Children's Motives and Strategies for Emotional Regulation in Angry and sad Situations

분노 및 슬픔 상황에서 아동의 정서조절 동기와 정서조절 전략

This study investigated the influence of audience type (mother or close friend) age, and gender on children's goals and strategies for emotional regulation in angry and in sad situations. Hypothetical vignette methodology was used with 314 children in grades 5 and 7. In angry situations, all boys and all 5th grade children regulated anger more with instrumental motives while 7th grade girls showed more prosocial motives. Children showed more prosocial and rule oriented motives with peers and relational motives with mothers. In angry situations, children used aggression regulation strategies more toward peers and activity regulation strategies more toward mothers. Children's age and sex explained sadness regulation motives better than audience type with peers, but children used more activity regulation strategies with mothers in sad situations. When sad, fifth graders used more verbal and facial expression strategies than 7th graders while boys used more activity regulation strategies than girls.