Are Adolescents More Emotional? A Study of the Daily Emotions of Middle Class Indian Adolescents1

Abstract

This study evaluates the hypothesis that adolescence is a time of greater emotionality, focusing on urban middle class Indian youth. A sample of 100 8th graders and their parents provided 13,674 reports on their experience when signalled at random times by alarm watches over one week. Consistent with the hypothesis, the adolescents reported significantly more negative states and extreme positive states than both their mothers and fathers. Further analyses indicated that the negative emotional states of adolescents were related to school stress and inversely related to family and peer variables. These factors may contribute to adolescent emotionality. Significant inverse correlations between rates of negative emotions and mental health indicated that frequent negative emotions among adolescents should not be dismissed as normative.