Maladaptive Social Consequences of Emotional Clarity Deficits in Early Adolescence

Abstract

This study examined whether compromised emotional clarity prospectively contributes to maladaptive social behavior (aggression, anxious solitude) and adverse social experiences (low social status, victimization) in early adolescence; gender differences in these effects also were explored. Youth ( N = 636, [Formula: see text] age = 10.94, SD = 0.37) completed a self-report measure of emotional clarity in fifth grade, and their teachers completed measures of youth aggression, anxious solitude, social status, and victimization in fifth and sixth grades. Prospective path analyses revealed that emotional clarity deficits predicted anxious solitude and low social status in both girls and boys, and predicted aggression and victimization in girls but not boys. These findings provide support for theoretical models of emotional and affective social competence, and indicate some gender differences in the social consequences of emotional clarity deficits. More broadly, this research implicates emotional clarity as a target for socioemotional learning programs in early adolescence.

State Emotional Clarity Is an Indicator of Fluid Emotional Intelligence Ability

“…Therefore, having a greater momentary understanding of one's emotions should facilitate adaptive social behavior. Prospective longitudinal studies further suggest that deficits in emotional clarity are linked to poorer social functioning and maladaptive social behavior among adolescents (Rudolph et al 2020). Two experience sampling studies (Thompson and Boden 2019;Tuck et al 2023) indicate that momentary emotional clarity is higher during prompts where participants also reported having social interactions.…”

Cross-lagged links between emotional clarity and emotion regulation strategies during the transition to adolescence – a two-wave study

“…In addition, results of available studies are mixed. In some studies, for girls only, cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were linked to depressive symptoms (Ogbaselase et al, 2022) and emotional clarity was linked to aggression and victimization (Rudolph et al, 2020). However, other studies found no gender differences in the strength of the links between emotional clarity and emotion regulation over time (Blöte & Westenberg, 2019;Flynn & Rudolph, 2014).…”

Why do we vent our emotions and blame others during the coronavirus pandemic? The role of emotional clarity in the United States and South Korea (¿Por qué ventilamos nuestras emociones y culpabilizamos a otras personas durante la pandemia del coronavirus? El rol de la claridad emocional en los Estados Unidos y Corea del Sur)

“…Emotional clarity is associated with adaptive life outcomes, such as engaging in active and resourceful coping and developing self-affirming attributions for good events (Gohm & Clore, 2002). In contrast, low emotional clarity has been associated with poor emotional regulation (Gratz & Roemer, 2008), depression (Thompson et al, 2015) and maladaptive social behaviour such as aggression, victimization and bullying among female adolescents (García-Sancho et al, 2014; Rudolph et al, 2020).…”

“…La claridad emocional está asociada con los resultados de la vida adaptativa, como puede ser afrontar una determinada situación de forma activa ingeniosa, y desarrollar atribuciones de auto-afirmación para acontecimientos positivos (Gohm & Clore, 2002). En contraste, la baja claridad emocional ha sido asociada con una deficiente regulación emocional (Gratz & Roemer, 2008), depresión (Thompson et al, 2015), y conducta social inadaptada, como por ejemplo agresión, victimización y acoso entre las adolescentes mujeres (García-Sancho et al, 2014; Rudolph et al, 2020).…”