AD ALTA JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH ADOLESCENCE AND MANIFESTATION EMOTIONS IN THE FAMILY a ZUZANA MIČKOVÁ Univerzita sv.Cyrila a Metóda, J.Herdu č.2, Trnava, Slovakia emial: a mickova1@gmail.com We have studied the expressiveness of the family in connection with expressing real emotions. We are interested in gender differences in positive and negative emotional expressiveness of adolescents. The research sample consists of high school students (N = 110, M = 46, F = 64, AM 19.3). We have used the Family Environment Scale (Hargašová, Kollárik, 1986), the scale of expressivity (Barchard, 2001). We have found that the low family expressiveness is associated with emotional expression outside the family, which means the lower degree of expressiveness in the family, the higher level of negative expressivity in an individual. Gender differences have shown that women perceive the possibility of expressing their emotion in the family more positive than men, but men reached a higher score for expressing emotions. Key words: adolescent, family environment, negative expressivity, positive expressivity 1 Family environment and positive and negative expresivity According to Sobotkova (2007) the unique atmosphere in the family is determined by communication abilities of family members and these communication skills determine a successful functioning of the family. Successful family functioning is determined by positive feelings of safety and security. According to Oravcová (2004) these feelings come from the fact that parents protect and support their children. Adolescents see this support when their parents listen, they seek to understand and can accept their emotions whether positive or negative. Elliott (2009) states, that the communication process is important for an interactive relationship. Positive interactions, communication family systems, and parents togetherness creates space for feelings ventilation and space for emotion expression. The communication system may be open or closed. The perception of the communication channels contributes to adolescents feelings, and to what extent they can express their own emotions. The openness of the system helps the adolescent perceive the expressiveness of their family. Veldova (2007) argues that the communication is very important for the development of all family members. According to Goddetova (2001) communication is effective when a teen is willing to listen, understand and accept what parents said. Melgosa (2001); Gregg Shale (2010) state that if a parent with an interest in listening is helping an adolescent to analyze and solve the situation, which means that is creating an atmosphere in which the adolescent can express his/her emotions. Communication is a two-way process and for successful expression of emotions mutual listening and acceptance is necessary. Adolescent therefore perceive this through the communication channels and participates with his/her parents on communication schemes. Teenager is very sensitive to the way in which parent communicate with him/her, and observe feelings and emotions of a parent. Adolescent needs to feel that parent value and hear his/her opinion. Gregg Shale (2010) states that open communication is involved in evolution of personality and emotions. He also states that individuals who can communicate with their parents are happier and more confident. One of the communication schemes are close communication channels, which means that parents seek to enforce their own opinion and do not care about an opinion of their growing children. Adolescent in this case does not develop their communication skills, and mostly close himself from a family world. They start using friendly relations instead to express their opinions, attitudes, and in the same time the environment outside the family becomes the room for expressing their emotions. The openness of communication channels infamily is a productive relationship between parents and adolescents. (Melgosa, 2001; Carr-Gregg, 2010). Expressing feelings therefore begins in the family, where we learn to express our feelings towards each other and other people. Positive and negative feelings which family members show to each other represents the general climate of the family in which we learn to express our feelings (Ševčíková, 2012; Vašasová, 2004). According to Vágnerová (2005) teenagers considered feelings as a part of intimacy and Rosenberg (2008) adds that the ability to express feelings helps in resolving interpersonal conflicts and in establishe social contacts. Ševčíková (2012) in this regard states that the direct socialization is represented by parents‘ emotions, and their response to adolescents‘ behaviour and their conversations about positive and negative feelings. Indirect socialization is only typical for description of the overall family atmosphere and own parent’s expressivity. Both direct and indirect factors have a significant impact on the overall development of adolescents. Halberstadtová et al. (in Ševčíková, 2012) state that emotional climate is heavily dependendant on parent‘s emotional response. This positive parent’s expressiveness teach adolescents of understanding, positive emotional well-being and pro-social behavior (Ševčíková, 2012). Freedom in expressing own opinion give adolescents a feeling of empowerement. Understanding and respect enhances the value of their being. (Macek, 2003, 2004). Segrino and Flora (2011) argue that the ignorance of negative feelings may cause problems with their regulation, and respectively it can cause problems with coping with negative emotions such as sadness and anger. This may result into a problem with expression of their emotions. Acceptance and the ability to control and cope with emotions is a positive aspect in the regulation of feelings to themselves and in relationships. According to research of Cupach & Olson, 2006 in Segrino, Flora (2011) this is a source of positive relationships among peers. During adolescence according to Schrodta, Ledbetter and Ohrt (2007 in my sister's, Flora, 2011) teenager creates a specific communication tactics with his/her parents. According to Goddetova (2001), parents and adolescents manage their communication spontaneously, with emotions and understanding. During conversations, they are discovering different attitudes, emotions, and reactions which affect the whole communication. However, they may have different impressions and feelings from the same conversation, which can undermine their mutual understanding. The philosophy of many parents according to Ševčíková (2012) is that they belief that negative emotions should be controlled, and their expression should be suppressed. However, this way individuals learn and reduce external expression of their feelings. This philosophy creates potential concerns about the feelings and consequent fear of expressing them. Other parents (in ibid) try to stay in touch with their own feelings and this expression is accepted. In conclusion, it shows that acceptance of feelings creates space for expression of both positive and negative emotions. 1.1 Factors of expresivity In the previous chapter we have paid particular attention to the family atmosphere and expressivity. Factors which contribute towards expressiveness are many. We will concentrate on the main ones. The trust between parent and child is important when expressing emotions. Posse and Melgosa (2002) state that physical contact, openness and willingness to talk and laugh will build the necessary confidence in children. Furthermore, the authors state that another part of open communication is active listening. Křivohlavý (1993) adds that it is also the mostimportant phase of the personal communication. The author also stresses that attention, empathy, peace, kindness, interest and respect towards ones who is talking (and so on) are other important factors. Another important element is a credibility of the listener, which enhances the feeling of the trust on the other side (Křivohlavý, 1993). - page 55 -