Abstract: Previous studies have established that practicing of Chinese calligraphy handwriting (PCCH) has consequences on reducing negative emotions (e.g. anxiety) and serve as a supplemental treatment for mental illness (See Kao et al., 2006, 2011 for a review). However, little is known about the relation between the PCCH and positive emotion. The present study investigates whether PCCH has positive effect on emotional states and emotional regulation skills, which serve as core aspects of mental health. A longitudinal developmental design was employed in the present study: 170 primary school students were tested two times across a two-school-year interval, i.e., the beginning of Grade 3 to the end of Grade 4. During the interval, 101 students (experimental group) joined a Chinese calligraphy course which held 2 times per week (approximately 1.5 hours a time) plus extra exercises, whereas another 69 students (control group) did not participant the course. Chinese version of Positive and negative affect scale for Children (PANAS-C) and Child version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ-k) were used to test children’s emotional states and emotional regulation skills in groups (30~40 participants per group) respectively. When controlling positive emotion measured by PANAS-C in the pretest (experimental group: M = 51.91, SD = 11.13; control group: M = 51.82, SD = 12.32), analysis of covariance showed that experimental group’s showed significantly more positive emotions (M = 53.90, SD = 10.80) than control group (M = 50.81, SD = 9.66) in the posttest, F(1,167) = 4.03，p < .05; however, no difference was found in negative emotions with similar analysis (F < 1). More importantly, using change scores (posttest – pretest) on each components of the CERQ-k, experimental group showed significantly more positive changes than control group on two components: positive refocusing (t(168) = 1.99 , p < .05) and refocus on planning (t(168) = 2.20, p < .05). These results suggested that PCCH can have positive effect on the development of emotional states and emotional regulation skills.

Key words: Practicing Chinese Calligraphic Handwriting, positive emotion, emotion regulation, child development

摘要： 本研究采用纵向设计，对170名儿童（实验组：101人；对照组：69人）进行为期两学年的追踪，旨在探讨书法练习对儿童情绪状态及认知性情绪调节策略发展的影响。研究发现，1）以前测成绩为协变量，后测时实验组的积极情绪显著高于对照组；2）实验组在“积极重新关注”、“计划”两维度上的情绪调节策略得分增量（后测-前测）显著高于对照组。结果表明，书法练习对儿童情绪及其调节策略发展具有促进作用。

关键词: 书法练习, 积极情绪, 情绪调节, 儿童发展