The Role of Personal and Social Resources in Adolescents’ Emotion Awareness and Regulation

Abstract: Social and personal resources are crucial for adolescents’ emotional development. This study examined whether emotional awareness, indicated by differentiating emotions and verbal sharing of emotions, mediates the association of social (e. g., authoritative parenting, school integration) and personal (e. g., self-efficacy, optimism) resources with functional and dysfunctional emotion regulation (ER). Path analyses using data from N = 688 adolescents (11 – 18 years) revealed that social and personal resources are directly and, in part also indirectly, associated with functional and dysfunctional ER. The verbal sharing of emotions mediated the association of peer group integration with functional and dysfunctional ER. The verbal sharing of emotions and differentiating emotions partly mediated the relationships of school integration, empathy and perspective-taking, self-control, sense of coherence, and self-esteem with dysfunctional ER. The verbal sharing of emotions mediated the association between self-esteem and dysfunctional ER. The results extend previous findings on resources and emotional competencies in adolescence.