Interview With A Parent Of An Adolescent About Emotion & Temerament ( Affective Development)

In middle childhood, emotional competence involves the ability of school-age children to understand their own emotional states, to correctly interpret their affective experiences with others, and to control their emotions.

I asked the parent of a 12 year old girl to tell me about her emotions and if she was able to control them in certain situations.  The parent told me that she could not control her emotions yet, in fact, she cries about everything. The parent said she is extremely sensitive and worries about what everyone else is doing.  The parent said one day the girl left her backpack at home before school.  They turned around to go get her backpack and she burst into tears because she knew she was going to be late for school and get a tardy slip.  The parent told her to calm down the world was not going to come to an end.  Therefore, I can see that the 12 year old girl still has to learn how to deal with her emotions.