The Characteristics Of Adolescent Emotional Resilience And Its Effect On Positive Emotions And Mental Health

Emotional resilience is an important field in resilience research.It refers to the ability of individuals to generate positive emotions and recover from negative emotions under pressure or adversity.From the perspective of psychopathology,there are more researches on adolescents' negative emotions and how negative emotions cause psychological problems.From the perspective of positive psychology,there are less researches on adolescents' positive emotions and how positive emotions promote mental health.Using the positive psychology related theories such,this study takes the emotion resilience,the positive emotions,mental health as the key variables,to explore the general characteristics of adolescents' emotional resilience and its influence on positive emotions and mental health,and to explore the mediating role of positive emotions between emotional resilience and mental health in order to enrich the theory of emotional resilience and provide evidence for promoting adolescents' mental health.Based on the above research problems,this study designed three sub-studies.The first sub-study,based on the positive youth development theory,investigated the characteristics and influencing factors of adolescents' emotional resilience from three levels: individual,relationship and environment through a large sample of questionnaires(Study 1).The second sub-study,based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions,focused on the effect of emotional resilience on positive emotions of adolescents.(Study 2 and Study 3).Specifically,Study 2 explored the relationship between adolescents' emotional resilience and positive emotions through cross-lagged design using the questionnaires.Study 3 used experimental method to explore the effect of emotional resilience on positive emotions of adolescents in different situations.Specifically,Study 3a explored the effect of emotional resilience on positive emotions in the situation of emotional pictures,Study 3b explored the effect of emotional resilience on positive emotions in the situation of real emotional events.The third sub-study,based on the complete mental health theory,investigated the influence of adolescents' emotional resilience on mental health,and the mediating role of positive emotions between emotional resilience and mental health.Study 4a was a cross-sectional study and Study 4b was a longitudinal study.The results of sub-study 1 showed that there were gender differences(boys >girls)and grade differences(junior high school students > senior high school students)in the adolescents' emotional resilience.There was significant difference in emotional resilience among junior high school students,but not among senior high school students.Negative life events and interpersonal alienation were significantly negative predictors of adolescents' emotional resilience,while prosocial tendencies and family socio-economic status were significantly positive predictors of adolescents' emotional resilience(Study 1).The results of sub-study 2 showed that there was a significant positive correlation between adolescents' emotional resilience and positive emotions,and a significant negative correlation between adolescents' emotional resilience and negative emotions.The positivity ratio of adolescents with different emotional resilience was significantly different.The higher the emotional resilience was,the higher the positivity ratio was.The effect of emotional resilience on the prediction of positive emotions was significant,while the effect of positive emotions on the prediction of emotional resilience was not significant(Study 2).In the situation of emotional picture stimulation,there was no significant difference in the positive interpretation bias between high and low emotional resilience subjects(Study 3a).In the context of real emotional events,the higher the emotional resilience of adolescents was,the more positive the interpretation bias(taking the ability of positive meaning finding as an indicator),and the relation between emotional resilience and positive emotions was partially mediated by positive meaning finding(Study 3b).The results of sub-study 3 showed that whether positive mental health indicators(life satisfaction,self-esteem),negative mental health indicators(depression,anxiety)or complete mental health indicator,emotional resilience had a significant predictive effect on mental health.Among them,emotional resilience had a positive predictive effect on life satisfaction,self-esteem and complete mental health,and a negative predictive effect on depression and anxiety.Positive emotions partially mediated the relation between emotional resilience and mental health indicators in this study.The results show that girls and high school students need to strengthen the cultivation of emotional resilience in the adolescence.Negative life events and interpersonal alienation may be risk factors for emotional resilience,while prosocial orientation and family socio-economic status may be protective factors for emotional resilience.Adolescents' emotional resilience not only directly affects their mental health,but also indirectly affects their mental health through positive emotions.Adolescent emotional resilience plays an important role in reducing psychological problems and promoting mental health.Adolescents' emotional resilience may also affect their mental health through the path of �emotional resilience ? positive meaning finding ? positive emotions ? mental health�.In summary,this study combines cross-sectional,longitudinal and experimental research to build a comprehensive model of influencing factors of adolescents' emotional resilience and its effect on positive emotions and mental health,which promotes the concretization of resilience research field,enriches our understanding of emotional resilience,and provides theoretical basis and practical path reference for adolescent positive emotions cultivation and mental health promotion.