[Exploratory study of relations between emotional awareness, social sharing of emotions, anxious and depression states].

BACKGROUND: The anxious and depressive states are increasingly common. Their respective current prevalence is estimated of around 12%. AIM OF THE STUDY: This research aims to study how the emotional specific individuals may submit each type of condition (anxiety and/or depression). Our objective is to analyse the relationships that might exist between these states, the level of emotional awareness (capacity for the identification and differentiation of one's own emotions and those of others) and the social sharing of emotions process (mechanism interpersonal emotional regulation).
DESIGN: The sample is composed of 107 volunteers from general medical practice on the one hand and population-run second. The average age of all subjects is of 43.21 years (+/-12.76) with a ratio of 13 men for 94 women. Two groups of subjects were formed on the basis of their levels of anxiety and depression assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD); [Acta Psychiatr Scand 67 (1983) 361-70]. The "AD" group consisted of anxious and anxiety-depression subjects (N=60). The "NAD" group consisted of subjects not anxious and not depressive (N=47). Scales of self-evaluation made up our protocol: the assessment of levels of emotional awareness (LEAS); [Am J Psych 144 (1990) 133-43] and the assessment of social sharing emotions (Rimé, 1989) used on the basis of the recall of a significant negative event.
RESULTS: Correlation analysis showed the presence of a negative relationship between the level of emotional awareness and dimension of anxiety (r=-0.26, p=0.04), but positive between the level of awareness and depression (r=0.37; p=0.003). In addition, anxious individuals demonstrated a trend of social inhibition in sharing emotions (r=-0.26; p=0.05), in order not to reactivate the negative emotional experience, whereas in the case of depression, it was the inhibition of certain aspects of emotional experiences (r=0.33; p=0.01) that the individual does not wish to submit to the view of others.
CONCLUSION: The results show interesting data in a "sub-clinical" population (anxiety-depressive subjects cared for in general medicine). Their scope is limited by the size of the sample, which could be expanded to continue our investigations. This study helps to deepen knowledge on the capabilities of identification and regulation of emotions of people showing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. Copyright (c) 2009 L’Encéphale, Paris. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.