Children's responsiveness to a female adult's negative emotions was investigated in
two studies. During individual play sessions with preschoolers (mean age = 44 and 50
months in each study), experimenters enacted two vignettes involving each of three
emotions: anger, sadness, and pain. The children's reactions to negative emotion, as
well as their reactions after it was explained, and after prosocial behaviour was
requested, were rated for level of prosocial response. Overall, prosocial behaviour
increased after such supportive scaffolding from the adult. Children responded most
prosocially to anger, and least prosocially to pain. Requesting help affected
prosocial responsiveness only for sadness and anger. The slightly older subjects in
Study Two may have needed less adult scaffolding of the situation because of their
more proficient understanding of emotion. The results are discussed with reference
to the information young children need regarding adult emotional displays, and their
need to feel competent to perform prosocial actions.
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