Kristin Lagattuta (2007)
Thinking about the future because of the past: Young children’s knowledge about the causes of worry and preventative decisions
Child Development 78(5):1492-1509.
Two studies investigated 3- to 6-year-olds’ and adults’ (N = 128) knowledge about emotions and behaviors caused by thinking about the future because of the past. Participants listened to stories featuring characters that experience negative events, and then, many days later, feel worried or changed their behaviors upon seeing an entity associated with the prior harm. Results revealed a significant increase between 3 and 5 years in the frequency that participants explained characters’ reactions as caused by anticipating the reoccurrence of a negative past event. Across age, females more often marked future events as uncertain, as well as predicted that people in ambiguous risk situations would feel worried due to past-to-future connections.
CMB Research Rounds: Drs. Oliver Braddick and Janette Atkinson
Dr. Ron Mangun to serve as Interim Dean