vocal, and gestural expressions. Once children devel-
op the ability to use their words to express how they
are feeling, they become better able to express, regu-
late, or explain their own (and others’) emotions. The
increased understanding that comes from the use of
emotion language promotes, maintains, and regu-
lates social interactions.
Emotion language has been found to emerge
around twenty months and increases rapidly during
the third year. By two years of age, children refer to
a range of feeling states in themselves and others.
Lois Bloom and her colleagues found that once chil-
dren acquire the words for naming the emotions they
are feeling, they begin to integrate these into their
conversations. Because emotions are relevant and im-
portant, young children’s talk often focuses on their
emotional experiences.
Parents’ use of emotion language has important
consequences for children’s emotional development.
For example, when Kaneesha’s mother saw her crying
and asked her why she was sad, her mother had de-
fined Kaneesha’s emotional state. Repeated exposure
to these labels can lead to differences in how children
experience and express emotions. Parents, for in-
stance, are more likely to talk about sadness and less
likely to discuss anger with their daughters than their
sons. After repeated exposure to these emotional la-
bels, it is not be surprising that boys may be more like-
ly to experience or express anger than girls, whereas
girls are more likely to experience or express sadness.
This pattern is consistent with common gender-
emotion stereotypes in many Western countries.
Understanding Emotions
As cognitive development becomes more ad-
vanced, young children become increasingly aware of
their own and others’ emotions. As a result, children
begin to develop a more complex understanding of
the causes and consequences of emotions, how to con-
trol emotions, and the nature of emotional experi-
ences. For example, although infants as young as one
year of age can express ambivalence, a child’s under-
standing of mixed emotions does not emerge until
later in childhood. The work of Susan Harter and her
colleagues has shown that children are first able to
understand that people can experience two different,
consecutive emotions (e.g., feeling scared and then
feeling sad) at age six. Soon thereafter, children are
capable of understanding that two related emotions
of can co-occur (i.e., being both sad and afraid at the
same time). By age ten, they are able to understand
that mixed and unrelated emotions can occur simul-
taneously (e.g., feeling both happy and sad at the
same time). This type of enhanced understanding
gives children a better grasp of how emotions are tied
to their social lives.
Two children leave flowers at London’s Kensington Palace
following the death of Princess Diana. As children develop the
capacity to take the perspective of others, they increasingly become
aware of other people’s feelings, such as grief and sadness. (David
& Peter Turnley/Corbis)Emotional Development during
Adolescence
Emotional development continues once children
reach adolescence. In fact, emotions have often been
used to define the period of adolescence. For some
people, the changes associated with adolescence con-
jure up pictures of strong emotions—a developmen-
tal period characterized as a time when teens become
moody and negative. These images, however, are ac-
curate for only a minority of adolescents. Most adoles-
cents cope with the changes in emotionally positive
ways.
When emotional stress does arise, it often is the
result of adolescents’ conflicts with their parents.
These conflicts frequently occur because adolescents
are striving to make independent choices and do not
agree with parents’ requests and opinions as readily
as they did when they were younger. Conversations
about general household tasks and curfews can be po-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT 135