The Socialization of Socioemotional Competence

Abstract

Emotions are ubiquitous in all our lives. The information that they afford to each of us—about ourselves and others—is invaluable. The overarching goal of this chapter is to elucidate and comment on the state of current knowledge of the ways in which children, from toddlerhood through adolescence, learn from others about aspects of emotions—how the development of their emotional competence is contributed to by others' emotion-related expressiveness, behaviors, and beliefs. To meet this central goal, we must first define the boundaries of what we mean by ―emotional competence.‖ After detailing this central construct, we consider the role of both intra-and interpersonal contributors to the development of emotional competence. To flesh out the central issues of concern in the chapter, we again give attention to definitional matters—what is socialization of emotion? Then we review extant research on socialization of emotion by parents, teachers, and peers, within the toddler, preschool, grade school, and adolescent age ranges. Finally, we evaluate the state of our knowledge about this important area of development, address perceived gaps in the literature, and suggest ways of thinking about and investigating these phenomena in the future.