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Comfort and Emotion Regulation

Comfort Understanding in Preschool and School Children

Mann und Kind umarmen sich, im Hintergrund strahlt die Sonne
© AdobeStock/Maria Sbytova
Start date:
Type:
Teaching project
Profile:
Forming Society

What does "comfort" mean for children? How would children comfort in different situations (pain vs. grief)?

In this project, we get to the bottom of the question of what "comfort" and "consoling" mean to children in different age groups, what comforting strategies they know and whether they use them in a differentiated way.

In a master's thesis project, we are also investigating the influence of the gender of the children and the professionals on the comforting behaviour of the professionals in the day-care centre.

In another sub-project, the focus is on the connection between the emotion regulation strategies of the toddlers when settling into the day care centre and their attachment quality. Which emotion regulation strategies do children use during the familiarisation phase in the day care centre? How do these depend on the quality of attachment, temperament and parental strategies?

We want to record and analyse the emotion regulation strategies of 1 and 2 year old children during the settling-in phase in the day care centre. We are interested in the extent to which these are related to

  1. the quality of attachment,
  2. the child's temperament,
  3. the parental emotion regulation strategies, and
  4. the fit between the parental strategies and the nursery teacher.

Project management

Professor of Childhood Education: Inclusion, Counselling and Leadership
Social work: Biographical work
Master's in Early Childhood Studies: Counselling, Management
Responsible for the organisation and implementation of "Familienfreundliche Hochschule"
Research Professor for Early Childhood Studies
Head of PINA Research Laboratory