Anger, Happiness, and Sadness: Associations With Depressive Symptoms in Late Adolescence

• NCJ Number: 216654
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 977-986
• Author(s): Tara M. Chaplin
• Date Published: December 2006
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Self-report and observation were used to examine links between depressive symptoms and patterns of emotional experience and expression among 51 male and 49 female first-year and second-year college students.

Abstract

As hypothesized, individual analysis for anger showed that students who experienced intense anger in the past month, but who expressed relatively low anger in performing a task with a friend, reported greater depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that treatment for depressive symptoms should focus on patterns of masking anger, exaggerating happiness, and feeling sadness. Feeling unhappy over the past month was related to greater depressive symptoms, consistent with previous research. A new finding was that more intense expressions of happiness with a friend were related to more intense depressive symptoms. This suggests that expressions of happiness may mask and restrict the expression of negative emotions such as anger and sadness, which in turn may limit a person's ability to assert an independent identity and autonomy; this may lead to depression. Consistent with past research, more intense levels of sadness experienced over the past month were associated with more intense depressive symptoms; however, showing sadness with a friend was not related to depressive symptoms. An examination of all of the emotions together showed that reported and observed happiness and reported sadness were most significantly related to depressive symptoms; the experience and expression of anger were no longer significantly related to depressive symptoms. Each of the study participants was asked to bring one close same-sex friend to his/her study session. This was done for observation of emotional expression in an interpersonal interaction with a friend. Each participant completed questionnaires on depressive symptoms and variables related to depressive symptoms and then participated with his/her friend in two tasks (a frustration task and then a success task). 5 tables and 69 references