Socialization and Regulation of Positive Emotions
How do families socialize positive emotions? When it is okay to talk about happiness, joy, excitement, pride, contentment, and other positive emotions? Are all positive emotions the same? How do adolescents learn to regulate their positive emotions in order to help regulate their negative emotions? Are these processes disrupted for youth at-risk for depression? Do these processes look the same in different cultures?
We're currently conducting two longitudinal studies aimed at answering these questions. In general, we are investigating if and how disruption arises in the socialization, regulation, and functionality of positive emotions and how such disruptions are related to adolescents’ depression. In Study 1, data are being collected from youth in grades 6 through 12 and their parents in the United States. Collection includes survey measures, family observation, and biological markers of stress reactivity. In Study 2, survey data were collected from 9th-12th grade students and their parents in Bangalore, India, at two times over 5 months.
We're currently conducting two longitudinal studies aimed at answering these questions. In general, we are investigating if and how disruption arises in the socialization, regulation, and functionality of positive emotions and how such disruptions are related to adolescents’ depression. In Study 1, data are being collected from youth in grades 6 through 12 and their parents in the United States. Collection includes survey measures, family observation, and biological markers of stress reactivity. In Study 2, survey data were collected from 9th-12th grade students and their parents in Bangalore, India, at two times over 5 months.
Family Savoring of Positive Events
So often, researchers have focused on what happens in families when things go wrong. While it's vital to understand those stressful situations within families and how each member responds, one focus of my research has been to understand what happens (or doesn't happen) when things go right. Building off of Bryant and Veroff's (2006) individual difference construct of savoring, I've recently developed the construct of family savoring of positive events,or the extent to which families anticipate, attend to, maintain, and extend positive emotions when pleasurable events occur. Family savoring involves 'enlarging' emotions like joy, happiness, and pride, and when not present in families, it may have specific and important implications for the etiology of depression. As an example, when a child comes home after making a good test grade, families high in savoring are likely to behave in ways that maintain associated positive feelings such as putting the paper on the refrigerator, celebrating with a special meal, or sharing their pride with each other. To measure family savoring, I created and tested the Family Savoring Inventory (FSI; Luebbe et al., in prep.). The findings from this evaluation suggested that family savoring is strongly related to trait levels of positive affect, to other aspects of family functioning like positive emotion expressiveness and maternal warmth, and inversely to adolescents' depressive symptoms. Notably, family savoring predicted youth depression over and above maternal warmth and family expressiveness of positive emotions, indicating that savoring may be a particularly potent predictor of depressive symptoms.
Data collection is ongoing to further validate and examine the role that family savoring may play in the development and exacerbation of child psychopathology. Examples include addressing relations among savoring, parenting style, biological markers (i.e., cortisol), and child and parental psychiatric symptoms. In the near future, our lab will be examining behavioral correlates of savoring and working to develop ecologically-valid tasks to study positive emotion socialization.
Data collection is ongoing to further validate and examine the role that family savoring may play in the development and exacerbation of child psychopathology. Examples include addressing relations among savoring, parenting style, biological markers (i.e., cortisol), and child and parental psychiatric symptoms. In the near future, our lab will be examining behavioral correlates of savoring and working to develop ecologically-valid tasks to study positive emotion socialization.
Understanding Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Emotion Dynamics
Emotions are more than fleeting experiences. They are motivational, functional, and adaptive in context. Part of the work we do in the lab is to better understand how emotions fluctuate and change over time and in relation to the emotions of those around us. In particular, constructs of interest recently have included interpersonal dynamics like dyadic affective flexibility (or how two individuals move jointly through emotion space) and emotion co-regulation, as well as intrapersonal dynamics like emotional inertia and emotion variability. As with most of our work, we focus on how these aspects of emotion functioning relate to adolescent outcomes like depression and anxiety.