Abstract
This study examined the longterm effects of the socialization of emotion in a sample of European American families. Late adolescents, whose families had been more emotionally expressive and accepting of emotions when they were in fifth grade, were more likely to report showing emotions not traditionally associated with their gender roles—specifically, males reported a greater propensity for crying, and females reported a greater tendency to express anger. In addition, in late adolescence, greater frequency of showing fear and showing warmth or affection were associated with higher levels of social and psychological adjustment—whereas crying was associated with better adjustment for males and poorer adjustment for females. Overall, adolescent females tended to report a higher level of emotional expressiveness and a higher level of family support of emotions than did adolescent males.
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This study was supported by an Institutional Award from the University of Vermont to the first author. We are grateful to the participants for the information they shared with us, and to Robert Pasco for his help in locating them. We thank Diane Gottlieb and Jean Pieniadz for the interviews they did, Beth Creaser and Liza Shrednick for their help in preparing the data for analysis, and Jennie Marcotte for her assistance in typing the tables and references.
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Bronstein, P., Briones, M., Brooks, T. et al. Gender and family factors as predictors of late adolescent emotional expressiveness and adjustment: A longitudinal study. Sex Roles 34, 739–765 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01544314
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01544314