ABSTRACT

A considerable body of research has shown that preschoolers who have a better understanding of emotions also have better social competence. In the present study, we focused on the potential roles that verbal ability and working memory may play in the relationship. A total of 187 4- to 6-year-old preschoolers completed: (i) the Test of Emotion Comprehension for emotion understanding; (ii) the Counting and Labelling test for working memory; and (iii) the Core Vocabulary scales of the WPPSI for verbal ability. Two teachers assessed each participant’s social competence. The results showed that preschoolers’ emotional understanding is a predictor of their social competence but verbal ability fully mediated the relationship. Furthermore, verbal ability positively predicted children’s social abilities only when they also had superior working memory. These findings help us to understand how verbal ability and working memory affect the relationship between emotion understanding and social competence in preschoolers.

摘要

大量研究表明，对情感有更好理解的学龄前儿童也具有更好的社交能力。在本研究中，我们集中于语言能力和工作记忆在关系中可能发挥的潜在作用。总共187名4至6岁的学龄前儿童完成了：（i）情绪理解测验，以了解情绪；（ii）工作记忆的计数和标签测试；（iii）WPPSI的口头表达能力核心词汇量表。两名老师评估了每个参与者的社交能力。结果表明，学龄前儿童的情感理解是他们社交能力的预测指标，但口头表达能力完全介导了这种关系。此外，语言能力只有在儿童也具有较高的工作记忆能力时才能积极预测儿童的社交能力。