In plain language
How well can children recognise and describe emotions, both their own and other people's? Psychologists call this skill emotional awareness, and it is thought to be one of the most fundamental building blocks of emotional intelligence. A well-established test existed for adults (the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale, or LEAS), but nothing comparable existed for children. This paper describes the creation of a child version: the LEAS-C.
The researchers first ran a pilot study with children aged 9 to 12 to develop twelve age-appropriate scenarios (for example, situations designed to evoke happiness, anger, sadness, or fear). Children write down how they and the other person in each scenario would feel, and their answers are scored for emotional complexity, from simple bodily responses ("I would feel sick") up to nuanced blends of different emotions. In the main study, 51 children aged 10 to 11 completed the LEAS-C along with tests of emotion knowledge, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and cognitive development.
The new scale performed well. Scores could be rated reliably by different judges and were meaningfully related to children's emotion comprehension and verbal skills. Girls scored higher than boys, mirroring the gender difference consistently found in adults, and this difference remained even after accounting for girls' stronger verbal skills. The LEAS-C gives researchers and clinicians an objective, performance-based way to measure the complexity of children's emotional worlds, rather than relying on children to rate their own abilities.
Key findings
- The LEAS-C, a 12-scenario performance-based measure of emotional awareness for children, was successfully developed and piloted with children aged 9–12.
- In the validity study (51 children aged 10–11), LEAS-C scores were significantly related to emotion comprehension, vocabulary, and verbal productivity.
- Inter-rater reliability was high, and internal consistency was fair given the scale's brevity, supporting the LEAS-C as a psychometrically acceptable instrument.
- Girls scored significantly higher than boys on self-, other-, and total emotional awareness, consistent with the gender differences repeatedly found in adult studies.
- The gender difference in total emotional awareness remained significant even after statistically controlling for vocabulary and verbal productivity, suggesting it is not simply a verbal-skills effect.
- LEAS-C scores were unrelated to a measure of general cognitive development (the Parental Descriptions Scale), supporting the idea that emotional awareness is a distinct skill.
How to cite
APA
Bajgar, J., Ciarrochi, J., Lane, R., & Deane, F. P. (2005). Development of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C). British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23(4), 569–586. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151005X35417
BibTeX
@article{bajgar2005development,
author = {Bajgar, Jane and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Lane, Richard and Deane, Frank P.},
title = {Development of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale for Children (LEAS-C)},
journal = {British Journal of Developmental Psychology},
year = {2005},
volume = {23},
number = {4},
pages = {569--586},
doi = {10.1348/026151005X35417}
}
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.