A State-Trait Model of Negative Life Event Occurrence in Adolescence: Predictors of Stability in the Occurrence of Stressors

The relation between stress and impulsivity during the first year of college

OBJECTIVE

Previous research has established that short-term and persistent stress negatively impact mental health, with one proposed consequence being increased impulsivity. The present study tests the short-term and persistent associations between stress and three facets of global self-reports of impulsivity: negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance, among young adults across 6 months of their first year of college.

METHOD

College freshmen (n = 362) completed self-report questionnaires assessing stress, negative urgency, lack of premeditation, and lack of perseverance three times over a 6-month period. Pre-registered analyses were conducted using multilevel growth curve models.

RESULTS

Confirmatory analyses suggested that persistent stress was associated with higher levels of negative urgency and trajectories of worsening lack of perseverance over time, while short-term stress was associated with higher negative urgency. Lack of premeditation was not robustly associated with stress.

CONCLUSIONS

While both persistent and short-term exposure to stress may be associated with some facets of global self-reports of impulsivity, the relations vary across facets of impulsivity. Overall, negative urgency was the most robustly associated with stress on both time scales, which suggests that this facet of impulsivity may be the most impacted in the context of stress in the first year of college.

The positive energy of netizens: development and application of fine-grained sentiment lexicon and emotional intensity model

The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a global health crisis and caused huge emotional swings. However, the positive emotional expressions, like self-confidence, optimism, and praise, that appear in Chinese social networks are rarely explored by researchers. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of netizens' positive energy expressions and the impact of node events on public emotional expression during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, a total of 6,525,249 Chinese texts posted by Sina Weibo users were randomly selected through textual data cleaning and word segmentation for corpus construction. A fine-grained sentiment lexicon that contained POSITIVE ENERGY was built using Word2Vec technology; this lexicon was later used to conduct sentiment category analysis on original posts. Next, through manual labeling and multi-classification machine learning model construction, four mainstream machine learning algorithms were selected to train the emotional intensity model. Finally, the lexicon and optimized emotional intensity model were used to analyze the emotional expressions of Chinese netizens. The results show that POSITIVE ENERGY expression accounted for 40.97% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of time, POSITIVE ENERGY emotions were displayed at the highest levels and SURPRISES the lowest. The analysis results of the node events showed after the outbreak was confirmed officially, the expressions of POSITIVE ENERGY and FEAR increased simultaneously. After the initial victory in pandemic prevention and control, the expression of POSITIVE ENERGY and SAD reached a peak, while the increase of SAD was the most prominent. The fine-grained sentiment lexicon, which includes a POSITIVE ENERGY category, demonstrated reliable algorithm performance and can be used for sentiment classification of Chinese Internet context. We also found many POSITIVE ENERGY expressions in Chinese online social platforms which are proven to be significantly affected by nod events of different nature.

Perceived stress and rejection associated with functional network strength during memory retrieval in adolescents

The brain undergoes substantial structural and functional remodeling during adolescence, including alterations in memory-processing regions influenced by stress. This study evaluated brain activation using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during spatial memory performance using a virtual Morris water task (MWT) and examined the associations between default mode network (DMN) activation, task performance, and perceived stress and rejection. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were acquired at 3 Tesla from 59 (34 female) adolescents (13-14 years). The NIH Emotion Toolbox was used to measure perceived stress and rejection. During the MWT, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex showed greater activation during memory retrieval relative to motor performance. Templates of brain functional networks from the Human Connectome Project study were used to extract individual participants' brain network activation strengths for the retrieval > motor contrast for two sub-networks of the default mode network: medial temporal lobe (MTL-DMN) and dorsomedial prefrontal (dMPFC-DMN). For the MTL-DMN sub-network only, activation was significantly associated with worse MWT performance (p = .008) and greater perceived stress (p = .008) and perceived rejection (p = .002). Further, MWT performance was negatively associated with perceived rejection (p = .007). These findings suggest that perceived stress and rejection are related to engagement of MTL-DMN during spatial memory and that engagement of this network impacts performance. These findings also demonstrate the utility of examining task-related network activation strength to identify the impact of perceived stress and rejection on large-scale brain network functioning during adolescence.

A Dynamic Examination of the Associations between Shyness, Psychological Difficulties, and Stressful Life Events during Early Adolescence

Although numerous studies have established linkages between shyness and later psychological difficulties, most extant research did not examine variation in shyness over time in relation to variation in psychological difficulties over time or possible environmental factors of influence outside of the school context. The current study used multi-level modelling to simultaneously examine time-invariant and time-variant associations between shyness, the psychological difficulties of depressive symptoms and loneliness, and stressful life events at four waves across 1 year in a community sample of 271 young adolescents (51% boys; M_age = 11.83 years at W1). Results revealed significant time-variant and time-invariant effects when loneliness was examined as a predictor of shyness. In addition, a significant interaction effect indicated that shyness decreased over time for those young adolescents who experienced few stressful life events, highlighting an understudied moderator of risk. Overall, findings have important implications for understanding the psychological concomitants of shyness as well as etiological models of shyness.

The Many Faces of Stress: Three Factors that Predict Physical Illness in Young Adults

Three studies examined how various forms of stress uniquely contribute to physical illness. We compared negative affect and perceived stress in Study 1, neuroticism and perceived stress in Study 2, and negative affect, neuroticism, and perceived stress in Study 3. We also controlled for health-related covariates (i.e., exercise, nutrition, substance use, and BMI). In all three studies (ns = 271, 577, and 300), participants completed online surveys for course credit. The results of Study 1 demonstrated that both negative affect and perceived stress predicted physical illness. In Study 2, neuroticism and perceived stress each predicted illness symptoms, and an additional interaction between neuroticism and perceived stress, were found. In Study 3, where all three stress factors were included, only negative affect predicted illness symptoms. Taken together, these results suggest that negative affect uniquely explains most of the variance in physical illness symptoms while controlling for other forms of stress.

Internalizing symptoms and cannabis and alcohol use: Between- and within-person risk pathways with coping motives

OBJECTIVE

To test reciprocal associations among internalizing symptoms (depression and social anxiety), using alcohol and cannabis to cope, and use-related problems.

METHOD

The study utilized a community sample (N = 387, 55% female; majority non-Hispanic Caucasian (83.1%) or African American (9.1%) and a longitudinal design that spanned 17 to 20 years of age, and distinguished within- and between-person associations using latent curve models with structured residuals.

RESULTS

Reciprocal prospective within-person associations were supported for alcohol, such that elevated depression symptoms were associated with increased alcohol coping motivates 1 year later, which, in turn, was associated with subsequent increased depression symptoms. Bidirectional associations were not supported for social anxiety, although high levels of social anxiety were associated with elevated levels of coping drinking 1 year later. Cannabis coping motives were associated with exacerbation of depression, but not social anxiety symptoms, 1 year later. Between- and within-person contemporaneous associations suggested that depression and social anxiety were more strongly associated with coping than social/enhancement motives, and that coping motives were associated with use-related problems.

CONCLUSION

Findings suggest that alcohol coping motivates exacerbate rather than ameliorate depression symptoms, which, in turn, leads to greater reliance on alcohol to cope. There was more consistent support for associations with substance use-related problems for depression than for social anxiety. Both between- and within-person associations may be useful for identifying targets and timing of coping-oriented interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic associations between stressful life events and adolescent internalizing psychopathology in a multiwave longitudinal study

Associations between stressful life events (SLEs) and internalizing psychopathology are complex and bidirectional, involving interactions among stressors across development to predict psychopathology (i.e., stress sensitization) and psychopathology predicting greater exposure to SLEs (i.e., stress generation). Although stress sensitization and generation theoretical models inherently focus on within-person effects, most previous research has compared average levels of stress and psychopathology across individuals in a sample (i.e., between-person effects). The present study addressed this gap by investigating stress sensitization and stress generation effects in a multiwave, prospective study of SLEs and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and SLE exposure were assessed every 3 months for 2 years (8 waves of data) in a sample of adolescents (n = 382, aged 11 to 15 at baseline). Multilevel modeling revealed within-person stress sensitization effects such that the association between within-person increases in SLEs and depression, but not anxiety, symptoms were stronger among adolescents who experienced higher average levels of SLEs across 2 years. We also observed within-person stress generation effects, such that adolescents reported a greater number of dependent-interpersonal SLEs during time periods after experiencing higher levels of depression at the previous wave than was typical for them. Although no within-person stress generation effects emerged for anxiety, higher overall levels of anxiety predicted greater exposure to dependent-interpersonal SLEs. Our findings extend prior work by demonstrating stress sensitization in predicting depression following normative forms of SLEs and stress generation effects for both depression and anxiety using a multilevel modeling approach. Clinical implications include an individualized approach to interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A latent state-trait model for analyzing states, traits, situations, method effects, and their interactions

OBJECTIVE

Studies on situation and Person × Situation interaction effects often use only one method of measurement, so that the extent to which the effects may be method-specific cannot be determined. We introduce a new multimethod latent state-trait model for random and fixed situations (MM-LST-RF), which allows examining person, situation, and Person × Situation interaction effects in the context of multimethod measurement designs (e.g., studies with multiple reporters), and discuss potential areas of application for the new model in personality research.

METHOD

The new model allows analyzing novel features of multimethod, multi-situation data, including (a) the convergent validity and method specificity of trait (person) effects, situation effects, and Person × Situation interaction effects; (b) the degree of situation specificity of method effects; and (c) potential Method × Situation interactions. An application to smoker's affect (N = 235; 57% female; 93% Caucasian) before and after quitting smoking is presented with positively and negatively worded items as methods.

RESULTS

The MM-LST-RF model fit the smoking data well. Method specificity of many effects was high.

CONCLUSIONS

The MM-LST-RF model provides researchers with a new framework for testing method specificity of person, situation, and interaction effects.

Between- and within-person associations between negative life events and alcohol outcomes in adolescents with ADHD

Escalations in alcohol use during adolescence may be linked with exposure to negative life events, but most of this research has focused on between-person associations. Moreover, adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may be an especially vulnerable population, reporting more life events and alcohol involvement and may even be more sensitive to the effects of life events on alcohol outcomes compared with those without ADHD. We tested the between- and within-person effects of the number and perceptions of negative life events on the development of alcohol use outcomes from age 14 to 17 years in 259 adolescents with and without ADHD using generalized estimating equations. Between-person differences in exposure to negative life events across adolescence, but not the perception of those events, were associated with a higher likelihood of alcohol use and drunkenness at age 17 years. Within-person differences in life events were associated with alcohol use above and beyond that predicted by an adolescents' typical trajectory over time. Parent- and teacher-reported ADHD symptoms were associated with more negative perceptions of life events and with greater alcohol use and drunkenness at age 17 years, but symptoms did not moderate the life event-alcohol association. Interventions should consider the variables that produce vulnerability to life events as well as the immediate impact of life events. That the accumulation of life events, rather than their perceived negativity, was associated with alcohol outcomes indicates that interventions targeting the reduction of negative events, rather than emotional response, may be more protective against alcohol use in adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record

Testing multiple levels of influence in the intergenerational transmission of alcohol disorders from a developmental perspective: the example of alcohol use promoting peers and μ-opioid receptor M1 variation

This study examined the interplay between the influence of peers who promote alcohol use and μ-opioid receptor M1 (OPRM1) genetic variation in the intergenerational transmission of alcohol use disorder (AUD) symptoms while separating the "traitlike" components of AUD symptoms from their age-specific manifestations at three ages from emerging adulthood (17-23 years) to adulthood (29-40 years). The results for males were consistent with genetically influenced peer selection mechanisms as mediators of parent alcoholism effects. Male children of alcoholics were less likely to be carriers of the G allele in single nucleotide polymorphism A118G (rs1799971), and those who were homozygous for the A allele were more likely to affiliate with alcohol use promoting peers who increased the risk for AUD symptoms at all ages. There was evidence for women of an interaction between OPRM1 variation and peer affiliations but only at the earliest age band. Peer influences had stronger effects among women who were G-carriers. These results illustrate the complex ways in which the interplay between influences at multiple levels of analysis can underlie the intergenerational transmission of alcohol disorders as well as the importance of considering age and gender differences in these pathways.

Childhood personality as a harbinger of competence and resilience in adulthood

This study examined the significance of childhood Big Five personality traits for competence and resilience in early adulthood. Resilience was defined in terms of adaptive success in age-salient developmental tasks despite significant adversity throughout childhood/adolescence. The Project Competence Longitudinal Study tracked 205 young people from childhood (around age 10) to emerging adulthood (EA, age 20) and young adulthood (YA, age 30; 90% retention). Multimethod composites were created for personality traits, adversity exposure, and adult outcomes of academic achievement, work, rule-abiding conduct, friendship, and romantic relationships. Regressions showed significant main effects of childhood personality predicting adult outcomes, controlling for adversity, with few interaction effects. In person-focused analyses, the resilient group in EA and YA (high competence, high adversity) showed higher childhood conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness and lower neuroticism than the maladaptive group (low competence, high adversity). The competent (high competence, low adversity) and resilient groups showed similar childhood traits. Turnaround cases, who changed from the maladaptive group in EA to the resilient group in YA, exhibited higher childhood conscientiousness than persistently maladaptive peers. Findings suggest that children on pathways to success in adulthood, whether facing low or high adversity, have capacities for emotion regulation, empathy and connection, dedication to schoolwork, and mastery and exploration.

A comparison of four approaches to account for method effects in latent state-trait analyses

Latent state-trait (LST) analysis is frequently applied in psychological research to determine the degree to which observed scores reflect stable person-specific effects, effects of situations and/or person-situation interactions, and random measurement error. Most LST applications use multiple repeatedly measured observed variables as indicators of latent trait and latent state residual factors. In practice, such indicators often show shared indicator-specific (or method) variance over time. In this article, the authors compare 4 approaches to account for such method effects in LST models and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach based on theoretical considerations, simulations, and applications to actual data sets. The simulation study revealed that the LST model with indicator-specific traits (Eid, 1996) and the LST model with M - 1 correlated method factors (Eid, Schneider, & Schwenkmezger, 1999) performed well, whereas the model with M orthogonal method factors used in the early work of Steyer, Ferring, and Schmitt (1992) and the correlated uniqueness approach (Kenny, 1976) showed limitations under conditions of either low or high method-specificity. Recommendations for the choice of an appropriate model are provided.

Prospective relations between growth in drinking and familial stressors across adolescence

Although there is much empirical support for the relation between stress and alcohol consumption in adolescence, it is unclear whether exposure to stressors is associated with overall trajectories or temporary elevations in drinking. Moreover, little research has explored whether the stress-alcohol use association in adolescence may be explained by shared risk factors that produce both individual differences in stress exposure and elevated risk for alcohol use. The present study tested these hypotheses within the context of a state-trait model of family stressors in a prospectively studied sample of children at high risk for alcoholism: children of alcoholic parents and matched controls (n = 451). Levels and growth in alcohol use were modeled longitudinally from ages 13 to 17. Results indicated that shared risk factors accounted for 53% of the impact of trait family stressors on growth in adolescent drinking, but time-specific exposure to familial stressors still predicted short-term boosts in alcohol use in adolescence. These findings imply that trait familial stressors mark adolescents at risk for alcohol use and also impact adolescent alcohol use within a short time frame (i.e., over 1 year vs. over many years) when they occur above and beyond the adolescent's "usual load" of stressors.