Association of naming and categorization with emotional awareness and emotion recognition in a sample of Puerto Rican children

Abstract

Research has shown an association between emotion and its subcomponents with language, such as emotional awareness and emotion recognition. These subcomponents are essential for adaptive emotion regulation. Children with language impairments tend to be less accurate in recognizing emotions, and language disorders often co-occur with emotional and behavioral disorders. On the other hand, children with higher language development, particularly in vocabulary amplitude, demonstrate better emotion regulation strategies. However, research examining the relationship between language and emotional processes remains limited and lacks comprehensive understanding. It is unclear which specific aspects of language directly impact emotion processing and how language fits into models explaining emotion. This study explored whether differences in naming and categorization tasks relate to elementary school children's emotional awareness and emotion recognition abilities. It was hypothesized that naming and categorization skills would predict emotional awareness and emotion recognition competencies. Although the results did not show statistical significance, likely due to the small sample size, the findings suggest potential trends for future research.