The Relationship Between Emotion Regulation Strategies And Bullying Behavior In Children Aged 4-6years And Its Intervention

Bullying is a common problem among preschoolers,which is of great interest to researchers.Although the field has made significant progress in assessing and identifying bullying,less empirical evidence has focused on the correlation between bullying and emotion-regulation strategies.Many studies have pointed out that different emotional regulation strategies have emerged in preschool children,which reflect children’s emotional regulation ability.Children with poor emotional regulation often find it difficult to restrain their violent behavior,which leads to the occurrence of bullying.However,few studies to date have systematically investigated the relationship between the development of these different strategies and bullying behavior,especially among Chinese children aged 4-6 years.In order to investigate the developmental characteristics of emotional regulation strategies and bullying behavior of 4-6 years old children and the relationship between them,as well as the influence of emotion-themed picture book activities on their emotional regulation strategies and bullying behavior,217 children aged 4-6 years old were investigated in study 1by using the Emotional Regulation Strategies Questionnaire for preschool children and the Bullying Questionnaire.Study 2 uses emotion-themed picture book activities to conduct targeted intervention on various dimensions of children’s emotional regulation strategies,so as to improve children’s ability to use emotional regulation strategies and reduce bullying behavior.By analyzing the results of questionnaire survey and intervention of emotion-themed picture books,this study can reach the following conclusions:(1)There are age differences in the strategies of problem solving,surrogate activities,self-consolation and cognitive reconstruction of children aged 4-6 years old.Children aged5-6 years old are more inclined to adopt the strategies of problem solving,surrogate activities,self-consolation and cognitive reconstruction than those aged 4-5 years old.The 4-5 year old group was more inclined to adopt passive coping and venting strategies.(2)There were gender differences in passive coping and venting strategies among children aged 4-6 years.Boys were more inclined to adopt passive coping and venting strategies than girls.(3)There were significant gender and age differences in children’s bullying behavior at4-6 years old: boys had more physical,verbal and indirect bullying than girls;The physical and verbal bullying of children in the 4-5 year old group was more than that in the 5-6 year old group,and the indirect bullying in the 5-6 year old group was higher than that in the 4-5year old group.(4)According to the results of correlation analysis,the use of problem solving strategies and alternative activity strategies is significantly negatively correlated with physical,verbal and indirect bullying.Passive coping strategies were positively correlated with physical,verbal and indirect bullying.(5)After the intervention of emotional picture book teaching,children in the experimental class significantly improved in each dimension of positive emotion regulation strategies,while significantly decreased in the two dimensions of negative emotion regulation strategies;Physical bullying,verbal bullying and indirect bullying were significantly reduced.