Emotion expression processes in children's peer interaction: the role of peer rejection, aggression, and gender.
The goal of the current study was to investigate sociometric status, aggression, and gender differences in children's expression of anger, happiness, and sadness. Participants were 111 second-grade African American boys and girls, half rejected and half average sociometric status, and half aggressive and half nonaggressive as assessed by their peers. Children interacted with a confederate in two standardized competitive game paradigms. Participants' expressions of anger, happiness, and sadness were observationally coded across facial, verbal intonation, and nonverbal modalities. Rejected children expressed more facial and verbal anger than average-status children. Rejected children also expressed more nonverbal happiness than average children, but only during turns of the game that were favorable to the participant. Finally, boys expressed more facial, verbal, and nonverbal anger than girls.
Hubbard
J A
JA
Department of Psychology, University of Delware, Newark 19716-2577, USA. jhubbard@udel.edu
D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D010553:Personality Development; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D015206:Southwestern United States