Role of emotions in conflicts between parents and adolescents
Adolescence is a period during which the relationship between young people and their parents undergoes significant changes, such as conflicts becoming more frequent. PhD candidate Daniëlle van der Giessen and her colleagues have conducted research into these conflicts. By observing real interactions, they examined how flexibly mothers and young people are able to express their emotions during a conflict: were they just angry, irritated or upset, or were they able to laugh about it together afterwards? Did they show any interest in the other person's feelings? And does this correlate with subsequent problems in the parent-child relationship and other symptoms of anxiety, depression or aggression?
This research indicates that mothers and young people who are able to express their emotions flexibly during conflicts have better quality long-term relationships, in which the adolescents experienced more support for their autonomy and less parental control. In addition, these young people also reported fewer symptoms of anxiety, depression and aggression in the long term.
Insufficient emotional flexibility, also termed emotional rigidity, does in fact correlate with more relational and psychosocial problems of this nature during adolescence. An example of this is when, during a conflict, mothers and children hold on to their anger and complaints or conversely, when they are unable to show these negative feelings and cling on to positive emotions. Therefore, in the case of conflicts during adolescence, it is important for mothers and young people to be able to flexibly alternate between both positive and negative emotions.