Expressive flexibility in childhood and adolescence: development, measurement, and links with peer relations

Ph.D.Expressive flexibility, or the ease with which one can switch between enhancing and suppressing emotional expressions in line with situational demands, appears to positively predict psychological well-being among adults. To date, however, this construct has not been explored among youth. The present thesis provided detailed investigations of expressive flexibility in childhood and adolescence, including measurement and development issues as well as links with peer relations. A General Introduction (Chapter 1) describes the theoretical and empirical foundations that inspired this research, as well as unaddressed issues. This is followed by three empirical chapters.The most frequently-used measurement tool of adults’ expressive flexibility is an observation-based laboratory task. In Chapter 2, we modified this task to make it viable for use with younger participants. We then employed a two-wave longitudinal design (N = 368) to explore levels of expressive flexibility in childhood and adolescence, as well as their potential bidirectional links with friendship quality and peer status. Results indicated that expressive enhancement, suppression, and flexibility all significantly increased over a six-month period, but there were no obvious differences between primary and junior high school students. Additionally, both friendship quality and peer status at Wave 1 positively predicted Wave 2 expressive enhancement, suppression, and flexibility, respectively. In contrast, only suppression significantly predicted higher peer status at the later wave. Summarily, these findings highlighted the importance of social relationships in promoting expressive flexibility.Chapter 3 further tested the bidirectional effects between expressive regulatory abilities and peer acceptance among adolescents, via two experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 147) manipulated participants’ perceptions of a partner’s expressive regulatory abilities by exposing them to different videos, and then examined participants’ immediate liking of this partner. The partner’s flexible utilization of both enhancement and suppression yielded the highest liking scores from participants, compared to the more rigid use of any one approach. Experiment 2 (N = 100) examined participants’ enhancement and suppression abilities, after they experienced inclusion or exclusion in an online game. Results indicated that, compared to social inclusion, exclusion experiences impaired both enhancement abilities and participants’ natural emotional expressiveness, but not their suppression abilities. Therefore, the two experiments together supported the causal, bidirectional effects between adolescents’ expressive flexibility and peer interactions.In Chapter 4, we developed and validated a self-reported measurement tool for testing youth’s expressive flexibility. The Child and Adolescent Flexible Expressiveness (CAFE) Scale was based on relevant scenarios that were collected from children, and four studies (N = 549, 248, 199, and 48, respectively) were conducted to test the new measurement. Generally, the scale showed good psychometric properties, including a stable factor structure, measurement invariance across sex and age groups, adequate internal consistencies, satisfactory test-retest reliability, as well as theoretically-consistent convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validities. Thus, it may serve as a qualified alternative to the complex laboratory task, and could be utilized in future studies to explore expressive flexibility in childhood and adolescence.Finally, the General Discussion (Chapter 5) summarizes the key findings, describes their theoretical and clinical implications, and discusses the strengths and limitations.情緒表達靈活性指個體根據情境要求靈活增強或抑制表情的能力。已有研究表明，情緒表達靈活性能夠正向預測成人的各項心理適應指標，但尚未有研究在兒童青少年中對這一概念進行測查。本研究關注於兒童青少年期的情緒表達靈活性，包括測量工具、發展特點、以及其與同伴關係的聯繫。總引言（第一章）首先介紹了本研究的理論及實證基礎，並探討了該領域中尚未得到解答的問題，第二到第四章為實證研究。關於情緒表達靈活性的測量，在成人中廣泛使用的測量工具是一項基於觀察的實驗室任務。第二章中，我們首先對該任務進行了調整，使其更適用於兒童青少年。借助改編後的實驗室任務，我們在兩個時間點的縱向研究（N = 368）中，考察了兒童青少年情緒表達靈活性的特點及其與友誼質量、同伴地位的雙向聯繫。結果表明，被試增強與抑制表情的能力及總體的靈活性均在六個月的短期追蹤中顯著增長，但小學生及初中生在三種能力上不存在顯著差異。時間1的友誼質量及同伴地位均正向預測時間2的表達增強、抑制及靈活性；相反，只有表達抑制顯著預測後一時間點的同伴地位。因此，縱向研究的結果主要凸顯了同伴關係在情緒表達靈活性中的重要作用。第三章通過實驗設計，進一步考察了青少年的表情調節能力與同伴接納程度的雙向影響。實驗1（N = 147）首先通過視頻觀看，使被試對視頻中同伴的表情調節能力形成了不同印象，並隨之測查了被試對該同伴的喜愛程度。結果表明，相比於擅長單一策略，同伴能夠靈活增強及抑制表情時，被試對其喜愛程度的評分最高。實驗2（N = 100）將被試分為兩組，分別在線上遊戲中被同伴接納或排斥，隨後我們通過實驗室任務測量了被試的表情調節能力。結果顯示，兩組被試的表達抑制能力沒有顯著差異，但排斥組被試的表達增強能力顯著低於接納組。以上兩個實驗共同驗證了青少年情緒表達靈活性與同伴接納的雙向影響。第四章中，我們設計並驗證了兒童青少年情緒表達靈活性量表。量表題目以實際情景為基礎，在四個子研究（N = 549, 248, 199, 48）中，該量表表現出穩定的因子結構，具備跨性別及年齡組的測量等價性，內部一致性及重測信度良好，聚合、區分及校標關聯效度均達到要求，為今後兒童青少年的情緒表達靈活性研究提供了較為便捷的測量工具。最後，總討論部分（第五章）總結了主要的研究發現，探討了該論文的理論及實踐價值，並指出了研究的優點及不足。Wang, Yingqian.Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2019.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-167).Abstracts and appendix also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on 09, February, 2021)