The contribution of deficits in emotional clarity to stress responses and depression

doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2010.04.004

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Volume 31, Issue 4, July–August 2010, Pages 291-297

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2010.04.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

This research investigated the contribution of deficits in emotional clarity to children's socioemotional adjustment. Specifically, this study examined the proposal that deficits in emotional clarity are associated with maladaptive interpersonal stress responses, and that maladaptive interpersonal stress responses act as a mechanism linking deficits in emotional clarity to childhood depressive symptoms. Participants included 345 3rd graders (M age = 8.89, SD = .34) assessed at two waves, approximately one year apart; youth completed self-report measures of emotional clarity, responses to interpersonal stress, and depressive symptoms. Results supported the hypothesized process model linking deficits in emotional clarity, maladaptive interpersonal stress responses, and depressive symptoms, adjusting for prior depressive symptoms. Findings have implications for theories of emotional competence and for depression-intervention efforts aimed at fostering emotional understanding and adaptive interpersonal stress responses.

Section snippets

Emotional clarity

Emotional clarity is defined as the ability to identify, understand, and distinguish one's own emotional experiences (Gohm and Clore, 2000, Gohm and Clore, 2002, Salovey et al., 1995). Emotional clarity is a critical dimension of one's affective experience, in that the awareness and understanding of one's internal emotional state allows for the development of more sophisticated emotion-related skills, such as understanding the emotional displays of others and the refinement of emotion

Emotional competence and responses to stress

Although emotional clarity has not been examined during childhood, theory and research suggest that children's emotional capabilities are associated with how they respond to stress. For instance, it has been proposed that children's understanding of emotion-evoking experiences influences the appraisal process and, consequently, coping responses (Stein and Hernandez, 2007, Stein and Levine, 1999). In addition, emotional understanding is a fundamental component of emotional competence, which has

Participants

This study involved the first two waves of the first cohort of the University of Illinois Social Health and Relationship Experiences (SHARE) Project. Children were recruited by distributing consent forms to the caregivers of second graders in seven schools in the Midwest. Consent forms were returned from 447 (90%) of eligible children; exclusion criteria included the presence of severe learning or developmental disabilities that would preclude completion of the questionnaires. Parental written

Intercorrelations among the measures

Table 1 displays the descriptive information and intercorrelations among the variables at W₂ (i.e., the wave at which emotional clarity and stress responses were assessed). Deficits in emotional clarity, engagement coping, involuntary engagement, involuntary disengagement, and depressive symptoms were significantly intercorrelated in the anticipated directions. Disengagement coping was not significantly associated with deficits in emotional clarity or depressive symptoms and was excluded from

Discussion

The guiding premise of this research was that deficits in emotional clarity predispose children to enact maladaptive interpersonal stress responses, which are linked to depressive symptoms. Specifically, it was hypothesized that children with deficits in emotional clarity might become more preoccupied with, or overwhelmed by, their emotional experiences, thereby disrupting the allocation of resources toward goal-directed cognition and behavior and increasing the likelihood of enacting

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants and schools for their participation in this study, as well as the numerous students and research assistants who contributed to data collection. Specifically, we would like to thank Jamie Abaied, Molly Bartlett, Sarah Kang, Allison Casillas, and Brigitte Jauch for their assistance in collecting and supervising the data involved in this study. This research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01 MH068444 awarded to Karen D. Rudolph.

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Published by Elsevier Inc.

The contribution of deficits in emotional clarity to stress responses and depression

Abstract

Section snippets

Emotional clarity

Emotional competence and responses to stress

Participants

Intercorrelations among the measures

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Child Abuse & Neglect

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Adolescence

Neuropsychologia

Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression

Psychological Review

Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents

International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research

Computer software

The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects

Alexithymia and the interpretation of emotion-relevant information

Cognition and Emotion

Depression

Coping with interpersonal stress and psychosocial health among children and adolescents: A meta-analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence

Analyzing ipsative data in psychological research

Behaviormetrika

Statistical methods for comparing regression coefficients between models

American Journal of Sociology

Latent variable analysis of coping, anxiety/depression, and somatic symptoms in adolescents with chronic pain

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Coping with stress during childhood and adolescence: Problems, progress, and potential in theory and research

Psychological Bulletin

Vulnerability to social stress: Coping as a mediator or moderator of sociotropy and symptoms of anxiety and depression

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Responses to stress in adolescence: Measurement of coping and involuntary stress responses

Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology

Depression and the response of others

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

The ipsative process to reduce response set bias

Public Opinion Quarterly

Emotional development in young children

How children negotiate the worlds of emotions and social relationships

Cognitie Creier Comportament

Parental contributions to preschoolers' understanding of emotion

Marriage & Family Review

Parental socialization of emotion

Psychological Inquiry

Perceptual asymmetry and youth's responses to stress: Understanding vulnerability to depression

Cognition and Emotion

Neuropsychological and interpersonal antecedents of youth depression

Cognition and Emotion

Individual differences in emotional experience: Mapping available scales to processes

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Four latent traits of emotional experience and their involvement in well-being, coping, and attributional style

Cognition and Emotion

Promoting emotional competence in school-aged children: The effects of the PATHS curriculum

Development and Psychopathology

Affective social competence

Social Development

Adult outcomes of childhood and adolescent depression: Psychiatric status

Archives of General Psychiatry

The use of item parcels in structural equation modeling: Non-normal data and small sample sizes

British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology

Resilience as a predictor of depressive symptoms: A correlational study with young adolescents

Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry

An emotion-based prevention program for Head Start children

Early Education and Development