How Children Link Emotions: Emotion Term Co-Occurrence Relates to Age, Gender, and Mental-State Term Production

Definitions of 27 emotions from 49 children were collected and coded for co-occurrence of emotion terms (i.e., blending) and mental-state term (MST) production. Spearman rank correlations showed positive correlations between blending and age, MST production and gender. Common themes across definitions were: receiving a gift, playing, parents, and being alone.