Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
department of counseling and educational psychology, faculty of education and psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Emotional knowledge, a set of abilities that describes the adaptive utilization of emotional information, necessitates measurement with valid instruments for research purposes. The present study was conducted with two primary objectives: first, to validate the Emotion Matching Task for assessing emotional knowledge in Iranian preschool children, and second, to investigate gender differences in their level of emotional knowledge. This research employed a correlational and test validation design. Participants comprised 304 preschool children from Mashhad city in 2024, selected through convenience sampling. The Emotion Matching Task (Izard et al., 2003), the Social Competence Scale (Corrigan, 2003), and the Theory of Mind Scale (Wellman and Liu, 2004) were utilized for data collection. The reliability of the scale was examined using the omega coefficient, and factorial validity was investigated using second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, to examine convergent validity, the predictive role of age and theory of mind for the dimensions and total score of emotional knowledge was explored using multiple regression. To establish predictive validity, hierarchical regression was employed to predict social competence based on emotional knowledge. Gender differences were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the proposed four-factor model for emotional knowledge demonstrated acceptable fit. The omega coefficient for the total emotional knowledge score was 0.85. Additional findings indicated that theory of mind and age were positive and significant predictors of emotional knowledge, and that emotional knowledge predicted social competence. Moreover, the findings revealed a gender difference favoring girls. The research findings suggest that this instrument exhibits high reliability, construct validity, and criterion validity. These findings can be beneficial for researchers, educators, and psychologists seeking reliable tools to assess emotional knowledge in preschool children. Additionally, the results pertaining to gender differences are applicable to parenting education.
Keywords
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