Teachers' Discussions of Emotion in Child Care Centers

Teachers have the opportunity to discuss the emotions of children as they occur in the context of the classroom. As such, teachers play an important role in the socialization of emotions of young children. This observational study examines teachers' discussions of emotions in three child care centers. The findings suggest that child care centers are important social contexts for learning about feelings because of ongoing interaction between teachers and children. Teachers in child care centers use various strategies with children to discuss their emotional expressions. They help children learn to identify emotion-related words, to understand the causes of emotion, and to provide them with constructive means of emotion regulation. The implications for teacher-training programs focusing on methods of facilitation of emotional competence and appropriate emotional socialization are presented.