Adolescents and Adults Use Different Facial Movements and Vocal Cues to Express Emotions

Current understanding of how facial and vocal cues can communicate emotional intent is based on patterns observed in adults, with surprisingly little known about age-related differences in nonverbal expression. Do adolescents and adults use different nonverbal cues to express emotions? This cross-sectional laboratory study revealed age-related differences in how early adolescents (ages 10-11; N = 64), mid-adolescents (ages 12-15; N = 54), and emerging adults (ages 18-25; N = 50) use facial movements and vocal cues to intentionally convey emotions. Adolescents showed lessened use of facial movements linked to prototypical expressions of happiness and fear, and less differentiated facial movements to convey distinct emotions. Early adolescents also spoke louder (particularly to express happiness), slower, and with higher harmonicity than mid-adolescents and emerging adults when expressing emotions. Findings suggest that our understanding of facial and vocal cues involved in emotional expression may not generalize to adolescents, and that nonverbal communication patterns may mature into adult-like forms during adolescence. SUMMARY: Findings from this study indicate that adolescents and emerging adults use different patterns of facial movements and vocal cues to purposefully communicate their emotional intent. The ability to convey emotional intent using nonverbal cues may mature into adult-like forms during adolescence.