Abstract
Somatic complaints, mood states, and emotional awareness in adolescents. Health complaints are a common problem in adolescents, but a medical cause can only be found in few cases. Therefore, increasing attention is paid to psychological factors that might be related. Two areas of emotional functioning are frequently referred to in this respect: negative mood and emotional awareness. In this study, we examined whether emotional awareness contributes uniquely to the prediction of somatic complaints over and above negative mood. Self-report questionnaires of somatic complaints, mood states, and emotional awareness were completed in class by 441 adolescents, between 13 and 15 years old. Results showed that emotional awareness only presents a limited unique contribution to the prediction of somatic complaints. This contribution is moderated by mood states, except for two aspects of emotional awareness: bodily awareness of emotions and attending to others' emotions. This strengthens the hypothesis that emotional awareness precedes affective states, which, in turn, have an effect on youngsters' health perceptions.
