Effects of implicit affect on emotional coping and school adjustment: A short-term longitudinal study with a school-based universal prevention program for enhancing emotional abilities

Abstract

In recent years, affect and emotions are hot research topics in the domains of psychology and brain science. Moreover, an increasing number of studies have started to investigate the effects of implicit affect on health and adjustment. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of implicit affect on explicit emotional coping with others’ emotions and school adjustment in children.

Methods

Participants were 5th- and 6th-grade children in two public elementary schools in Japan. The final samples were fifty-six children (25 boys and 31 girls). Participants completed a battery of three questionnaires just before (T1) and after (T2) an school-based universal prevention program for enhancing emotional coping abilities with others’ emotions, which was implemented in eight classes during one month. The questionnaires were utilized for assessing implicit positive and negative affect (IPA and INA), explicit emotional coping abilities to identify, understand, and regulate others’ emotions, and the adaptive status of children at school.

Results

Hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher IPA at T1 was associated with higher explicit emotional coping and motivation for learning at T2. Also, higher INA at T1 was related to better peer relationship at T2. Moreover, higher IPA and INA at T1 were concerned with higher scores of classroom climate and approval at T2.

Conclusion

This study suggested that higher IPA leads to higher explicit emotional coping with others’ emotions. Also, it suggested that higher implicit affectivity (i.e., both higher IPA and INA) causes more adaptive status of children at school.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.