Wang, Jun, authorBarrett, Karen Caplovitz, advisorMorgan, George A., advisorLunkenheimer, Erika S., committee memberCobb, R. Brian, committee member2007-01-032007-01-032013http://hdl.handle.net/10217/80187As children develop during early childhood, they are expected to internalize and follow social rules, so as to interact with people and the larger society in emotionally and behaviorally appropriate ways. But societal expectations and corresponding emotional and behavioral responses of individuals are all embedded in the sociocultural context (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Americans typically are more emotionally expressive than Chinese even in early childhood (Camras, et al., 2007; Tardif, Wang, & Olson, 2009). Emotional expression disrupts social harmony and is discouraged in Chinese children, but indicates individuality and is more accepted in American children. In more individualistic cultures such as the U.S., which emphasize autonomy and self-agency, one might be expected to direct behaviors outward to actively change the context to be less distressing; in collectivistic cultures like China, one might be more inclined to modify the self to feel or appear less distressed instead (Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Still, contextual demands may affect these patterns, particularly if appropriate behavior in the contexts is highly socialized, such that children may anticipate strong negative consequences for misbehavior. In this study, the emotional and behavioral responses of Chinese and American preschoolers were compared in two emotionally challenging situations that are important contexts for socialization--resistance to temptation and "breaking" someone's toy. Thirty-four Chinese (17 females) and 37 American (19 females) 3-3.5 year olds were observed across 5 episodes: 1. Introduction to a temptation toy, 2. Resistance to temptation; 3. Introduction to a clown doll; 4. Solitary play with the clown doll; 5. Period after child "breaks" clown doll (standard violation). Children's emotional and behavioral responses were coded second by second and the data were analyzed with repeated measures MANCOVAs. Emotionally, American children were found to be more expressive of happiness and sadness than Chinese children. Chinese children's anger responses showed a cumulative pattern across contexts. Except for the impact on Chinese children's anger, the contextual changes generated children's emotional responses in the expected direction, in that pleasant contexts generated more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions, whereas challenging contexts generated more negative emotions and fewer positive emotions. Behaviorally, American children were found to display more context-directed distraction behaviors than Chinese children; whereas Chinese children displayed more emotion-focused self-modification behaviors, including focal avoidance and self-soothing. Distraction behaviors of children from both samples varied according to contextual changes: most distraction in resistance to temptation, least distraction during play session, and slight increase in distraction during standard violation. But variation in American children's distraction across contexts was greater than that of the Chinese children. By taking a culture-specific, context-specific, and process-oriented approach, the study found evidence for cross-culture, cross-context, and cross-time variations in American and Chinese young children's emotional and behavioral responses toward social challenges. Results highlight the importance of considering children's culture, the immediate and preceding contexts, and time course since challenging events occurred when interpreting and responding to young children's behavior in order to more effectively promote positive development in those children.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.behaviorcross-national comparisonearly childhoodemotionregulatory processText