Supporting children’s emotions and relationships by child gender: influences of teachers’ emotion validating, acknowledging, and minimizing language

Abstract

Through classroom observations and teacher and parent questionnaires, the current study explores 17 preschool teachers’ differential use of three types of emotion language (validating, acknowledging, and minimizing) with 96 children. This work assesses relationships among each type of emotion language and (1) children’s social–emotional competence and (2) teacher–child relationships concurrently and across time, by child gender. Teachers’ emotion-acknowledging language was supportive of teacher–child closeness over time, and teachers’ emotion-validating language was supportive of children’s social–emotional competence over time; emotion-validating language was also concurrently related to children’s social–emotional competence. Teachers’ emotion-minimizing language in fall predicted lower social–emotional competence in spring, only for boys. Pre-service teacher preparation programs and in-service teacher development may focus on helping teachers verbally acknowledge and validate emotions, rather than minimize emotions.

Department(s)

School of Teaching, Learning and Developmental Science

Document Type

Article

DOI

10.1080/03004430.2025.2610991

Keywords

child gender, Emotion language, emotion socialization, preschool teachers, teacher–child relationships

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Journal Title

Early Child Development and Care

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