Key Topics in Children's Emotional Development (BPS Key Topics in Psychology)

Key Topics in Children’s Emotional Development explores how children express, understand, and manage their emotions. From infancy to young adulthood, the book examines how young people develop feelings such as happiness, fear, anger, sadness, and empathy, while also addressing the challenges some face in managing these emotions. It introduces the foundational theories, methodologies, and historical context of emotional development, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding children’s emotional growth.

The book delves into the development of key emotions and the pathways that may lead to clinically significant emotional problems, such as anxiety, phobias, depression, and conduct disorder. Organized to reflect the ages at which children begin to express different emotions, it pairs chapters on primary emotions with discussions of individual differences and related emotional disorders. Additionally, it explores contemporary issues affecting young people’s emotional well-being, including loneliness, body image concerns, gender dysphoria, racism, political unrest, and climate change. The book highlights the latest prevention and intervention strategies, offering practical insights for addressing children’s mental health challenges.

This book is an essential resource for students of developmental and abnormal psychology, as well as those studying educational, clinical, and forensic psychology. It will also appeal to postgraduate students pursuing professional qualifications in psychiatry, social work, paediatric nursing, teaching, and early childhood education.

Dale F. Hay is Professor Emerita in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University. She is a developmental psychologist whose studies of children’s development have been funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, and the Waterloo Foundation in the UK, and the National Science Foundation in the US. She has written an earlier textbook on emotional development, co-authored a book on statistics, and editing a number of books on topics in developmental psychology.