Although positive and negative affect may play unique roles in understanding child socioemotional development, few studies have simultaneously tested the associations of both positive and negative affect with socioemotional competence among children. Therefore, this multi-informant study examined the longitudinal associations of positive and negative affect with socioemotional competence among Chinese children. On two occasions separated by about 12 months, questionnaire data were collected from 378 children (mean age at Time 1 = 8.94 years; 61% female) from 189 families in Hong Kong, China, and their class teachers. At Time 1, children rated their positive and negative affect. At Times 1 and 2, class teachers rated children’s socioemotional competence, including emotion regulation, prosocial/communication skills, peer acceptance, and relational aggression. Multilevel models revealed that positive affect predicted increases in emotion regulation, prosocial/communication skills, and peer acceptance, and that negative affect predicted increases in relational aggression. Theoretically, findings highlighted the potentially distinct contributions of positive and negative affect to Chinese children’s socioemotional development. Practically, findings pointed to the possible utility of targeting children’s positive and negative affect as means to promote children’s socioemotional competence.
Bi et al. (Wed,) studied this question.