African American College Students’ Contextual Emotion Expression

TL;DR

This study examines how African American college students express emotions at home and on campus, and how these patterns relate to their racial experiences and social environments.

Contribution

The study identifies distinct emotion expression profiles and links them to campus racial experiences and friend group composition.

Findings

Four emotion expression profiles were identified across familial and campus contexts.

Racial discrimination and friend group racial composition significantly predict emotion expression profiles.

Emotion expression varies between home and campus settings, reflecting racial experiences.

Abstract

The current study aimed to explore patterns of self-reported emotion expression across familial and college campus contexts among African American college students and the associations of these patterns with contextual features on college campuses (i.e., racial demographics of the university overall and students’ friend group and racial discrimination experiences). Theoretical support included Triple Quandary Theory and emotional development models. Online survey data from 169 self-identified African American college students (62.4% female; Mage = 20.60) across three college campuses were analyzed to compare reports of emotion expression with family members and emotion expression on campus. Additionally, family and campus emotion expression reports were analyzed via latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify latent profiles of emotion expression and their predictors. Four profiles of emotion expression across familial and college campus contexts emerged: Positive Low Expressors (n = 55; 32%), High Family – Low Campus Expressors (n = 44; 26%), Consistent Expressors (n = 37; 22%), and Low Family Positive – Consistent Negative Expressors (n = 33; 20%). College campus type was not a significant predictor of profile membership. However, campus experiences of racial discrimination and racial composition of friend group were significant predictors. African American college students’ varying emotion expression in familial domains relative to public domains (i.e., college campuses) may reflect variation in their racial experiences. These findings have implications for a contextual based understanding of African Americans’ emotional competence, broadly, and the necessity for colleges to consider how campus experiences shape African American college students’ emotional functioning.

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