Work

Brief report: Associations between emotional competence and adolescent risky behavior

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: The current study examines associations between emotional competence (i.e., awareness, regulation, comfort with expression) and adolescent risky behavior. Children from a longitudinal study participated at age 9 and 16 (N=88). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with children about their emotional experiences and coded for areas of emotional competence. Associations were examined for the emotions of sadness and anger concurrently during adolescence, and longitudinally from middle childhood to adolescence. Results suggested that children with poor emotional awareness and regulation had a higher likelihood of using hard drugs. Difficulty regulating emotions was associated with having more sexual partners, and both emotion regulation and expression difficulties were associated with greater behavioral adjustment problems. Results were consistent across the concurrent and longitudinal findings and pointed to anger as an important emotion. Findings suggest that children's emotional competence may serve as a useful point of intervention to decrease risky behavior in adolescence.

Source: Journal of Adolescence

DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2009.04.007

Authors: Danielle M. Hessler, Lynn Fainsilber Katz

Institutions: University of California, San Francisco, University of California San Francisco Medical Center, University of Washington

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health