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PERSONAL PREDICTORS OF THE AFFECTIVE BALANCE

DURING ADOLESCENCE

Eva Papazova

Institute of Psychology - BAS

In the last years, the conditions that make people happy and satisfied with
their life are at the focus of a growing number of studies. All people,
notwithstanding wherever in the world they live strive after happiness,
contentment, sincerity, peace and life satisfaction. The positive self-esteem and
the satisfaction with life among young people may be a reliable index for positive
development in a certain country (Park, 2004). One’s country prosperity could not
be distinguished from young people’s well-being and mental health in it. As well,
over the last 25 years, researchers and professionals in the field of mental health
acknowledge that the reinforcement of traditional gender roles have negative
effect on adolescents, especially in the teenage years, that are the years of
experimentation with self and with different roles (Orenstein, 1994). However,
the gender-role stereotypes still prevail in our educational system and in the
society in general.
Therefore, the demand for personal predictors, such as self-esteem and
gender-role attitudes, for explanation of the emotional balance in a transitional
age such as adolescence, could serve as a model for self-regulation and
optimization of the mental health in this age period.
Affective balance. Most of the current researchers operationalize
happiness as "subjective well-being (SWB), the personal evaluations of the
extent of positive affect, negative affect and the overall satisfaction with life
(Andrews & Withey, 1976; Diener & Emmons, 1984), which are interrelated but
empirically distinct dimensions (Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996; Stones & Kozma,
1985).

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SWB consists of two main components: (a) evaluations about life

satisfaction, and (b) affective balance or the level of prevail of the positive affect
over the negative affect in certain life (Andrews & Withey, 1976; Diener, 1984).
Happiness or affective balance is the emotionally oriented evaluation of the
affective well-being (Diener, 1984). A person who has lots of negative emotions
may feel very positive emotions as well. Therefore, the emotional balance is
considered rather multidimensional component of the SWB, than one-
dimensional (Diener, 1984). The affective balance implies that the subjective
well-being is partly based on the dominance of positive over negative affect in a
certain life (Bradburn, 1969). Therefore, Taylor says "the good life is defined in
terms of emotional satisfaction” (Taylor, 1985; p.262).
It has been found that people with high neuroticism are unhappy, and
extraverts are happier, which provide guidance for promotion or encouragement
of the SWB (Watson, 2000). It is believed that up to 80% of the variance of the
SWB can be hereditary (Lykken & Tellegen, 1996; Tellegen et al., 1988), as
certain affect remains stable over the time among widely varying life
circumstances (Watson, 2000). Brief and colleagues (Brief et al., 1993) found
that both objective life circumstances and personality traits predict SWB by
indirect effects, which render the interpretation of life events and circumstances.
All young people have unique abilities and personality traits that have to
be understood, in order to be given a chance for expression. Interrelated with
these traits and abilities are the factors - age and gender. An investigation with
Libyan adolescents determines that more boys than girls have a positive feeling
of SWB. As well, the boys experience more positive affects than the girls
(Ayyash-Abdo & Alamuddin, 2007). This finding corresponds to the consistent
finding in the literature, regarding gender differences and affective balance -
women have a higher negative affect compared to men (Haring, Stock & Okun,
1984; Baychinska et al, 2009). In a study with Bulgarian adolescents that finding
was not replicated. Generally, almost half of the studied teenagers have a high
level of positive affect, but gender differences in its frequency are not observed
(Baychinska et al, 2009).

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Gender differences in the SWB are important because of the many efforts
modern society has made to enable all people to achieve and use their full
potential. In post-feminist context, it incorporates the idea of a society with "equal
opportunities" (Eagly, 1987). High income, individualism, human rights and
equality in society strongly correlate with the SWB (Diener, Diener, et al., 1995).
Individualistic, rich and democratic countries are characterized by higher
subjective well-being of their citizens (Diener & Suh, 2000). Bulgaria is an
individualistic culture, but in a survey comprising 65 countries it occupies the 59th
position in the ranks of happiness (Silguidjian et al., 2007; Inglehart &
Klingemann, 2000). In Bulgaria, the subjective well-being, and its cognitive and
affective components are very low. The explanation may be sought in the people
low-income, but generally speaking it can not be satisfactory. For example, in
Nigeria, which has the lowest income from the studied 65 countries, the SWB is
significantly higher than in Bulgaria (76% against 45% respectively).
Gender-role attitudes. The term “gender” is associated with the practices
of femininity or masculinity in the social relationships. Gender is one of the first
social categories that are learned from people (Levy & Haaf, 1994). The
knowledge comes from the basic observations of the social norms and
expectations, from the comparison between yourself and the peers, and the
answers of the questions: "Who do I look like and who I does not look like"?
"With which group, male (the boys) or female (the girls) I’m same or different?
(Diamond, 1997).
Gender is an important aspect of the adolescent identity formation (Brown,
1990; Simmons & Blyth, 1987). The girls in this age are less likely to perceive the
male dominance than boys, because it harms their Self-concept. During the
adolescence the public pressure to behave in gender-appropriate manner and to
stick to gender-role conventions of the society is growing. Boys tend to be less
expressive when disclose their feelings, as a function of stereotyping "masculine"
gender role, which implies the avoidance of emotional intimacy. Exaggeration of
male dominance, however, has gradually decreased towards the late
adolescence (Brown, 1990).

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The demands of the gender roles are in direct conjunction with the mental
health and with different life expectations (Pleck, 1981). The gender-role attitude
is the extent, to which men or women perceive themselves as having
characteristics, associated with masculinity (instrumentality) or femininity
(expressiveness). During the last 70 years a new concept has appearеd in the
study of gender-role attitudes - the idea that healthy men and women may have
similar or androgynous characteristics. The contemporary model for androgyny
serves as a framework for interpretation of the similarities and differences
between individuals, according to the degree they describe themselves in terms
of the characteristics traditionally associated with male (masculine) and female
(feminine) roles (Cook, 1987).
Adolescence is remarkable as a social-role perspective, since it is a
transitional period, marked by the significant uncertainty in respect to diversity,
which can be tolerated in the expression of a certain role. Faced with such
uncertainty, young people withdraw into the safe stereotypical attitudes and
behavior that are learned from their childhood. Gender-specific roles are
particularly important for adolescents who undergo sexual maturation and start
heterosexual relationships.
The studies consistently find gender differences in terms of adolescent
gender-role attitudes: the girls usually hold on less traditional attitudes than boys
(Katz & Ksansnak, 1994; McHale et al., 1999). This model implies intensification
of gender as a social category in early adolescence for boys but not for girls (Hill
& Lynch, 1983).
Gender, age and socioeconomic status have effect on the individual
attitudes towards gender roles (Lackey, 1989). The masculinity as a social
attitude plays important role in the creation of the teenage school subculture,
which partly function to reproduce the society class structure (MacLeod, 1987;
Parker, 1996; Willis, 1981). The masculinity style in certain school is often a
reflection of the community in it (Connell, 1996; Skelton, 1996).
Gender-role attitudes as a predictor of the affective balance.
Psychologists have devoted significant attention to the relationship between

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gender and SWB, and in particular on the issue of the relationship between
norms and gender, and the adaptation to them. The normative and the individual
differences in gender typing are interrelated during the whole life cycle. Their
influence on adaptation varies depending on the developmental stages. During
adolescence, masculinity is more closely related to the emotional balance and
SWB of individuals, rather than femininity or androgyny (Whitley, 1983).
Self-esteem. In psychological literature personal self-esteem generally
refers to „conscious emotional and evaluative attitude towards yourself” (Dilova,
1999). The operationalization of the self-esteem is usually limited to its
placement on one of two poles of a certain scale; therefore, in that case we are
talking about high or low self-esteem.
To have a higher self-esteem means to be proud of yourself, to feel more
superior to others, and to assert that vision. People with high self-esteem have
positive and well defined self-concepts (Baumeister, 1993). In contrast, people
with low self-esteem are cautious and uncertain, and their behavioral style is
oriented towards reduction of their manifested deficits (Baumeister et al., 1989).
People with low self-esteem have self-concepts, characterized with greater
confusion and neutrality, rather than with negativity (Baumgardner, 1990;
Campbell, 1990).
It is believed that at age 10/12 - 20/22 years, defined as adolescence, the
teenagers are already aware оf a certain models of their behavior (Cole, 1960).
The adolescents see themselves increasingly through the prism of their personal
beliefs and standards, and less through the social comparisons (Narter, 1998).
However, their mood may vary from unrealistic anxiety to a much more
unrealistic self-confidence. These ongoing changes are affective expressions of
adolescent’s self-esteem, which is ambivalent (Wolman, 1998).
Researchers see representations of adolescent low self-esteem in the
offensive behavior, poor academic success, promiscuous sex and suicidal
thoughts and behavior (Wolman, 1998, Harter, 1990). High self-esteem, in
contrast is associated with high academic success and easy going social
adaptation (DuBois, Bull, Sherman & Roberts, 1998).

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The gender of adolescents influences оn their self-esteem. In general,

girls have significantly more negative attitude towards themselves than boys
(Quatman & Watson, 2001; Balev, 2000). The investigations have found that girls
are ashamed of their bodies, they feel ugly and unattractive, and any change to
their body shape make them feel even worse (Tiggemann, 2001; Offer & Ostrov,
1984; Silguidjian, 1998). As an explanation for girl’s lower self-esteem during the
adolescence, researchers agree that boys tend to be more independent of the
others' opinions, while girls are more prone to conformity (Gordon, 1962).
Self-esteem as a predictor of the affective balance. Self-esteem can be
a particularly important moderator of positive affects in a certain type of positive
life events. It regulates and distinguishes the positive and the negative affects.
People with low self-esteem, experiencing positive affect appear to suppress it,
while those with high self-esteem – manage to save it. These observations are
confirmed from empirical data that find correlation of .47 between the self-esteem
and the dimensions of the SWB, as positive affect is associated with positive self-
esteem but negative affect is associated with neuroticism and low levels of
personal competence (Costa & McCrae, 1980; Lucas, Diener & Suh, 1996).
Relation between gender-role attitudes, self-esteem and affective
balance. The self-esteem is a key indicator of mental health, as positive self-
esteem is important for the personal affective balance. For both genders during
adolescence, the androgynous or masculine identity is associated with higher
levels of self-esteem, and feminine identity - with lower levels of self-esteem
(Antill & Cunningham, 1980; Whitley, 1983). As well, masculine girls achieve
higher academic success, which is predictor for higher self-esteem in
adolescence. One of the main issues, differentiating between these gender-role
identities is whether androgynous adolescents are more behaviorally adaptive
and psychologically healthier than masculine and/or feminine adolescents? Till
now, psychological studies fail to give an unambiguous answer to this question
(Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1975; Heilbrun, 1976; Jones, Chernovetz,
Hansson, 1978).

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