Emotional understanding was assessed using an 8-item subscale from the Emotion Expression Scale for Children (EESC; Penza-Clyve and Zeman 2002) that provides statements involving lack of emotional awareness and understanding. Children respond to items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from not at all true (1) to extremely true (5). Higher scores on this subscale reflect lack of emotional understanding. A representative item from this scale is, “I often do not know how I am feeling.” The EESC has high internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability, and the construct validity of the measure has been established (Penza-Clyve and Zeman 2002). This scale has been used with early adolescents (Sim and Zeman 2005). This subscale demonstrated good reliability in this sample (α=.82).
