Emotional competences in children with history of maltreatment

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Ada Cigala, Arianna Mori
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/2 suppl.
Language Italian Pages 14 P. 29-42 File size 183 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2016-S02003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The contribution is a review of the psychological literature about emotional competence in prescholar and scholar maltreated children with a particular focus on emotional understanding and emotional regulation. After a brief presentation of the adaptive functions of emotional competence, are presented and discussed the main results of studies conducted in familiar maltreating contexts, showing an overall framework still not consistent and conclusive. Particular emphasis is also given to the possible variables that may influence the relationship between maltreatment and emotional competence and to the interpretative hypothesis of the results obtained proposed within the different theoretical approaches.

Keywords: Maltreatment, social adjustment, emotional competence, development, emotional regulation

  1. Allin, W., Walken, C., & MacMillan, H. (2005). Treatment of child neglect: A systematic review. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 50, 497-504, DOI: 10.1177/070674370505000810
  2. Barnett, D., Manly, J., & Cicchetti, D. (1993). Defining child maltreatment: The interface between policy and research. In D. Cicchetti & S. Toth (Eds.), Child abuse, child development and social policy (pp. 7-74). New York: Ablex, Norwood.
  3. Black, M., Dubowitz, H., & Harrington, D. (1994). Sexual abuse: Developmental differences in children behavior and self-perception. Child Abuse & Neglect, 18, 85-95, DOI: 10.1016/0145-2134(94)90098-1
  4. Bolger, K., & Patterson, C. J. (2001). Developmental pathways from child maltreatment to peer rejection. Child Development, 72, 549-568, DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00296
  5. Bolger, K., Patterson, C., & Kuppersmidt, J. (1998). Peer relationships and self-esteem among children who have been maltreated. Child Development, 69, 1171-1197, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06166
  6. Burgess, R., & Conger, R. (1978). Family interaction in abusive neglectful and normal families. Child Development, 49, 1163-1173, DOI: 10.2307/112875
  7. Camras, L., Grow, J., & Ribordy, S. (1983). Recognition of emotional expression by abused children. Journal of Clinical and Child Psychology, 12, 3, 325-328, DOI: 10.1080/15374418309533152
  8. Camras, L., Ribordy, S., Hill, J., Martino, S., Spaccarelli, S., & Stefani, R. (1988). Recognition and posing of emotional expressions by abused children and their mothers. Developmental Psychology, 24, 6, 776-781.
  9. Camras, L., Ribordy, S., Hill, J., Martino, S., Sasch, V., Spaccarelli, S., & Stefani, R. (1990). Maternal facial behavior and the recognition and production emotional expression by maltreated and non-maltreated children. Developmental Psychology, 26, 2, 304-312.
  10. Cicchetti, D., & Beeghly, M. (1987). Symbolic development in maltreated youngsters: An organizational perspective. In D. Cicchetti & M. Beeghly (Eds.), New directions for child development (pp. 47-67). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  11. Cicchetti, D., & Rogosch, F. (2009). Adaptive coping under conditions of extreme stress: Multilevel influences on the determinants of resilience in maltreated children.
  12. In E. Skinner & M. Zimmer-Gembeck (Eds.), Coping and the development of regulation. New directions for child and adolescent development (pp. 47-59). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Cicchetti, D., & Toth, S. (1995). A developmental psychopathology perspective on child abuse and neglect. Journal of The American Accademy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 541-564, DOI: 10.1097/00004583-199505000-00008
  13. Cigala, A., & Corsano, P. (2011). “Ricomincio da tre”. Competenza emotiva e costruzione del sé in età prescolare. Milano: Unicopli.
  14. Cohen, J., & Mendez, J. (2009). Emotion regulation, language ability, and the stability of preschool children’s peer play behavior. Early Education and Development, 20, 6, 1016-1037, DOI: 10.1080/10409280903305716
  15. Cole, P., Michel, M., & Teti, L. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and dysregulation: A clinical perspective. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 59, 53-72, DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5834.1994.tb01278
  16. Corsano, P., & Cigala, A. (2004). So-stare in solitudine. Milano: McGaw-Hill.
  17. Crittenden, P. (1992). Children’s strategies for coping with adverse home environment: An interpretation using the attachment theory. Child Abuse & Neglect, 16, 329-343, DOI: 10.1016/0145-2134(92)90043-Q
  18. Davies, P., & Cummings, E. (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 387-411, DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.116.3.387
  19. Denham, S. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford Press.
  20. Denham, S., Blair, K., DeMudler, E., Levitas, J., Sawyer, K., & Auerbach-Major, S. (2003). Preschoolers’ emotional competence: Pathway to mental health? Child Development, 74, 238-256.
  21. Dodge, K., Laird, R., Lochman, J., & Zelli, A. (2002). Multidimensional latentconstruct analysis of children’s social information processing patterns: Correlations with aggressive behavior problems. Psychological Assessment, 14, 60-73.
  22. Dodge, K., Pettit, G., Bates, J., & Valente, E. (1995). Social information-processing patterns partially mediate the effects of physical abuse on later conduct problems. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 632-643, DOI: 10.1037/0021-843X.104.4.632
  23. Edwards, A., Shipman, K., & Brown, A. (2005). The socialization of emotional understanding: A comparison of neglectful an nonneglectful mothers and their children. Child Maltreatment, 10, 293-304, DOI: 10.1177/1077559505278452
  24. Egeland, B., & Sroufe, L. (1981). Attachment and early maltreatment. Child Development, 52, 44-52, DOI: 10.2307/1129213
  25. Eisenberg, N., Valiente, C., Morris, A., Fabes, R., Cumberland, A., Reiser, M., Gershoff, E., Shepard, S., & Losoya, S. (2003). Longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children’s regulation, and quality of socioemotional functioning. Developmental Psychology, 39, 1, 3-19.
  26. Fine, S., Izard, C., Mostow, A., Trentacosta, C., & Ackerman, B. (2003). First grade emotion knowledge as a predictor of fifth grade self-reported internalizing behaviors in children from economically disadvantaged families. Development and Psychopathology, 15, 331-342, DOI: 10.1017/S095457940300018X
  27. Garner, P., & Estep, K. (2001). Emotional competence, emotion socialization, and young children’s peer-related social competence. Early Education and Development, 12, 29-48, DOI: 10.1207/s15566935eed1201_3.
  28. Harris, P. (2008). Children’s understanding of emotion. In M. Lewis, J. Haviland-Jones & L. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 320-331). New York: Guilford Press.
  29. Hildyard, K. (2005). Child neglect: An investigation of cognitive mechanisms and processes underlying neglectful caregiving. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 66, 1172.
  30. Kim, J., & Cicchetti, D. (2003). Social self-efficacy and behavior problems in maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 1, 106-117, doi : 10.1207/S15374424JCCP3201_10.
  31. Lemerise, E., & Arsenio, W. (2000). An integrated model of emotion processes and cognition in social information processing. Child Development, 71, 107-118, DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00124
  32. Margolin, G. (2005). Children’s exposure to violence: Exploring developmental pathways to diverse outcomes. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20, 72, 72-81, DOI: 10.1177/0886260504268371
  33. Maughan, A., & Cicchetti, D. (2002). Impact of child maltreatment and inter-adult violence on children’s emotion regulation abilities and socio-emotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1525-1542, DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00488
  34. Miller, A., Fine, S., Gouley, K., Seifer, R., Dickstein, S., & Shields, A. (2006). Showing and telling about emotions: Interrelations between facets of emotional competence and associations with classroom adjustment in Head Start preschoolers. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 8, 1170-1192, DOI: 10.1080/02699930500405691
  35. Pears, K., Bruce, J., Fisher, P., Kim, H., & Yoerger, K. (2010). Early elementary school adjustment of maltreated children in foster care: The roles of inhibitory control and caregiver involvement. Child Development, 81, 5, 1550-1564, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01491.x
  36. Perlman, S., Kalish, C., & Pollak, S. (2008). The role of maltratment experience in children’s understanding of the antecedents of emotion. Cognition and Emotion, 22, 4, 651-670, DOI: 10.1080/02699930701461154
  37. Pollak, S., & Sinha, P. (2002). Effects of early experience on children’s recognition of facial displays of emotion. Developmental Psychology, 38, 784-791, DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.38.5.784
  38. Pollak, S., Klorman, R., Thatcher, J., & Cicchetti, D. (2001). P3b reflects maltreated children’s reactions to facial display of emotion. Psychophysiology, 38, 267-274, DOI: 10.1111/1469-8986.3820267
  39. Pollak, S., Cicchetti, D., Hornug, K., & Reed, A. (2000). Recognizing emotion in face: Developmental effects of child abuse and neglect. Developmental Psychology, 36, 679-688, DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.36.5.679
  40. Pollak, S., Vardi, W., Putzer Bechner, A., & Curtin, J. (2005). Abused children’s regulation of attention in response to hostility. Child Development, 76, 968-977, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00890.x
  41. Ramsden, S., & Hubbard, J. (2002). Family expressiveness and parental emotion coaching: Their role in children’s emotion regulation and aggression. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 657-667.
  42. Robinson, L., Morris, A., Heller, S., Scheeringa, M., Borys, N., & Smike, A. (2009).
  43. Relations between emotion regulation, parenting, and psychopathology in young maltreated children in out of home care. Journal Child Family Study, 18, 421-434. Saarni, C. (1999), The development of emotional competence. New York: Guilford Press.
  44. Shackman, J., & Pollak, S. (2005). Experiential influences on multimodal perception of emotion. Child Development, 76, 5, 1116-1126, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00901.x
  45. Shields, A., & Cicchetti, D. (1998). Reactive aggression among maltreated children: The contributions of attention and emotion dysregulation. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 27, 4, 381-395, DOI: 10.1207/s15374424jccp2704_2
  46. Shields, A., Cicchetti, D., & Ryan, R. (1994). The development of emotional and behavioral self-regulation and social competence among maltreated school-age children. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 57-75, DOI: 10.1017/S0954579400005885
  47. Shields, A., Dickstein, S., Seifer, R., Giusti, L., Magee, K., & Spritz, B. (2001). Emotional competence and school adjustment: A study preschoolers at risk. Early Education and Development, 12, 73-96, DOI: 10.1207/s15566935eed1201_5
  48. Shipman, K., & Zeman, J. (1999). Emotional understanding: A comparison of physically maltreating and non maltreating mother-child dyads. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 28, 3, 407-417, DOI: 10.1207/S15374424jccp280313
  49. Shipman, K., Schneider, R., Fitzgerald, M., Smis, C., Swisher, L., & Edwards, A. (2007). Maternal emotion socialization in maltreating and non-maltreating families: Implications for children’s emotion regulation. Social Development, 16, 2, 268-285, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2007.00384.x
  50. Shipman, K., Zeman, J., Penza, S., & Champion, K. (2000). Emotion management skills in sexually maltreated and nonmaltreated girls: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 12, 47-62, DOI: 10.1017/S0954579400001036
  51. Shipman, L., & Zeman, J. (2001). Socialization of children’s emotion regulation in mother- child dyads: A developmental psychopathology perspective. Development and Psychopathology, 13, 317-336, DOI: 10.1017/S0954579401002073
  52. Smith, M., & Walden, T. (1999). Understanding feelings and coping with emotional situations: A comparison of maltreated and nonmaltreated preschoolers. Social Development, 8, 1, 93-115, DOI: 10.1111/1467-9507.00082
  53. Sullivan, M., Bennett, D., Carpenter, K., & Lewis, M. (2008). Emotion knowledge in neglected children. Child Maltreatment, 1, 301-306, DOI: 10.1177/1077559507313725
  54. Sullivan, M., Carmody, D., & Lewis, M. (2010). Neglect and punitiveness influence emotion knowledge. Child Psychiatry and Human Development, 41, 285-298, DOI: 10.1007/s10578-009-0168-3
  55. Thompson, R. (1999). Early attachment and later development. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research and clinical implications (pp. 265-286). New York: Guilford Press.
  56. Vondra, J., Barnett, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1990). Perceived and actual competence among maltreated and comparison school children. Development Psychopathology, 1, 237-255,

  • Perspective Taking Ability in Psychologically Maltreated Children: A Protective Factor in Peer Social Adjustment Ada Cigala, Arianna Mori, in Frontiers in Psychology 816514/2022
    DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816514
  • La valutazione della recuperabilità delle competenze genitoriali Michela Gardon, in MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL'INFANZIA 1/2022 pp.87
    DOI: 10.3280/MAL2022-001006

Ada Cigala, Arianna Mori, Le competenze emotive in bambini con storia di maltrattamento: cosa ci dice la ricerca? in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 2 suppl./2016, pp 29-42, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2016-S02003