Emotion-specific vocabulary is associated with preschoolers’ emotion knowledge and behavioral emotion regulation

Language supports emotional development by enabling children to mentally represent conceptual emotion knowledge. Whereas previous research has linked emotion-specific vocabulary to emotion knowledge, its role in emotion regulation (ER) performance remains unclear. In this cross-sectional study we examined 197 German preschoolers aged 4–6 years (M = 5.6), all typically developing; for 10 children, parents reported exposure to an additional home language besides German. We investigated how general and emotion-specific vocabulary relate to preschoolers’ emotion knowledge (i.e., emotion recognition and knowledge of ER strategies) and their ability to regulate positive and negative emotional expressions. We further examined whether emotion knowledge mediates the link between language and ER. Results showed that, beyond general vocabulary, the size (number of words) and depth (adult-like use) of emotion-specific vocabulary interacted in predicting emotion knowledge and regulation of positive emotions. Different patterns emerged for emotion knowledge and ER. Regarding emotion knowledge, high emotion-specific vocabulary depth compensated for low size, whereas high emotion-specific vocabulary size supported regulation of positive emotions only when paired with high depth. No such effects emerged for the regulation of negative emotions. No mediating role of emotion knowledge was found. Findings suggest that a deeper understanding of emotion concepts—beyond merely knowing many emotion words—may be particularly crucial for the regulation of positive emotions.