Abstract
Four-hundred-and-eighty children in the age groups of four and six years, 240 each from Brazil and Norway, were asked how their feelings of anger, sadness and fear were reduced in a recollected episode, to propose emotion regulation strategies for protagonists and to envisage the result of regulation strategies. A majority of even the youngest children could propose a strategy. Play, Social interaction, Entertainment and Situation change were the most frequent strategy types, and the Brazilians showed a higher frequency of Entertainment and Play, a lower frequency of Situation change, and proposed more frequent help from others than the Norwegians. The results also showed that strategies were related to emotion type. Play was, for instance, more frequently proposed as a strategy mainly to reduce anger and sadness, and motoric activities were proposed to reduce anger more frequently than sadness and fear. Children’s goals for emotion regulation were good feelings, a quiet environment, play and forgetting negative emotions.
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