Emotional dynamics in the development of early adolescent psychopathology: a one-year longitudinal study

Everyday emotion, naturalistic life stress, and the prospective prediction of adolescent depression

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Increasing research underscores low positive emotion (PE) as a vital component of depression risk in adolescence. Theory also suggests that PE contributes to adaptive coping. However, it is unclear whether naturalistic experiences of emotions contribute to long-term depression risk, or whether daily PE levels equip adolescents to cope with later naturalistic stressors, reducing risk for depression. The current study examines whether PE (and negative emotion [NE]) assessed via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) (a) predict prospective increases in depression, and (b) moderate the association between later life stressors and depression.

DESIGN

Longitudinal study of community-recruited adolescents, with EMA at baseline.

METHOD

Adolescents (n = 232) completed contextual threat life stress interviews, interview and self-report measures of depression at baseline and 1.5 year follow-up. At baseline, they completed a seven-day EMA of emotion.

RESULTS

Preregistered analyses showed that daily NE, but not PE, predicted increased depression over time and moderated the association between interpersonal episodic stress and self-reported depression.

CONCLUSIONS

Results did not support daily PE as a buffer against depressogenic effects of life stress, but point to daily NE as a marker of depression risk.

Emotion Dynamics among Late Adolescents and Emerging Adults: The Role of Maternal Privacy Invasion Perceptions

Prior research suggests that youth experience immediate emotional distress following privacy invasion, but it is unclear whether and how persistent privacy invasion over longer periods destabilizes the intrapersonal emotional regulatory functions that privacy serves. This study investigated whether late adolescents and emerging adults who reported different patterns of maternal privacy invasion over a full academic year showed differences in emotion regulation, as reflected by the frequency and lability of negative and positive emotional experiences. Participants were first-year university students (n = 349; 60.2% female) in Hong Kong, aged 17 to 24 (MT1 = 18.20, SDT1 = 1.10). They self-reported maternal privacy invasion perceptions and negative and positive emotions 16 times, at bi-weekly intervals. Latent class growth analyses divided participants into a Higher Invasion Perceptions group (24.9%), a Moderate Invasion Perceptions group (46.4%), and a Lower Invasion Perceptions group (28.7%). A one-way MANCOVA examined potential differences in negative and positive emotion dynamics across groups, indexed by frequency (means) and instability (mean square of successive differences and probability of acute change). In line with predictions, both the Higher Invasion and Moderate Invasion groups reported higher negative emotion frequency and instability, compared to the Lower Invasion group. However, groups showed no significant differences regarding positive emotion frequency and instability. The findings indicate that perceptions of maternal privacy invasion predict youth's negative emotion regulation processes over their first collegiate year. Prolonged, higher levels of maternal privacy invasion may disrupt the intrapersonal regulatory functions that privacy serves over time.

Mood variability during adolescent development and its relation to sleep and brain development

Mood swings, or mood variability, are associated with negative mental health outcomes. Since adolescence is a time when mood disorder onset peaks, mood variability during this time is of significant interest. Understanding biological factors that might be associated with mood variability, such as sleep and structural brain development, could elucidate the mechanisms underlying mood and anxiety disorders. Data from the longitudinal Leiden self-concept study (N = 191) over 5 yearly timepoints was used to study the association between sleep, brain structure, and mood variability in healthy adolescents aged 11-21 at baseline in this pre-registered study. Sleep was measured both objectively, using actigraphy, as well as subjectively, using a daily diary self-report. Negative mood variability was defined as day-to-day negative mood swings over a period of 5 days after an MRI scan. It was found that negative mood variability peaked in mid-adolescence in females while it linearly increased in males, and average negative mood showed a similar pattern. Sleep duration (subjective and objective) generally decreased throughout adolescence, with a larger decrease in males. Mood variability was not associated with sleep, but average negative mood was associated with lower self-reported energy. In addition, higher thickness in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) compared to same-age peers, suggesting a delayed thinning process, was associated with higher negative mood variability in early and mid-adolescence. Together, this study provides an insight into the development of mood variability and its association with brain structure.

A cognitive-computational account of mood swings in adolescence

Teenagers have a reputation for being fickle, in both their choices and their moods. This variability may help adolescents as they begin to independently navigate novel environments. Recently, however, adolescent moodiness has also been linked to psychopathology. Here, we consider adolescents' mood swings from a novel computational perspective, grounded in reinforcement learning (RL). This model proposes that mood is determined by surprises about outcomes in the environment, and how much we learn from these surprises. It additionally suggests that mood biases learning and choice in a bidirectional manner. Integrating independent lines of research, we sketch a cognitive-computational account of how adolescents' mood, learning, and choice dynamics influence each other, with implications for normative and psychopathological development.

Longitudinal Resilience and Risk Factors in Pediatric Postoperative Pain (LORRIS): Protocol for a Prospective Longitudinal Swiss University Children's Hospitals-Based Study

INTRODUCTION

Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is defined as pain that persists after a surgical procedure and has a significant impact on quality of life. Previous studies show the importance of psychological factors in CPSP, yet the majority of studies focused solely on negative emotions. This longitudinal observational study aims to broaden this knowledge base by examining the role of emotional state, emotion variability, emotion regulation and emotion differentiation on the child and the parent level for the development CPSP, and to describe pain and emotion-related trajectories following surgery.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

We intend to include 280 children and adolescents aged 8-18 years with a planned orthopaedic surgery and their parents. A total of five assessment time points is planned: 3 weeks before surgery (baseline), 2 weeks after surgery (post) and 3 months (follow-up (FU) 1), 6 months and 12 months after surgery. At baseline and post only, children and parents are asked to complete a daily diary thrice a day for a week where they rate their current emotional state and their pain severity (children only). Emotional state ratings will be used to calculate indices of emotion variability, emotion regulation and emotion differentiation. Children and parents will complete questionnaires at each time point, including measures on quality of life, social support, sleep, and symptoms of anxiety and depression.To predict development of CPSP, generalised linear regression models will be used, resulting in ORs and 95% CIs. Pearson product-moment correlations between predictors and outcomes will be evaluated at each time point. The primary outcome of the prediction model is CPSP at FU1. For the trajectory analysis, the classification method K-means for longitudinal data will be used to determine clusters in the data.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The Ethics Committee of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, has approved the study (ID: 2023-01475). Participants will be compensated, and a dissemination workshop will be held.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT05816174.

Do markers of daily affect mediate associations between interpretation bias and depressive symptoms? A longitudinal study of early adolescents

INTRODUCTION

Early adolescence represents a time of heightened vulnerability for depression. Negative interpretation biases have been associated with increases in depressive symptoms during this developmental period; however, the mechanisms underlying the association between interpretation biases and depression remain poorly understood. Cognitive theories posit that interpretation biases give rise to depression by modulating daily affect, particularly in the context of stress. However, this has not yet been directly examined. The present study tested affect intensity and instability as mechanisms linking negative interpretation biases with change in adolescent depressive symptoms.

METHODS

Ninety-four adolescents (aged 11-13 years; 51% boys) from Vancouver, Canada, were recruited for this longitudinal study. At baseline (Time 1), participants self-reported depressive symptoms and completed the Scrambled Sentences Task to assess negative interpretation biases. Next, participants completed daily diaries to assess positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) during a naturalistic stressor-the first 2 weeks of high school (Time 2). Finally, participants self-reported depressive symptoms 3 months later (Time 3). Path models were conducted to test whether PA and NA intensity and instability mediated prospective associations between negative interpretation biases and depressive symptom changes.

RESULTS

Although NA intensity, NA instability, and PA instability predicted increases in depressive symptoms, only NA intensity mediated associations between interpretation biases and symptom changes. Neither PA intensity nor instability mediated these associations.

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated daily NA represents a specific mechanism through which stronger negative interpretation biases predict increases in depressive symptoms in adolescence.

Parent and adolescent emotional variability and adolescent psychopathology

Emotional variability has been posited as a risk factor for adolescent psychopathology. However, it is unclear whether parent emotional variability may also function as a risk factor that heightens adolescent mental health problems. To fill this gap, the present study examined whether parent and adolescent emotional variability in both positive emotion (PE) and negative emotion (NE) is associated with adolescent psychopathology and potential sex differences in these associations. Participants were 147 adolescents and their parents in Taiwan who completed a baseline assessment, a 10-day daily diary study, and a 3-month follow-up assessment. The results indicated that parent NE variability was associated with risk for adolescent internalizing problems and depressive symptoms, after accounting for baseline levels, adolescent NE variability, parent internalizing problems, and mean levels of parent and adolescent NE. Adolescent PE variability was also associated with the risk for adolescent externalizing problems. Furthermore, higher parent PE variability was associated with more internalizing problems only for female but not male adolescents. The findings highlight the importance of assessing emotion dynamics in both parents and adolescents to better understand the development of adolescent psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Effortful control and depression in school-age children: The chain mediating role of emotion regulation ability and cognitive reappraisal strategy

BACKGROUND

Depression is one of the main mental health problems facing primary school students. Temperamental effortful control (EC) has received much attention as a protective factor to depression. The present study aimed to verify the association of effortful control and children's depression and explore the mediating roles of emotion regulation ability (ERA) and strategies (ERSs) in the relationship.

METHODS

A total of 449 valid primary school students in grades 3 to 6 were included in the study. Self-report and parent-report questionnaires were used to collect data on key variables, including EC, depression, ERA and ERSs.

RESULTS

Gender and whether-native-or-not had significant effects on children's depression. EC was significantly and negatively correlated with children's depression; EC and depression were significantly correlated with Emotion Regulation dimension of ERA and cognitive reappraisal; but there was no correlation between EC and Lability/Negativity, as well as between expression suppression and depression. EmotionRegulation and cognitive reappraisal played mediating effects in the relationship between EC and depression parallelly and sequentially.

LIMITATIONS

The study used cross-sectional design and the sample was restricted to Chinese primary school students. Additionally, the types and research perspectives of ERSs can be further expanded.

CONCLUSIONS

EC can reduce the level of children's depression by improving the abilities of Emotion Regulation and the use of cognitive reappraisal strategy, as well as the chain mediating effects of the two.

Negative emodiversity is associated with emotional eating in adolescents: An examination of emotion dynamics in daily life

INTRODUCTION

Emotional eating is a mental health concern, common in adolescents, that develops as a result of their tendency to use high-energy food to regulate their fluctuating emotions. Due to their highly fluctuating emotional life, adolescents tend to have unique within-person profiles of emotional experiences that change across moments and days, often lost in global assessments of emotions. Hence, it is imperative to examine individual differences in dynamics of emotions, as experienced in daily life, in relation to emotional eating in adolescents.

METHODS

In an Ecological Momentary Assessment study, we examined individual differences in three within-person dynamic characteristics (baseline levels, intraindividual variability, and emodiversity) of emotions in 158 dominantly Hispanic adolescents in the United States, aged 14-17 years old, predicting trait-level emotional eating.

RESULTS

Results indicated that higher negative emodiversity, baselines, and variability in stress were predictive of emotional eating in adolescents. When all considered together, negative emodiversity (i.e., variety of the types of negative emotions experienced in one's daily life) remained the only significant predictor of emotional eating.

CONCLUSIONS

This study affirms the importance of diversity in emotional experiences in relation to emotional eating, particularly in daily contexts of adolescents' lives. Additionally, the study emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between diversity (i.e., variety in types) in positive versus negative emotional experiences with regard to emotional eating. By taking into account the ecological validity of adolescents' daily lives and individual differences in dynamical changes in emotions, we are taking a step forward by shedding light on how the dynamics of negative emotions-in terms of within-person baselines, variability, and diversity-might be related to general levels of emotional eating in adolescents.

Association of parental and adolescent emotion-related factors with adolescent chronic pain behaviors

ABSTRACT

Chronic pain is a prevalent condition in youth, and the pain experience is strongly influenced by emotional processes. Studying emotion variability and regulation (ER) may help better understand pain behavior. As the development of emotion-related abilities predominantly takes place in the family context, examining ER within parent-adolescent dyads is important. We set out to test the association of parent and adolescent ER and adolescent emotional variability with adolescent pain behavior (ie, pain interference, activity avoidance, and activity engagement). A sample of 56 adolescents (Mage = 14.5, 85.7% women) with chronic pain and one of their parents (92.9% mothers) participated in this study. Adolescents completed baseline measures of average pain intensity, ER, and mean positive and negative affect. Furthermore, adolescents completed an electronic diary for 14 consecutive days, reporting on emotional state, activity avoidance, activity engagement, and pain interference. Parents completed measures of ER and their own history of pain. We performed a variable selection procedure, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method, to determine important predictors of adolescent pain behavior. Adolescent high positive affect was associated with more activity engagement, less pain interference, and less activity avoidance, indicating that positive affect might enhance the willingness to engage in activities in the presence of pain. Adolescent ER strategy emotional reappraisal and parents' own history of pain were predictors of less activity engagement. Parent ER was not related to adolescent ER. In conclusion, our results highlight the potential of enhancing positive affect as an intervention target for chronic pain.

Positive valence systems in youth anxiety development: A scoping review

Research on pathophysiological mechanisms supporting anxiety development in youth has traditionally focused on the role of threat systems. However, emerging research suggests that the positive valence system (PVS) may also play a strong and unique role in the development and maintenance of anxiety during childhood and adolescence. To better understand the connection between the PVS and anxiety, this scoping review describes current research spanning multiple units of analysis (i.e., self-report, behavior, neural circuits) linking child and adolescent anxiety and risk for anxiety to various PVS constructs (i.e., positive affect, reward responsiveness, reward learning and decision-making). After screening, 78 peer-reviewed articles and dissertations published between 1998 and May 2021 were included in a qualitative review. Though some consistencies in the literature were found, such as high neural reactivity to incentive anticipation in youth at temperamental risk for social anxiety and blunted positive affect in youth with social anxiety disorder, the literature is largely inconsistent. Inconsistencies could be related to the small number of similar studies, small and homogenous study samples, and variability in methodologies employed in this research. It cannot be confirmed whether findings linking PVS constructs to anxiety are unique to anxiety symptoms or better accounted for by co-occurring depressive symptoms. This review concludes with recommendations for robust future research in this area.

Investigation of the bidirectional relations between adolescents' anger at their parents and symptoms of depression

OBJECTIVE

This study examined the associations between adolescents' anger at their parents and depression over a 1-year period.

BACKGROUND

Anger tends to co-occur with depression during adolescence. Most research on anger has investigated anger in general and has not focused on specific sources of anger. Anger at parents is likely an important source of adolescents' anger.

METHOD

Participants were 321 adolescents (M _age at enrollment = 13.41 years [SD = 0.52]; 46.7% male) and one of their parents. Families completed questionnaires at two time points separated by 1 year.

RESULTS

High levels of adolescents' anger at their parents were related to increased levels of depression 1 year later (based only on parent-reported anger at parents). Similarly, high levels of depression were associated with increased levels of adolescents' anger at their parents 1 year later (based on adolescent- and parent-reported anger at parents).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that adolescents' anger at their parents and depression are mutually reinforcing during middle adolescence.

IMPLICATIONS

The results highlight the importance of assessing anger at parents when working with adolescents who are experiencing depressive symptoms. Further, adolescents' feelings of anger at their parents when evident should be incorporated into case conceptualizations and treatment plans.

Affective Dynamics and Mean Levels of Preschool Irritability and Sadness: Predictors of Children's Psychological Functioning Two Years Later

Although irritability and sadness are cardinal symptoms of depression, they are also common in preschoolers. The daily experiences of these emotions are not well-understood during early childhood, yet may provide insight into identification of early depressive symptoms. The current longitudinal study examined daily mean levels and emotion dynamics of preschool-aged children's irritability and sadness and psychiatric outcomes in early school-age. Parents (n = 291) completed 14 consecutive daily diaries about their preschoolers' emotions. Two years later, parents (n = 164) completed a semi-structured clinical interview and questionnaires about their children's psychological functioning. Strong correlations between mean and dynamic measures (rs = 0.65-0.91) were identified. Preschoolers' mean daily levels and dynamics of irritability (variability, instability, inertia) and sadness (instability, inertia) predicted symptoms and impairment 2 years later. Sadness instability and inertia continued to predict difficulties after adjusting for mean daily sadness. Fine-grained daily measures of preschoolers' affect may be help identify children at-risk for psychological problems.

Kindhearted: Ethical guilt and ethical heart rate reactivity codevelop with aggression across childhood

Largely cross-sectional evidence indicates that ethical guilt is a robust predictor of childhood aggression. However, the underlying mechanisms of ethical guilt-in part assessed as ethical heart rate (HR) reactivity in the present study-are less clear, and longitudinal associations between ethical guilt, its underlying mechanisms, and aggression have not been explored. The present study used a multicohort longitudinal design to assess these constructs across early and middle childhood. At the beginning of the study and 2 years later, cohorts of 4- and 8-year-olds (ns = 150; N = 300) reported their guilt in response to an ethical transgression (i.e., pushing) and a nonethical transgression (i.e., breaking a classroom rule), and their HR was measured while they imagined committing these acts. Caregivers reported their child's aggression at each time point via questionnaire. Latent difference score models indicated that, regardless of cohort, children who increased in their ability to prioritize ethical guilt over 2 years were more likely to decrease in aggression over the same period. Moreover, children whose HR reactivity became more sensitive to ethical transgressions over time showed corresponding declines in aggression over time. Overall, these findings highlight the potential protective roles of children's capacities to react affectively and autonomically to the gravity of ethical transgressions across early and middle childhood.

Measuring Happiness in Adolescent Samples: A Systematic Review

Background: Happiness is a phenomenon that relates to better mental and physical health and even longevity. There has been an increase in surveys assessing subjective well-being as well as happiness, one of the well-being components that reflect one’s feelings or moods. Happiness is mostly measured in adult samples. There is a lack of an overview of the tools used to evaluate adolescent happiness, so this paper aimed to review them. Methods: A literature search was performed in the PubMed and PsycArticles databases (2010–2019). In total, 133 papers met the eligibility criteria for this systematic review. Results: The results are grouped according to the type of measure, single or multiple items, that was used in a study. Almost half of the studies (64 of 133) evaluated subjective happiness using single-item measures. The most commonly used scales were the 4-item Subjective Happiness Scale and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. Among the 133 articles analyzed, 18 reported some validation procedures related to happiness. However, in the majority of cases (14 studies), happiness was not the central phenomenon of validation, which suggests a lack of happiness validation studies. Conclusions: Finally, recommendations for future research and for the choice of happiness assessment tools are presented.

The Emotion Dynamics Conundrum in Developmental Psychopathology: Similarities, Distinctions, and Adaptiveness of Affective Variability and Socioaffective Flexibility

A recent emphasis in developmental psychopathology research has been on emotion dynamics, or how emotional experience changes over time in response to context, and how those emotion dynamics affect psychosocial functioning. Two prominent emotion dynamics constructs have emerged in the developmental psychopathology literature: affective variability and socioaffective flexibility. Affective variability is most often measured using momentary methods (e.g., EMA) and is theorized to reflect reactivity and regulation in response to context, whereas socioaffective flexibility is typically measured in the context of parent-child interactions and theorized as the ability to move effectively through a range of affective states. Notably, affective variability is considered broadly maladaptive; however, socioaffective flexibility is theorized to be fundamentally adaptive. Despite these diametric views on adaptability, these two constructs share an underlying dependency on non-effortful emotion change in response to context, which raises questions about whether these constructs are, at their core, more similar than dissimilar. This review examined the literatures on affective variability and socioaffective flexibility in child and adolescent samples, examining associations with psychosocial and clinical correlates, as well as conceptual and methodological similarities and distinctions. Findings indicate that despite considerable theoretical overlap, there are sufficient differences-albeit largely methodological-that justify continuing to treat these constructs as distinct, most notably the influence of parents in socioaffective flexibility. The review closes with several recommendations for future study targeted at further clarifying the distinctions (or lack thereof) between affective variability and socioaffective flexibility.

Transactional links between children daily emotions and internalizing symptoms: a six-wave ecological momentary assessment study

BACKGROUND

This study explored the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between everyday emotion dimensions and internalizing symptoms during the transition to early adolescence. We tested associations between children's intensity and instability of daily negative emotions (NE), positive emotions (PE), and daily NE differentiation (NED) with children's self-reported and their mothers' report of children's internalizing symptoms, across six waves, each wave separated by six months.

METHODS

The sample included 199 ethnically diverse mother [M_age at baseline = 40.1 years (SD = 6.1] and child [M_age at baseline = 10.1 (SD = 0.90), 51% girls] dyads, who participated in six 7-day waves of ecological momentary assessment (EMA). During each wave, children reported on PE (i.e. happy and joyful) and NE (i.e. mad, sad, and stressed) up to eight random times per day through smartphone-based EMA. Children and mothers reported on children's internalizing symptoms at each wave. We used random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) to test within- and between-person effects.

RESULTS

At the within-person level, increased NE and decreased PE intensity, more unstable NE and PE, and decreased NED at any given wave were positively associated with children's self-reported internalizing symptoms but not with mother-reported child symptoms. However, emotion dimensions did not predict child-reported nor mother-reported child symptoms at the next wave. At the between-person level, higher average NE, more unstable PE and NE, and lower NED were positively associated with average child-reported and mother-reported child internalizing symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

This study suggests that emotional intensity, instability, and differentiation could be conceptualized as manifestations of internalizing symptoms but not as risk factors for its progression, or residual manifestations of it, among typical children.

Parental Support and Positive Mood Buffer Adolescents' Academic Motivation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

School closures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 severely disrupted adolescents' lives. We used a daily diary method for 20 days, including online and physical school days, assessing daily mood, social support and conflict, and academic motivation in 102 adolescents aged 12-16 years. We found that adolescents' academic motivation was lower on online compared with physical school days. In general, positive mood was positively associated with academic motivation, and friend conflict related negatively to academic motivation. Moreover, lower levels of parental support were related to lower academic motivation on online versus physical school days. Overall, these findings identified some critical changes in adolescents' daily experiences during the COVID-19 school closure and social-emotional factors that may buffer decreases in adolescents' academic motivation.

Mood Variability Among Early Adolescents in Times of Social Constraints: A Daily Diary Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated governmental regulations have drastically changed the daily social lives of children, adolescents, and adults. Changes in the social context may particularly affect children who are in the transition to adolescents (henceforth referred to as early adolescents) as adolescence is a crucial period for peer interactions and development of independence and autonomy. Yet, the impact of the pandemic and associated governmental regulations on early adolescents' emotional well-being has yet to be clarified. In the current study, we explored daily fluctuations in mood in 54 early adolescents (M age = 11.07) during the first few months (April 2020-June 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the role of parents and peers on adolescents' mood variability was investigated. Adolescents rated their mood (i.e., happiness, anger, sadness, anxiety) and peer interactions once a day during four separate weeks across different weeks of containment measures in the Netherlands. Moreover, adolescents reported on their experienced attachment to parents and peers and internalizing problems during baseline and the final measurement, respectively. Results showed relatively stable levels of mood during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, individual differences in mood variability during the first assessment week were negatively associated with the experienced level of attachment to both parents and peers. Moreover, heightened levels of mood variability did not mediate the link between attachment and internalizing problems. Lastly, the quality of offline contact, but not online contact, was negatively related to adolescents' mood variability. Overall, this study suggests that mood of early adolescents did not heavily fluctuated across the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings add to the growing body of literature aiming to understand how adolescent's life are affected by the COVID-19 crisis and illustrates that social connectedness to parents or peers may facilitate resilience to distress and daily mood fluctuation in early adolescents.

Shared Neural Phenotypes for Mood and Anxiety Disorders A Meta-Analysis of 226 Task-Related Functional Imaging Studies

(Appeared originally in JAMA Psychiatry 2020;77(2):172-179).

Resilience Predicts the Trajectories of College Students' Daily Emotions During COVID-19: A Latent Growth Mixture Model

The objective of this study was to examine the association between resilience and trajectories of college students’ negative and positive affect during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 391 college students recruited from China completed a daily online negative and positive affect scale for 1 week, and their resilience was also measured. Profiles of brief trajectories of negative and positive affect over time were identified using the latent growth mixture model, and the effect of resilience on these trajectories was further explored. Two latent profiles of negative affect were found: a constant high negative affect profile and a slowly decreasing low negative affect profile, while three latent profiles of positive affect were identified: a slowly increasing high positive affect profile, a rapidly decreasing medium positive affect profile, and a constant medium positive affect profile. The optimism dimension of resilience predicted the membership in the various profiles significantly, whereas the prediction of tenacity and strength dimensions of resilience was not significant. Activities that promote resilience, especially optimism, should be included to improve the daily emotions of college students during COVID-19.

Emotion regulation and angry mood among adolescents with externalizing problems and intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Cognitive behavior therapy targeting emotion regulation is found to be effective in decreasing externalizing problems, but little is known about the emotion regulation capacities of adolescents with externalizing problems and Mild Intellectual Disabilities or Borderline Intellectual Functioning (MID-BIF). Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare emotion (i.e., anger) regulation capacities, angry mood level and angry mood variability between two groups: adolescents with externalizing problems and MID-BIF and adolescents with externalizing problems and average intelligence (AIQ).

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

Participants in the MID-BIF (n = 42, M_age = 15.52, SD = 1.43) and AIQ (n = 39, M_age = 13.67, SD = 1.06) group completed questionnaires about emotion regulation difficulties, emotion regulation strategies, and angry mood.

OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Adolescents in the MID-BIF group reported fewer emotion regulation difficulties, fewer maladaptive regulation strategies, and lower levels of angry mood than adolescents in the AIQ group. No between-group differences in angry mood variability were found. Lastly, adolescents in the MID-BIF group reported to use more behavioral than cognitive regulation strategies.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

These findings provide a starting point in understanding emotion regulation and angry mood of adolescents with externalizing problems and MID-BIF and show that it is important to consider differences between cognitive and behavioral regulation processes.

Emotion regulation difficulties and psychopathology among Pakistani adolescents

The main aim of this study was to examine the associations between emotion dysregulation and psychopathology in adolescence. A representative sample of 1,500 adolescent students (50% female) aged 12 to 19 years (M = 15.08, SD = 1.44) was recruited from schools and colleges located in the province of district Punjab, Pakistan, using a stratified sampling technique. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test associations between five dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties and five forms of psychopathology by gender (male/female). The model provided an adequate fit to the data among girls and boys. In the model tested among boys, seven positive associations between emotion regulation difficulties and psychopathology variables were found. The model tested with girls included one negative and 13 positive associations between the study variables. Findings can be used for designing universal prevention programs to prevent the development of psychopathology.

Mood Variability Among Early Adolescents in Times of Social Constraints: A Daily Diary Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated governmental regulations have drastically changed the daily social lives of children, adolescents, and adults. Changes in the social context may particularly affect children who are in the transition to adolescents (henceforth referred to as early adolescents) as adolescence is a crucial period for peer interactions and development of independence and autonomy. Yet, the impact of the pandemic and associated governmental regulations on early adolescents' emotional well-being has yet to be clarified. In the current study, we explored daily fluctuations in mood in 54 early adolescents (M _age = 11.07) during the first few months (April 2020-June 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the role of parents and peers on adolescents' mood variability was investigated. Adolescents rated their mood (i.e., happiness, anger, sadness, anxiety) and peer interactions once a day during four separate weeks across different weeks of containment measures in the Netherlands. Moreover, adolescents reported on their experienced attachment to parents and peers and internalizing problems during baseline and the final measurement, respectively. Results showed relatively stable levels of mood during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, individual differences in mood variability during the first assessment week were negatively associated with the experienced level of attachment to both parents and peers. Moreover, heightened levels of mood variability did not mediate the link between attachment and internalizing problems. Lastly, the quality of offline contact, but not online contact, was negatively related to adolescents' mood variability. Overall, this study suggests that mood of early adolescents did not heavily fluctuated across the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings add to the growing body of literature aiming to understand how adolescent's life are affected by the COVID-19 crisis and illustrates that social connectedness to parents or peers may facilitate resilience to distress and daily mood fluctuation in early adolescents.

Interpersonal perception and interpersonal spin

INTRODUCTION

Interpersonal spin is an indicator of intraindividual variability in social behavior. Spin is positively related to Neuroticism and is maladaptive, with well-documented deleterious effects on social functioning. The perceptual processes associated with spin and how spin emerges are less well-understood. The present research examines the interpersonal perception of individuals with higher spin and tests whether these perceptual processes explain the association of spin with Neuroticism.

METHOD

267 students participated in a 20-day event contingent recording procedure, reporting on social interactions via mobile application. Participants' perceptions of others' behavior, their own affect, and their own behavior were measured within and across interactions.

RESULTS

We examined the affective and behavioral responses of individuals with higher spin to perceptions of others' behaviors. Individuals with higher spin showed greater affective and behavioral reactivity to perceptions of others' communal (agreeable-quarrelsome) behavior. Neuroticism predicted greater affective reactivity (i.e., steeper slopes between event-level perceived communion and negative affect), which in turn predicted higher spin.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with higher spin may have an interpersonal style characterized by greater reactivity to perceptions of others' communal behavior. These individuals' behavioral lability may reflect underlying emotional dysregulation. These processes may ultimately interfere with the formation and maintenance of social bonds.

The effect of social media on well-being differs from adolescent to adolescent

The question whether social media use benefits or undermines adolescents' well-being is an important societal concern. Previous empirical studies have mostly established across-the-board effects among (sub)populations of adolescents. As a result, it is still an open question whether the effects are unique for each individual adolescent. We sampled adolescents' experiences six times per day for one week to quantify differences in their susceptibility to the effects of social media on their momentary affective well-being. Rigorous analyses of 2,155 real-time assessments showed that the association between social media use and affective well-being differs strongly across adolescents: While 44% did not feel better or worse after passive social media use, 46% felt better, and 10% felt worse. Our results imply that person-specific effects can no longer be ignored in research, as well as in prevention and intervention programs.

Inertia of emotions and inertia of the heart: Physiological processes underlying inertia of negative emotions at work

Emotional inertia is a key feature of emotional dynamics and it refers to the degree to which a current emotional state can be predicted by a previous emotional state. In this study, using the experience sampling method, we examined the relationship between inertia of negative emotions at work and parasympathetic activity, measured by vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV). In line with current literature on HRV, we propose that temporal dependency of negative emotions at work may be associated to lower HRV, an important marker of the ability to flexibly adjust to a changing environment. Participants (n = 120) were prompted six times during a regular workday, while wearing a heart rate monitor. In accordance with the polyvagal theory and the model of neurovisceral integration, findings supported our hypothesis and indicated that workers with lower HRV tend to show high time persistence of negative emotions at work. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Internal and External Factors Underlying Variations in Adolescents' Daily Optimal Experiences

This study investigated how the internal psychological states (i.e., challenge-skill perception, positive and negative affect, and effortless attention) and contextual features (i.e., activity and company) of momentary experiences relate to optimal experience in adolescents' lives. Data were collected from 245 Portuguese adolescents (14-19 years old, 63% female) by using the experience sampling method. Multilevel modeling revealed that challenge-skill and positive affect were positively associated with optimal experience, while negative affect was negatively associated with optimal experience. Effortless attention mediated the associations between internal states and optimal experience, while activity and company only moderated some of these associations. These findings will inform practitioners about the factors that should be addressed in interventions with adolescents to promote optimal experiences in their lives.

Shared Neural Phenotypes for Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Meta-analysis of 226 Task-Related Functional Imaging Studies

IMPORTANCE

Major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders are highly comorbid and have shared clinical features. It is not yet known whether their clinical overlap is reflected at the neurobiological level.

OBJECTIVE

To detect transdiagnostic convergence in abnormalities in task-related brain activation.

DATA SOURCE

Task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging articles published in PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar during the last decade comparing control individuals with patients with mood, posttraumatic stress, and anxiety disorders were examined.

STUDY SELECTION

Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses reporting guidelines, articles were selected if they reported stereotactic coordinates of whole-brain-based activation differences between adult patients and control individuals.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Coordinates of case-control differences coded by diagnosis and by cognitive domain based on the research domain criteria were analyzed using activation likelihood estimation.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

Identification of transdiagnostic clusters of aberrant activation and quantification of the contribution of diagnosis and cognitive domain to each cluster.

RESULTS

A total of 367 experiments (major depressive disorder, 149; bipolar disorder, 103; posttraumatic stress disorder, 55; and anxiety disorders, 60) were included comprising observations from 4507 patients and 4755 control individuals. Three right-sided clusters of hypoactivation were identified centered in the inferior prefrontal cortex/insula (volume, 2120 mm3), the inferior parietal lobule (volume, 1224 mm3), and the putamen (volume, 888 mm3); diagnostic differences were noted only in the putamen (χ23 = 8.66; P = .03), where hypoactivation was more likely in bipolar disorder (percentage contribution = 72.17%). Tasks associated with cognitive systems made the largest contribution to each cluster (percentage contributions >29%). Clusters of hyperactivation could only be detected using a less stringent threshold. These were centered in the perigenual/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (volume, 2208 mm3), the left amygdala/parahippocampal gyrus (volume, 2008 mm3), and the left thalamus (volume, 1904 mm3). No diagnostic differences were observed (χ23 < 3.06; P > .38), while tasks associated with negative valence systems made the largest contribution to each cluster (percentage contributions >49%). All findings were robust to the moderator effects of age, sex, and magnetic field strength of the scanner and medication.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

In mood disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorders, the most consistent transdiagnostic abnormalities in task-related brain activity converge in regions that are primarily associated with inhibitory control and salience processing. Targeting these shared neural phenotypes could potentially mitigate the risk of affective morbidity in the general population and improve outcomes in clinical populations.

Emotion dynamics concurrently and prospectively predict mood psychopathology

INTRODUCTION

Altered emotion dynamics may represent a transdiagnostic risk factor for mood psychopathology. The present study examined whether altered emotion dynamics were associated with bipolar and depressive psychopathology concurrently and at a three-year follow-up.

METHODS

At baseline (n = 138), participants completed diagnostic interviews, questionnaires, and seven days of experience sampling assessments. Four emotion dynamics were computed for negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) - within-person variance (variability), mean square of successive differences and probability of acute change (instability), and autocorrelation (inertia). At the three-year follow-up, participants (n = 108) were re-assessed via interviews and questionnaires.

RESULTS

NA variability was associated with bipolar spectrum disorders at baseline and follow-up. NA instability predicted depressive symptoms and hypomanic personality at baseline, and bipolar spectrum disorders at the follow-up. NA inertia did not predict diagnoses or symptoms at either assessment. PA inertia predicted hyperthymic temperament at baseline but not follow-up. Notably, NA variability and instability predicted the development of new bipolar spectrum disorders at the follow-up.

LIMITATIONS

Consistent with the recruitment strategy and young age of the participants, only 50% had developed diagnosable psychopathology by the time of the follow-up assessment.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study provided a unique demonstration that altered emotion dynamics differentially predicted bipolar and depressive psychopathology concurrently and prospectively. Emotion dynamics are important to both digital phenotyping and mobile-based interventions as emotional instability offers a measurable risk factor that is identifiable prior to illness onset.

Using the time-varying autoregressive model to study dynamic changes in situation perceptions and emotional reactions

OBJECTIVE

Assuming personality to be a system of intra-individual processes emerging over time in interaction with the environment, we propose an idiographic approach to investigate potential changes of intra-individual dynamics in the perception of situations and emotions of individuals varying in personality traits. We compared the semiparametric time-varying autoregressive model (TV-AR) that takes into account the non-stationarity of psychological processes at the individual level, with the standard AR model.

METHOD

We conducted analyses of individual time series to assess intra-individual changes in mean levels and inertia on data from two adolescents who completed measures of personality and indicated their situation perceptions and emotions five times a day for 19 days.

RESULTS

For the less honest, emotional, extraverted, and more agreeable adolescent, the TV-AR model detected reliable changes in the intra-individual dynamics of situation perceptions and emotions whereas, for the other individual, the standard AR model was more preferred, given the lack of changes in the intra-individual dynamics.

CONCLUSIONS

Psychological processes dynamics in situation perception and emotions may vary from person to person depending on their personality. This work constitutes a first step in demonstrating that an idiographic approach has advantages in identifying changes in individuals' perceptions and reactions to situations.

Heart rate (variability) and the association between relational peer victimization and internalizing symptoms in elementary school children

Relational victimization typically emerges first during the elementary school period, and has been associated with increased levels of internalizing symptoms in children. Individual differences in autonomic nervous system functioning have been suggested as a potential factor linking social stressors and internalizing symptoms. The aim of this study was therefore to examine whether heart rate and heart rate variability mediated the association between relational victimization and internalizing symptoms in 373 mainstream elementary school children. Children were assessed in 2015 (T0; Grades 3–5, M age = 9.78 years, 51% boys) and reassessed in 2016 (T1). Heart rate and heart rate variability were assessed during a regular school day at T1. A multi-informant (teacher and peer report) cross-time measure of relational victimization, and a multi-informant (self- and teacher report) measure of internalizing problems at T1 was used. Results showed that heart rate variability, but not heart rate, mediated the association between relational victimization and internalizing symptoms. This study provides tentative support that in children from a general population sample, a psychobiological factor may mediate the association of relational victimization with internalizing symptoms.

Adolescent Emotion Network Dynamics in Daily Life and Implications for Depression

Emotion network density describes the degree of interdependence among emotion states across time. Higher density is theorized to reflect rigidity in emotion functioning and has been associated with depression in adult samples. This paper extended research on emotion networks to adolescents and examined associations between emotion network density and: 1) emotion regulation and 2) symptoms of depression. Data from a daily diary study (t = 21 days) of adolescents (N = 151; 61.59% female; mean age = 14.60 years) were used to construct emotion network density scores. Emotion regulation was measured using The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF). Depression was measured using the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-Short Version (RCADS-SV). Associations between emotion network density and DERS-SF were examined through Pearson correlations. Multiple regression analyses examined associations between emotion network density and depression. Emotion network density was not associated with the DERS-SF. Follow-up analyses showed that it was positively associated with non-acceptance of emotions (a subscale of the DERS-SF). Emotion network density was positively associated with RCADS-SV depression. Non-acceptance of emotions may encourage the spread of emotion across time and states given that a feature of non-acceptance is to have secondary emotional responses to one's emotions. Emotion networks that are self-predictive may be a risk factor for adolescent depression.

Daily Affect and Self-Esteem in Early Adolescence: Correlates of Mean Levels and Within-Person Variability

Emotions and self-esteem are critical components of well-being and adaptation during adolescence. People differ in their average levels of affect and self-esteem, as well as in how much their affect and self-esteem fluctuate from moment to moment. Fluctuations in affect in particular have not been extensively examined in relation to adolescent-relevant variables. The present study investigates internalizing symptoms, social functioning, and overt and relational aggression as correlates of average levels and within-person variability in daily positive and negative affect (PA and NA) and self-esteem. Crucially, unique association were examined controlling for the other variables. Early adolescents (mean age 10.8 years, N = 94) completed daily diaries across four days on PA, NA, and self-esteem. They also completed general questionnaires, as did peers. Some key findings were that more internalizing symptoms were significantly associated with more variability in NA. The importance of peer relationships for adolescents' daily mean levels of PA and NA were shown. Peer-perceived social functioning was associated with less fluctuations in self-esteem. Some unexpected, non-significant, findings for aggression appeared. Finally, higher mean NA were associated with more NA fluctuations, whereas higher mean PA and self-esteem were associated with less fluctuations.

Protective Factors Associated with Daily Affective Reactivity and Instability During Adolescence

The daily emotional experiences of adolescents are dynamic, vary significantly across individuals, and are crucial to their psychological adjustment, warranting a need to identify factors that promote adaptive affective responses to stressors and attenuated affective instability. The objective of this study, therefore, was to examine protective factors linked to individual differences in daily affective reactivity and instability utilizing a daily diary design in a national sample of 100 U.S. adolescents (13-17 years; 40% girls; 79% White). Adolescents completed a baseline survey and then 14 daily online surveys. Better mother-adolescent communication predicted lower negative affect reactivity, whereas greater use of problem-focused coping strategies predicted higher positive affect reactivity. Greater trait resilience and instrumental support seeking predicted lower negative affect instability. Conversely, more emotional support seeking predicted higher negative affect instability. No factors were associated with positive affect instability, and father-adolescent communication was unrelated to daily affective reactivity and instability. The findings implicate specific protective factors associated with distinct aspects of affective reactivity and instability.

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Adolescents with Elevated Externalizing Symptoms Show Heightened Emotion Reactivity to Daily Stress: An Experience Sampling Study

Numerous theories assert that youth with externalizing symptomatology experience intensified emotion reactivity to stressful events; yet scant empirical research has assessed this notion. Using in-vivo data collected via experience sampling methodology, we assessed whether externalizing symptoms conditioned adolescents' emotion reactivity to daily stressors (i.e. change in emotion pre-post stressor) among 206 socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents. We also assessed whether higher externalizing symptomology was associated with experiencing more stressors overall, and whether adolescents' emotional upheavals resulted in experiencing a subsequent stressor. Hierarchical linear models showed that adolescents higher in externalizing symptoms experienced stronger emotion reactivity in sadness, anger, jealously, loneliness, and (dips in) excitement. Externalizing symptomatology was not associated with more stressful events, but a stress-preventative effect was found for recent upheavals in jealousy among youth low in externalizing. Findings pinpoint intense emotion reactivity to daily stress as a risk factor for youth with externalizing symptoms living in socioeconomic disadvantage.

Understanding Emotion in Adolescents: A Review of Emotional Frequency, Intensity, Instability, and Clarity

Adolescence is a time of transition from childhood to adulthood during which significant changes occur across multiple domains, including emotional experience. This article reviews the relevant literature on adolescents’ experience of four specific dimensions of emotion: emotional frequency, intensity, instability, and clarity. In an effort to examine how emotional experiences change as individuals approach adulthood, we examine these dimensions across ages 10 to 19, and review how the emotional functioning of adolescents compares to that of adults. In addition, we explore whether and how gender and puberty explain age differences in emotional experience. Finally, we discuss how these findings could inform future research on both the typical trajectory of emotional experience and the development of psychopathology in adolescence.

Prospective predictors of first-onset depressive disorders in adolescent females with anxiety disorders

BACKGROUND

Anxious youth are at increased risk for later depressive disorders, but not all anxious youth develop depression. Sequential comorbidity models emphasize shared risk factors and anxiety sequelae, but some anxious youth who later develop depression may have risk factors that are relatively specific to depression, in addition to a liability to anxiety. We examined several variables that appear relatively specific to risk for depression-the personality traits of low positive affectivity and high sadness, and an electrophysiological measure of blunted response to reward - in predicting first-onset depressive disorders and depressive symptoms in clinically anxious adolescent girls.

METHODS

A sample of 114 adolescents with baseline anxiety disorders completed personality and psychopathology measures, psychophysiology tasks, and diagnostic interviews. Interviews and a measure of depressive symptoms were re-administered over 27 months.

RESULTS

After controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, blunted reward sensitivity uniquely predicted first-onset depressive disorders and depressive symptoms 27 months later. Post-hoc analyses indicated that blunted reward sensitivity only predicted first-onset depressive disorders and depressive symptoms in girls with high social anxiety symptoms.

LIMITATIONS

Analyses were unable to account for concurrent anxiety symptoms and disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

The depression-specific risk factor, blunted reward sensitivity, may comprise one pathway to subsequent depressive disorders and symptoms in anxious youth and indicate which anxious youth need intervention to prevent later depression, particularly in socially anxious girls.

Negative and Positive Emotion Responses to Daily School Problems: Links to Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Examining emotion reactivity and recovery following minor problems in daily life can deepen our understanding of how stress affects child mental health. This study assessed children's immediate and delayed emotion responses to daily problems at school, and examined their correlations with psychological symptoms. On 5 consecutive weekdays, 83 fifth graders (M = 10.91 years, SD = 0.53, 51% female) completed brief diary forms 5 times per day, providing repeated ratings of school problems and emotions. They also completed a one-time questionnaire about symptoms of depression, and parents and teachers rated child internalizing and externalizing problems. Using multilevel modeling techniques, we assessed within-person daily associations between school problems and negative and positive emotion at school and again at bedtime. On days when children experienced more school problems, they reported more negative emotion and less positive emotion at school, and at bedtime. There were reliable individual differences in emotion reactivity and recovery. Individual-level indices of emotion responses derived from multilevel models were correlated with child psychological symptoms. Children who showed more negative emotion reactivity reported more depressive symptoms. Multiple informants described fewer internalizing problems among children who showed better recovery by bedtime, even after controlling for children's average levels of exposure to school problems. Diary methods can extend our understanding of the links between daily stress, emotions and child mental health. Recovery following stressful events may be an important target of research and intervention for child internalizing problems.

Positive and Negative Affect and Adolescent Adjustment: Moderation Effects of Prefrontal Functioning

We examined whether cognitive control moderates the effects of emotion on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in a longitudinal study of 138 adolescents. Self-reported positive affect (PA) and negative affect and behavioral and neural indicators of cognitive control, indexed by performance and prefrontal hemodynamic response during a cognitive interference task, were collected at Time 1. Self-reported internalizing and externalizing symptomatology were collected at Time 1 and Time 2 (1 year later). Results indicated that higher PA predicted decreases in externalizing symptomatology, but only for adolescents with poor neural cognitive control. No moderation effects were found for behavioral cognitive control. Findings imply the beneficial effects of PA on the development of externalizing problems among adolescents with poor prefrontal functioning.

Adolescents' Daily Perception of Internalizing Emotional States by Means of Smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment

This study uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with smartphone devices to examine community adolescents' perceptions regarding both the intensity of and variability in their daily sadness/depression, anxiety, and somatic problems over the period of one week. Participants were 90 high-school students (M age = 14.61, SD = 1.64; range 12-18). The sample was divided according to gender (61.1% girls), migratory status (68.5% Spanish nationals and 31.5% Latin American immigrants), and level of psychological symptoms (17% risk group). Sadness/depression, anxiety, and somatic problems were examined using a smartphone app, five times per day, semi-randomly, for seven days (35 possible moments). A high proportion of adolescents did not report feelings of sadness (80.0%) or worry (79.3%) or physical symptoms on a daily basis (84.9%). Girls and the risk group reported greater intensity levels for the three analyzed problems than did boys and the normal group, respectively (p .05 in all cases). Day-to-day fluctuations in mood during the week were statistically significant but not meaningful (b = 0.0004, 95% CI [0.0001, 0.0008], p = .001).

Difficulties with emotion regulation moderate the association between childhood history of maltreatment and cortisol reactivity to psychosocial challenge in postpartum women

Exposure to child maltreatment can lead to long-term emotional difficulties and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. However, no prior work has examined emotion regulation as a moderator of the association between childhood history of maltreatment and cortisol response to psychosocial challenge. Amongst a sample of 140 postpartum women, associations between childhood maltreatment, emotion regulation, and cortisol response to a computerized Emotional Stroop paradigm were examined using structural equation modeling. Three saliva samples (baseline, 20- and 40-min post-challenge) were collected and later assayed for cortisol. Stepwise regression analyses revealed that difficulties with emotion regulation significantly moderated the association between maternal history of child maltreatment and cortisol reactivity (β=-0.17, CI_.95=-0.31, -0.04, t=-2.51, p=0.01). Specifically, women with higher child maltreatment scores and greater difficulties with emotion regulation displayed reduced cortisol reactivity. This finding suggests that diminished emotion regulation capacity may uniquely contribute to blunted physiological reactivity in postpartum women exposed to higher levels of child maltreatment. As the postpartum period has significant implications for maternal well-being and infant development, these findings are discussed in terms of adaptive responsivity, maternal behaviour, and clinical practice.

The role of stress reactivity in the long-term persistence of adolescent social anxiety symptoms

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) symptoms demonstrate a marked persistence over time, but little is known empirically about short-term processes that may account for this long-term persistence. In this study, we examined how self-reported and physiological stress reactivity were associated with persistence of SAD symptoms from early to late adolescence. A community sample of 327 adolescents (56% boys, M_age=13.01 at T₁) reported their SAD symptoms for 6 successive years and participated in a public speaking task, during which self-reported (i.e., perceived nervousness and heart rate) and physiological (i.e., cortisol and heart rate) measures of stress were taken. Overall, our results point to a developmental process in which adolescents with a developmental history of higher SAD symptoms show both heightened perceived stress reactivity and heart rate reactivity, which, in turn, predict higher SAD symptoms into late adolescence.

Disadvantaged youth report less negative emotion to minor stressors when with peers

Previous Experience Sampling Method (ESM) studies demonstrate that adolescents’ daily emotional states are heavily influenced by their immediate social context. However, despite adolescence being a risk period for exposure to daily stressors, research has yet to examine the influence of peers on adolescents’ emotional responses to stressors encountered in their daily life. Adolescents ( N = 108) from a low-SES school completed ESM reports of their social context, minor stressors and emotions, 5 times a day for 7 days. Based on previous findings that the peer context is experienced as positive and rewarding, we expected being with peers would be associated with lower post-stress negative emotions and higher happiness, compared to being with family or alone. As expected, being with peers after a stressor was associated with lower sadness, worry and jealousy compared to being alone, and lower sadness compared to being with family. Gender differences emerged for the influence of peers on sadness, worry, jealousy and happiness. These findings highlight the salient influence of peers on adolescents’ emotional reactivity to stressors as they occur in their natural environment. Findings are discussed in reference to peers as important emotion socialization agents during adolescence and in terms of theories of coping and emotion regulation.

Positive Emotion Specificity and Mood Symptoms in an Adolescent Outpatient Sample

Research on positive emotion disturbance has gained increasing attention, yet it is not clear which specific positive emotions are affected by mood symptoms, particularly during the critical period of adolescence. This is especially pertinent for identifying potential endophenotypic markers associated with mood disorder onset and course. The present study examined self-reported discrete positive and negative emotions in association with clinician-rated manic and depressive mood symptoms in a clinically and demographically diverse group of 401 outpatient adolescents between 11-18 years of age. Results indicated that higher self reported joy and contempt were associated with increased symptoms of mania, after controlling for symptoms of depression. Low levels of joy and high sadness uniquely predicted symptoms of depression, after controlling for symptoms of mania. Results were independent of age, ethnicity, gender and bipolar diagnosis. These findings extend work on specific emotions implicated in mood pathology in adulthood, and provide insights into associations between emotions associated with goal driven behavior with manic and depressive mood symptom severity in adolescence. In particular, joy was the only emotion associated with both depressive and manic symptoms across adolescent psychopathology, highlighting the importance of understanding positive emotion disturbance during adolescent development.

Depressive Symptoms and the Experience of Pleasure in Daily Life: An Exploration of Associations in Early and Late Adolescence

Although loss of pleasure (i.e., anhedonia) is one of the two core symptoms of depression, very little research has examined the relation between depressive symptoms and the experience of pleasure in daily life. This exploratory study in two population-based adolescent samples aimed to examine how depressive symptoms and anhedonia specifically were related to (1) the proportion and intensity of positive events, (2) mean and variability of positive affect (PA), (3) reactivity to positive events, and (4) reactivity to PA (i.e., whether PA elicits positive events). We used Experience Sampling to measure positive events and PA several times a day during 6 to 14 days in early (N = 284) and late (N = 74) adolescents. Results showed that depressive symptoms were related to a lower proportion and intensity of positive events, lower mean PA, and higher variability in PA regardless of sex and stage of adolescence. No clear evidence was found for differential reactivity to positive events or to PA. Anhedonia was not associated with most daily life experiences of pleasure. Our findings, though preliminary, suggest that although adolescents with many depressive symptoms experience less positive events and lower PA, they are able to enjoy pleasurable events to the same extent as individuals with fewer depressive symptoms.