Shall I call, text, post it online or just tell it face-to-face? How and why Flemish adolescents choose to share their emotions on- or offline

Abstract

Social sharing of emotions is a frequently used emotion regulation strategy. This study adds to the emotion regulation literature and the affordances of technologies perspective by providing a better understanding of with whom adolescents share emotions on-and offline, how they do this and why they use certain modes. In-depth interviews with 22 Flemish adolescents (aged 14-18) show that these youngsters share almost all experienced emotions, often with multiple recipients and using multiple communication modes. Although they mostly prefer sharing emotions face-to-face, they also share by texting, calling or posting something on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram. Our respondents generally make a more or less conscious decision about what and how to share. The valence, type, and intensity of the emotion, the affordances of the mode, social norms, and impression management concerns influence this decision.

Digital support seeking in adolescent girls: A qualitative study of affordances and limitations

“…Thus, it is possible that this finding reflects the preferences of younger adolescents for communicating with their friends in-person rather than by text. However, given the limitations of online support identified by the girls in this study, this preference for in-person sources of support suggests that adolescents recognise clear benefits of seeking support in-person (Frison & Eggermont, 2015;Vermeulen et al, 2018a). The preference for seeking support in-person also aligns with the preferences of college students, who are more likely to seek support in-person rather than by text message or online (Rife et al, 2016) and identify that in-person exchanges are more supportive than those received via text-messaging or social media (Bayer et al, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, Rains et al (2017) found that college students who received support via IMing experienced higher levels of uncertainty and worry than those who received the same support in-person in an experimental study. Finally, in recent work by Vermeulen et al (2018a), Flemish adolescents identified that they preferred to share emotions face-to-face rather than online. This was because they could see the reactions of their friends and clarify misunderstandings.…”

“…Increased self-disclosure in turn predicts having higher quality friendships (Valkenburg & Peter, 2009). Some adolescents identify that online selfdisclosure protects them from feeling vulnerable when discussing their feelings, while the asynchronous nature of digital communication offers them more control over their expressions (Best et al, 2016;Nesi et al, 2018;Vermeulen et al, 2018a). Thus, for some adolescents, a perception of reduced interpersonal costs (Lim et al, 2013) or reduced stigma (DeAndrea, 2015) may facilitate digital support seeking.…”

“…Cooper et al, 2016;Nesi et al, 2018), adolescents may also be concerned about their support seeking attempts being shared with others. Indeed, the potential for disclosure of personal information to unintended others has been identified as a salient concern by adolescents in several studies (Best et al, 2016;Vermeulen et al, 2018a). It is unknown, however, whether trust concerns influence adolescent girls' digital support seeking behaviours.…”

“…Love et al, 2012;Schwieger et al, 2016). More recently, research attention has focussed on informal digital support seeking as a way of coping with everyday stress (Duvenage et al, 2020;Frison & Eggermont, 2015;Vermeulen et al, 2018a). This shift reflects adolescents' almost ubiquitous use of digital devices to interact with friends and others (Anderson & Jiang, 2018a), and the critical role of friends as informal support providers in adolescence (Zimmer-Gembeck & Skinner, 2011).…”