Investigating How Teen Girls of Color Develop Their Emotional Understanding

Abstract

High schools, colleges, homes, social organizations, and clubs are filled with teen girls from diverse cultural backgrounds. However, because of a paucity of research examining their emotional development and lived experiences, it is unclear if they all feel the same, display their emotions the same way, or use the same terms to describe their feelings. This phenomenological study investigated how teen girls of color develop their emotional understanding. Exploring five key factors—gender, culture, parental emotion-related socialization behaviors, emotion regulation, and differentiation skills—this study intends to enlighten educators, parents, and teen girls themselves about the importance of emotions and the unique emotional development and perspective of teen girls of color.