Genetic and Environmental Influences on Adolescent Emotional Inertia in Daily Life

Emotional inertia represents the extent to which individuals' emotions tend to carry over from one time point to the next. High emotional inertia indicates low emotion regulation ability and has been associated with psychological maladjustment and mood disorders. However, the extent of genetic influence on emotional inertia, particularly in adolescents, is largely unknown. The current study examined genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in emotional inertia. This study followed a sample of 447 17-year-old same-sex UK twins (41% males) with an innovative intensive longitudinal daily diary design that captured their intra-individual emotion fluctuations over one month. Adolescents reported their positive and negative emotions once a day consecutively for up to 40 days. Time series analyses were used to construct emotional inertia and classical twin analyses were used to disentangle its genetic and environmental influences. The results showed that inertia for positive emotion was only modestly heritable and inertia for negative emotion showed no heritability at all. Both measures showed predominantly non-shared environmental influences. These findings highlight the importance of unique environmental influences in shaping individual differences in how well adolescents regulate their emotions and how easily they move from one emotional state to another in daily life. The importance of identifying specific environmental influences on emotional inertia is discussed, and suggestions of what those influences might be are offered.

Attachment behavior and hostility as explanatory factors linking parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent adjustment

This study examined whether adolescents' behavior in a support-seeking context helped to explain associations between increases in mother-adolescent conflict during early adolescence and changes in adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. A sample of 194 adolescents aged 12 to 14 (51% female) and their mothers were followed over 1 year. Mother-adolescent pairs participated in a speech task introducing an external social stressor into the parent-child relationship. Using a latent difference score model, adolescents' observed attachment behavior and hostility were compared as potential explanatory processes. Analyses suggest specificity in the spillover process from conflict to adolescent behavior in a nonconflictual parent-child interaction context, with hostility uniquely linking increasing mother-adolescent conflict and externalizing problems, and disruptions in adolescent attachment behavior uniquely explaining the link with internalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

'Make the Connection' parenting skills programme: a controlled trial of associated improvement in maternal attitudes

OBJECTIVE

Assess the effectiveness of Make the Connection (MTC), an attachment-focused parenting programme, in fostering maternal attitudes thought to underlie sensitive responding.

BACKGROUND

Effective parenting programmes are likely to mitigate negative outcomes associated with insecure attachment in infancy. Negative maternal attitudes and cognitions are thought to underlie insensitive parenting behaviour, and thus constitute a promising target for intervention.

METHODS

180 mothers of young infants were assigned to experimental or waitlist control groups based on programme availability. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing parental attitudes at baseline, and again either after participating in MTC or after a 9-week waitlist period.

RESULTS

Participants who completed MTC showed significant improvement in overall attitude with a medium effect size relative to the waitlist control group, which showed no change. A small but significant interaction with infant age was noted, such that mothers of younger infants showed slightly more attitude improvement. Relative to the control group, participation in Make the Connection was associated with significant improvement in all attitudes except for self-efficacy as a parent, which improved with time regardless of programme participation.

CONCLUSION

Make the Connection is effective in promoting positive parent-to-infant attachment and is a strong candidate for public health initiatives targeting parenting skills.

Study Protocol for the Preschooler Regulation of Emotional Stress (PRES) Procedure

Background: Emotional stress regulation (ESR) rapidly develops during the first months of age and includes different behavioral strategies which largely contribute to children’s behavioral and emotional adjustment later in life. The assessment of ESR during the first years of life is critical to identify preschool children who are at developmental risk. Although ESR is generally included in larger temperament batteries [e.g., the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB)], there is no standardized observational procedure to specifically assess and measure ESR in preschool aged children.

Aim: Here, we describe the development of an observational procedure to assess ESR in preschool aged children [i.e., the Preschooler Regulation of Emotional Stress (PRES) Procedure] and the related coding system.

Methods: Four Lab-TAB emotional stress episodes (i.e., the Stranger, the Perfect Circle, the Missing Sticker, and the Transparent Box) have been selected. Independent coders developed a list of ESR codes resulting in two general indexes (i.e., active engagement and stress level) and five specific indexes (i.e., anger, control, fear, inhibition, sadness). Finally, specific actions have been planned to assess the validity and the coding system reliability of PRES procedure.

Ethics and Dissemination: The study has been approved by the Ethical Committee of the Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea, Bosisio Parini (Italy). The PRES validation and reliability assessment as well as its use with healthy and at-risk populations of preschool children will be object of future scientific publications and international conference presentations.

Elterliche Emotionsdysregulation als Risikofaktor für die kindliche Entwicklung

Zusammenfassung. Emotionsregulation ist eines der zentralen Themen der Entwicklungspsychopathologie. Der überwiegende Anteil an Forschungsarbeiten widmet sich der Frage zur Entwicklung von Emotionsregulation, welche als zentrale Entwicklungsaufgabe im Kindesalter erachtet wird. Die Herausbildung einer altersangemessenen Emotionsregulation besitzt eine entscheidende Bedeutung für die psychische Gesundheit und dem späteren Schulerfolg eines Kindes. Obwohl die elterliche Emotionsregulation als ein zentraler Aspekt des Erziehungsverhaltens verstanden wird, ist noch immer nicht hinreichend geklärt, wie Eltern ihre eigenen Gefühle im Erziehungskontext regulieren. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick zum aktuellen Forschungsstand zu den Auswirkungen einer elterlichen Emotions(dys)regulation auf familiäre Prozesse der kindlichen Emotionsregulation und den Entwicklungsergebnissen des Kindes. Empfehlungen für die klinische Praxis werden diskutiert.

Transgenerationale Emotionsregulation

Zusammenfassung. Die Entwicklung von Strategien zur Emotionsregulation ist eine zentrale Entwicklungsaufgabe im Kindesalter, da insbesondere funktionale Strategien mit weniger Verhaltensauffälligkeiten im Zusammenhang stehen. Noch immer ist jedoch nicht hinreichend geklärt, welche Faktoren zu ihrer Entwicklung beitragen – eine zentrale Rolle scheinen dabei die Eltern zu spielen. In einer Studie mit 98 Kindern (3 bis 6 Jahre) und je einem Elternteil wird untersucht, inwieweit elterliche und kindliche ER-Strategien zusammenhängen, welche Rolle verschiedene Indikatoren des emotionalen Familienklimas dabei spielen und in welchem Zusammenhang diese mit kindlichen Verhaltensauffälligkeiten stehen. Pfadanalysen zeigen, dass negative Familienklimafaktoren nicht nur ungünstig mit (der Übertragung von) kindlichen, funktionalen Strategien, sondern auch mit einer gesunden Entwicklung in Verbindung stehen. Ein günstiges Familienklima scheint hingegen keinen ausdrücklich förderlichen Einfluss zu haben.

Introduction to the Special Section on Social in the Emotional and the Emotional in the Social

An introduction to the Special Section entitled “Social in the Emotional and the Emotional in the Social.”

Associations between Attachment and Emotion-Specific Emotion Regulation with and without Relationship Insecurity Priming

Attachment theory and previous research on emotion regulation (ER) suggest that ER will be associated with adult attachment orientation, with the expectation of different associations of attachment avoidance, anxiety, and security with specific ER patterns. In addition, research has shown that the emotion under consideration and the context may matter to patterns of ER and associations between attachment and ER. In the present study, we examined associations between attachment representations, and emotion specific (sadness, worry, and anger) ER among late adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 23 years ( M = 19.6, SD = 1.58). In addition, to consider context, participants were randomly assigned to report ER following insecurity priming or no priming. Participants were 383 (181 male, 202 female) students who completed a self-report questionnaire. As expected, multivariate regression results examining all attachment orientations simultaneously showed that attachment anxiety was associated with greater dysregulation (sadness, worry, and anger), but also more anger suppression. In contrast, attachment avoidance was associated with greater suppression (sadness and worry), but also more anger dysregulation. Attachment security was associated with less dysregulation (sadness, worry, and anger), and less sadness and worry suppression. Finally, sadness and anger dysregulation were higher when reported after insecurity priming compared to the standard no prime condition, but few associations between attachment orientations and ER were moderated by condition. The results suggest that individuals’ attachment representations are associated with ER, with security a benefit to adaptive ER, and anxiety and avoidance playing different roles in maladaptive ER for different emotions.

Effects of Gene × Attachment Interaction on Adolescents' Emotion Regulation and Aggressive Hostile Behavior Towards their Mothers during a Computer Game

Adolescence is a time of increased emotionality and major changes in emotion regulation often elicited in autonomy-relevant situations. Both genetic as well as social factors may lead to inter-individual differences in emotional processes in adolescence. We investigated whether both 5-HTTLPR and attachment security influence adolescents’ observed emotionality, emotional dysregulation, and their aggressive hostile autonomy while interacting with their mothers. Eighty-eight adolescents at age 12 were observed in interaction with their mothers during a standardized, emotion eliciting computer game task. They were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR, a repeat polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene. Concurrent attachment quality was assessed by the Late Childhood Attachment Interview (LCAI). Results revealed a significant gene × attachment effect showing that ss/sl carriers of 5-HTTLPR show increased emotional dysregulation and aggressive hostile autonomy towards their mothers. The results of the study suggest that secure attachment in adolescence moderates the genetically based higher tendency for emotional dysregulation and aggressive reactions to restrictions of autonomy during emotional social interactions with their mothers.