The Evaluation of an Emotions Education Training on Early Childhood Preservice Teachers’ Emotion-Related Awareness and Behaviors

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of an emotions education program (SELF-AWARE) for preservice teachers on their emotional awareness and their emotion-related social behaviors when interacting with children at the Auburn University Early Learning Center (AUELC) as observed by Head Teachers. It was hypothesized that preservice teachers that received SELF-AWARE would have an increase in emotional awareness in comparison to a control group of students, and an increase in their emotion-related social behaviors in comparison to nonparticipating AUELC preservice. Regression analyses were conducted to examine how posttest scores of emotional awareness and emotion-related behaviors differed from pretest scores of those variables. Anxiety, attachment, and training dosage were included as control variables, along the interaction of condition and time. The regressions indicated an increase in emotional awareness and emotion-related behaviors irrespective of the condition. An interesting finding existed; reported insecure attachment was related to participants reporting a greater ability to describe their emotional experiences at posttest.