Emotion knowledge plays a crucial role in children's social and emotional development. The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge (ATEM 3-9) is a newly developed measure encompassing seven components of emotion knowledge in children aged 3 to 9. The ATEM 3-9 is an adaptive test that uses skip and dropout rules to adjust for children's varying levels of knowledge. Beyond its original German version, the ATEM has been translated into English, Hebrew and Portuguese. This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties (e.g., factor structure and internal consistencies) of the Portuguese translation. Concurrent validity was also examined by exploring associations between the seven subscales (Facial Recognition, Situational Recognition, Mixed Emotions, Desires, Beliefs, Display Rules and Emotion Regulation Strategies) and measures of emotion knowledge and peer acceptance. Data were collected from 112 preschool children (53.6% male), aged between 5 and 6 years old (M = 5.76; SD = 0.32).

The proposed seven-factor structure was replicated, and internal consistencies were satisfactory. Meaningful associations of ATEM’s subscales with emotion knowledge and peer acceptance were found, proving the concurrent validity of this questionnaire. In general, higher emotion knowledge was associated with more functional emotion regulation, prosocial behavior, and peer acceptance. Overall, the findings suggest that the Portuguese version of ATEM is a reliable and valuable instrument for assessing individual components of emotion knowledge in preschool children. It provides a nuanced understanding of various aspects of emotion knowledge and holds potential for applications in developmental research and interventions targeting social-emotional learning. Moreover, it is suitable as an instrument for tracking emotion knowledge development, with potential for future validation in clinical settings.

Preschool years are a critical period during which children face increasing social and emotional challenges while simultaneously developing essential skills to navigate these challenges and to meet the social demands of everyday life. Growing research highlights the critical importance of skills comprising emotional competence (i.e., emotion expression, emotion knowledge, and emotion regulation) for both current and future psychosocial adjustment (Valiente et al., 2020). Studies have shown that emotional competence is crucial for fostering successful social relationships – even at preschool age (Lemerise & Harper, 2014) – and is associated with peer-related social competence (Garner & Estep, 2001).

The purpose of this study was to extend the limited literature on emotional determinants of peer relationships in preschool-age children by examining the concurrent and longitudinal associations between young children’s emotion knowledge and their positive peer relationships in preschool classrooms.

To address the research questions, a longitudinal study with three assessment points over the course of a school year was conducted. 16 Swiss playgroups including N = 98 children (M = 44.9 months, SD = 6.5; 40% girls) participated in the study. Children’s emotion knowledge was assessed using the Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge (ATEM 3-9) – a standardized test designed for children aged 3 to 9, which measures a child’s ability to recognize and understand emotions. Additionally, playgroup educators reported on the quality of children’s peer relationships (SOCOMP). The data collection has been completed, and the data are currently being analyzed. Using latent growth modeling, we expect to find that higher levels of emotion knowledge are associated with more positive peer relationships and predict greater growth in these relationships over the course of a school year. The results will be presented and discussed with a focus on the potential role of emotion knowledge in supporting positive peer relationships in the preschool classroom.

Knowing about one’s own emotions and those of others is a well-known predictor for school success because school is a social endeavor, especially in the early grades. Less is known about the factors that foster growth of emotion knowledge (EK) in primary school children. Because EK is transmitted verbally and more advanced components of EK ask children to predict protagonists’ emotions in relation to their desires, (false) beliefs, and display rules, children’s language skills, general cognitive abilities, and advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) are promising predictors. As part of an intervention study with teachers and afterschool educators on how to use emotion talk in their interactions with children, we tested the effects of these skills on children’s EK over three time points.

Data were collected at T1 from N = 259 children (M_age = 93.12 month, SD = 5.64, range = 81 – 114 months) from Germany. Dropout reduced the sample to N = 199 at T3. Because of missing values, data from N = 192 children nested in 13 classrooms were used to conduct a multilevel mixed-effects analysis predicting EK scores across the three time points. EK was assessed with the ATEM 3-9, grammar with the TROG-D, and cognitive abilities with the CFT as part of a larger test battery.

Unsurprisingly, total ATEM 3-9 scores increased significantly over time. The nonsignificant time by group interaction indicated that there was no intervention effect on children's EK, neither in general nor on any of the EK components. However, children’s grammar, their cognitive abilities, and their ToM each contributed positively to the prediction of their ATEM 3-9 scores. Grammar and general cognitive abilities were also significant positive predictors of all seven components of the ATEM 3-9.

Discussion focusses on the cognitive factors underlying growth in school children’s EK.

Cross-sectional studies agree that the development of children’s language skills and emotion knowledge are interrelated, but the direction of effects remains unknown. On the one hand, children’s growing understanding and use of grammar should contribute to an expansion of their emotion knowledge, because grammatical features like morphological endings or tempi indicate who experienced which emotion under which circumstances. On the other hand, broadening children’s emotion knowledge should enhance their growing command of grammar, because emotion talk stimulates children to use grammatically complex language.

To this end,

Figure 1 standardisierte Koeffizienten

data from N = 276 children in primary school (T1 M_age = 93.12 month, SD = 5.64, range = 81 – 114 months) from Germany were included in a cross-legged panel model with emotion knowledge and grammar predicting each other at T1, T2, and T3, each about 4 to 5 months apart. Family migration and children’s general cognitive abilities were used as control variables. Emotion knowledge was assessed with the ATEM 3-9 and grammar with the TROG-D in primary school classrooms as part of a larger test battery.

The multilevel structural equation model showed a good fit (Χ²(6) = 15.158, p = .019, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.090, 90% CI [0.029, 0.150], SRMR = 0.023). Model comparisons indicated that both directions were supported at both time points, i.e., children’s grammar predicted their later emotion knowledge and children’s emotion knowledge predicted their later grammar with paths of about equal strength. Migration background was associated with both grammar and emotion knowledge at T1. General cognitive abilities were also associated with grammar and emotion knowledge at T1 and with emotion knowledge at T2 and T3-

The reciprocal effects suggest that children’s grammar stimulate the development of their emotion knowledge just as much as emotion knowledge stimulates their development of grammar. Interventions which combine the two fields will be discussed.