The effect of experienced emotions on preschoolers' narration

This paper presents a study of the relationship between emotions and autobiographical narratives by preschoolers (aged 3 to 5 years). The children (N = 39) actively participate in a short scenario (the Geneva Emotion-Eliciting Scenario, GEES), whose central theme is the separation of two friends. The children were then asked to narrate this event. The emotions experienced by the child throughout the scenario were analyzed by means of facial expression coding (KIDIES). Coding of childrens' narratives was based on a content analysis. The analyses showed that the expression of emotions congruent to the events is not related to the content of the narrative, except in the case of the specific separation event.