Recent advances in the genetics of emotion regulation: a review

Opioid Receptor Mu 1 Gene (OPRM1) A118G Polymorphism and Emotional Modulation of Pain

Purpose

The A118G polymorphism in the opioid receptor mu 1 gene (OPRM1) is associated with decreased opioid receptor availability, altered emotion, and increased pain. Given that emotions modulate pain (positive emotions inhibit pain, negative emotions enhance pain), we predicted that G allele carriers would experience impaired emotional modulation of pain compared to non-G allele carriers.

Patients and Methods

Emotional pictures (ie, erotica, neutral, attack) from the International Affective Picture System were used by permission from the authors to experimentally manipulate emotions in 64 adult participants while painful electrocutaneous stimulations were delivered in a cross-sectional study. Ratings of arousal and valence/pleasure were made in response to pictures, and pain ratings and a physiological measure of spinal nociception (ie, nociceptive flexion reflex, NFR) were collected in response to painful stimulations. Secondary analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the A118G polymorphism and emotional modulation of pain/NFR.

Results

Exposure to emotional pictures elicited similar changes in valence, but G-carriers rated erotic pictures as more arousing. In non-carriers, pain was facilitated by attack pictures and pain and NFR were inhibited by erotic pictures relative to neutral pictures. Among G-carriers, pain was facilitated by negative emotional pictures but there was no pain or NFR inhibition by positive emotional pictures.

Conclusion

The altered response to pleasant stimuli further supports the role of opioids in appetitive behavior and describes how the A118G polymorphism may prevent carriers from inhibiting pain during pleasure.

Preschoolers' emotion reactivity and regulation: Links with maternal psychological distress and child behavior problems

Maladaptive offspring emotion regulation has been identified as one pathway linking maternal and child psychological well-being in school-aged children. Whether such a pathway is present earlier in life still remains unclear. The present study investigated the role of preschoolers' emotion reactivity and regulation in the association between maternal psychological distress and child internalizing and externalizing problems. Children's emotion reactivity and regulation were assessed through both observed behavior and physiology. At 42 months of age, children (n = 251; 128 girls) completed a fear induction task during which their heart-rate variability was assessed and their behavior was monitored, and maternal self-reports on depressive mood and anxiety were collected. At 48 months mothers and fathers reported on their children's internalizing and externalizing problems. Higher maternal depressive mood was associated with lower child fear-related reactivity and regulation, as indexed by heart-rate variability. The latter mediated the association between higher maternal depressive mood and higher preschoolers' externalizing problems. Overall, our findings support the role of preschoolers' emotion reactivity and regulation in the relationship between maternal psychological distress and children's socio-emotional difficulties. This role may also depend on the discrete emotion to which children react or seek to regulate as, here, we only assessed fear-related reactivity and regulation.

A dyadic analysis of parent and child pain catastrophizing and health-related quality of life in pediatric sickle cell disease

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the dyadic and individual level effects of parent and child pain catastrophizing on child health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in pediatric sickle cell disease. Questionnaires assessing child pain frequency, child and parent pain catastrophizing, and child HRQOL were completed by youth and their primary caregiver. A Common Fate Model was estimated to test the dyadic level relationship between parent and child pain catastrophizing and child HRQOL. An Actor-Partner-Common Fate Model hybrid was estimated to test the relationship between child HRQOL and individual-level child pain catastrophizing and parent pain catastrophizing, respectively. In each model, child HRQOL was modelled as a dyadic variable by factoring parent and child ratings. Patients (N = 100, M age = 13.5 years, 61% female) and their caregivers (M age = 41.8 years, 86% mothers) participated. Dyad-level pain catastrophizing was negatively associated with child HRQOL, demonstrating a large effect (β = -0.809). Individual-level parent and child pain catastrophizing were each uniquely negatively associated with child HRQOL, demonstrating small to medium effects (β = -0.309, β = -0.270). Individual level effects were net of same-rater bias, which was significant for both parents and children. Both the unique and the overlapping aspects of parent and child pain catastrophizing are significant contributors to associations with child HRQOL, such that higher levels of pain catastrophizing are associated with worse child HRQOL. Findings suggest the need for multipronged intervention targeting factors common to parent-child dyads and factors unique to parents and children, respectively.

Emotional dysregulation, alexithymia and neuroticism: a systematic review on the genetic basis of a subset of psychological traits

Neuroticism, alexithymia and emotion dysregulation are key traits and known risk factors for several psychiatric conditions. In this systematic review, the aim is to evaluate the genetic contribution to these psychological phenotypes. A systematic review of articles found in PubMed was conducted. Search terms included 'genetic', 'GWAS', 'neuroticism', 'alexithymia' and 'emotion dysregulation'. Risk of bias was assessed utilizing the STREGA checklist. Two hundred two papers were selected from existing literature based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Among these, 27 were genome-wide studies and 175 were genetic association studies. Single gene association studies focused on selected groups of genes, mostly involved in neurotransmission, with conflicting results. GWAS studies on neuroticism, on the other hand, found several relevant and replicated intergenic and intronic loci affecting the expression and regulation of crucial and well-known genes (such as DRD2 and CRHR1). Mutations in genes coding for trascriptional factors were also found to be associated with neuroticism (DCC, XKR6, TCF4, RBFOX1), as well as a noncoding regulatory RNA (LINC00461). On the other hand, little GWAS data are available on alexythima and emotional dysregulation.

Systematic Review: Emotion Dysregulation in Syndromic Causes of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

OBJECTIVE

To summarize the current state of the literature regarding emotion dysregulation (ED) in syndromic intellectual disabilities (S-IDs) in 6 of the most common forms of S-IDs-Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome (FXS), tuberous sclerosis complex, Williams syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome, and Angelman syndrome-and to determine future research directions for identification and treatment of ED.

METHOD

PubMed bibliographic database was searched from date of inception to May 2021. PRISMA 2020 guidelines were followed with the flowchart, table of included studies, list of excluded studies, and checklist provided. Filters applied included human research and English. Only original research articles were included in the final set, but review articles were used to identify secondary citations of primary studies. All articles were reviewed for appropriateness by 2 authors and summarized. Inclusion criteria were met by 145 articles (Down syndrome = 29, FXS = 55, tuberous sclerosis complex = 11, Williams syndrome = 18, Prader-Willi syndrome = 24, Angelman syndrome = 8).

RESULTS

Each syndrome review was summarized separately and further subdivided into articles related to underlying neurobiology, behaviors associated with ED, assessment, and targeted intervention. FXS had the most thorough research base, followed by Down syndrome and Prader-Willi syndrome, with the other syndromes having more limited available research. Very limited research was available regarding intervention for all disorders except FXS.

CONCLUSION

Core underlying characteristics of S-IDs appear to place youth at higher risk for ED, but further research is needed to better assess and treat ED in S-IDs. Future studies should have a standard assessment measure of ED, such as the Emotion Dysregulation Inventory, and explore adapting established curricula for ED from the neurotypical and autism spectrum disorder fields.

Emotion Regulation Strategies as Risk Factors for Developmental Psychopathology: a Meta-analytic Review of Longitudinal Studies based on Cross-lagged Correlations and Panel Models

Cross-sectional relationships between emotion regulation strategies (ERSs) and several psychopathological conditions among children and adolescents have been well-demonstrated. However, the longitudinal associations of ERSs on psychopathological manifestations during development remain unclear, especially considering their reciprocal influences over time. This meta-analytic review was based on a set of ERSs referring to a comprehensive evidence-based model of ER processes. Three hundred thirty-five studies were screened. The meta-analytic procedures were based on 60 studies (N = 20, 191; age: M [SD] = 10.27 [4.36]; years of follow-up: M [SD] = 2.23 [2.76]), which primarily assessed prospective associations between ER_t1 and internalizing/externalizing psychopathology (PSY)_t2. The cross-lagged correlations among these variables were also considered. Results showed: i) a small prospective association between ER_t1 and PSY _t2, which was independent of age and length of follow-up period. Adaptive and maladaptive domains of ER were significant moderators. Deficits in adaptive ER seemed more associated to externalizing PSY, whereas maladaptive ER was more associated to internalizing PSY; ii) cross-lagged correlations were comparable with ER_t1 - PSY _t2 associations. Nevertheless, the detrimental effects of PSY _t1 on levels of adaptive ER_t2 were larger than the protective effects of adaptive ER_t1 on PSY_t2. iii) When the other cross-lagged correlations were controlled for, the meta-analytic cross-lagged panel model demonstrated that maladaptive ER_t1 was a significant predictor of PSY_t2. ER processes should be considered transdiagnostic risk factors for psychopathology during development. Homotypic and heterotypic continuity of psychopathological conditions might reflect the stability or dynamic organization of adaptive and maladaptive ERSs over time.

Emotion dysregulation in ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions: a co-twin control study

BACKGROUND

Emotion dysregulation (ED) is common in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and often results in adverse outcomes. However, ED has been suggested as a transdiagnostic construct, why the specific association between ADHD and ED when adjusting for other mental health conditions needs further investigation. It is also important to determine the aetiological basis of the association between ADHD and ED to inform the theoretical conceptualization of ADHD.

METHOD

This study used a co-twin control design, including a sample of dizygotic (DZ) and monozygotic (MZ) twins (N = 389; 45.8% females, age = 8-31 years, MZ twin pairs 57.6%). ED was assessed using the dysregulation profile from the parent-rated Child Behaviour Checklist and its adult version. Regression analyses were used across individuals and within the pairs, while adjusting for diagnoses of autism, intellectual disability, other neurodevelopmental conditions and affective conditions.

RESULTS

ADHD was significantly associated with ED, even when adjusting for age, sex, attention problems and other mental health conditions, and was the diagnosis most strongly associated with ED. Within-pair analyses revealed that twins with ADHD had higher levels of ED compared to their co-twin without ADHD. This association remained within DZ twins and was non-significant in the MZ subsample, with non-overlapping confidence intervals between the DZ and MZ estimates.

CONCLUSION

ADHD is strongly and in part independently linked to ED, stressing the importance of early detection and treatment of emotional difficulties within this group. The findings from the within-pair analyses indicate a genetic influence on the association between ADHD and ED.

Association of emotion reactivity and distress intolerance with suicide attempts in U.S. Army soldiers

INTRODUCTION

Emotion reactivity (ER) and distress intolerance (DI) may be associated with increased suicide attempt (SA) risk among U.S. Army soldiers.

METHOD

In this case-control study, 74 soldiers recently hospitalized for SA (cases) were compared with 133 control soldiers from the same Army installations selected based on either propensity score matching (n = 103) or reported 12-month suicide ideation (SI) (n = 30). Controls were weighted to represent the total Army population at the study sites and the subpopulation of 12-month ideators. Participants completed questionnaires assessing ER, DI, and other psychosocial variables. Logistic regression analyses examined whether ER and DI differentiated SA cases from the general population and from 12-month ideators before and after controlling for additional important risk factors (sociodemographic characteristics, stressors, mental disorders).

RESULTS

In univariate analyses, ER differentiated SA cases from both the general population (OR = 2.5[95%CI = 1.7-3.6]) and soldiers with 12-month SI (OR = 2.5[95%CI = 1.3-4.6]). DI also differentiated cases from the general population (OR = 2.9[95%CI = 2.0-4.1]) and 12-month ideators (OR = 1.9[95%CI = 1.1-3.5]). These associations persisted after controlling for sociodemographic variables, stressors, and mental disorders.

CONCLUSION

Findings provide evidence that higher ER and DI are associated with increased risk of SA among soldiers, even after adjusting for known risk factors. Prospective research with larger samples is needed.

Transactional patterns of depressive symptoms between mothers and adolescents: The role of emotion regulation

BACKGROUND

Depression is a highly prevalent, debilitating disorder that runs in families. Yet, empirical support for bidirectional mechanisms linking mother-adolescent depression symptoms remains limited. This study examined longitudinal bidirectional relations among emotion regulation (ER) constructs and depressive symptoms among mother-adolescent dyads over time. Pathways for girls and boys were explored separately, given extant research on sex differences in the intergenerational transmission of depression.

METHODS

Adolescent (n = 232; M = 15.02 years, SD = 0.95; 44% female)-mother dyads, drawn from a longitudinal study on the development of risky behaviors, completed annual assessments of depressive symptoms and facets of ER over 4 years. Panel modeling examined lagged and cross-lagged effects of mother-adolescent depressive symptoms and ER constructs over time, in a multigroup model of boys and girls.

RESULTS

Among girls, higher baseline maternal depression scores predicted increased adolescent ER difficulties (std. est. = -.42, p < .001) in turn, predicting increased adolescent depressive symptoms (std. est. = -.33, p = .002) and subsequent maternal ER difficulties (std. est. = .39, p = .002). The indirect effect of maternal depressive symptoms→adolescent ER→adolescent depressive symptoms→maternal ER was significant (ind. eff. = .10, 95% confidence interval [>.001, .19]) for girls, but not boys.

CONCLUSION

Implications for interrupting intergenerational cycles of depressive symptoms and emotion dysregulation are discussed.

Family socioeconomic status amplifies unique environmental influences on the dynamics of adolescent daily positive affective process

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

Affective processes as complex dynamical systems happen in people's daily lives. Affective dynamics characterizing unique features of individual affective systems are linked with long-term developmental outcomes. This study investigated genetic and environmental contributions, and the moderation by family socioeconomic status (SES), to two affective dynamics characterizing affective system sensitivity to the relative levels and change in affect, respectively.

METHODS

Using a sample of 490 17-year-old twins (41.1% males, 93.9% White) in a 40-day-long daily diary design, dynamical systems modeling estimated individual affective dynamics of positive and negative affect. Twin modeling examined genetic and environmental contributions to affective dynamics as well as the moderation of SES.

RESULTS

For both positive and negative affect, system sensitivity to the relative levels of affect was predominantly under unique environmental influences with negligible genetic influences; system sensitivity to the change in affect was affected by both genetic and unique environmental influences. SES amplifies unique environmental influences on sensitivity to the change in positive affect.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight different genetic and environmental origins of different adolescent affective dynamics in their daily lives, and suggest that macro contexts could influence micro timescale affective dynamics.

Functional Brain Response to Emotional Musical Stimuli in Depression, Using INLA Approach for Approximate Bayesian Inference

Introduction:

One of the vital skills which has an impact on emotional health and well-being is the regulation of emotions. In recent years, the neural basis of this process has been considered widely. One of the powerful tools for eliciting and regulating emotion is music. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is part of the emotional neural circuitry involved in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The current study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine how neural processing of emotional musical auditory stimuli is changed within the ACC in depression. Statistical inference is conducted using a Bayesian Generalized Linear Model (GLM) approach with an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm.

Methods:

A new proposed Bayesian approach was applied for assessing functional response to emotional musical auditory stimuli in a block design fMRI data with 105 scans of two healthy and depressed women. In this Bayesian approach, Unweighted Graph-Laplacian (UGL) prior was chosen for spatial dependency, and autoregressive (AR) (1) process was used for temporal correlation via pre-weighting residuals. Finally, the inference was conducted using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm in the R-INLA package.

Results:

The results revealed that positive music, as compared to negative music, elicits stronger activation within the ACC area in both healthy and depressed subjects. In comparing MDD and Never-Depressed (ND) individuals, a significant difference was found between MDD and ND groups in response to positive music vs negative music stimuli. The activations increase from baseline to positive stimuli and decrease from baseline to negative stimuli in ND subjects. Also, a significant decrease from baseline to positive stimuli was observed in MDD subjects, but there was no significant difference between baseline and negative stimuli.

Conclusion:

Assessing the pattern of activations within ACC in a depressed individual may be useful in retraining the ACC and improving its function, and lead to more effective therapeutic interventions.

The Cascade Effect of Parent Dysfunction: An Emotion Socialization Transmission Framework

The current study tested a preliminary cascade model of parent dysfunction—i.e., internalizing psychopathology and emotion dysregulation—whereby parent dysfunction is transmitted to children through the impact of parental emotion socialization on child emotion regulation. Participants were 705 mothers (M_age = 36.17, SD = 7.55) and fathers (M_age = 35.43, SD = 6.49) of children aged 8 to 12 years who self-reported on their internalizing psychopathology, emotion regulation difficulties, and emotion socialization practices, and on their child’s internalizing psychopathology and emotion regulation. Using a split sample method, we employed a data-driven approach to develop a conceptual model from our initially proposed theoretical model with the first subsample (n = 352, 51% mothers), and then validated this model in a second subsample (n = 353, 49% mothers). Results supported a model in which the transmission of dysfunction from parent to child was sequentially mediated by unsupportive parental emotion socialization—but not supportive parental emotion socialization—and child emotion dysregulation. The indirect effects from the final model did not differ by parent gender. Findings provide preliminary support for a mechanism by which maternal and paternal internalizing psychopathology and emotion dysregulation disrupt parental emotion socialization by increasing unsupportive emotion socialization practices, which impacts children’s development of emotion regulation skills and risk for internalizing psychopathology.

The Role of Parent Self-Regulation in Youth Type 1 Diabetes Management

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Youth with strong self-regulation (SR), or the ability to manage thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, engage in more effective type 1 diabetes (T1D) management. However, while parent support and engagement are critical to ensuring positive youth T1D outcomes, it is rarely considered that parents' SR may also influence youth T1D management. If this is the case, novel interventions to improve parents' SR or ensure adequate support for parents with SR challenges offer great potential to improve family functioning and youth T1D management.

RECENT FINDINGS

Theoretical and preliminary empirical evidence suggests that parental SR impacts family processes that support youth T1D treatment regimen adherence. Furthermore, parent and youth SR likely interact, with high parent SR enhancing the positive effects of high youth SR or compensating for low youth SR. Continued research is needed to better understand the ways in which parent SR matters to youth T1D management and identify how to support improvements in T1D management among families of parents with low SR.

Do Trait Emotional Intelligence and Dispositional Mindfulness Have a Complementary Effect on the Children's and Adolescents' Emotional States?

Mindfulness is both a non-judgmental and present-centered awareness, which has been applied to reduce negative emotions. On the other hand, Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEI) is the way of how good people perceive their emotional intelligence abilities (perceiving, expressing, understanding, and regulating emotions), which are involved in people's social functioning. This empirical study was designed to analyze whether dispositional mindfulness (DM) and TEI have a potential combined role for children and adolescent's emotional states. In a sample of primary school students (N = 318), age ranged from 8 to 16 years old (M = 11.25, SD = 2.20), participants filled a TEI measure (ESCQ, Emotional skills and competence questionnaire) and two measures of DM (CAMM, Child and Adolescent Mindfulness Measure and AFQ-Y, Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth). Measures selected included: PANAS (Positive affect and negative affect schedule), White Bear Suppression Inventory (a thought suppression inventory), and STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety for Children). Findings pointed out that TEI measures (labeling and expression, understanding, and managing emotions) were positively and significantly related to positive emotional states (especially, positive affect and balance) and negatively with a lower association with state anxiety. However, DM measures were both negatively and strongly associated with negative emotional states (thought suppression, negative affect, and anxiety). Conclusions indicate that a combined effect of both TEI skills and DM based interventions would be more complete than each one separately for better social functioning of children and teenagers.

Genomics and psychological resilience: a research agenda

Although exposure to adversity increases risk for poor mental health outcomes, many people exposed to adversity do not develop such outcomes. Psychological resilience, defined broadly as positive emotional and/or behavioral adaptation to adversity, may be influenced by genetic factors that have remained largely unexplored in the era of large-scale genome-wide studies. In this perspective, we provide an integrative framework for studying human genome-wide variation underlying resilience. We first outline three complementary working definitions of psychological resilience-as a capacity, process, and outcome. For each definition, we review emerging empirical evidence, including findings from positive psychology, to illustrate how a resilience-based framework can guide novel and fruitful directions for the field of psychiatric genomics, distinct from the ongoing study of psychiatric risk and related traits. Finally, we provide practical recommendations for future genomic research on resilience, highlighting a need to augment cross-sectional findings with prospective designs that include detailed measurement of adversities and outcomes. A research framework that explicitly addresses resilience could help us to probe biological mechanisms of stress adaptation, identify individuals who may benefit the most from prevention and early intervention, and ascertain modifiable protective factors that mitigate negative outcomes even for those at high genetic risk.

Emotion, Social Relationships, and Physical Health: Concepts, Methods, and Evidence for an Integrative Perspective

Emotional characteristics and processes are robust predictors of the development and course of major medical illnesses and premature mortality, as are a variety of indicators of the presence and quality of personal relationships. Despite clear evidence of close interconnection between these two domains of risk and protection, affective characteristics and relationships have largely been studied separately as influences on health. After a recent conference on integrative perspectives on emotions, relationships and health co-sponsored by the American Psychosomatic Society and the Society for Affective Science, the present review builds on prior calls for integration, related theory, and current research to outline what is known about the interconnection of these domains as it specifically relates to their overlapping influences on health. Areas of interest include the following: their interconnected roles over the course of development, which may inform current efforts to understand the influence of early life events on adult health; the parallel positive and negative factors in both domains that could have distinct influences on health; the role of emotion regulation in relationship contexts; and measurement, design, and analysis approaches to capture the dyadic and dynamic aspects of these interconnected influences on health. We conclude with a discussion of an emerging research agenda that includes the following: common biological foundations of affective and relationship processes, the cultural embeddedness of affective and relationship processes, the potential contribution of affective-relational processes to health disparities, and implications for intervention research.

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.

The genetic and environmental etiology of child maltreatment in a parent-based extended family design

Child maltreatment has been associated with various cumulative risk factors. However, little is known about the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences between parents in perpetrating child maltreatment. To estimate the relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to perpetrating maltreatment we used a parent-based extended family design. Child-reported perpetrated maltreatment was available for 556 parents (283 women) from 63 families. To explore reporter effects (i.e., child perspective on maltreatment), child reports were compared to multi-informant reports. Based on polygenic model analyses, most of the variance related to the perpetration of physical abuse and emotional neglect was explained by common environmental factors (physical abuse: c2 = 59%, SE = 12%, p = .006; emotional neglect: c2 = 47%, SE = 8%, p &lt; .001) whereas genetic factors did not significantly contribute to the model. For perpetrated emotional abuse, in contrast, genetic factors did significantly contribute to perpetrated emotional abuse (h2 = 33%, SE = 8%, p &lt; .001), whereas common environment factors did not. Multi-informant reports led to similar estimates of genetic and common environmental effects on all measures except for emotional abuse, where a multi-informant approach yielded higher estimates of the common environmental effects. Overall, estimates of unique environment, including measurement error, were lower using multi-informant reports. In conclusion, our findings suggest that genetic pathways play a significant role in perpetrating emotional abuse, while physical abuse and emotional neglect are transmitted primarily through common environmental factors. These findings imply that interventions may need to target different mechanisms dependings on maltreatment type.

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.

DRD4 interacts with adverse life events in predicting maternal sensitivity via emotion regulation

We examined whether and how the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) interacts with adverse life events to predict maternal sensitivity directly and indirectly via emotion regulation. The sample included 209 (106 European American, 103 African American) mothers and their children (52% female). Sensitive maternal behavior was rated and aggregated across five stress-free and stress-inducing tasks when children were about 2 years old, when mothers also retrospectively reported on their adverse life experiences and transitions throughout childhood from birth to age 20. When children were about 1 year old, mothers reported on their difficulties with emotion regulation. Results from path analysis indicated that mothers who carried the long allele of DRD4 and experienced more adverse life events were less sensitive in interactions with their children. These mothers were also more likely to have difficulties with emotion regulation, which in turn predicted lower maternal sensitivity. These effects were significant above and beyond the effects of maternal education, coherence of mind, race, or infants' DRD4 genotype, and did not vary for African American and European American mothers. Results suggest that genetic predispositions modify the effects of maternal experience of adverse life events on maternal sensitivity and that emotion regulation serves as one mechanism by which genetic factors and gene-environment interactions affect maternal behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record

A Concept Analysis of Resilience Integrating Genetics

Although clinicians and researchers are interested in the phenomenon of resilience, there is no agreed-upon definition of resilience. Scientific evidence suggests that resilience is influenced by intrapersonal (e.g. personality traits) and environmental (e.g. social support) variables. A concept analysis was conducted to better understand the meaning of resilience. In this analysis, the antecedent of resilience was a potentially traumatic event; the defining attributes were ego-resiliency, emotion regulation, social support, and heredity; and the consequences were none to mild psychopathological symptoms and positive adaptation. This analysis can help nurses better understand resilience and its relationships to both intrapersonal and environmental variables.

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.