In plain language
Being able to notice and put words to your own emotions — emotion identification skill — is known to matter for mental health, but does it shape who becomes your friend? Friendships are among the most important relationships of the teenage years, yet almost nothing was known about whether emotional skills influence how friendships form. This study followed students from five Australian high schools annually from Grade 8 to Grade 12, combining students' own reports of their emotion identification skill with an objective measure of friendship: nominations from classmates. The study began with 795 students (406 males, 389 females), with 468 still participating in Grade 12.
The results revealed a striking gender difference. For girls, the emotion identification skill they brought with them into high school predicted the make-up of their friendship networks four years later: girls who started Grade 8 with low emotional awareness ended up with fewer female friends and more male friends by Grade 12. For boys, emotional awareness had no bearing on friendships at all.
Interestingly, girls with low initial skill did improve their emotional awareness over the four years, but those improvements made no difference to their Grade 12 friendships — it was where they started that mattered. The authors suggest that because female friendships center on talking, self-disclosure, and emotional sharing, girls who find emotions hard to read may gravitate toward friendships with boys, which tend to revolve around structured activities. The findings suggest the emotional skills children develop before high school can leave a lasting mark on their social world.
Key findings
- Emotion identification skill (EIS) in Grade 8 predicted the composition of girls' friendship networks in Grade 12: girls with low initial EIS received fewer friendship nominations from females and more from males.
- EIS was unrelated to friendship nominations for boys — the effect was specific to adolescent girls.
- EIS was related to the composition of girls' friendship networks rather than their total number of friends.
- EIS was quite stable across the four years of high school, suggesting these skills are largely established before adolescence.
- Girls with lower initial EIS showed significant improvements in emotional awareness over time, but these improvements had no effect on their Grade 12 friendships.
- The study tracked 795 students (406 males, 389 females) from five Australian high schools annually from Grade 8 to Grade 12, using peer friendship nominations as an objective measure of social functioning.
How to cite
APA
Rowsell, H. C., Ciarrochi, J., Heaven, P. C. L., & Deane, F. P. (2014). The role of emotion identification skill in the formation of male and female friendships: A longitudinal study. Journal of Adolescence, 37, 103-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.11.005
BibTeX
@article{rowsell2014the,
author = {Rowsell, H. Claire and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Deane, Frank P.},
title = {The role of emotion identification skill in the formation of male and female friendships: A longitudinal study},
journal = {Journal of Adolescence},
year = {2014},
volume = {37},
pages = {103--111},
doi = {10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.11.005}
}
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.