DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGES IN CHILDREN'S REACTIONS TO ANGER IN THE HOME

Abstract

Developmental trends in children's reactions to anger and affection between others in the home were examined. School-age children evidenced greater emotional self-control and more effective and planful strategies for attempting to alter the course of others' conflicts. Children's responses to anger appeared to be mediated by individual differences in emotionality, which evidenced continuity across settings and between age periods. However, there was evidence that experience could modify reaction patterns to anger. Boys become less likely than girls to react emotionally to affection as they got older, but otherwise there were no developmental changes in responding to affection. Continuity across settings in reacting to affection was also apparent, but there was no relationship between patterns of responding to anger and affection.