Citation

Aldridge M, Wood J. Child Abuse Negl. 1997; 21(12): 1221-33; discussion 1217-20.

Affiliation

School of English and Linguistics, University of Wales, Bangor, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9429773

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim is to establish which emotion-descriptive language is used by children at different ages. METHOD: Fifty-six children (aged 5 to 11 years) were presented with a set of plastic playpeople. Scenarios were enacted using the toys to elicit emotion descriptive vocabulary in response to the interviewer's question: How do you think s/he feels about that? Eight adult subjects participated as a control. RESULTS: Children under the age of 8 years have a limited repertoire of labels to describe emotions. Even 11-year-olds are unable to produce vocabulary which expresses emotion concepts described by adults. The implications of our findings for child-police interviews are discussed.

Language: en