In plain language
Being able to accurately name and understand your own feelings, what psychologists call emotion identification skill, has often been linked to having good relationships and social support. But which comes first? Does being skilled with emotions help you build supportive relationships, or does having supportive people around you help you develop emotional skill? This study set out to untangle the direction of that link across the teenage years.
The researchers followed 903 Australian high school students, surveying them every year from Grade 9 through Grade 12. Each year students reported on their emotion identification skill, the size of their social support network, and the quality of the support they received. Using cross-lagged structural equation modeling, a technique that lets earlier levels of one factor predict later changes in another, the team could test whether the two influenced each other over time.
The results supported a reciprocal, mutually reinforcing relationship: emotion identification skill helped predict later gains in social support, and social support helped predict later gains in emotional skill. Rather than one simply causing the other, the two develop hand in hand. This suggests a virtuous cycle that programs could tap into, helping teenagers get better at understanding their emotions may strengthen their relationships, and strengthening their relationships may in turn sharpen their emotional skills.
Key findings
- Emotion identification skill (EIS) and social support mutually influenced each other's development across the four annual waves, supporting a reciprocal-influence model.
- Earlier EIS predicted later increases in social support, and earlier social support predicted later increases in EIS.
- The study followed 903 Australian high school students (464 males, 439 females) from Grade 9 to Grade 12, with 314 participating across all four waves.
- Findings held for both the size of the social support network and the quality of social support.
- Results were established using cross-lagged structural equation modeling, controlling for earlier levels of each variable.
- The reciprocal pattern points to a potential positive cycle that interventions could use to promote both emotional skill and supportive relationships in adolescence.
How to cite
APA
Rowsell, H. C., Ciarrochi, J., Deane, F. P., & Heaven, P. C. L. (2016). Emotion identification skill and social support during adolescence: A three-year longitudinal study. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 26(1), 115–125. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12175
BibTeX
@article{rowsell2016emotion,
title = {Emotion identification skill and social support during adolescence: A three-year longitudinal study},
author = {Rowsell, H. Claire and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Deane, Frank P. and Heaven, Patrick C. L.},
journal = {Journal of Research on Adolescence},
volume = {26},
number = {1},
pages = {115--125},
year = {2016},
doi = {10.1111/jora.12175}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.