TY - JOUR
T1 - Lower emotional complexity as a prospective predictor of psychopathology in adolescents from the general population
AU - Schreuder, Marieke J
AU - Wichers, Marieke
AU - Hartman, Catharina A
AU - Menne-Lothmann, Claudia
AU - Decoster, Jeroen
AU - van Winkel, Ruud
AU - Delespaul, Philippe
AU - De Hert, Marc
AU - Derom, Catherine
AU - Thiery, Evert
AU - Rutten, Bart P F
AU - Jacobs, Nele
AU - van Os, Jim
AU - Wigman, Johanna T W
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Psychological Association.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Emotional complexity (EC) involves the ability to distinguish between distinct emotions (differentiation) and the experience of a large range of emotions (diversity). Lower EC has been related to psychopathology in cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether EC prospectively predicts psychopathology and (b) whether this effect is contingent on stressful life events. To further explore EC, we compared the effects of differentiation and diversity. Adolescents from the general population (N = 401) rated 8 negatively valenced emotions 10 times a day for 6 consecutive days. Further, they completed the Symptom Checklist-90 (baseline and 1-year follow-up) and a questionnaire on past year’s life events at follow-up. Logistic regression analyses tested whether EC—reflected by emotion differentiation (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) and diversity (diversity index [DI])—predicted prognosis (good: remitting or lacking symptoms vs. bad: worsening or persisting symptoms). EC predicted prognoses but only when based on the ICC (OR
EC.ICC = 1.42, p =.02). An EC
ICC 1 SD above average increased the probability of good prognosis from.67 to.74. This effect was not related to stressful life events (OR
EC × Life events = 1.03, p =.86) and disappeared when emotion intensity (mean level) was taken into account (OR
EC = 1.20, p =.20). Predicting future prognosis does not necessitate complex measures of emotional experience (ICC, DI) but rather might be achieved through simpler indices (mean).
AB - Emotional complexity (EC) involves the ability to distinguish between distinct emotions (differentiation) and the experience of a large range of emotions (diversity). Lower EC has been related to psychopathology in cross-sectional studies. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether EC prospectively predicts psychopathology and (b) whether this effect is contingent on stressful life events. To further explore EC, we compared the effects of differentiation and diversity. Adolescents from the general population (N = 401) rated 8 negatively valenced emotions 10 times a day for 6 consecutive days. Further, they completed the Symptom Checklist-90 (baseline and 1-year follow-up) and a questionnaire on past year’s life events at follow-up. Logistic regression analyses tested whether EC—reflected by emotion differentiation (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]) and diversity (diversity index [DI])—predicted prognosis (good: remitting or lacking symptoms vs. bad: worsening or persisting symptoms). EC predicted prognoses but only when based on the ICC (OR
EC.ICC = 1.42, p =.02). An EC
ICC 1 SD above average increased the probability of good prognosis from.67 to.74. This effect was not related to stressful life events (OR
EC × Life events = 1.03, p =.86) and disappeared when emotion intensity (mean level) was taken into account (OR
EC = 1.20, p =.20). Predicting future prognosis does not necessitate complex measures of emotional experience (ICC, DI) but rather might be achieved through simpler indices (mean).
KW - Diversity index
KW - Emotion intensity
KW - Emotional complexity
KW - ICC
KW - Psychopathology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088441799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/emo0000778
DO - 10.1037/emo0000778
M3 - Article
C2 - 32658508
SN - 1528-3542
VL - 22
SP - 836
EP - 843
JO - Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
JF - Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
IS - 5
ER -