Emotion Sharing in Preadolescent Children: Divergence From Friendships and Relation to Prosocial Behavior in the Peer Group

Abstract

We examined the extent to which children’s emotion-sharing relationships were unique from friendships. We also examined the association between emotional experience and emotion sharing as well as the association between emotion sharing and prosocial behavior. Participants were 456 children (M_age = 10.6 years) from the Midwestern United States. Peer nominations and self-report were used to assess study constructs. Despite considerable convergence between friendships and emotion-sharing relationships, children did not share emotions with 31% of close friends and 20% of emotion-sharing partners were not close friends, indicating divergence of the two relationships. Experience of happiness was positively associated with emotion sharing; emotion sharing was positively associated with prosocial behavior. Compared with boys, girls identified more partners and more same-gender peers for emotion-sharing relationships and they shared feelings with friends to a greater extent. We discussed emotion sharing as a compelling means for the development of children’s affective and social competence.