This essential provides an overview of the development of social-emotional competence, focusing particularly on the development of the ability to take visual, conceptual, and emotional perspectives, as well as the development of emotion regulation and understanding. The content includes the development of perspective-taking abilities and the regulation and understanding of emotions. Additionally, it addresses diagnostics, prevention, and intervention. The target audience includes students of psychology, education, social sciences, and those studying to become teachers.

The authors are Vasilena Dimitrova, born in 1982, a graduate psychologist, who has been a lecturer for special tasks, research associate, and doctoral candidate at the Chair of Developmental Psychology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Educational Sciences, since 2008. Her research topics focus on student dropout and success in teacher education programs. Mike Lüdmann, born in 1978, a graduate psychologist and Master of Arts in Philosophy, is a lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen and is involved in an interdisciplinary doctoral project at the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience. His research interests lie at the intersection of developmental and social psychology, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.