BackgroundThe association between language and mental health may be connected to several aspects of language. Based on the known associations, emotional vocabulary could be an important contribution to mental health and act as a risk, protective or resilience factor for mental health in general. As a preliminary test of this hypothesis, an assessment of emotional vocabulary was constructed and used among youths in school age. Cross-sectional associations and prediction models with parent-reported youth mental health as outcome were examined for emotional (...) vocabulary as well as general vocabulary, non-verbal problem solving and social communication, controlled for age, gender and subsamples.ResultsEmotional vocabulary, general vocabulary and non-verbal problem solving were directly associated with each other and similarly associated with age and gender. However, they were not significantly associated with social communication skills or mental health in the expected direction. Only social communication skills showed significant negative associations with behavioral mental health problems, suggesting these skills to be potential resources related to mental health.ImplicationFuture research should investigate whether behavioral problems may be prevented or improved by developing better social communication skills among community school-age youths. However, our results suggest that merely expanding emotional vocabulary is not likely to produce such effects unless this is integrated with improving social communication. (shrink)

This article investigates how to understand interpersonal forgiveness from a Christian perspective through content analysis of research-based literature on forgiveness. The analysis is supported by theory of power approach, and the science of diaconia is used as a lens to describe a Christian perspective. The focus is on how forgiveness can be used and misused when encountering people with traumatic experiences of violation manifested by sexual misconduct in church context. The aim is to discuss an understanding of forgiveness that conveys (...) freedom and redresses for the offended, but also for the offender. The content analysis led to the following thematic categories: (1) forgiveness of fellow humans related to God’s forgiving of human, (2) the role and function of forgiveness in the personal life of human, and (3) forgiveness as an issue between people. Here, an important aspect is the necessity of exploring the three perspectives in dialogue with each other, to decrease the risk of misusing forgiveness by not addressing the issue of responsibility. Forgiveness must be conceptualized within the preconditions for God’s forgiving of humans by considering how the violation has influenced the violated’s self-understanding (the inner relational dimension) and the contextual status of the violator’s position of power (the outer dimension). This provides a basis from which to consider whether forgiveness will contribute to an uplifting and liberating outcome or is misused by avoiding clarification of the party responsible for the violation. (shrink)

Journal Name: Cognitive Linguistics Issue: Ahead of print.