Young children’s picture-books as a forum for the socialization of emotion

Abstract

Guided by Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, this article examined whether characters in emotion picture-books express and talk about emotions in ways that are consistent with theory and research on children’s emotions. In general, we found that picture-books recommended by experts in social-emotional development contain content that is fairly consistent with published research in early childhood. We also found parents’ reading of the picture-books was consistent with the content analysis, even though we recorded their spontaneous emotion-based language in addition to the text presented in the picture-books. The findings also suggested that reading of emotion picture-books may increase preservice teachers’ references to emotions, which could translate into greater use of emotion language in the early childhood classroom. Results are discussed with regard to the role of picture-books as an important source of emotion-related information for children, parents, and teachers.

Keywords

emotions emotion socialization picture-books

Picture-books are an important media source for young readers, as children learn to recognize pictures long before they develop an understanding of text (Moerk, 1985). Much of the research on this topic has focused on the role of picture-books as an educational resource for promoting young children’s cognitive development (Chiong and DeLoache, 2013). However, in addition to stimulating language and encouraging an appreciation for reading, engagement with picture-books also contributes to children’s knowledge about the world (Anderson and Hamilton, 2005; Bus et al., 1995) and offers opportunities for them to meet and participate in meaningful social exchanges with fictional characters (Lysaker and Tonge, 2013). The utility of picture-books for teaching children about many topics, including preschool and kindergarten adjustment, coping, poverty, race, and other forms of individual and family diversity has also been demonstrated (Kelly, 2012; Kelley and Darragh, 2011; Koss, 2015; Phillips and Sturm, 2013; Smith-D’Arezzo and Thompson, 2006; Wee et al., 2015).

Picture-books frequently address the emotional experiences of story characters and, therefore, also provide an important context for learning about emotions and how to regulate them (Garner, 2010). For example, young children often identify with and share the emotions of story characters that provide examples of how emotions are used in social exchanges (Anderson and Hamilton, 2005; Doyle and Bramwell, 2006; Lysaker and Tonge, 2013). Engagement with picture-books can also provide opportunities to develop solutions to emotional challenges without the burden of in-depth verbalization and interpretation (Cole and Valentine, 2000). Children whose parents frequently ask them to focus on and talk about emotions during shared book reading are more likely to respond with prosocial affect and behavior in response to a needy adult (Brownell et al., 2013). In addition, mothers’ empathy-related statements and explanations of emotions during shared reading of an emotion picture-book is associated with children’s emotion situation knowledge (Garner et al., 1997). Unfortunately, picture-books have largely been neglected as a forum for emotion socialization (Nikolajeva, 2013).

In this study, we examined whether characters in emotion picture-books express and talk about emotions in ways that are consistent with theory and research on children’s emotions. In doing so, we recognize the three elements of shared picture-book reading: the child, a book, and an adult (Fletcher and Reese, 2005). These elements interact to create a unique experience that is dependent upon gender, culture, skill-level of the readers, and complexity of the book itself. Our research is guided by Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, which asserts that learning and development is enhanced through shared activities with adults and/or their more competent peers (Vygotsky, 1978). Picture-book reading is an activity that offers children the opportunity to engage with a more experienced individual who can encourage learning by labeling, commenting about or explaining the content or story, and asking questions (Vandermaas-Peeler et al., 2009, 2012).

Our study centered on books recommended by doctoral-trained experts in emotional development instead of relying solely on lists of award-winners, best-sellers, or those chosen for book reviews. Best-seller lists can sometimes be a measure of popularity rather than quality (Fitzsimmons, 2012) and award-winning books often fail to account for the diversity of the population (Kurz, 2012). Finally, lists compiled from these sources may contain books that depict emotions according to commonly held beliefs that may not be commensurate with research on positive emotion socialization practices, an issue central to our research aims.

Emotional competence

A lexicon for internal states appears sometime during the first year of life (Repacholi and Gopnik, 1997). During toddlerhood, children demonstrate a capacity for empathy and independent emotion regulation (Garner and Dunsmore, 2011). By age three, children express and understand all of the primary/basic emotions and demonstrate knowledge of the causes and consequences of emotions (Denham et al., 2009). In this study, we hypothesized that words/illustrations describing emotions, internal states, and empathy would appear more often than comments and explanations of emotions. Regarding gender, females report expressing more emotion overall than males during interactions with children (Cassidy et al., 1992). However, boys display higher rates of anger (Fabes and Martin, 1991), and adults are more accepting of anger for boys and sadness for girls (Zahn-Waxler et al., 1991). We expected to observe the same pattern in the surveyed emotion picture-books.

We also investigated whether the emotion-related content of the picture-books was associated with sociodemographic characteristics of authors and story characters (Brown et al., 2015). Given that authors/illustrators of picture-books tend to be White and female (Koss, 2015), we expected to find a similar result when examining picture-books focused on emotions. Although there has been a trend to include more diverse characters in picture-books, minority and economically disadvantaged characters are rarely represented in children’s literature (Edmonds, 1986; Jones, 2008; Pescosolido et al., 1997). Even when diversity is considered, picture-books often inaccurately reflect demographic heterogeneity (Kelley and Darragh, 2011), particularly in terms of race and socioeconomic status.

Also of interest was whether the picture-books were simple or complex. According to Sierschynski et al. (2014), complexity refers to the nature of the text itself, not to be confused with difficulty, which has to do with reader involvement and skill. As such, understanding the level of complexity of a picture-book requires attention to specific elements, including consideration of the congruency between text and illustrations and, in the case of emotion picture-books, the portrayal of basic versus complex emotions. Basic emotions have associated prototypical facial expressions (e.g. happy, sad, anger, fear), and are first used in early spontaneous speech (Bretherton and Beeghly, 1982). Complex emotions are socially derived (e.g. pride, hostility, embarrassment) and understanding them in the context of a picture-book requires the reader to integrate emotion-related dialogue, illustrations of body postures, and situational determinants of emotion in addition to prototypical facial expressions. Complex picture-books may portray intangible, private, or internal emotions (Wellman et al., 1996), which may encourage extensive dialogue between the narrator and the child. Accordingly, we expected that simple picture-books would elicit simple emotion talk (i.e. labeling or commenting about emotions and internal states) and that complex books would be especially likely to include explanations of emotions.

Adults’ reading of emotion picture-books

In accord with Vygotskian theory, and because books provide a unique opportunity for adults to help children access their own emotions and those of story characters (Cartledge and Kiarie, 2001), we invited parents to sample the picture-books with their children, as adults often add their own emotion-related dialogue to supplement the text. Teachers also frequently use picture-books as a context for teaching children about emotions (Sigmon et al., 2016) and their use may facilitate teachers’ own competence in this area. Thus, we evaluated whether preservice teachers’ participation in a child development course infused with social emotional learning (SEL) content could be used as an intervention and support for them to learn about the use of emotion picture-books in the classroom.

Method

Picture-books were selected based on lists from Zero to Three, the Social and Emotional Foundation for Early Learning at Vanderbilt University, and the Lucy Daniels Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting children’s emotional development. We also searched for expert-recommended picture-books in scholarly sources (Cooper, 2007; Crawford, 2014; Gallingane and Han, 2015; Hansen and Zambo, 2005; Knowles and Smith, 2007; Nikolajeva, 2012; Zeece, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2009). In all, 137 books met the criteria of being an emotion picture-book. However, we included only those books that could be obtained within 6 months. Our sample of 85 is comparable to that reported in similar studies (Flanagan et al., 2013; Oppliger and Davis, 2015). Because librarians play such an important role in working with parents and teachers to locate books (Williams and Bauer, 2006), we compared our list with one compiled from a survey of public librarians across five metropolitan libraries who were experts in children’s literature. A total of 51 books appeared on the combined lists. For the sake of space, we do not duplicate already published lists. Through several iterative and interactive sessions, a coding manual was developed. Coders met bi-weekly for 4 weeks to review the manual and to develop a cohesive understanding of codes.

Two developmental experts also evaluated approximately one-third of the books using the Cianciolo (2000) criteria for evaluating picture-books. Ratings focused on (1) emotion explanations, (2) appeal to a wide age range, (3) presence of cultural stereotypes, (4) presence of imaginative and stimulating content, (5) organization, and (6) attractiveness and readability, using a 3-point scale with “1” indicating not at all present, “2” moderately present, and “3” often present. Interrater agreement was .81. Elements were highly rated, with the exception of presence of cultural stereotypes, which received a low rating (Table 1).

Table 1.

Expert ratings of selected books (N = 30).

Variables	M	SD
Accurate emotion concepts	2.25	.84
Appeals to a wide age range	2.36	.78
Presence of stereotypes	1.07	.26
Emotion-related information is organized	2.62	.57
Format of the book is attractive and readable	2.86	.52

M: mean; SD: standard deviation.

Variables

Emotion constructs

Text/illustrations depicting and describing emotions, emotion explanations, and empathy are common in picture-books (Drummond et al., 2014). Following Garner et al. (1997), we were interested in the number of words/illustrations that described emotions. As noted above, sometime in the third year of life, children become able to understand explanations of emotions (Denham et al., 2009), which were also of interest. Examples include “Spike just had to say goodbye. He feels like he wants to cry” and “Something that makes me feel scared is being alone in the dark.” We also coded empathy-related language (e.g. “When you are sad, I feel sad too”). Also of interest were words/phrases describing physiological states (e.g. hungry, sick, tired) and sociomoral states (e.g. good, bad, nice, naughty; Bretherton and Beeghly, 1982; Brownell et al., 2013). Tables 2 and 3 present descriptive data for these variables.

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics for emotion-related variables as presented in picture-books (N = 85).

Variables	M	SD
Simple emotion words	5.04	5.14
Explanations of emotions	5.12	3.94
Empathy-related words	.21	.66
Internal state words	.24	.63

M: mean; SD: standard deviation.

Table 3.

Descriptive statistics for emotion-related variables in relation to adult male and female characters (N = 85).

Variables	Adult femalePresent, not present		Adult malePresent, not present
Variables	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)	M (SD)
Simple emotion words	5.33 (3.77)	5.07 (3.26)	6.5 (3.54)	5.06 (5.19)
Explanations of emotions	6.00 (2.89)	5.10 (4.02)	8.0 (.10)	5.10 (3.97)
Empathy-related words	.67 (1.63)	.18 (.53)	.00 (.00)	.22 (.68)
Internal state words	.16 (.41)	.23 (.64)	.00 (.00)	.23 (.63)

M: mean; SD: standard deviation.

Demographic characteristics

We recorded gender and race/ethnicity of authors and story characters using Cengage’s “something about the author” website (cengage.com). For authors not included, we used authors’ personal websites to gather information. Coders made note of whether, page by page, males and/or females were portrayed in the story (alone, or with or without a boy and/or a girl). We noted gender characteristics in illustrations and, when present, the use of gender-specific language (Crabb and Bielawski, 1994; Weitzman et al., 1972). Not every character was coded for gender, as it was sometimes impossible to discern. Coders also noted evidence of income, occupation, employment status, education, geographic locale, mobility, and/or family structure (Chafel et al., 1997; Streib et al., 2016).

Picture-book characteristics

Picture-books were categorized as simple if they had limited text or few items in the illustrations, text and illustrations were congruent, and there was repetition within and across the page(s). In contrast, picture-books that contained text and illustrations that combined in ways that were ambiguous, ironic, and/or contradictory were coded as complex. These books offer opportunities for the participating adult to clarify information or otherwise engage the child (Nikolajeva, 2013; Serafini, 2005; Sierschynski et al., 2014). Using the aforementioned criteria, we categorized 35 books as simple and 50 as complex. One book categorized as simple contained a page that read “boo hoo,” and was accompanied by an illustration that depicted a large face of a crying child. One of the complex books included a page that read “I want to play with you right now. I don’t think taking turns is fair.” Average word count per page was 8.23 (standard deviation (SD) = 6.05). Interrater reliability was determined by having raters independently code approximately 20 percent of randomly selected books. Cohen’s kappas ranged from .78 to 1.00 (mean kappa = .85) and prior research has validated coding categories and procedures (Tepper and Cassidy, 1999).

Parent participants

After obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, a group of parents was recruited to read a subset of 16 books (approximately 20%) chosen from the larger set to be comparable in number of pages and emotion-based text/illustrations. We used random assignment to designate the chosen books to parents. Eight parents, including two White males, two African American females, one African American male, one Latina American female, one Latino American male, and 1 White female, were videotaped reading two picture-books to their young children. Appendix 1 includes an example of a parent-child book reading interaction.

Preservice teachers

We also recruited 28 preservice teachers from an early child development course offered at a large university located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Participants were third- or fourth-year female undergraduates whose ages ranged from 20 to 26. Of them, 21 students were White, 4 were Black, and 3 were Asian. Each student was assigned an expert-recommended picture-book to read at the beginning and end of the semester. At least one-third of the course content was devoted to SEL concepts, including an introduction to Jennings and Greenberg’s (2009) Prosocial Classroom model, emotion-related constructs, such as understanding and regulation of emotions, relationship-building with colleagues and children, and problem-solving. At both time points, students (1) defined picture-books, (2) listed their distinctive features, (3) provided examples of high-quality picture-books, (4) discussed their beliefs about the utility of picture-books for learning, and (5) listed ideas for how to use them (Martinez and Harmon, 2012). Two researchers independently coded the transcriptions and interrater reliability ranged from .76 to .92 and averaged .88.

Results

Content of the emotion picture-books

Most books (70%) focused specifically on emotions more generally and 30 percent presented emotions in relation to making friends, prosocial behavior, or bedtime issues. In all, 71 percent of the books were written in 2000 or later. Women wrote 73 percent of the books, men authored 22 percent, and 5 percent were co-authored by men and women. Of the authors, 94 percent was White, 1 percent was Black, and 1 percent was Latino. The race/ethnicity of three authors was unknown. A total of 69 books contained White characters, 47 percent included Black characters, 32 percent comprised Asian characters, 8 percent included Latino characters, 2 percent included characters explicitly identified as bi-racial, and 1 percent focused on Native Americans. We could not identify the racial/ethnic background of characters in 1 percent of books. The totals did not sum to 100 percent because of overlaps.

Overall portrayal of emotions

Neither word count per page nor complexity was associated with the emotion variables (ps > .43) and, thus, these variables were not considered further. We conducted t-tests to examine whether mean-level differences existed among the measures. A Bonferroni corrected alpha .01 was used for pairwise comparisons. Emotion words/illustrations appeared more frequently than internal states, t(84) = 8.85, p < .001, and empathy, t(84) = 8.61, p < .001. Emotion explanations appeared more frequently than internal states, t(84) = 11.99, p < .001, and empathy, t(84) = 11.36, p < .001. We were unable to provide precise data about valence as most books focused on multiple emotions.

Gender of the picture-book characters

Adult females appeared solely in 54 percent of picture-books and adult males appeared (with females) in 41 percent, χ²(2) = .49, p < .001. There was also a significant effect for adults interacting with girls. A total of 19 percent of the books contained pages that portrayed adult females interacting with girls and 11 percent contained pages depicting males interacting with girls, χ²(2) = .39, p < .001. There was also an overall effect of females’ presence, coded as “0” (not present) or “1” (present) on the emotion measures, F(8, 158) = .54, p < .04; Wilk’s Λ = 0.92, partial η² = .04. Follow-up analysis of variances (ANOVAs) indicated that empathy was more likely when adult females were present, F(2, 82) = 1.61, p < .04. Surprisingly, internal states were more prevalent when adult females were not present, F (2, 82) = .47, p < .02 (see Table 2). When adult males were portrayed with boys (15 books), there was an overall significant effect, F(8, 158) = 2.22, p < .03; Wilk’s Λ = 0.81, partial η² = .10. Empathy was also more likely when adult males appeared with boys (M = .78 vs .10; SD = 1.31 vs .34); F(2, 82) = 7.39, p < .001.

We also examined whether the presence of males and females and boys and girls was associated with type of emotion. The only significant finding was that females’ presence with boys was associated with emotion type, χ² (4) = 16.60, p < .002. To determine which variable produced the effect, residuals were converted to z-scores and compared to a critical value equivalent to the alpha. The corrected p value was set at .01, which corresponds to a critical value of ±2.58. Standardized residuals that have a positive value indicate that the cell was overrepresented compared to the expected frequency. Similarly, a negative value mean is indicative of a cell that is underrepresented in the sample compared to the expected frequency. The standardized residual of 2.9 was larger than the critical value of 2.58, which suggests that anger was more likely to be discussed/portrayed when adult females were portrayed interacting with boys (83.3% vs 16.7%). Race/ethnicity of the characters was unrelated to type of emotion, but emotion explanations were more likely when indicators of affluence were present, F(1, 83) = 4.66, p < .03.

Parent data

Parents labeled emotions (M = 5.06, SD = 3.55) more than they explained (M = 1.56, SD = 1.21), t(15) = 3.87, p < .002, or asked questions about them (M = 1.63, SD = 1.87), t(15) = 3.44, p < .004. Internal states appeared less frequently (M = .56, SD = .81) than labels t(15) = −4.47, p < .0001, explanations, t(15) = −3.04, p < .01, and questions about emotions, t(15) = −2.35, p < .03. Parents referred to happiness and anger more often than fear, t(15) = 2.78, p < .01, and t(15) = 2.21, p < .04, respectively.

Data from preservice teachers

We next performed a chi-square analysis to determine if reading of picture-books amplified or diminished preservice teachers’ references to emotions across the two time points. The proportion of responses that contained references to emotions increased across the two time points (.06 vs 20), χ² = 5.13, p < .04.

Discussion

Young children’s literature frequently contains references to emotions and internal states. In this study, we found that picture-books recommended by SEL experts contain content that is fairly consistent with published research on emotional development in early childhood. Overall, our results suggest that shared reading of books with emotion-based content may help children learn to identify their own and others’ emotions and how to use this information to engage others and regulate their behavior (Beazidou et al., 2013).

Primary emotions appeared more frequently than internal states or empathy, a finding that parallels research indicating in that young children’s emotion understanding appears mainly in the form of affective labels (Cervantes and Callanan, 1998). Language for primary emotions may be necessary before children can integrate complex elements of cognition to explain emotions (Vallotton and Ayoub, 2011). Children begin to use terms for primary emotions and internal states during toddlerhood (Bretherton et al., 1981), behavior that precedes their understanding of causes and consequences of emotions (Denham et al., 2009). We did not expect to find that emotion explanations would appear more frequently than internal states and empathy. Use of primary emotion terms may represent rudimentary self-understanding, moral awareness, and emotion regulation ability (Bretherton et al., 1986), even if terms for empathy or other secondary emotions are not used. Empathy understanding appears to require knowledge of advanced rather than simple or primary emotions. Although the capacity for empathy emerges during the toddler years (Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992), children may have difficulty understanding the specific words that describe this emotion. It may also be difficult to convey and communicate empathy in text/illustrations in young children’s literature.

We also found that empathy was frequent when adult females were present. Gender differences favoring females in empathy across varying types of measures have been consistently reported (Thompson and Voyer, 2014). Notably, fathers’ participation in childcare, independent of empathy, positively predicts their children’s empathy development (Bernadett-Shapiro et al., 1996). The way that authors represented men and their emotions may not reflect contemporary norms or research on fathers’ affective involvement with their children. Interestingly, internal states were more prevalent when adult females were not present. Mothers use more internal state language during mother–father–child triadic interactions with toddlers and preschoolers (Jenkins et al., 2003). In the previous study, three types of internal states were considered, whereas this study focused on internal states that referred to physiology because they were overwhelmingly prevalent in the surveyed picture-books. In retrospect, physiological internal states may not necessarily address the social and contextual factors associated with emotion (Wang et al., 2010).

Our data further demonstrated that anger was more prevalent when adult females appeared with boys. This finding is in accord with research portraying boys as more likely than girls to display anger during social interactions and parents being more accepting of anger displayed by boys (Chaplin et al., 2005), and as using more anger-related words with boys when talking about emotions (Fivush, 1989). Yet, most picture-books included mothers as the primary adult character. When mothers and fathers are the focus, fathers are especially attentive to boys’ anger (Chaplin et al., 2005). It will be important to continue to explore how male story characters display emotions in children’s literature.

Approximately two-thirds of the books portrayed White story characters. Although some books included characters diverse in race/ethnicity, some groups were underrepresented and even absent. Not only does comprehension improve when readers experience themselves in the books they read (McNair, 2013), picture-books may introduce topics and cultures that are not present in children’s daily lives (Moerk, 1985). Exposure to diverse characters can encourage attitudes of social justice and perspective-taking (Brown et al., 2015; Labadie et al., 2013; Zambo, 2011), which could even promote the development of empathy. On a related note, most authors were also White. Diverse characters may be more likely to be included in books written by authors from underrepresented groups (Clark et al., 2013). Yet, story characters’ race/ethnicity was generally unrelated to the emotion variables and experts rated the books as containing few culturally based stereotypes.

Emotion explanations appeared more often when story characters were affluent. Interestingly, higher income children score higher on emotion knowledge and regulation tasks than their more economically disadvantaged peers (Blandon et al., 2008). The language experiences derived from picture-books may be especially important for low-income children. Emotion picture-books that include only affluent characters could send the message that children experiencing economic disadvantage are not capable of understanding complex language about emotions and may even deprive them of important opportunities for learning about emotions (Montag et al., 2015).

Our study was also concerned with adults’ reading of emotion picture-books. Adults label emotions and other internal states more often during book reading than joint play or everyday conversations (Drummond et al., 2014). Picture-books can be used by adults to encourage children to acknowledge their feelings and to instruct them in social-emotional understanding (Symons et al., 2006). Our parent data were consistent with the content analysis, even though we recorded their reading of text/illustrations as well as spontaneous emotion-based language. Parents referred to happiness more often than fear and mentioned anger more often than fear. For young children, intense and sustained angry reactions are frequent and generally viewed as developmentally appropriate (Potegal et al., 1996). Carefully chosen picture-books can teach children responsible ways of managing anger. In line with Vygotskian theory, promoting children’s emotional competence through book reading requires the use of books that are within a child’s zone of proximal development (Al Otaiba, 2004), but challenge them to think slightly beyond their current competency (Dwyer and Neuman, 2008). The best of these books contain appropriate text and appealing illustrations and focus on a plot that emphasizes emotions as well as the compassionate and prosocial behavior of story characters (Mecca, 1998).

Early childhood professionals also play an important role in helping children to acquire emotion-related skills (Kitzman and Howard, 2011). However, a large proportion of teachers do not receive any training about how to support children’s emotional competence (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2015). In fact, a national survey of curriculum coverage of recommended quality standards in early childhood teacher education programs found that SEL coverage is relatively low (Buettner et al., 2016). Even so, teacher preparation programs often use picture-books to teach a variety of concepts to preservice teachers (Hansen and Zambo, 2005). Our research complements this work in that reading of emotion picture-books was associated with increases in preservice teachers’ references to emotions across the semester. An intervention offered within the context of a university course may encourage beginning early childhood teachers to apply their theoretical understanding of SEL to emotion picture-book reading interactions with young children. Instructing preservice teachers about how to facilitate children’s learning and development has proven helpful in other research (Hammett and Bainbridge, 2009) and these types of projects may even help improve the disparity between the backgrounds of beginning teachers and the students they serve (Johnston et al., 2007).

Limitations and conclusions

Overall, the findings suggests that expert-recommended picture-books can contribute to complex emotion conversations between young children and the important adults in their lives (Beazidou et al., 2013; Cole and Valentine, 2000) and, perhaps, facilitate emotional competence, self-confidence, and prosocial behavior (McNamee and Mercurio, 2007). We also learned that adults frequently exchange emotion talk with children during shared book reading, which may aid in the comprehension of emotions in relation to the story’s plot and may encourage active participation in the book reading session. This study, however, is not without limitations. The list of emotion picture-books analyzed was incomplete as most were published in the United States and written in English. Different results may have emerged if we had sampled emotion picture-books from other parts of the globe (Vander Wege et al., 2014). In addition, the picture-books we sampled were expert-recommended and the extent to which they are chosen by parents and teachers to read to young children is not known (Aram and Aviram, 2009). Moreover, the limited text associated with some picture-books allow the reader creativity in how they are read, making the specific emotion-related content of the book more or less important. In sum, emotion picture-books provide a unique opportunity to promote emotional competence and also provide a pathway for adults to learn about the importance of emotional literacy for children’s learning and development.

Footnotes

Appendix 1 Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the parents, children, and early childhood professionals who participated in this research for their cooperation. The authors are also grateful to the numerous research assistants who helped to collect the data described in this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Al Otaiba

(2004) Weaving moral elements and research based reading practices in inclusive classrooms using shared book reading techniques. Early Child Development and Care 174(6): 575–589.

Anderson

Hamilton

(2005) Gender role stereotyping of parents in children’s picture books: the invisible father. Sex Roles 52(3–4): 145–151.

Aram

Aviram

(2009) Mothers’ storybook reading and kindergartners’ socioemotional and literacy development. Reading Psychology 30(2): 175–194.

Beazidou

Botsoglou

Vlachou

(2013) Promoting emotional knowledge: strategies that Greek preschool teachers employ during book reading. Early Child Development and Care 183(5): 613–626.

Bernadett-Shapiro

Ehrensaft

Shapiro

(1996) Father participation in childcare and the development of empathy in sons: an empirical study. Family Therapy 23(2): 77–93.

Blandon

Calkins

Keane

et al . (2008) Individual differences in trajectories of emotion regulation processes: the effects of maternal depressive symptomatology and children’s physiological regulation. Developmental Psychology 44(4): 1110–1123.

Bretherton

Beeghly

(1982) Talking about internal states: the acquisition of an explicit theory of mind. Developmental Psychology 8(6): 906–921.

Bretherton

Fritz

Zahn-Waxler

et al . (1986) Learning to talk about emotions: a functionalist perspective. Child Development 57(3): 529–548.

Bretherton

McNew

Beeghly-Smith

(1981) Early person knowledge as expressed in gestural and verbal communication: when do infants acquire a “theory of mind.” In: Lamb

Sherrod

(eds) Infant Social Cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., pp. 333–373.

10.

Brown

Craig

Halberstadt

(2015) Parent gender differences in emotion socialization behaviors vary by ethnicity and child gender. Parenting 15(3): 135–157.

11.

Brownell

Svetlova

Anderson

et al . (2013) Socialization of early prosocial behavior: parents’ talk about emotions is associated with sharing and helping in toddlers. Infancy 18(1): 91–119.

12.

Buettner

Hur

Jeon

et al . (2016) What are we teaching the teachers? Child development curricula in US higher education. Child & Youth Care Forum 45(1): 155–175.

13.

Bus

Van Ijzendoorn

Pellegrini

(1995) Joint book reading makes for success in learning to read: a meta-analysis on intergenerational transmission of literacy. Review of Educational Research 65(1): 1–21.

14.

Cartledge

Kiarie

(2001) Learning social skills through literature for children and adolescents. Teaching Exceptional Children 34(2): 40–47.

15.

Cassidy

Parke

Butkovsky

et al . (1992) Family peer connections: the roles of emotional expressiveness within the family and children’s understanding of emotions. Child Development 63(3): 603–618.

16.

Cervantes

Callanan

(1998) Labels and explanations in mother–child emotion talk: age and gender differentiation. Developmental Psychology 34(1): 88–98.

17.

Chafel

Fitzgibbons

Cutter

et al . (1997) Poverty in books for young children: a content analysis. Early Child Development and Care 139(1): 15–27.

18.

Chaplin

Cole

Zahn-Waxler

(2005) Parental socialization of emotion expression: gender differences and relations to child adjustment. Emotion 5(1): 80–88.

19.

Chiong

DeLoache

(2013) Learning the ABCs: What kinds of picture books facilitate young children’s learning? Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 13(2): 225–241.

20.

Cianciolo

(2000) Informational Picture Books for Children. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

21.

Clark

Kessler

Coon

(2013) Women and girls last? Female visibility in children’s picture books by White, Black, Latino, and gay-sympathetic authors. International Review of Modern Sociology 39(1): 111–131.

22.

Cole

Valentine

(2000) Multiethnic children portrayed in children’s picture books. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal 17(4): 305–317.

23.

Cooper

(2007) Teaching young children self-regulation through children’s books. Early Childhood Education Journal 34(5): 315–322.

24.

Crabb

Bielawski

(1994) The social representation of material culture and gender in children’s books. Sex Roles 30(1–2): 69–79.

25.

Crawford

(2014) Beyond words: using language and literature to teach compassion for others. In: Jalongo

(ed.) Teaching Compassion: Humane Education in Early Childhood. The Netherlands: Springer, pp. 161–173.

26.

Denham

Wyatt

Bassett

et al . (2009) Assessing social-emotional development in children from a longitudinal perspective. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 63(Suppl. 1): i37–i52.

27.

Doyle

Bramwell

(2006) Promoting emergent literacy and social-emotional learning through dialogic reading. The Reading Teacher 59(6): 554–564.

28.

Drummond

Paul

Waugh

et al . (2014) Here, there and everywhere: emotion and mental state talk in different social contexts predicts empathic helping in toddlers. Frontiers in Psychology 5: 361.

29.

Dwyer

Neuman

(2008) Selecting books for children birth through four: a developmental approach. Early Childhood Education Journal 35(6): 489–494.

30.

Edmonds

(1986) The treatment of race in picture books for young children. Publishing Research Quarterly 2(3): 30–41.

31.

Fabes

Martin

(1991) Gender and age stereotypes of emotionality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 17(5): 532–540.

32.

Fitzsimmons

(2012) Testing the tastemakers: children’s literature, bestseller lists, and the “Harry Potter effect.” Children’s Literature 40(1): 78–107.

33.

Fivush

(1989) Exploring sex differences in the emotional content of mother-child conversations about the past. Sex Roles 20(11–12): 675–691.

34.

Flanagan

Vanden Hoek

Shelton

et al . (2013) Coping with bullying: what answers does children’s literature provide? School Psychology International 34(6): 691–706.

35.

Fletcher

Reese

(2005) Picture book reading with young children: a conceptual framework. Developmental Review 25(1): 64–103.

36.

Gallingane

Han

(2015) Words can help manage emotions: using research-based strategies for vocabulary instruction to teach emotion words to young children. Childhood Education 91(5): 351–362.

37.

Garner

(2010) Emotional competence and its influences on teaching and learning. Educational Psychology Review 22(3): 297–321.

38.

Garner

Dunsmore

(2011) Temperament and maternal discourse about internal states as predictors of toddler empathy-and aggression-related behavior. Journal of Early Childhood Research 9(1): 81–99.

39.

Garner

Jones

Gaddy

et al . (1997) Low-income mothers’ conversations about emotions and their children’s emotional competence. Social Development 6(1): 37–52.

40.

Hammett

Bainbridge

(2009) Preservice teachers explore cultural identity and ideology through picture books. Literacy 43(3): 152–159.

41.

Hansen

Zambo

(2005) Piaget, meet Lily: understanding child development through picture book characters. Early Childhood Educational Journal 33(1): 39–45.

42.

Jenkins

Turrell

Kogushi

et al . (2003) A longitudinal investigation of the dynamics of mental state talk in families. Child Development 74(3): 905–920.

43.

Jennings

Greenberg

(2009) The prosocial classroom: teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research 79(1): 491–525.

44.

Johnston

Bainbridge

Shariff

(2007) Exploring issues of national identity, ideology and diversity in contemporary Canadian picture books. Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 17(2): 75–83.

45.

Jones

(2008) Grass houses: representations and reinventions of social class through children’s literature. Journal of Language and Literacy Education 4(2): 40–58.

46.

Kelley

Darragh

(2011) Depictions and gaps: portrayal of US poverty in realistic fiction children’s picture books. Reading Horizons 50(4): 263–282.

47.

Kelly

(2012) Two daddy tigers and a baby tiger: promoting understandings about same gender parented families using picture books. Early Years 32(3): 288–300.

48.

Kitzmann

Howard

(2011) Emotion socialization by early childhood educators: conceptual models from psychology. Asia-Pacific Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education 5: 23–44.

49.

Knowles

Smith

(2007) Understanding Diversity through Novels and Picture Books. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

50.

Koss

(2015) Diversity in contemporary picturebooks: a content analysis. Journal of Children’s Literature 41(1): 32–42.

51.

Kurz

(2012) Missing faces, beautiful places: the lack of diversity in South Carolina picture book award nominees. New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship 18(2): 128–145.

52.

Labadie

Pole

Rogers

(2013) How kindergarten students connect and critically respond to themes of social class in children’s literature. Literacy Research and Instruction 52(4): 312–338.

53.

Lysaker

Tonge

(2013) Learning to understand others through relationally oriented reading. The Reading Teacher 66(8): 632–641.

54.

McNair

(2013) “I never knew there were so many books about us”: parents and children reading and responding to African American children’s literature together. Children’s Literature in Education 44(3): 191–207.

55.

McNamee

Mercurio

(2007) Who cares? How teachers can scaffold children’s ability to care: a case for picture books. Early Childhood Research & Practice 9. Available at: http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v9n1/mcnamee.html (accessed 23 November 2015).

56.

Martinez

Harmon

(2012) Picture/text relationships: an investigation of literary elements in picturebooks. Literacy Research and Instruction 51(4): 323–343.

57.

Mecca

(1998) Teaching to care: the literature approach. Early Childhood News 10: 36–37.

58.

Moerk

(1985) Picture-book reading by mothers and young children and its impact upon language development. Journal of Pragmatics 9(4): 547–566.

59.

Montag

Jones

Smith

(2015) The words children hear: picture books and the statistics for language learning. Psychological Science 26(9): 1489–1496.

60.

Nikolajeva

(2012) Reading other people’s minds through word and image. Children’s Literature in Education 43(3): 273–291.

61.

Nikolajeva

(2013) Picturebooks and emotional literacy. The Reading Teacher 67(4): 249–254.

62.

Oppliger

Davis

(2015) Portrayals of bullying: a content analysis of picture books for preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal 44(5): 515–526.

63.

Pescosolido

Grauerholz

Milkie

(1997) Culture and conflict: the portrayal of Blacks in US children’s picture books through the mid-and late-twentieth century. American Sociological Review 62(3): 443–464.

64.

Phillips

Sturm

(2013) Do picture books about starting kindergarten portray the kindergarten experience in developmentally appropriate ways? Early Childhood Education Journal 41(6): 465–475.

65.

Potegal

Kosorok

Davidson

(1996) The time course of angry behavior in the temper tantrums of young children. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 794(1): 31–45.

66.

Repacholi

Gopnik

(1997) Early reasoning of desires: evidence from 14- to 18- month-olds. Developmental Psychology 33(1): 12–21.

67.

Schonert-Reichl

Hanson-Peterson

Hymel

(2015) Social and emotional learning and pre-service teacher education. In: Durlak

Weissberg

(eds) Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning. New York: Guilford Press, pp. 406–421.

68.

Serafini

(2005) Voices in the park, voices in the classroom: readers responding to postmodern picture books. Literacy Research and Instruction 44(3): 47–64.

69.

Sierschynski

Louie

Pughe

(2014) Complexity in picture books. The Reading Teacher 68(4): 287–295.

70.

Sigmon

Tackett

Azano

(2016) Using children’s picture books about autism as resources in inclusive classrooms. The Reading Teacher 70(1): 111–117.

71.

Smith-D’Arezzo

Thompson

(2006) Topics of stress and abuse in picture books for children. Children’s Literature in Education 37(4): 335–347.

72.

Streib

Ayala

Wixted

(2016) Benign inequality: frames of poverty and social class inequality in children’s movies. Journal of Poverty 21(1): 1–19.

73.

Symons

Fossum

Collins

(2006) A longitudinal study of belief and desire state discourse during mother-child play and later false belief understanding. Social Development 15(4): 676–691.

74.

Tepper

Cassidy

(1999) Gender differences in emotional language in children’s picture books. Sex Roles 40(3–4): 265–280.

75.

Thompson

Voyer

(2014) Sex differences in the ability to recognise non-verbal displays of emotion: a meta-analysis. Cognition & Emotion 28(7): 1164–1195.

76.

Vallotton

Ayoub

(2011) Use your words: the role of language in the development of toddlers’ self-regulation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 26(2): 169–181.

77.

Vander Wege

González

Friedlmeier

et al . (2014) Emotion displays in media: a comparison between American, Romanian, and Turkish children’s storybooks. Frontiers in Psychology 5: 600.

78.

Vandermaas-Peeler

Nelson

Bumpass

et al . (2009) Social contexts of development: parent-child interactions during reading and play. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 9(3): 295–317.

79.

Vandermaas-Peeler

Sassine

Price

et al . (2012) Mothers’ and fathers’ guidance behaviours during storybook reading. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 12(4): 415–442.

80.

Vygotsky

(1978) Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

81.

Wang

Doan

Song

(2010) Talking about internal states in mother–child reminiscing influences children’s self-representations: a cross-cultural study. Cognitive Development 25(4): 380–393.

82.

Wee

Park

Choi

(2015) Korean culture as portrayed in young children’s picture books: the pursuit of cultural authenticity. Children’s Literature in Education 46(1): 70–87.

83.

Weitzman

Eifler

Hokada

et al . (1972) Sex-role socialization in picture books for preschool children. American Journal of Sociology 77(6): 1125–1150.

84.

Wellman

Hollander

Schult

(1996) Young children’s understanding of thought bubbles and of thoughts. Child Development 67(3): 768–788.

85.

Williams

Bauer

(2006) Pathways to affective accountability: selecting, locating, and using children’s books in elementary school classrooms. The Reading Teacher 60(1): 14–22.

86.

Zahn-Waxler

Cole

Barrett

(1991) Guilt and empathy: sex differences and implications for the development of depression. In: Garber

Dodge

(eds) The Development of Emotion Regulation and Dysregulation. New York: Cambridge, pp. 243–272.

87.

Zahn-Waxler

Radke-Yarrow

Wagner

et al . (1992) Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology 28(1): 126–136.

88.

Zambo

(2011) Picture books for social justice: helping students understand challenges faced by African American males in poverty. California Reader 44(2): 19–26.

89.

Zeece

(2000) Books about feelings and feelings about books: literature choices that support emotional development. Early Childhood Education Journal 28(2): 111–115.

90.

Zeece

(2004) Promoting empathy and developing caring readers. Early Childhood Education Journal 31(3): 193–199.

91.

Zeece

(2006) Happy me a story. Early Childhood Education Journal 33(5): 347–355.

92.

Zeece

(2009) Using current literature selections to nurture the development of kindness in young children. Early Childhood Education Journal 36(5): 447–452.