Development of expression of crying and understanding emotional reasons for crying in preschool children in non-negative situations

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K04393
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Kyushu Lutheran College
• Principal Investigator: Yumiko Wada 九州ルーテル学院大学, 人文学部, 教授 (70302362)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 泣き / 発達 / 幼児 / 感情

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The result of a web-based survey to mothers with preschool children showed that preschool children who cried with "relief" showed both a tendency to cry easily and suppress crying, while preschool children who cried with "success/victory" and "impression" showed neither of these tendencies. The results suggest that crying due to " relief " occurs as a result of the development of the ability to suppress crying even if they feel like crying, while crying due to "success/victory" and "impression" may be mediated by different cognitive factors. Although a higher percentage of preschool children who expressed non-negative crying understood crying for happy reasons, more than half of the preschool children who understood happy crying had never expressed it, suggesting that the experience of expressing non-negative crying promotes understanding emotional reasons for crying but is not essential.

Free Research Field

感情心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

泣きの研究の多くは乳児または成人を対象としており、幼児期の泣きの発達過程についての実証的研究は少ない。本研究はネガティブではない泣きが幼児でも見られること、安心による泣きが一般的な泣きやすさと泣きの抑制の両方と関連して生起すること、成功・勝利や感動による泣きには異なる認知的要因が関わっていることを実証的に示したものであり、幼児の感情発達についての重要な基礎データになると考えられる。ネガティブではない泣きは、感情制御能力や他者の感情の理解能力など、様々な認知・感情発達と関連して生じてくると想定され、その発達過程の解明は幼児の感情発達を理解するための新たな切り口になることが期待される。