Interdependence between social success and emotional experience of preschool age children

Introduction. The article presents an overview of the main ideas and results of studying the problem of the relationship between social success and emotional experiences of preschool age children. The aim of the study was to identify the relationships between indicators of social success and types of emotional experiences of preschoolers. Materials and methods. The authors employed the following methods of assessing preschoolers’ social success: methods of directing social behavior motivation (motivational level), methods of choice in action (the indicator of attitude), behavior type monitoring (behavioral indicator).Colour tests for assessing the emotional status, anxiety tests, methods of revealing fears, and methods of aggression display were applied in order to assess emotional experience of preschool children. Evaluation of the interdependence between indicators of social success and emotional experiences were carried out using Spearman rank correlation (p). The sample consisted of 188 children of senior preschool age. Results. The study identified subgroups of socially successful (n=135) and social failure (n=53) children. It has been established that socially successful children have higher average values of all studied emotions. Correlation analysis showed that high rates of social success have a higher level of emotional experiences: group direction of social behavior motivation is characterized by a neutral emotional state and high levels of fear; positive sociometric status is characterized by high aggression and fear level; active social behavior type was characterized by high aggression and anxiety level. Socially unsuccessful children have lower levels of manifestation of the same emotional experiences. Conclusion. The results allowed to conclude that separate indicators of social success of preschool age children are connected with certain types of emotional experiences. It is revealed that high levels of indicators of preschoolers’ social success are associated with a high level of emotional distress - increased aggression, anxiety, and fear, which characterizes emotional stress in achieving and maintaining social success. Low levels of emotional experiences of socially unsuccessful preschoolers indicate their passive social attitudes.