Preschool‐aged children's understanding of gratitude: Relations with emotion and mental state knowledge |
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| Authors: | Jackie A. Nelson Lia Beatriz de Lucca Freitas Marion O’Brien Susan D. Calkins Esther M. Leerkes Stuart Marcovitch |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA;2. Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil;3. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA;4. Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA |
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| Abstract: | Developmental precursors to children's early understanding of gratitude were examined. A diverse group of 263 children was tested for emotion and mental state knowledge at ages 3 and 4, and their understanding of gratitude was measured at age 5. Children varied widely in their understanding of gratitude, but most understood some aspects of gratitude‐eliciting situations. A model‐building path analysis approach was used to examine longitudinal relations among early emotion and mental state knowledge and later understanding of gratitude. Children with a better early understanding of emotions and mental states understand more about gratitude. Mental state knowledge at age 4 mediated the relation between emotion knowledge at age 3 and gratitude understanding at age 5. The current study contributes to the scant literature on the early emergence of children's understanding of gratitude. |
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