Child Care Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Regarding Socialization of Emotion in Young Children

This study examines teachers’ beliefs and their practices of emotional socialization in three child care centers. Interviews with teachers revealed that teachers shared some, but not all, of their beliefs with regard to their role in children’s emotional development and views of their own socialization practices. The findings from classroom observations suggest that teachers in child care centers respond to children’s emotional expressions using a variety of strategies. Two prevalent strategies include discussing emotions to help children identify emotion-related words and guiding children to understand the causes of emotions. The comparison of teacher interviews and practices revealed that teachers’ beliefs regarding emotional socialization were fairly consistent with the results of classroom observation. Implications for a teacher training program focusing on facilitating emotional competence and methods for appropriate emotional socialization are identified.