| Description |
Feeling angry at times is a universal human experience. Emotional experiences are associated with physiological arousal, and stress-inducing events, such as events that trigger feelings of anger, tend to have greater impacts on the level of physiological arousal that a person experiences than more pleasant emotions (Mauss et al., 2005). The impacts of prolonged distress can be quite severe, and long-lasting stress can have severe health implications such as high blood pressure, weakened immune system, and anxiety. As such, children need to develop effective ways to minimize and regulate stressful emotions, such as anger. This study analyzed whether young children or adolescents had higher physiological arousal during narration and whether resolution impacted physiological arousal during narration. A total of 137 subjects aged 8-17 were recruited from the Rocky Mountain area to participate in this study. I hypothesized that younger children would experience higher levels of physiological arousal during the narration of an anger-provoking event. I also hypothesized that high levels of resolution expressed during the narrative of the anger-provoking event would correlate with lower levels of physiological arousal. Contrary to our hypothesis, there was no correlation of age and physiological arousal during narration, however, higher levels of resolution expressed while children narrated a time they were angry were correlated with lower levels of physiological arousal as hypothesized. Future research would benefit from investigating whether more intense engagement in narration is more beneficial for youth than weak narrative engagement. |
