Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2010 Jan-Mar;171(1):35-53.
doi: 10.1080/00221320903300346.

Toddlers' understanding of peers' emotions

Sara R Nichols  1 , Margarita Svetlova, Celia A Brownell
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Toddlers' understanding of peers' emotions

Sara R Nichols et al. J Genet Psychol. 2010 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

The second year of life sees dramatic developments in infants' ability to understand emotions in adults alongside their growing interest in peers. In this study, the authors used a social-referencing paradigm to examine whether 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old children could use a peer's positive or negative emotion messages about toys to regulate their own behavior with the toys. They found that 12-month-olds decreased their play with toys toward which a peer had expressed either positive or negative emotion compared with play following a peer's neutral attention toward a toy. Also, 18-month-olds did not respond systematically, but 24-month-old children increased their toy play after watching a peer display negative affect toward the toy. Regardless of their age, children with siblings decreased their play with toys toward which they had seen a peer display fear, the typical social-referencing response. The authors discuss results in the context of developmental changes in social understanding and peer interaction over the second year of life.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Novel toys used in the current study (adapted from Mumme & Fernald, 2003).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Amount of time children touched the target toy (seconds) as a function of age, neutral vs. emotion trial, and positive vs. negative emotion valence conditions.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Amount of time children touched the target toy (seconds) during the neutral vs. negative emotion trial as a function of sibling status.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Bartsch K, Wellman H. Children talk about the mind. London: Oxford University Press; 1995.
    1. Bretherton I, Beeghly M. Talking about internal states: The acquisition of an explicit theory of mind. Developmental Psychology. 1982;18:906–921.
    1. Bretherton I, McNew S, Beeghly-Smith M. Early person knowledge as expressed in gestural and verbal communication: When do infants acquire a “theory of mind”? In: Lamb ME, Sherrod LR, editors. Infant social cognition: Empirical and theoretical considerations. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1981. pp. 333–373.
    1. Brownell C. Peer social skills in toddlers: Competencies and constraints illustrated by same-age and mixed-age interaction. Child Development. 1990;61:838–848. - PubMed
    1. Brownell C, Brown E. Peers and play in infants and toddlers. In: Van Hasselt VB, editor. Handbook of social development: A lifespan perspective. New York: Plenum Press; 1992. pp. 183–200.

Publication types