Compromised emotional competence: Seeds of violence sown early?

70

Our nation cannot afford for its children to betrapped in cycles of unregulated anger; we earnestlywant to prevent this. Because externalizing behaviordifficulties are relatively stable across childhood, theycause untold problems for the children themselvesand for parents, teachers, and society as a whole(Campbell & Ewing, 1990). The literature on theseproblems repeatedly mentions emotional factors(Dadds, Sanders, Morrison, & Rebetz, 1992). Angerand other negative affect, and lack of positive affect,are mentioned repeatedly as descriptors of bothchildren with behavior problems and their parents.Lack of empathy, misperception of others’ emotions,and poor frustration tolerance also typify childrenwith behavior problems. Such emotion-related de-scriptors also predict continuity of such behaviorproblems (Miller, Cowan, Cowan, Hetherington, &Clingempeel, 1993). If developmental tasks of emo-tional competence are not negotiated successfully,children are at risk for psychopathology concurrentlyand later (Rubin & Clark, 1983).

We define emotional competence as preschoolers’substantial abilities to understand others’ emotions,to react to others’ emotions, and to regulate theirown emotional expressiveness. It includes expressingemotions that are, or are not, experienced, regulatingemotions in ways that are age and socially appropriate,and decoding these processes in others (Halberstadt,Denham, & Dunsmore, 2001). Preschool-aged children

Compromised Emotional Competence:Seeds of Violence Sown Early?

Susanne A. Denham, PhD, Kimberly Blair, PhD, Michelle Schmidt, PhD, andElizabeth DeMulder, PhD

George Mason University

The authors expected less secure preschoolers to be less emotionally competent when interactingwith peers at age 3 and that these emotionally incompetent children, especially those who showedmuch unregulated anger, would be less socially competent in kindergarten. These directionalhypotheses were examined in a sample of 91 preschoolers, and all were corroborated.

already are surprisingly adept at several componentskills of emotional competence. They begin to (a) ex-press a variety of vivid, but not incapacitating, emo-tions; (b) discern their own and others’emotional statesand talk about them rather fluently; and (c) “up-” or“down-regulate” emotions, depending on their goals,but especially to cope with too intense, aversive, ordistressing emotions (Denham, 1998; Saarni, 1999).Prerequisite emotional elements also include, we argue,secure attachment to at least one caregiver and a benign“internal working model” of the world (Bretherton,Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990; Oppenheim, Emde, &Warren, 1997).

Such emotional competence contributes in turn toyoung children’s likelihood of social success in thepreschool environment. Each of these elements ofpreschoolers’ emotional competence is important inits own right, but they also contribute together to acentral developmental task from 2 to 5 years: success-ful initiation of peer relationships (Parker & Gottman,1989). Preschoolers become more skilled at interact-ing and at managing the emotions so prominent dur-ing their forays into the peer arena. The young childwho negotiates this developmental task is in goodposition to thrive in the social world.

We predict that the cost of emotional incompetenceis high; early emotional competence and success withpeers are central to mental health, both concurrentlyand over time. Young children who are often angry,are unable to react calmly in difficult situations, ormisconstrue others’ emotional signals are less able tointeract in a satisfying way with their playmates.Because of this inability, they experience less well-being and are at risk for later peer difficulties, begin-ning during preschool and continuing during thegrade school years, when peer reputations solidify(Denham & Holt, 1993; Dobkin, Tremblay, Masse, &

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry Copyright 2002 by the Educational Publishing Foundation2002, Vol. 72, No. 1, 70–82 0002-9432/02/$5.00 DOI: 10.1037//0002-9432.72.1.70

Susanne A. Denham, PhD, Kimberly Blair, PhD,Michelle Schmidt, PhD, and Elizabeth DeMulder, PhD,Department of Psychology, George Mason University.

For reprints and correspondence: Susanne A. Denham,PhD, Department of Psychology, George Mason University,MS 3F5, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, Virginia 22030–4444. E-mail: [email protected]

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COMPROMISED EMOTIONAL COMPETENCE 71

Vitaro, 1995). Importantly, those with the most severepeer difficulties are at risk for psychopathology later(Roff, 1990). We must scrutinize how deficits inemotional competence work together to hinderpreschoolers’ mobilization of personal and environ-mental resources in their social world.

More specifically, we are concerned with childrenwho exhibit early externalizing behavior problems.Although many children are oppositional and defiantduring preschool years, when such behaviors arefrequent, intense, or persistent beyond the normaldevelopmental course, they are symptomatic; theincidence of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) isfrom 2% to 16% of young children. ODD symptomsmay coexist with or predict conduct disorder (CD),with aggression playing a pivotal role in this associ-ation (Loeber, Lahey, & Thomas, 1991). As com-pared with ODD, CD also includes more seriousforms of behavior difficulties, in which the basicrights of others or age-appropriate societal norms orrules are persistently violated. Children with CDmay display aggression and/or destroy property;their aggression is often of a more serious naturethan that of ODD children. They often are deceitfuland may steal or exhibit other serious rule violations(Martin & Hoffman, 1990).

ODD and early onset CD, which concern us here,are exhibited as early as 5 or 6 years. Although mostincidents of CD remit, early onset, as opposed to lateronset, is more likely persistent and more likely pre-dicts antisocial behavior in adolescence and adult-hood (Loeber et al., 1991). In particular, Tremblay andcolleagues (Haapasalo & Tremblay, 1994; Tremblay,Masse, Vitaro, & Dobkin, 1995) have found thatdisruptive behavior problems in kindergartners arepotent warning signs for more serious later difficul-ties. Thus, we must focus on the development ofbehavior problems during early childhood (Tremblay,2000); their early foundations may be especiallyamenable to prevention and intervention.

How are preschoolers at risk for or showingemerging ODD and CD lacking in emotional compe-tence? We consider that the emotionally incompetentchild often may be the very child who evidencesexternalizing behavior problems, although the con-nection is regrettably understudied. Expressingunderregulated anger, misperceiving others’ emo-tions, and lacking sympathy for others’ feelings arehallmarks of emotional competence deficits andmarkers of externalizing difficulties.

In this study, then, we evaluated a model thatincorporates the already enumerated aspects ofemotional competence during the preschool years, as

well as their hypothesized foundation, security ofattachment and internal working model, in predictingoppositional behavior in kindergarten. Although wedid not study a clinical sample, the relatively highfunctioning, homogeneous sample studied here af-fords an appropriate setting for conservative tests ofrelations among core constructs of interest—fromattachment, to emotional incompetence, to opposi-tionality in kindergarten. Such investigation fits wellwithin the developmental psychopathology field, inwhich the starting point for the study of abnormaldevelopment is always a consideration of normaldevelopment (Sroufe, 1990).

Accordingly, attachment is first in the putativetrajectory to oppositional behavior in kindergarten.During the first years of life, consistently sensitivecaregiving performs important functions, includingdistress relief and sharing positive affect. Toddlerswho do not know whether “their special persons” willgive them these things lack both a secure base for ex-ploration and a secure haven from difficulty and dan-ger, and are hampered in moving into the peer world(Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986). Over time, experienceswith caregivers provide the actively social-cognizingchild with fodder to build an internal working model:“Am I worthy of care?” “Am I important enough toshare good times with?” “Is the world a safe place?”“Are people predictable, responsive, readable?” Inse-curity and attendant elements of internal workingmodels form the foundation for emotional incompe-tence. An insecure child is likely to be less willingand able to learn about emotions, because of the needto contain her own distress, and is more apt to beflooded by aversive emotions (Laible & Thompson,1998). In this study, we observed preschoolers’ secu-rity with both mothers and teachers and used anattachment story completion task to assess how chil-dren depicted attachment-relevant events in theirlives.

Next are more proximal components of emotionalincompetence that develop during preschool. It iseasy to envision why children’s patterns of emotionalexpressiveness are such potent supports for, or road-blocks to, interacting with age-mates. An angry childis hard to be around and has trouble interacting so-cially; a happier preschooler can better afford torespond positively to others (Denham, McKinley,Couchoud, & Holt, 1990; Rubin & Clark, 1983). Pos-itive affect facilitates the initiation and regulation ofsocial exchanges; negative affect renders social inter-action more difficult (Denham et al., 1990). Youngchildren’s expressed emotions are, then, related toevaluations of their social competence made by

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72 DENHAM, BLAIR, SCHMIDT, AND DEMULDER

important persons in their widening world. Teachersrate children who are less able to balance their posi-tive and negative emotions lower on dimensions suchas friendliness and assertiveness and higher ondimensions such as aggressiveness; peers dislike suchchildren more (Denham et al., 1990). If a child isoften emotionally negative, especially angry, it is nowonder when his peers flatly assert, as did one ofour 3-year-old participants, “He hits, he bites. I don’tlike him.” In this study, we observed preschoolers’displays of anger as an index of their emotionalincompetence.

Next, children who have difficulties understandingemotions also are less often prosocially responsiveto their peers and are rated as less socially competentby teachers and as less likable by their peers(Denham, 1986; Denham et al., 1990). For example,if a preschooler sees one peer bickering with anotherand incorrectly deduces that the peer is experiencingsadness or fear rather than anger, she may comforther friend rather than retreat. Thus, lack of emotionknowledge handicaps a preschooler’s ability to reactappropriately to others, undermining her relation-ships; antisocial preschoolers have been found, in atleast one study, to show deficits in emotion under-standing (Hughes, Dunn, & White, 1998). Interac-tions with an emotionally knowledgeable age-matewould likely be viewed as more satisfying, renderingone more likable. Teachers may be attuned to thebehavioral evidence of such emotion knowledge—emotion language usage, sympathetic reactions—andevaluate it positively. For this study, understandingof nonstereotypical emotional situations indexed pre-schoolers’ emotion understanding.

Finally, difficulty with emotion regulation is thelast vital aspect of emotional incompetence. When theintensity, duration, or other parameters of the experi-ence and expression of emotion are “too much” or“too little” to meet goals and expectations of the childand/or social partners, emotion regulation is oftenneeded. Given our focus on others’ evaluations of pre-schoolers’ social competence, we examine the behav-ioral component of emotion regulation, in whichstrong emotions are seen as problematic and needfulof coping efforts (Denham, 1998). When childrenchoose behavioral strategies to cope with the experi-ence of negative emotion, they may find a solution tothe situation, look for support from adults, lash outaggressively, or cry even harder to vent the emotionor get help.

The interaction of emotion regulation and emo-tional negativity is also associated with preschoolers’social competence (Eisenberg et al., 1996; Eisenberg

et al., 1997). Children who experience intense nega-tive emotions and are unable to regulate them areespecially likely to suffer social competence deficits(Contreras, Kerns, Weimer, Gentzler, & Tomich,2000). In this study, we queried mothers aboutpreschoolers’ characteristic modes of dealing withemotional experiences, focusing on children’s vent-ing of emotions as an index of emotional dysregula-tion. We used an emotionality–regulation interactionas a marker of emotional incompetence; childrenshowing unregulated anger would be at most risk forbehavior problems.

The lack of social competence, then, is our crite-rion of interest in this study. We define social compe-tence as effectiveness in interaction, the result oforganized behaviors that meet short- and long-termdevelopmental needs. For preschoolers, sociallycompetent behaviors are organized around the devel-opmental tasks of positive engagement and self-regulation during peer interaction. Because of ourinterest in accessing children’s difficulties in inter-personal connectedness, we utilize teacher and peerevaluations, with a focus on the ongoing social rela-tions and interactions of children in their social group.Children at risk for later behavioral and social diffi-culties may be identified as early as kindergarten fromsuch combinations of sociometric and behavioral data(Vitaro, Tremblay, Gagnon, & Boivin, 1992).

To summarize our hypotheses, we consider that(a) insecurity of attachment with mother andpreschool/daycare teacher and insecure internal work-ing model of attachment lead to emotional incompe-tence and (b) emotional incompetence leads to evalu-ations of social incompetence 2 years later. Weexamine these directional hypotheses by means ofpartial-least-squares modeling and highlight how theinteraction of emotional expressiveness and regula-tion specifically influences preschool teachers’ andpeers’ views of children’s social incompetence inkindergarten.

Method

Participants

To begin to meet these objectives in our ongoing longitu-dinal study, we examined the emotional and social compe-tence of 91 predominantly Caucasian, 3- and 4-year-oldsfrom middle-income families (52 boys; mean age � 46months at the time of observation in the preschool, SD � 4.9months, range � 35–58 months), in a multimethod, multi-setting design. Eighty-four percent of children were de-scribed as Caucasian; 76% of families reported an annualincome of at least $50,000. The modal level of education for

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mothers was graduation from college. Ninety percent of thechildren lived in two-parent homes.

The participant sample was drawn from a larger study ofthe emergence, socialization, and sequelae of preschoolers’emotional competence. The number of participants in thelarger study was 143; the current subsample did not differfrom this overall sample on any demographic variables.

Procedure

To obtain the data discussed here, we observed and inter-viewed children and administered questionnaires to teachersin school settings. We thus sought to view aspects of thepreschoolers’ emotional and social competence from severalreporters’ perspectives. Various preschool and daycare cen-ters in a large metropolitan area were targeted on the basis ofpast liaison relationships and willingness of the director toparticipate. Active informed consent was obtained from allparents.

Data collected when children where 3–4 years old and inkindergarten were used in this study. To avoid the problemof shared method variance, we obtained independent assess-ments of the constructs in the model. During the first year,mothers and fathers were visited at home; they receiveda packet of questionnaires, and home visitors performedattachment-related observations. Home visitors collected thequestionnaires in person later, providing clarification asneeded. Children were observed in their preschool for theirexpression of emotions and their security of attachment totheir teacher. Children also took part in play sessions thatwere designed to assess aspects of their internal workingmodels of attachment and their understanding of emotions.In kindergarten, teachers rated children’s social competencein the classroom using a questionnaire. They were unin-formed about study hypotheses and completed the question-naire after they had known children for at least 2 months.Kindergarten classmates provided sociometric ratings forparticipants.

Attachment and Emotional Incompetence

Observer Training

Home observers first became familiar with descriptions ofattachment behaviors by reviewing selected readings(Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986) as well as the Attachment Q-SetAdvisor (AQS; Waters, Posada, & Vaughn, 1994). Observertraining was conducted using Q-set training videotapes pro-vided by G. Posada. After training, six new videotapes werechosen and used to assess interrater reliability of observers.Raters’ composite reliability with the reliability criterion sortfor each videotape ranged from .68 to .84.

Attachment: Mother and Teacher

Observations of secure-base behavior were conductedaccording to procedures described by Waters et al. (1994).

Caregivers were encouraged to go about their usual activitiesand to treat the visitor as they would a visiting friend, neigh-bor, or helper. Observers made extensive notes during andafter each visit and completed the AQS after the final visit.Attachment to preschool/daycare teacher is included in thestudy because preschoolers form important secondary at-tachment relationships, which may influence their emotionaland social development, with nonparental adult caregivers(Mitchell-Copeland, Denham, & DeMulder, 1997). Forsecurity of attachment with teachers, several items do notpertain; a subset of the 90-item AQS was used to describechildren’s relationships with teachers.

Sample items include “C keeps track of M/T’s location,”“If M/T reassures, C will approach,” and “C actively goesafter M/T if upset.” Security scores were computed bycorrelating the Q-sort description of an individual child withcriterion Q-sort composite descriptions of the hypotheticallymost secure child (Waters & Deane, 1985). Accordingly,we derived security-with-mother and security-with-teacherscores.

Narrative Story Completions

Trained experimenters administered six narrative storycompletions involving attachment themes, along with awarm-up story, from the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery(Bretherton et al., 1990). Initial use of this battery has indi-cated a potential for clinical usefulness (Oppenheim et al.,1997); children with more negative parental representationsin their narratives were rated as having more behavior prob-lems, and their mothers rated themselves as having morepsychological problems. Warren, Oppenheim, and Emde(1996) also found a positive relation between aggressive/emotionally negative narrative themes and ratings of chil-dren’s behavior problems.

The stories include, for example, separations from parentsand child transgressions (e.g., spilling juice). Family figuresand props were present for each narrative story. Videotapednarratives of the children were scored with two codingschemes (Endriga, Greenberg, Speltz, & DeKlyen, 1991;Golby, Bretherton, Winn, & Page, 1995). Two trained coderscoded all videotapes. For this study, codes for security, ag-gressive themes, bizarre negative themes, and disjointednesswere used. Von Klitzing, Kelsay, Emde, Robinson, andSchmitz (2000) supported the need to use codes for bothstructure (e.g., security) and content (e.g., aggression) inevaluating narrative story completions.

Each individual code was scored as present or absent foreach story. A total score for each code was computed by tak-ing the sum of its individual scores across all stories. Thesetotal scores were then standardized, with the aggregate(which we have called “child insecurity”) computed by sum-ming z scores for aggressive themes, bizarre negativethemes, and disjointedness, and then subtracting the totalscore for security. Examples of each code are shown inTable 1. A total of 48 narratives were coded for interraterreliability analyses; kappas and percentage agreements foreach code are shown in Table 1.

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Emotional Incompetence Measures

Expression of Emotions

Previously developed observational methodologies wereused to examine the emotions expressed by children duringplay. Children were observed in their classrooms by codersusing laptop computers and software designed by Roberts(1993). Their emotions were observed for twelve 5-mintrials over a period of about 6 weeks. During each trial,happy, sad, angry, afraid, tender, hurt, and “other” emotionaldisplays were recorded. Emotions were operationally de-fined by facial, vocal, and motor indices (Denham, 1986;Denham et al., 1990). In this study, we were interestedin the percentage of emotional displays coded as anger.Average kappas were .85 for categorization of emotiondisplays overall (Denham, Mitchell-Copeland, Strandberg,Auerbach, & Blair, 1997).

Understanding of Emotion

Children’s understanding of emotion was assessed usingpuppets with detachable faces that depict happy, sad, angry,and afraid expressions. The puppeteer made standard facialand vocal expressions of emotions while enacting emotion-laden stories. Children placed on the puppet the face that de-picted the puppet’s feeling in each situation (Denham, 1986;Denham & Couchoud, 1990; Denham, Zoller, & Couchoud,1994). For this study, inferences of emotions in nonstereo-typical, equivocal situations were of interest. This subtestmeasures how well children identify others’ feelings in

situations where the other feels differently than the child. Allsituations could elicit one of two emotions, as in feelinghappy or afraid to get into a swimming pool. Children’smothers had reported, using a forced-choice questionnaire,how their children would feel; their responses determined theemotions expressed by the puppet. Scores for the 12 vignetteswere summed (� � .90).

Emotion Regulation: Coping Behavior

Children’s coping behavior when faced with emotionalsituations with peers was assessed with coping itemsdeveloped by Eisenberg, Fabes, Nyman, Bernzweig, andPinuelas (1994). Mothers indicated on a 7-point scale (with1 indicating never and 7 indicating usually) how often thechild would engage in each of 12 general types of copingbehavior when confronted with a problem situation. Itemcontent reflected instrumental coping (e.g., taking action toimprove a situation), instrumental aggression (e.g., hitting),emotional intervention (e.g., crying to elicit help), avoid-ance (e.g., leaving a problem), distraction (e.g., keepingbusy), venting (e.g., crying to release frustration), emotionalaggression (e.g., aggressing to release frustration), cognitiverestructuring (e.g., saying “I don’t care”), cognitive avoid-ance (e.g., not thinking about the problem), instrumentalintervention (e.g., getting help), instrumental support (e.g.,talking to someone about the problem), and denial (e.g.,saying nothing happened). On the basis of the work ofEisenberg and colleagues (1994), data were reduced to threesummary scales, of which one, Emotional Venting (e.g.,cries to release feelings/get help, solves problems/releasesfeelings through aggression), is used here (� � .73).

Table 1Examples for Coding of Narrative Story Completions

Code Example

Secure (.94, .80)a One of the parents or the older sibling responded to the hurtchild’s pain by hugging or administering a Band-Aid (hurtknee story).

Aggression/anger (.90, .73) Mother yells (angrily), “You spilled your juice on yourplate!” (spilled juice story); child deliberately knocks downone or all of the figures or the figures together violently (anyof the stories).

Disjointed (.94, .48) The child says that the child figure “crawls up the mountainand comes down again, he crawls up the mountain and downagain, crawls up and down” (mother angry story). This codecan be applied when the child depicts a chain of bizarreneutral events or unconnected actions that are fragmented,inconsistent, repetitive, or difficult to follow or that makelittle sense within the context of the original story.

Bizarre negative (.92, .63) “They die. They won’t come back again because they can’t.They’re dead” (parental separation story). Carries a severenegative tone, and may or may not be connected to theoriginal story. Usually involves injury or death.

aNumbers in parentheses refer to percentage agreement and �, respectively.

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Expressiveness � Regulation Interaction

Evidence exists that not only expressiveness but also howone regulates it is important in predicting behavior problems(Contreras et al., 2000; Eisenberg et al., 1993; Eisenberget al., 1996; Eisenberg et al., 1994; Eisenberg et al., 1997).Thus, to index unregulated anger, we calculated the cross-product of percentage anger and emotional venting.

Social Competence Measures

Peer-Rated Social Competence

All children with parental consent (study participants andnonparticipants) were taken out of the classroom by a famil-iar adult and presented with 1 � 5-in. cards with the name ofeach classmate, one per card. Children matched these cardsto the appropriate placement on a 5-point graphic “smileyface” liking scale, ranging from 1 (not liking at all) to 5 (lik-ing very much). At the completion of this placement, eachchild chose a sticker reward and drew pictures with the ex-aminer. Our goal in concluding with neutral activity was tolessen any negative impact on children’s interactions upontheir return to the classroom. Thus, a 5-point Likert ratingscale resulted; we recorded the number of times eachparticipant child’s name was placed on each of the 5 way-points. For this study, a weighted average (with weights of 1and 2 for each waypoint of disliking) was created for kinder-garten peer unlikability. Test–retest reliability equaled .48,p � .001, from age 4 to age 5.

Teacher-Rated Social Competence

The Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation ShortForm (SCBE; LaFreniere & Dumas, 1996) was used. On the30-item version of this well-validated measure, teachers ratechildren on 6-point scales that address different social be-haviors associated with the capacity to modulate affect. Wecreated an Oppositional Behavior subscale from items fromthe Angry–Aggressive scale for this study to (a) tailor thisaspect of social incompetence to be analogous to aspects ofODD and (b) preclude, as much as possible, problems of in-cluding items referring to anger and aggressive venting inmeasurement of both emotional and social incompetence.Items included “Defiant when reprimanded,” “Opposesteacher,” “Hits teacher,” and “Angry when interrupted.” Allitems from the original Angry–Aggressive scale referringdirectly or solely to anger and aggression, such as “Gets madeasily,” “Easily frustrated,” or “Hits, bites, or kicks otherchildren,” were excluded. Test–retest reliability for the re-sulting four-item subscale was .35, p � .05, over a 1-yearperiod (� � .83).

About 6% of boys and 2% of girls in this study scored atleast two standard deviations above the U.S. norming groupfor the Angry–Aggressive scale of the SCBE (LaFreniere &Dumas, 1996), suggesting that our sample is similar inmakeup to unselected populations of preschool students and

kindergartners in terms of its vulnerability to ODD and earlyonset CD.

Data Setup

For this study, we focused on children from the largerstudy for whom we had at least five of the seven manifestvariables used in the following analyses. Mean substitutionwas used for missing 3-year-old data. When present, 4-year-old data were substituted for missing 5-year-old data be-cause of the significant correlations across years; otherwise,mean substitution was used. Means on manifest variablesdid not differ for children with complete data sets comparedwith those with some missing data, and patterns of correla-tions were substantially similar, suggesting that our dataimputation methods, which resulted in greater statisticalpower, were a reasonable approach. When analyses wereperformed excluding all missing data, results were almostidentical to those reported here.

Analyses

To summarize the patterns of covariation in our model, weconducted latent variable path analysis with partial-least-squares estimation procedure (PLS; Falk & Miller, 1992;Lohmöller, 1989). We chose this method, which is becomingmore widely known, because it allows us to explore hypoth-esized relationships among constructs without some of therestrictions of LISREL structural-modeling techniques. Inparticular, PLS, also known as “soft modeling,” is appropri-ate for use with relatively small groups of participants,although it does require a reasonable latent variable: partici-pant ratio. Another advantage is that the prediction of vari-ables is based on shared variance of the manifest variables.Individual variable residuals and the unreliability associatedwith measurement error are minimized.

Using multiple measures (manifest variables), constructs(latent variables) are created, with the variance shared by themeasures taken as a single index of the latent variable.Composite latent variable scores are computed fromprincipal-components weights, derived from analyses of themanifest variables. Thus, a smaller set of theoretical vari-ables is created, whose relations can be investigated withoutsacrificing information from the larger group of manifestvariables. For our study, three latent variables were created:insecure attachment, emotional incompetence, and socialincompetence. PLS estimates the direct and indirect links inour model (i.e., direct links from attachment at age 3 to emo-tional incompetence at age 3 and from emotional incompe-tence to social incompetence in kindergarten; indirect linkfrom attachment at age 3 to social incompetence in kinder-garten via emotional incompetence).

For insecurity of attachment, the three manifest variablesincluded were security of attachment to mother, security ofattachment to teacher, and secure, disjointed, aggressive,and negative bizarre themes in narrative story completions(as an indication of the child’s internal working model;security variables were weighted negatively). The latent

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variable of emotional incompetence, regulated anger, andunderstanding of emotionally equivocal situations weremanifest variables, weighted negatively. Finally, for socialincompetence, peer sociometric ratings of disliking andteacher’s ratings of oppositional behavior, both as measuredin kindergarten, were manifest variables.

Results

Preliminary Correlational Findings

PLS begins with the matrix of intercorrelationsamong manifest variables, shown in Table 2. As canbe seen, security of attachment to mother at age 3 waspositively related to security of attachment to teach-ers, showing concordance across relationships. Secu-rity of attachment to mother was negatively related toinsecure internal working models, as measured by thenarrative story completions, kindergarten teacher rat-ings of oppositionality, and kindergarten classmates’ratings of disliking, but was positively related toemotion understanding and regulated anger. Securityof attachment to teacher at age 3 was positivelyrelated to emotion understanding and regulated anger.In terms of the major constructs we posit here, inse-curity of attachment to both mother and teacherrelated in theoretically predictable ways to emotionalincompetence and later social incompetence. Inse-cure working models as measured by the narrativestory were negatively related to emotion understand-ing and regulated anger. Insecure working modelsrelated in a theoretically predictable way to emotionalincompetence.

Emotion understanding was negatively relatedto kindergarten teacher-rated oppositionality butnot significantly related to the other index of emo-tional competence, regulated anger. Regulated angerwas negatively related to kindergarten teacher-rated

oppositionality and kindergarten sociometric ratingsof disliking. Across the major constructs we posithere, the two manifest variables for the latent variableof emotional incompetence were related in theoreti-cally predictable ways to later social incompetence.Kindergarten teacher-rated oppositionality also waspositively related to sociometric ratings of disliking.

Path Models

Overview

Figure 1 depicts the structural model that de-scribes attachment and emotional competence an-tecedents of social competence in kindergarten.Paths from manifest to latent variables are shown bysolid black lines, with structural paths shown by pat-terned black lines. In PLS, two indices are availableto specify whether the model accounts for meaning-ful variance in the latent variables. First is the coeffi-cient root-mean-square of the covariance (RMSCOV[E,U]) between the manifest variable residualsand the latent variable residuals—the proportion un-accounted for by the model (Falk & Miller, 1992).This coefficient is zero in a “perfect” model; our pathmodels yielded a RMS COV(E,U) value of .047,indicating excellent fit between model and data. Aswell, the significance of R2 for the two endogenouslatent variables was tested and found to be highlysignificant for each, as well as meeting the criterionthat at least 10% of each latent variable is explainedby its exogenous paths.

Details

Outer model. Falk and Miller (1992) suggestedthat all latent variable loadings should be � .55 un-less there are important theoretical reasons to retain a

Table 2Correlations Among Security, Emotional Competence, and Social Competence Measures

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Security of attachment (mother) — .19* �.16* .36*** .17* �.39*** �.21*2. Security of attachment (teacher) — �.10 .09 .30** �.37*** �.15†

3. Narrative story completions, negative — �.24* �.17* .04 �.024. Emotion understanding, equivocal situations — .03 �.35*** �.085. Regulated anger — �.25** �.19*6. Teacher-rated oppositionality, kindergarten — .19*7. Sociometric disliking ratings, kindergarten —

Note. df � 89.†p � .10 (marginally significant). *p � .05. **p � .01. ***p � .001, one-tailed (all hypotheses directional).

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Figure 1. Partial-least-squares estimation procedure, with insecurity of attachment at age 3predicting emotional competence at age 3, and both attachment and emotional incompetencepredicting social incompetence during kindergarten, for the total sample of participants. Foremotional incompetence, R2 � .23, F(1, 89) � 26.58, p � .001; for social incompetence,R2 � .26, F(2, 88) � 15.46, p � .001. Root-mean-square COV(E, U) � .047.

manifest variable with a lesser loading. Latent vari-able loadings for all variables in our model, shown inFigure 1, approximated or exceeded this criterion.Thus, we feel justified in our selection of manifestvariables representing specific latent variables.

Inner model. To retain hypothesized paths, theproduct of the latent variables’ correlation and theirpath coefficient should be �.04 (Cowan, Cohn,Cowan, & Pearson, 1996). All three paths exceed thiscriterion. First, path coefficients, interpretable as betaweights, showed that insecurely attached childrenwere more emotionally incompetent, as evidenced bytheir lack of understanding of emotion and regulatedanger. Second, emotionally incompetent 3-year-oldsshowed difficulties in social incompetence when theyreached kindergarten, as measured by oppositionalityand classmates’ dislike. Third, insecure attachment atage 3 also predicted social competence difficulties inkindergarten. Finally, attachment at age 3 also hadindirect effect on social incompetence via emotional

incompetence (the difference between total and directeffect path-weights [pws] was .10).

Secondary Analyses

Percentage anger, emotional venting coping, andtheir interaction were entered into a regression equa-tion; the graph for the significant interaction is shownin Figure 2. Results showed that 3-year-olds whodisplayed more anger in the preschool classroom andwhose mothers reported their greater use of emotionalventing coping were rated as more oppositional bykindergarten teachers, Fchange(1, 87) � 3.03, p � .04( � .349). Children who were low in anger, regard-less of their regulatory style, and children high inanger but low in emotional venting were almost equal(and lower) on teachers’ ratings of oppositionality.The parallel analysis predicting disliking sociometricratings in kindergarten did not show any unique con-tribution of the interaction term.

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Figure 2. Observed anger and mother-reported emotional venting coping, at age 3, predictingteacher-rated oppositionality in kindergarten. SCBE � Social Competence and BehaviorEvaluation Short Form.

Discussion

The links to social incompetence uncovered here arevery important. For this sample, several aspects ofemotional incompetence predicted later social compe-tence deficits: a history of insecure attachment, angryemotion, inability to regulate affect and cope behav-iorally, and stunted ability to use emotion understand-ing to recognize emotions. We have corroborated ourhypothesis that when objectives of emotional compe-tence and attendant social competence skills are notnegotiated successfully, there is substantial risk. Oursecondary analysis showed, more specifically, thatteachers saw children who showed much angerbut were unable or unwilling to regulate it construc-tively as having problems with oppositionality 2 yearslater. Such substantiation has important appliedimplications.

Regarding attachment, we used three independentassessments as manifest variables, as suggested byFalk and Miller for creating latent variables in PLS;all three, security of attachment to mother, security ofattachment to teacher, and negativity of attachment-related narrative completions, loaded as hypothesizedon the attachment insecurity latent variable. This

convergent information on insecurity then predictedemotional and social incompetence as well.

In these findings, we have replicated and furtheredthe findings of others. First, as noted by Contreraset al. (2000), emotion regulation occupies a keyposition in attachment theory, with the patternsof emotion coregulation that develop within theparent–child dyad internalized by the child and dis-played in other contexts. Thus, a child’s security of at-tachment is related to the way affect is expressed andused during social interaction. Second, understandingof emotion also grows out of the secure attachmentrelationship (Laible & Thompson, 1998)—without asecure relationship in which to maneuver, emotionscan be perceived as unimportant or threatening.Third, our additional findings of direct contributionsof 3-year-olds’ security of attachment to kindergartensocial incompetence, along with the mediated contri-bution via emotional competence, support those ofCharlebois, LeBlanc, Tremblay, Gagnon, and Larivee(1995), who found that mothers’ support was a pro-tective factor for elementary school children’s pre-vention of later delinquency, suggesting an even ear-lier age at which a secure attachment may work as aprotective factor against later behavior problems.

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Our team has found many examples of the influ-ences of security or insecurity of attachment relation-ships on social and emotional competence, both inour research and in applied contexts. One of the mosttroubling examples was a preschool girl from a largesingle-parent household. When this girl was 2 yearsold, her single mother was incarcerated. During theincarceration, this child was placed in a stable fosterhome, with mental health services provided. Uponher release, the child and her siblings were immedi-ately returned to the mother’s custody. The tumul-tuous environment in which this little girl initiallylived put her at risk for insecure attachment, but anyorganized attachment, secure or insecure, was evenfurther disrupted by the mother’s incarceration. Whenthe child was then returned to the mother, leaving astable situation for a less stable one, immediate andlong-term problems, not limited to insecurity of at-tachment, developed. Among these difficulties wereextreme, unregulated outbursts of anger and sadness,particularly when the girl was given mild correctionby classroom teachers; she reacted as if she had beendeeply wounded. By kindergarten, she barely spoketo adults or peers and interacted almost never. Whenprovoked, she reacted with aggression toward herselfand others. This child’s insecure attachments andlack of early instruction in emotion knowledge andexpression seemed to result in her inability to appro-priately express affect during social interactions andunderstand the emotions of others.

Another example we have found replayed repeat-edly in families adopting children from EasternEurope. Much has been reported regarding the treat-ment of these children in orphanages and their sub-sequent difficulties developing secure attachments(Chisholm, 1998). When forming a relationship witha new adult, one child we studied would lash out atthe slightest direction or criticism and try to hurtothers or destroy the classroom. After the outburstsubsided, teacher and child would together cleanthings up. He appeared to be testing the teacher tosee what she would do when he behaved in such aprovocative way. When she continued to be accept-ing and nurturing to him despite this behavior, whilestill calmly structuring his environment, the out-bursts would slowly subside. This child had not de-veloped the attachment relationships that enabledhim to learn appropriate ways to develop trust withother persons. He reacted strongly when he inappro-priately perceived poor treatment by a new adult inhis life.

We also found that our selected aspects of emo-tional incompetence predicted difficulties in social

behavior 2 years later. These findings support earliertheorizing and investigations that examined our pre-dictors only one at a time. For example, in examiningthe potential link between emotional competence andlater social competence, Hubbard and Coie (1994)concluded that children with higher peer status are bet-ter at reading and interpreting emotions, with rejectedchildren particularly moody and emotionally negativearound peers. In addition, emotion regulation is seenas a crucial ability for managing the demands inherentin interpersonal situations (Parker & Gottman, 1989).For example, Eisenberg and colleagues (Eisenberget al., 1993; Eisenberg et al., 1997) have found thatpreschoolers’ and elementary children’s regulationstyles are related to socially appropriate behavior;those who are most emotionally intense and whopoorly regulate this intense emotion show difficultiesin maintaining positive social behavior and have moretroubled relationships with peers, as evidenced bylower peer status. In the current study, we were able totest the existence of these links between emotionalincompetence and social incompetence in an inte-grated fashion. Even more specifically, our secondaryanalysis corroborated Eisenberg and colleagues’ ear-lier work; kindergarten teachers saw children who hadshown much anger but were unable or unwillingto regulate it constructively in preschool as havingproblems with oppositionality 2 years later.

One such child in our study demonstrated his ten-dency to express anger and his difficulty regulating itconstructively. On the preschool playground, this boywanted to be in charge and direct others in games atall times. When a group member was uncooperative,he became very angry. He dealt with this anger not bytalking to the “offending” child or moving on withoutthis playmate. On the contrary, instead of appropri-ately regulating this anger, he channeled it into averbal tirade, sometimes accompanied by physicalpushes. Early data from this child indicated aggres-sive attachment themes on the story completion tasks,and later data indicated high teacher ratings of oppo-sitionality in the kindergarten classroom.

Our findings also are reminiscent of those of Dodgeand colleagues (Dodge, Lochman, Harnish, Bates, &Pettit, 1997), albeit with a substantially younger sam-ple. In their study, Dodge et al. found that reactivelyaggressive children—those who behave aggres-sively when provoked—had deficits in the ability tointerpret the cues inherent in social encounters, andreported showing intense negative emotion. Our find-ings suggest that deficits in a crucial, developmentallyappropriate aspect of social information processing,understanding emotional situations (Lemerise &

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Arsenio, 2000), as well as unregulated negativeemotion during preschool, were related to kindergart-ners’ behavior problems.

A profitable extension of the current research wouldbe to examine in more detail the specific errors in emo-tion understanding made by young children. Schultz,Izard, and Ackerman (1999) have shown thatpreschoolers’ overattribution of anger in emotion un-derstanding measures is concurrently related to boys’aggression as well as boys’ and girls’ peer rejection(see also Denham et al., 1990). Our current resultsshow that 3-year-olds’ lack of emotion understandingplays a role in later oppositionality and peer ratings, forour entire sample. Exploring the most influential errorsthat predict difficulties across time is an important nextstep emanating from all of these investigations.

Another way to extend the current findings would bean advantageous rapprochement of social information-processing research (e.g., Burks, Laird, Dodge, Pettit,& Bates, 1999) and attachment research (Laible &Thompson, 1998), two literatures that have histori-cally remained separate. For example, Burks et al.found that children possessing “hostile knowledgestructures” showed more negatively biased socialinformation processing, with both hostile knowledgestructures and hostile social information processingrelating to chronic aggression. Our results and those ofWarren et al. (1996) suggest a potentially close con-nection between negative aspects of the child’s inter-nal working model and such knowledge structures.This association and its relation to emotion-relatedinformation processing may be especially close duringthe preschool years, and deserve exploration.

As Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber (1998) notedand we have already implied, not all aggression isequivalent; kindergartners scoring high on the SCBEoppositionality items are likely to be reactively ag-gressive, like the older children in Dodge et al.(1997), perhaps even showing signs of ODD and/orearly onset CD, with all of their attendant risks. Giventhe stability of such problems from kindergarten age(Tremblay, 2000), these findings strongly suggest theneed for further detailed examination of young chil-dren’s emotion understanding and emotion regula-tion, as well as their promotion.

What, then, can be said about the seeds of vio-lence? Disruptive behavior problems in youngchildren can be compelling warning signs for futureserious behavior problems (Haapasalo & Tremblay,1994; Tremblay et al., 1995); the earlier their onset,the more likely these difficulties are to persist intoadolescence and adulthood (Loeber et al., 1991;Tremblay, Masse, Vitaro, & Dobkin, 1995).

Current results help to legitimize our assertionsthat insecurely attached preschoolers—who havenegative internal working models, experience high-level anger, and demonstrate poor emotion under-standing and regulation—are more socially incompe-tent and oppositional and thus are more at risk forfuture violent behavior. Unfortunately, however,emotional competence deficiencies described here areonly infrequently addressed explicitly in daycare,preschool, or even primary curricula. Until recently, ifsocial competence has been addressed at all in suchprograms, it has usually been subsumed in socialskills training (e.g., Tremblay, Pagani-Kurtz, Masse,Vitaro, & Pihl, 1995); this program also includescognitive–behavioral curriculum elements. Such pro-grams would benefit immensely by including explicittraining in emotional competence, with particularattention to emotion understanding and negativeemotionality and its regulation. Two prevention pro-grams begin to fit this bill: (a) Second Step (Frey,Hirschstein, & Guzzo, 2000), a violence preventionprogram spanning preschool through Grade 9 thatprominently includes promotion of empathy, socialproblem solving, impulse control, and managementof anger; and (b) Denham and Burton’s (1996)program for preschoolers, which encompasses behav-ioral management, attachment, emotion understand-ing and regulation, and social problem solving. Pairedwith the results reported here, these programs’ suc-cess should embolden others to use and extend them.

Family-based prevention efforts, with parentsaided in fostering secure attachments as well asemotional competence, are needed (Contreras et al.,2000; Denham, 1998). In contrast, Webster-Stratton’s(1998) combination of parenting skills training andsocial skills training for children, although highlysuccessful, does not include any focus on attachmentand emotional competence.

Thus, prevention and intervention programs aresorely needed to curtail cascading trajectories of be-havior problems. Without them, we leave to chanceyoung children’s social–emotional learning and riskwasting the window of opportunity presented by chil-dren’s slow brain maturation, a time span in which wecould help children cultivate resilience through emo-tional competence (Peth-Pierce, 2000).

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Received March 28, 2001Revision received September 28, 2001

Accepted October 15, 2001 ■

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Compromised emotional competence: Seeds of violence sown early?

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