Emotion awareness, mood and personality as predictors of somatic complaints in children and adults.

BACKGROUND The relationships among somatic complaints, emotion awareness and mood have been observed in late childhood and adolescence, but very few studies have been carried out in adult populations like this work. This study also incorporates personality dimensions that can exacerbate or reduce the emergence of somatic complaints. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the combined contribution of emotion awareness, mood, and personality to healthy children and adults’ somatic complaints. METHOD Self-reported questionnaires about emotion awareness, mood, personality, and somatic complaints were administered to 1,476 children (7-14 years old) and 479 adults (27-56 years old). RESULTS Emotion awareness and mood were the strongest predictors of somatic complaints (ΔR 2 = .32 for children; ΔR 2 = .36 for adults), and the contribution of personality dimensions was not so relevant (ΔR 2 = .07 for children; ΔR 2 = .12 for adults). CONCLUSIONS Emotional and personality factors must be addressed in health-promotion programmes, tailored differently according to whether they are to be used with children or with adults.