ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on emotions in adolescence and will devote special attention to loneliness, an emotion often associated with that stage of life. It shows that emotions are typically experienced within relationships and that feelings of loneliness, for instance, can take on a different form in different types of relationship. Increased emotionality is part and parcel of the “storm and stress” theory that the general public holds about adolescence. Adolescents who more frequently used disengagement and involuntary engagement strategies reported more depressive symptoms and externalizing problem behaviors. The cognitive changes of adolescence can also offer a partial explanation for the age changes in negative emotionality. Adolescents give more complex explanations that pertain to relationships and to other people’s feelings. Adolescents who were functioning at a higher level of ego development, which entailed that they were more aware of the complexities of personal relationships, exhibited more diverse emotions and more anxiety.
