Children's understanding of mixed emotions

Abstract

Understanding mixed emotions is important for various aspects of functioning and evidence suggests that mixed emotion understanding improves with development. Research has suggested that this understanding might proceed differently in anxious children, however there has been little research conducted in this area to date. An initial exploration investigating mixed emotion understanding was conducted with children aged between 7 and 12 years that were experiencing anxiety concerns. This provided initial evidence for the appropriateness of a story-based psychoeducation technique for enhancing mixed emotions in anxious children: it was found to be highly engaging and was considered by children to be helpful and enjoyable. Mixed emotion understanding is a task that can pose a challenge for all children, particularly when the emotions occur in children's family relationships. This thesis therefore also investigated the development of mixed emotion understanding in typically developing children aged between 6 and 12 years in the context of mother-child relationships. Results showed that younger children demonstrated less understanding than older children, that different combinations of emotions were understood equally well by children, and that children of all ages could provide diverse reasons for how mixed emotions can occur. However, only a minority of children reported mixed emotion experience in their own lives. Girls demonstrated greater mixed emotion understanding than boys, but only on more stringent tests of mixed emotion understanding. Most children felt that mixed emotions would be "mixed up" and disliked, and children reported a variety of coping methods for managing any discomfort associated with mixed emotions. Show more