyzing the emotion content imparted to young viewers through television. In the original proposal and preliminary work, a wordless picture book was devised to elicit discussion about emotions. A storytelling procedure provides a way of capturing participants' emotion language and """"""""instruction"""""""" style. Parent questionnaire data will provide information about psychological dimensions which may be associated with emotion labeling and teaching style (e.g., self-expressiveness). A coding manual will be devised to obtain information about the emotion content of a representative sample of television programming of interest to young children obtained from a college program archive. Identification of the messages conveyed about affective experiences would be a first step in exploring the contribution of various socialization agents (e.g., parents, peers, and television) to children's emotional development and mental health.
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