Abstract
Beliefs about emotion utility can influence context-sensitive emotion goals (i.e., desired emotional responses). Although key for emotion regulation, emotion goals have been overlooked in children and adolescents. In 2018–2019 results of Studies 1 and 2 showed that children (N = 192, Mage = 8.65, 47% girls, 96% White) were less motivated by and found anger less useful in confrontation than adolescents (N = 192, Mage = 12.96, 50% girls, 93% White) and adults (N = 195, Mage = 29.82, 51% women, 96% White). The link between emotion goals and beliefs about emotion utility was weaker in children. In 2021, Study 3 (N = 60, 8-year-olds, 47% girls, 90% White) ruled out expectations as a possible explanation for the previous findings. Context-sensitive utility of emotions may be acquired during development.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 315-328 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Child Development |
| Volume | 94 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The first author was supported by funding from the British Council Researchers Travel Link 2017‐RLTG8‐10508 to design the studies described in this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Child Development published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Research in Child Development.