Promoting Preschoolers’ Social and Emotional Competencies Through Emotion-Focused Teaching

Research Findings: This study examined associations between observed emotion-focused teaching practices and preschool children's emotion expression, emotion-related behaviors, and learning behaviors. Four centers located in large midwestern and mid-Atlantic metropolitan areas participated in the study. Of these, one center was a Head Start program, one served families on a sliding scale fee, one was focused on providing services to low-income families, and one was a faith-based center with middle- and upper-income students. Structural equation modeling revealed that children displayed fewer negative emotion expressions, better emotion regulation, reduced maladaptive emotion-related behaviors, and increased learning behaviors at the end of the year when teachers engaged in greater emotion-focused teaching practices. Practice or Policy: Preschool teachers play an important role in socializing children to be emotionally competent. Our findings suggest the need for professional development to improve teachers' emotion-focused teaching as an effective strategy to address children's challenging behaviors and emotions in the classroom and to better prepare children to engage in learning.