NCJ Number
224602
Journal
Journal of Adolescence Volume: 31 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2008 Pages: 565-582
Date Published
October 2008
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This 1-year longitudinal study of 667 high school students examined whether there was a link between emotion identification skills (EIS), which pertain to the ability to identify and describe emotions, and socio-emotional functioning in early adolescence.
Abstract
Study findings showed that adolescents with low EIS experienced greater decreases in social support and greater increases in the negativity of their emotional experiences compared to those high in EIS with the same baseline levels of social support and emotional experience. There was little evidence of emotional experience or social support leading to increases in EIS. Low EIS in the eighth grade predicted significant increases in fear and significant decreases in positive affect at grade nine. Low EIS led to increases in sadness among boys but not girls. Based on the developmental coping model of Skinner and Zimmer-Gem beck (2007), adolescents low in EIS may have difficulty with three types of coping: coping designed to coordinate actions and contingencies in the environment (poor problem solving and information seeking); coping designed to coordinate reliance and social resources available (poor support seeking); and coping designed to coordinate preferences and available options (inability to engage in effective cognitive restructuring or to engage in effective social negotiation). Future research should assess the link between EIS and these categories of coping. The sample of 667 students, who attended 5 high schools in a Catholic Diocese of New South Wales (Australia), completed measures of EIS, social support, and positive and negative affects in grade eight and again in grade nine. EIS was measured with the 12 items of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), which focuses on measuring difficulty in identifying and verbally describing emotions. 3 tables, 5 figures, and 71 references