Responses of Elementary School Second Graders to Friends’ Expressions of Negative Emotions During Different Learning Activities

The present study explored the response of elementary school students to friends who were expressing negative emotions. Observations in a second-grade classroom (class members: 16 boys, 17 girls) recorded 13 instances in which a student expressed negative emotions during a period of approximately 5 months. The other students ' remarks and the direction of their gaze when a friend expressed negative emotions were then examined in relation to the students ' emotional competence (high or low) and the type of learning activity that they were engaged in at the time (subject or non-subject learning). The analysis revealed that, during non-subject learning, the students in both emotional competence groups made positive comments toward a friend who was expressing negative emotions. However, when engaged in subject learning, the students in the high emotional competence group were unresponsive to their friend. Additionally, when engaged in subject learning, the students, regardless of their emotional competence, tended to criticize positive remarks made to their friend who was expressing negative emotions, because those comments distracted from the learning activity. These findings suggest that students ' response to a friend who is expressing negative emotions differs, depending on the type of learning activity that the students are engaged in.