Family expressiveness and adolescent expressive flexibility: Examining between-family and within-family associations
Refereed conference paper presented and published in conference proceedings
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AbstractExpressive flexibility (EF) refers to the ability to switch between enhancing and suppressing emotional expressions according to contextual demands (Bonanno et al., 2004). This construct challenges the traditional view that emotion regulation strategies are “adaptive” or “maladaptive”, as specific strategies can match specific social goals. Research indicates that EF is a marker of resilience that predicts social-emotional adjustment beyond the use of any particular regulatory strategy. To date, family influences on youth’s EF development remain under-investigated. Family tendencies to express positive and negative emotions might be particularly important for helping youth to build this ability over time (Morris et al., 2017). This study used Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Modeling to examine between- and within-family associations between family expressiveness and early adolescents’ EF. Early adolescents (N = 274; 50.4% F; Mage = 13.56) in eastern China were surveyed at six-month intervals over one year, self-reporting positive and negative family expressiveness and their EF. Between families, EF was positively correlated with positive family expressiveness and negatively correlated with negative family expressiveness. Within families, a family’s increased positive expressiveness (relative to their average score) predicted later improvements in youth EF. Changes in negative expressiveness did not predict subsequent EF. Results suggest the importance of a secure and supportive emotional climate for youth’s development of context-dependent emotion regulation skills. Improving positive expressiveness within families might be an especially effective intervention approach for fostering adolescents’ expressive flexibility.
Acceptance Date05/05/2024
All Author(s) ListHawk S. T., Wang Y.
Name of Conference27th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development
Start Date of Conference16/06/2024
End Date of Conference20/06/2024
Place of ConferenceLisbon
Country/Region of ConferencePortugal
Year2024
LanguagesEnglish-United States
