Longitudinal Pathways from Parent Internalizing Symptoms to Parent and Youth Emotion Functioning

The current study utilized mediation analyses to examine how parental symptoms of depression and anxiety impact child emotion regulation (ER) and emotion stability (ES) through parent emotion functioning, parenting, and the coparent relationship. 564 parents of children between 3 and 17 years (Mage = 9.47; 54.4% male) were recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk across three time points: baseline (Wave 1), 4 months (Wave 2), 8 months (Wave 3). Mediation results demonstrated that symptoms of parent depression at Wave 1 predicted worse coparent relationships and decreases in parents' ability to identify their own emotions at Wave 2. Symptoms of parental anxiety at Wave 1 predicted decreases in positive parenting and an increased tendency to have negative secondary emotional responses, impulse-control difficulties, and difficulty accessing emotion-regulation strategies at Wave 2. Additionally, symptoms of parental anxiety at Wave 1 directly predicted lower child ER and ES at Wave 3. However, no significant indirect pathways were identified between parent symptoms and child ER and ES. Sensitivity analyses examined the effects of three youth developmental stages (i.e., early and middle childhood and adolescence), as well as parent gender (i.e., mother and father), and found no significant differences across groups. Thus, even at non-clinical levels, parental symptoms of anxiety and depression may negatively impact parenting, parent regulation, and the coparent relationship, while parental anxiety symptoms may contribute to lower child ER and ES.

Emotional Clarity and Psychopathology in Women Who Have Experienced Physical Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a chronic, traumatic stressor related to posttraumatic stress (PTS), depression, and anxiety. As psychological symptoms are exacerbated in those with poor emotional clarity, the present study evaluates the relationship between emotional clarity and PTS, dissociation, depression, and worry in women who experienced at least one instance of physical IPV (n = 88). Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for childhood trauma, IPV abuse severity, and IPV-related brain injury, found that lack of emotional clarity was significantly related to greater PTS, dissociative experiences, depression, and worry. Results suggest that emotional clarity may be a relevant therapeutic target for individuals with a history of IPV and psychological distress.

Ability-Related Emotional Intelligence: An Introduction

Emotionally intelligent people are thought to be more skilled in recognizing, thinking about, using, and regulating emotions. This construct has garnered considerable interest, but initial enthusiasm has faded and it is time to take stock. There is consensus that ability-related measures of emotional intelligence (EI) can be favored to self-report tests, in part because the resulting scores cannot be equated with personality traits. However, there are questions surrounding measurement as well as predictive value. Experts in the field were encouraged to chart new directions, with the idea that these new directions could reinvigorate EI scholarship. Special Issue papers speak to theory, mechanism, measurement, and training. In addition, these papers seek to forge links with research traditions focused on interpersonal perception, emotional awareness, and emotion regulation. As a result of these efforts, new insights into what EI is and how it works can be anticipated in upcoming years.

Emotional wellbeing in teachers

Wellbeing is determined by happiness and both positive and negative affects. These constructs are, in turn, related to emotional intelligence and play an important role in individual behaviour. This study examined the relationship between happiness, emotional intelligence, and positive and negative affects in a sample of 344 (121 men 35.17 % and 223 women 64.83 %) trainee teachers, with an average age of 22.36 years. Happiness and affects yielded lower values, which may be related to the age of the participants. All variables under study were found to be correlated, which suggests that they are measuring the same construct: subjective wellbeing. Network analysis indicated that the self-regulation of emotions was the axial factor in the relationship. Finally, it was found that only the factor of emotional intelligence that measures the self-regulation of emotion and affects (both positive and negative) can be used to predict happiness. The present investigation reveals that more research is needed that takes more variables into consideration to describe the effect of these variables on personal wellbeing. The study offers empirical support to models that argue for a relationship between happiness, emotional intelligence, and affects, and emphasises the need to work on future teachers during their training to address their psychological wellbeing.

Emotional self-knowledge profiles and relationships with mental health indicators support value in 'knowing thyself'

"Know thyself" may be indicated by a balanced high pairing of two emotional self-knowledge indicators: attention to emotions and emotional clarity. Closely associated but often evaluated separately, emotional clarity is consistently, inversely associated with psychopathology, while evidence regarding attention to emotions is less consistent. Variables of high/low emotional clarity and attention to emotions yielded four emotional self-knowledge profiles which were analyzed for associations with mental health indicators (depression and anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, self-schema, resiliency, transcendence) in n = 264 adolescents. Here we report regression models which show that compared with neither, both high (attention + clarity) show higher positive self-schema (B = 2.83, p = 0.004), more resiliency (B = 2.76, p = 0.015) and higher transcendence (B = 82.4, p < 0.001), while high attention only is associated with lower self-esteem (B = - 3.38, p < 0.001) and more symptoms (B = 5.82, p < 0.001 for depression; B = 9.37, p < 0.001 for anxiety). High attention only is associated with most severe impairment all indicators excepting transcendence. Profiles including high clarity suggest protective effects, and 'implicit' versus 'explicit' emotional awareness are discussed. Balanced vs. imbalanced emotional self-awareness profiles dissimilarly affect mental health, which have implications for treatment and policy.

Emotion beliefs: conceptual review and compendium

Laypeople hold richly divergent beliefs about emotion, and these beliefs are consequential. Specific forms of belief that have been investigated include the usefulness, contagiousness, duration, dependence upon intersubjective experience, cognitively mediated properties, malleability, and hindering properties of emotion, just to name a few. Progress in this emerging sub-field of research has been hampered by the lack of a widely accepted definition of emotion belief able to capture all of these dimensions. Correspondingly, there has been a proliferation of different terminologies, constructs, and measures. The present review aims to address these obstacles by defining emotion belief, and subsequently re-considering existing constructs and measures that align with this definition. The latter is presented in the form of a comprehensive compendium of 21 different constructs and associated self-report measures that assess varying components of one's beliefs about emotions in general and/or about their own emotions, and an additional 5 scales that were designed to measure one's beliefs about another's emotions. From the more unified conceptualization of emotion belief presented here, critical areas of future research are highlighted.

State Emotional Clarity Is an Indicator of Fluid Emotional Intelligence Ability

Emotional clarity is one facet of emotional intelligence that refers to one's meta-understanding of and ability to identify and describe feelings. The existing research has largely focused on trait emotional clarity and its benefits for greater psychological well-being, more successful emotion regulation/coping, and diminished psychopathology. Researchers have begun to examine state or momentary emotional clarity in daily life. In this paper, we situate emotional clarity within the larger literature on emotional intelligence abilities. Then, we argue that state clarity relies on the ability to incorporate information from the dynamic contexts that emotions unfold in and should more closely reflect one's emotional intelligence ability relative to traditional trait measures. In addition, we review and make recommendations for measuring state emotional clarity in daily life and propose future research directions, focusing on how state emotional clarity could inform the study of emotion regulation, decision making, and goal pursuit in daily life.

Network Analysis of Dark Triad Traits and Emotional Intelligence in Peruvian Adults

Background

The study of Dark Triad traits and emotional variables has been conducted in numerous regions; however, there is a lack of research focusing on Latin American samples and considering variables such as sex and age. Incorporating these variables could enhance our understanding of underlying aversive patterns.

Purpose

This study aimed to analyze the associations between Dark Triad traits and emotional intelligence in Peruvian adults.

Methods

Data were collected in 2021 and 272 adults (M=31.8 years, 68% female) participated through online surveys via non-probability purposive sampling. Dirty Dozen and Trait Meta-Mood Scales were used. Two partial correlation network models were applied between the study variables with and without controlling for gender and age. Bridge-expected influence and predictability analysis were calculated to find interconnected traits and higher connections, respectively.

Results

Subclinical psychopathy primarily showed negative associations with emotional clarity (r=-0.17), followed by emotional attention (r=-0.08) and emotional repair in networks with and without age and gender variables. Machiavellianism consistently displayed a negative association with emotional repair (r=-0.13) in both estimated networks. Conversely, subclinical narcissism exhibited a positive association solely with emotional attention (r=0.15). Furthermore, younger age was linked to higher Machiavellianism (r=-0.23), females showed higher emotional attention (r=0.11), and narcissism connected intrapersonal emotional domains with Dark Traits (bridge expected influence >1.25) while Machiavellianism exhibited greater predictability (r2>0.45) due to reinforcement by other Dark Traits.

Conclusion

This study revealed negative connections between the Dark Triad and emotional intelligence traits, except for narcissism, which was positively associated with emotional attention and functioned as a "bridge" between all traits. However, relying solely on this single positive emotional aspect of narcissism may not be adequate to characterize it as possessing fully adaptive emotional traits. Findings suggest that detailed aspects of emotional intelligence and sociodemographic factors can provide valuable insights into the complex nature of aversive patterns and their broader impact on society.

Patterns of childhood maltreatment predict emotion processing and regulation in emerging adulthood

Childhood maltreatment is a potent interpersonal trauma associated with dysregulation of emotional processes relevant to the development of psychopathology. The current study identified prospective links between patterns of maltreatment exposures and dimensions of emotion regulation in emerging adulthood. Participants included 427 individuals (48% Male; 75.9% Black, 10.8% White, 7.5% Hispanic, 6% Other) assessed at two waves. At Wave 1, children (10-12 years) from families eligible for public assistance with and without involvement with Child Protective Services took part in a research summer camp. Patterns of child maltreatment subtype and chronicity (based on coded CPS record data) were used to predict Wave 2 (age 18-24 years) profiles of emotion regulation based on self-report, and affective processing assessed via the Affective Go/No-Go task. Results identified associations between task-based affective processing and self-reported emotion regulation profiles. Further, chronic, multi-subtype childhood maltreatment exposure predicted difficulties with aggregated emotion dysregulation. Exposure to neglect with and without other maltreatment subtypes predicted lower sensitivity to affective words. Nuanced results distinguish multiple patterns of emotion regulation in a sample of emerging adults with high exposure to trauma and socioeconomic stress and suggest that maltreatment disrupts emotional development, resulting in difficulties identifying emotions and coping with emotional distress.

Self- but not other-mentalizing moderates the association between BPD symptoms and somatic complaints in community-dwelling adolescents

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential moderator role of poor mentalization in the association between borderline personality disorder (BPD) traits and somatization, specifically focusing on the polarities of self- and other-mentalizing.

DESIGN

This is a cross-sectional, general population study evaluating adolescents (n = 162, 61.3% female; ages 12-18, M = 14.63, SD = 1.02). The relationship between BPD traits and somatization was evaluated with self-mentalization (attention to emotions and clarity of emotions) and other-mentalizing as moderator variables.

METHODS

One hundred sixty-two adolescents without serious mental health disorders were evaluated using self-report measures for borderline personality disorder traits (screening questionnaire for the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID-II), somatic symptoms using the Somatic Symptoms Questionnaire (SSQ), self-mentalizing using the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS) and other-mentalizing using the Adolescent Mentalizing Interview (AMI)). Linear regressions were conducted to test the moderation effects of self- and other-mentalizing in the relationship between BPD symptoms and somatic complaints, controlling for age and sex. Moderation analysis was conducted using PROCESS version 3.5.

RESULTS

The association between BPD symptoms and somatic complaints was moderated by a self-mentalizing dimension (emotional clarity) (b = -0.019, 95% CI = -0.0379 to -0.0002, p = .0476), but not other-mentalizing (b = 0.027, 95% CI = 0.000 to 0.053, p = .051). The effect of BPD symptoms on somatization disappears when emotional clarity is high, regardless the level of attention to emotions.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-mentalizing appears to be an adaptive skill as it attenuates the relationship between BPD traits and somatization. Specifically, emotional clarity rather than simple attention to emotions is the aspect of self-mentalizing attenuating this association. These results support that self-mentalization is an important function in the management of body-associated emotions even in non-clinical levels of BPD traits. Findings suggest that strengthening self-mentalizing skills across development might contribute to resilience and salutogenesis.

Understanding familial liability for emotion regulation difficulties in bipolar disorder

BACKGROUND

There has been relatively limited work focused on understanding whether relatives of individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) have difficulties in the regulation of emotion, particularly in relation to perceptions about whether emotions can be effectively regulated, or trait behaviours that acknowledge emotions as self-regulators themselves. In this study, we assessed the presence and extent of difficulties in these dimensions of emotion regulation in individuals with BD compared to unaffected first-degree biological relatives (FDR) for the first time.

METHODS

In total, 161 participants, including euthymic individuals with BD, unaffected FDRs, and healthy controls, were compared on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) - a multi-dimensional measure of habitual emotion regulation. Clinical data were also collected and examined in relation to DERS scores in a secondary analysis.

RESULTS

In the BD group, difficulties were evident for most dimensions of emotion regulation as measured by the DERS; and correlated with an earlier onset of illness and more mood episodes. FDRs displayed generally normal emotion regulation, except in terms of their beliefs that emotions can be effectively regulated; on this dimension, their reported difficulty was intermediate to the BD group and controls.

CONCLUSION

Habitual emotion regulation difficulties in BD persist irrespective of mood state, are related to the course of illness, and should be targeted in psychological interventions. Further, the perception that emotions cannot be effectively regulated during times of distress seems to represent an endophenotype for BD.

The Relations of Attention to and Clarity of Feelings With Facial Affect Perception

Attention to emotions and emotional clarity are core dimensions of individual differences in emotion awareness. Findings from prior research based on self-report indicate that attention to and recognition of one's own emotions are related to attention to and recognition of other people's emotions. In the present experimental study, we examined the relations of attention to and clarity of emotions with the efficiency of facial affect perception. Moreover, it was explored whether attention to and clarity of emotions are linked to negative interpretations of facial expressions. A perception of facial expressions (PFE) task based on schematic faces with neutral, ambiguous, or unambiguous emotional expressions and a gender decision task were administered to healthy individuals along with measures of emotion awareness, state and trait anxiety, depression, and verbal intelligence. Participants had to decide how much the faces express six basic affects. Evaluative ratings and decision latencies were analyzed. Attention to feelings was negatively correlated with evaluative decision latency, whereas clarity of feelings was not related to decision latency in the PFE task. Attention to feelings was positively correlated with the perception of negative affects in ambiguous faces. Attention to feelings and emotional clarity were not related to gender decision latency. According to our results, dispositional attention to feelings goes along with an enhanced efficiency of facial affect perception. Habitually paying attention to one's own emotions may facilitate processing of external emotional information. Preliminary evidence was obtained suggesting a relationship of dispositional attention to feelings with negative interpretations of facial expressions.

Meta-mood knowledge moderates the relationship between neuroticism and depression but not between neuroticism and anxiety in a sample of nonclinical adolescents

Research shows a strong link between neuroticism and internalizing psychopathology, such as depression and anxiety. However, it is unclear to what extent meta-mood knowledge (i.e., attention to emotion and emotional clarity) plays a role as a moderator in this relationship. To investigate this, we collected data on meta-mood knowledge, personality traits, depression, and anxiety in a sample of adolescents (N = 244; 53.7% girls) aged 12 to 18 years (M = 14.6, SD = 1.7) from Catalonia, Spain. Regarding the relationship between neuroticism and depression, results showed that emotional clarity buffered this relationship. Although attention to emotion did not, the joint moderating effect of attention to emotion and emotional clarity was significant. The results on the four different combinations of attention to emotion and emotional clarity showed that the relationship between neuroticism and depression was strongest for high attention and low clarity, less strong for low attention and low clarity, and even lower for high attention and high clarity. And importantly, these similar patterns of association disappeared at low attention and high clarity. In contrast to the relationship between neuroticism and depression, we found no statistically significant moderating effects for the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety. Based on these results, we argue the importance of examining individual differences in emotion-based cognition and understanding when the benefits of emotional clarity are associated with fewer disadvantages of excessive attention. These results provide preliminary evidence that the combination of low attention and high clarity may be an adaptive version of emotional self-awareness in relation to neuroticism and depression.

Anxiety and Depression: The Moderating Effects of Attention to Emotion and Emotional Clarity

Anxiety and depression are the most common mental health problems. They often occur together and significantly affect well-being and daily functioning. However, it is unclear to what extent the two dimensions of meta-mood knowledge play a role in their comorbidity. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to examine the role of attention to emotion and emotional clarity in the relationship between anxiety and depression. A sample of 256 adults aged 32–66 years ( M = 46.21, SD = 5.53; 82.03% women) completed questionnaires on anxiety, depression, and meta-mood knowledge. Results showed that emotional clarity buffered the relationship between anxiety and depression. In addition, all combinations of attention to emotion and emotional clarity showed a significant and positive relationship with anxiety and depression symptom severity, with one exception. Interestingly, there was no statistically significant relationship between anxiety and depression when attention to emotion was low and emotional clarity was high. This last condition was interpreted as beneficial rather than detrimental, which in turn could help promote psychological resilience to better cope with emotional difficulties. Given these findings, this study highlights the role of attention to emotion and emotional clarity in assessing anxiety and risk of comorbid depression.

Meta-Analysis of the Associations Among Constructs of Intrapersonal Emotion Knowledge

To better define the boundaries of conceptually overlapping constructs of intrapersonal emotion knowledge (EK), we examined meta-analytic correlations among five intrapersonal EK-related constructs (affect labelling, alexithymia, emotional awareness, emotional clarity, emotion differentiation) and attention to emotion. Affect labelling, alexithymia, and emotional clarity were strongly associated, and they were moderately associated with attention to emotion. Alexithymia and emotional awareness were weakly associated, and emotion differentiation was unrelated with emotional clarity. Sample characteristics and measures moderated some of the associations. Publication bias was not found, except for the alexithymia-emotional awareness association. This study helped to clarify the extent to which similarly defined constructs overlap or are distinct, which can inform our decision to adequately label important constructs and employ corresponding measures.

Social emotional ability development (SEAD): An integrated model of practical emotion-based competencies

Social emotional abilities (i.e., specific skills), defined as the set of cognitive abilities, emotion-based knowledge, and behavioral competencies (i.e., skill levels) that facilitate adaptively employing prosocial processes and behaviors (i.e., "actions"), such as emotional regulation and sympathetic and empathetic response behaviors, is contemporarily modeled and measured as emotional intelligence. This conceptualization can be problematic, however, as the two concepts are not the same and traditional methods of measuring emotional intelligence can have limited practical utility. The social emotional ability development (SEAD) theoretical model introduced in this treatise represents a pragmatic and simplified approach to the development of social emotional ability and competency as abstracted from constructs of emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and sociocultural learning theory. Further, the SEAD model reaches beyond the individual as the unit of analysis to explore, conceptualize, differentiate, investigate, and define the hierarchal, bi-directional, and contextual nature of the dimensions of social emotional ability within close relationships. Implications for how the SEAD model can be used by researchers, practitioners, educators, individuals, families, and couples across a broad spectrum of domains and interventions are discussed.

Self- but Not Other-Dimensions of Mentalizing Moderate the Impairment Associated With Social Anxiety in Adolescents From the General Population

Mentalizing, or social cognition, refers to the brain's higher order capacity that allows humans to be aware of one's own and others' mental states (e.g., emotions, feelings, intentions). While cognition in social anxiety has been broadly analyzed, there is a paucity of research regarding the role of social cognition. Moreover, mentalizing or social cognition research is traditionally focused on the understanding of others' mental states, rather than self-mentalizing. Finally, most studies analyze the role of social cognition in the development or maintenance of social anxiety, yet no study to date has analyzed whether social cognition moderates functional impairment associated with it. This study analyzes whether self- and other-mentalizing moderate the relationship between social anxiety and impairment in social and self-functioning. A sample of 262 adolescents from the non-clinical population was assessed on measures of social anxiety, self- and other- mentalization, indicators of social functioning (social competence and sociometric status), and indicators of self-functioning (depression and self-esteem). Multiple linear regressions were conducted to test possible moderation effects of self-mentalizing and other-mentalizing on the relationships between social anxiety and social and self-functioning. Results revealed that other-mentalizing does not moderate social- nor self-functioning, while self-mentalizing moderates the impairment of all of them. While impairment in social functioning is buffered by one dimension of self-mentalizing (emotional clarity; b = 0.003, p = 0.043 and b = 0.016, p = 0.008 for social competence and sociometric status, respectively), impairment in self-functioning is strengthened by the other dimension (attention to emotions; b = -0.007, p = 0.008 and b = 0.009, p = 0.047 for self-esteem and depression, respectively). Probing the moderation at the 16th, 50th, and 84th percentiles revealed that the negative imbalance between dimensions (i.e., high attention and low clarity) tended to exacerbate impairment most on all indicators, while the positive imbalance (i.e., low attention and high clarity) was usually the most buffering condition. This supports that "low-flying" or implicit mentalizing provides more resilience than explicit mentalizing (i.e., high attention and high clarity). Findings suggest that the work on emotional self-awareness should be stressed in the intervention of the social anxiety spectrum conditions in order to improve prevention, functioning, and ultimately, treatments, of people impaired by symptoms of social anxiety.

Attention to emotion and reliance on feelings in decision-making: Variations on a pleasure principle

Individuals are thought to differ in the extent to which they attend to and value their feelings, as captured by the construct of attention to emotion. The well-being correlates of attention to emotion have been extensively studied, but the decision-making correlates have not been. A three study program of research (total N = 328) sought to examine relationships between stimulus-specific feelings and decisions concerning those stimuli in the context of high levels of within-subject power. Evidence for the pleasure principle was robust, in that individuals placed a virtual self closer to stimuli that they found more pleasant (Study 1) and they wished to re-view such stimuli more frequently (Studies 2 & 3). These relationships, however, were more pronounced at higher levels of attention to emotion. The findings affirm the importance of feelings in decision-making while highlighting ways in which individual differences in attention to emotion operate.

Development of functional network architecture explains changes in children's altruistically motivated helping

Childhood is marked by profound changes in prosocial behaviour. The underlying motivational mechanisms remain poorly understood. We investigated the development of altruistically motivated helping in middle childhood and the neurocognitive and -affective mechanisms driving this development. One-hundred and twenty seven 6-12 year-old children performed a novel gustatory costly helping task designed to measure altruistic motivations of helping behaviour. Neurocognitive and -affective mechanisms including emotion regulation, emotional clarity and attentional reorienting were assessed experimentally through an extensive task-battery while functional brain activity and connectivity were measured during an empathy for taste paradigm and during rest. Altruistically motivated helping increased with age. Out of all mechanisms probed for, only emotional clarity increased with age and accounted for altruistically motivated helping. This was associated with greater functional integration of the empathy-related network with fronto-parietal brain regions at rest. We isolate a highly specific neuroaffective mechanism as the crucial driver of altruistically motivated helping during child development.

Emotional Awareness in Daily Life: Exploring Its Potential Role in Repetitive Thinking and Healthy Coping

Cross-sectional research has found that emotional awareness, which is composed of one's emotional clarity and attention to emotions, is associated with psychopathology, emotion regulation, and coping. Not surprisingly then, emotional awareness is often a target of cognitive and behavioral therapies. However, little is known about what emotional awareness is related to in daily life, which would inform how and for whom emotional awareness training should be conducted in therapeutic settings. The goal of the current studies was to examine associations among facets of emotional awareness and repetitive thinking (i.e., rumination, worry, and reflection), emotion regulation, and coping in daily life. We conducted two 7-day daily diary studies (n = 172 in Study 1, n = 211 in Study 2) measuring daily experiences of repetitive negative thinking, emotion regulation efforts, and coping. Multilevel models showed that trait levels of emotional clarity were negatively associated, at the between-person level, with daily levels of repetitive negative thinking and positively associated with active coping. Additionally, daily levels of emotional clarity were associated, at the within-person level, with worrying and active coping, whereas daily levels of attention to emotions were associated, at the within-person level, with reflection. Theoretical and clinical implications for emotional awareness, particularly emotional clarity, are discussed.

Emotional awareness, affective dysregulation, and bipolar spectrum psychopathology: A path analysis

Affective dysregulation is present in those with subsyndromal symptoms of hypomania and mania and prospectively predicts the development of bipolar spectrum disorders. A crucial, understudied area related to the experience and regulation of emotion in this population is emotional awareness - emotional clarity (Clarity) and attention to emotion (Attention). We examined whether scores on the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) were associated with deficits in emotional awareness and whether these deficits were associated with heightened intensity and instability of negative (NA) and positive affect (PA). Young adults (n=233), oversampled for high HPS scores completed self-reports and 14 days of experience sampling assessing high and low arousal NA and PA. HPS scores were associated with low Clarity and unassociated with Attention. High HPS scores were associated with greater high and low arousal NA intensity and instability only for those at low and mean levels of Attention. In contrast, there was a significant indirect association between HPS scores and intensity of high and low arousal NA and PA, as well as instability of high arousal NA, through low Clarity. Results highlighted that individual differences exist in the extent to which facets of emotional awareness differentially link scores on the HPS to emotional outcomes.

Examining the latent structure of emotional awareness and associations with executive functioning and depression

Emotional awareness is comprised of dispositions towards and knowledge about one's emotions. Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes that organise and guide behaviour towards one's goals. Both emotional awareness and EF play a role in processes such as emotion regulation and are risk factors for the development and maintenance of depression. Although previous research suggests that aspects of emotional awareness are related to EF, methodological and measurement limitations within the available literature make it difficult to clearly understand how they are associated. In this registered report, we examined the extent to which task-based measures of a specific EF process, shifting, are differentially related to unique facets of emotional awareness (i.e. emotional clarity of type, emotional clarity of source, voluntary attention to emotions, and involuntary attention to emotions), and to what extent EF and emotional awareness are related to depression. Using structural equation modelling, we found evidence that emotional clarity of type was associated with greater shifting cost. Shifting was not associated with any other facet of emotional awareness. Depression was linked to lower emotional clarity of type, higher involuntary attention to emotions, but not poorer EF performance. We discuss how emotional awareness and EF may be uniquely related to depression.

The relationship between dispositional attention to feelings and visual attention to emotion

Attention to feelings is a core dimension of individual differences in the perception of one's emotions. It concerns the frequency with which own emotions are attended to. The aim of the present eye-tracking investigation was to examine the relationship of dispositional attention to feelings with early and late attentional processes in the visual perception of emotional information. Attentional orientation was assessed in a sample of healthy women (N = 91) using eye-tracking during a free viewing task in which images with positive, negative and neutral content were shown simultaneously. Pictures were taken from the Besançon Affective Picture Set. State and trait affect, depression, and intelligence of participants were controlled. In our sample, attention to feelings was not related to positive affect, negative affect, depression or intelligence. Attention to feelings was negatively correlated with entry times for all emotional picture types. Moreover, attention to feelings was positively correlated with dwell time on positive images and negatively correlated with dwell time on neutral images. Our data indicate that devoting habitually attention to one's feelings is linked to an enhanced initial orientation of attention towards emotional scenes, irrespective of affective valence. Dispositional attention to feelings might also be associated with an attentional preference for emotional over neutral visual stimuli. The present findings on general individual differences in attention to feelings could have important implications for future clinical research on attentional biases.

Predicting status along the continuum of suicidal thoughts and behavior among those with a history of nonsuicidal self-injury

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidal thoughts and behavior often co-occur, representing a growing public health concern. Despite extensive research examining suicidal thoughts and behavior among those who engage in NSSI, there is a lack of research investigating factors that, when considered together, can differentiate individuals along the continuum of suicidal thoughts and behavior (no history, suicidal ideation, suicide plan, suicide attempt). This study sought to address this question using a sample of 1178 college students with NSSI history (68.70% female). Discriminant function analysis was conducted including the following predictors: NSSI characteristics, negative affect difficulties, and behavioral and demographic risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behavior. Results suggest that self-disclosure of suicidal ideation, number of lifetime NSSI methods, NSSI frequency, depressive symptoms, and age most parsimoniously differentiate study groups. Those who use a greater number of NSSI methods and acts, paired with higher depressive symptoms and repeated self-disclosure of suicidal ideation are most likely to have a suicide attempt history; decreases in these variables suggest membership within less severe groups. Furthermore, older age may be related to greater suicidality. Findings suggest that the evaluation and co-occurrence of these variables may contribute to a more accurate suicide risk assessment.

State emotional clarity and attention to emotion: a naturalistic examination of their associations with each other, affect, and context

Despite emotional clarity and attention to emotion being dynamic in nature, research has largely focused on their trait forms. We examined the association between state and trait forms of these two constructs, and how they are related to affect intensity and two contextual variables: Social context and significant event occurrence. Seventy-nine adults recruited from the community reported eight times a day for a week on the extent to which they were clear about their emotions, attended to their emotions, levels of affect intensity, the number of people with whom they were interacting, and whether a significant event had occurred. State clarity and attention were positively associated, demonstrating a moderate relation similar to that of their trait forms. Trait and state attention, but not trait and state clarity, were significantly positively associated. Positive and negative affect were quadratically associated with clarity and attention, with the highest levels of affect intensity reported at high levels of clarity and attention. Clarity and attention were positively associated with increasing numbers of people with whom people were interacting. Attention and clarity were elevated when significant events occurred - especially during positive events. We discuss the findings in the context of functional adaptation theories of emotion.

Relational Aggressiveness in Adolescence: Relations With Emotional Awareness and Self-Control

Involvement in relationally aggressive conduct is an important contributor to maladaptive functioning in both childhood and adulthood. Decreased emotional awareness and impairments of self-control are risk factors for relational aggressiveness, while emotional awareness can also be treated as an important prerequisite for proper self-control. The aim of the study was to examine the associations between dimensions of emotional awareness (attention to emotions and emotional clarity), self-control, and relational aggressiveness. Self-control was also examined as a mediating variable between emotional awareness and relational aggressiveness. Self-report measures of trait meta-mood, alexithymia, self-control, and relational aggressiveness were completed by 214 adolescents (129 females), aged 15–23. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed two factors of emotional awareness: (1) inattention to emotions (reflecting low attention to emotions and externally oriented thinking) and (2) a lack of emotional clarity (reflecting difficulties in identifying emotion, difficulties in describing emotion, and low clarity of emotion). Self-control and mood repair ability inversely correlated with proactive and reactive relational aggressiveness, whereas the clarity component of the meta-mood trait only inversely predicted reactive relational aggressiveness. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that direct relationships between inattention to emotions and relational aggressiveness, as well as between lack of emotional clarity and relational aggressiveness were non-significant. Nevertheless, a lack of emotional clarity was indirectly and significantly associated with relational aggressiveness through decreased self-control.

Must We Suffer to Succeed?

Abstract. Why do some people work best under pressure? In two studies, we examined whether and how people use anxiety to motivate themselves. As predicted, clarity of feelings moderated the relationship between trait anxiety and the tendency to use this emotion as a source of motivation (i.e., anxiety motivation). Furthermore, anxiety motivation mediated the relationship between trait anxiety and outcomes – including academic achievement (Study 1) as well as persistence and job satisfaction (Study 2). These findings suggest that individuals who are clear about their feelings are more likely to thrive on anxiety and eustress and possibly use these to achieve their goals and find satisfaction at work.