WCU Study Links Emotional Intelligence to Stress Regulation in Preschoolers
A new study from West Chester University, led by WCU Psychology Professor Dr. Eleanor Brown, has found that preschool children who have a better understanding of emotions have lower levels of cortisol, a primary stress hormone. This research, which focused on children attending Head Start programs who are economically disadvantaged, highlights the potential benefits of early emotional education in mitigating the physiological impacts of stress.
The study, published in Early Education and Development, involved 307 children from 3 to 5 years old. The children’s emotional knowledge was assessed with an emotion matching task, and their cortisol levels were measured through saliva samples taken at the start of the preschool year. Findings revealed a significant association: Children with greater emotional knowledge had lower cortisol levels, suggesting they could better manage stress.
“We can’t know for sure that higher emotional knowledge is causing lower cortisol, but we can say there is a relation here,” Dr. Brown said. “It suggests that there may be a possibility for equipping children with skills to help them lower their stress levels during a critical period of development.”
Managing stress is vital for children because having repeated exposure to high levels of stress places a tax on their bodies and minds that have long-term negative impacts, she said.
“A child whose brain is flooded by stress is less able to learn and remember things,” Dr. Brown said. “Giving children skills that can potentially help them lower their stress levels in early childhood could have lasting benefits.”
The study is particularly relevant for children facing poverty and systemic racism, who often experience higher levels of stress. Dr. Brown said that children in those situations are at a greater risk of developing stress-related physiological and psychological issues. By enhancing their emotional knowledge, these children might better navigate challenging environments.
WCU students played a major role in the completion of the study – a team of undergraduate and graduate students performed the emotion matching assessment of the preschoolers. Sara King, who was a WCU graduate student at the time, helped launch the study. In fact, she’s a co-first author.
“Sara had a particular interest in emotional knowledge and examining its relation to cortisol,” Dr. Brown said. “And I have been studying emotional knowledge as a variable since I was in graduate school.”
Dr. Brown has spent her career examining the impact of poverty and trauma on children’s development.
“Although I was raised in a middle-income household, I’ve seen firsthand the emotional toll of economic hardship on people in my family,” she said. “That motivated my interest in psychology and a focus on the impact of stress and trauma on children’s cognitive and emotional development, and how we can build on child, family, and community strengths to promote flourishing.”
Focusing on strengthening children’s ability to manage stress could have enormous
impacts on their future successes. Dr. Brown said she hopes her study leads to further
emotional competence training being incorporated into early childhood education programs
like Head Start, which serve as the nation’s largest investment in early childhood
education.
Head Start has already implemented various emotion-based prevention programs that have shown positive outcomes in improving children’s social-emotional competencies and reducing behavioral problems.
But there is room to do more.
“While we see a clear relationship between emotional knowledge and stress regulation, it’s essential to explore this further through longer studies,” Dr. Brown said. “We need to understand how interventions over time can support children’s emotional and physiological well-being.”