Emotional self-disclosure and internalizing problems among adolescents after an earthquake: Sex differences in codevelopment and temporal associations.

Objective: This study investigated sex differences in the codevelopment trajectories and temporal associations of emotional self-disclosure and internalizing problems in Chinese adolescents.

Method: Three hundred ninety-two adolescents (age: M = 15.02, SD = 1.61) completed self-report questionnaires 12 months (T1), 21 months (Time 2 [T2]), and 27 months (T3) after the Jiuzhaigou earthquake that occurred on August 8, 2017. We conducted parallel process latent growth modeling and constructed cross-lagged panel models with sex as a grouping variable.

Results: The results showed that emotional self-disclosure increased overtime for girls and internalizing problems were stable for both boys and girls. For boys, emotional self-disclosure at T1 and T2 was negatively associated with internalizing problems at T2 and T3; internalizing problems at T2 were negatively associated with emotional self-disclosure at T3. For girls, internalizing problems at T1 and T2 were negatively associated with emotional self-disclosure at T2 and T3.

Conclusions: The results indicated that emotional self-disclosure showed a clear healing effect only for boys, whereas for girls, higher internalizing problems related to suppressed emotional self-disclosure. These findings suggested that interventions could focus on promoting emotional self-disclosure for boys and focus on the relief of internalizing symptoms for girls. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).