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Abstract: 

This research examines the mediational role of specific emotion competence deficits (i.e., lack of emotional awareness, poor emotional understanding, nonacceptance of emotional response, difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior, impulsive responses to negative emotions, and limited access to emotion regulation strategies) in the relations between family conflict and internalizing symptoms in adolescent girls. Participants were 99 adolescent girls (M age = 16.08 years; SD = 1.33; 94% Caucasian) who were patients on an inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric unit. Girls completed measures of emotional competence, family conflict, and internalizing symptoms. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated an association between family conflict and internalizing symptoms, although this relation was mediated by lack of emotional awareness. These results suggest that conflict in the family environment may be related to girls’ difficulties identifying their emotions and may, in turn, be associated with increased depressive symptoms. Longitudinal research is needed to identify and clarify the causal connections between these variables and to determine whether this relationship holds for girls in a community setting.

Keywords: Emotion regulation; internalizing symptoms; adolescence; family conflict; adolescent girls

Affiliations:  1: Mayo Clinic; 2: Univ of Texas at Dallas; 3: Univ of Washington; 4: William & Mary; 5: Univ of Maine.