Cortisol Reactivity and Socially Anxious Behavior in Previously Institutionalized Youth

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - The current study investigated the association between cortisol stress reactivity to a social stressor and observed socially anxious behaviors...     

Mindful Parenting and Emotion Socialization Practices: Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations

Caregivers play a crucial role in the socialization of youth emotion understanding, competence, and regulation, which are implicated in youth social and emotional health; however, there is less understanding of parental psychosocial or cognitive factors, like mindful parenting, that may be associated with the use of particular emotion socialization (ES) strategies. This study tests a model of the cross‐sectional and short‐term longitudinal associations between mindful parenting and supportive and nonsupportive ES strategies in a community sample of parents (N = 246; 63.8% mothers) of youth ranging from ages 3–12. Caregivers reported on mindful parenting and ES strategies at two time points 4 months apart. The structural equation model indicated that higher levels of mindful parenting are positively related to supportive ES responses and negatively related to nonsupportive ES responses both concurrently and over time. The longitudinal association between mindful parenting and nonsupportive, but not supportive, ES was marginally larger for fathers as compared to mothers. Given the documented impact of ES strategies on youth emotional and behavioral outcomes and interventions emerging to educate parents about how to provide a healthy emotional atmosphere, incorporating a focus on mindful parenting strategies may provide one pathway to increase supportive responses and decrease nonsupportive ones.     

Combined Emotional Socialization Training and Family Accommodation Modification: Impact on Emotional Regulation and Anxiety Symptoms in Anxious Children

Past studies show that emotional socialization and family accommodation are involved in children's anxiety, but research has yet to investigate whether targeting emotional socialization training (EST), family accommodation modification (FAM), or EST and FAM in tandem can reduce anxiety in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a combination of EST and FAM on improving emotion regulation (ER) and reducing anxiety symptoms in anxious children. The sample consisted of 80 children with an anxiety disorder (M_age = 6.7, SD = 0.1) and their mothers. Mothers were randomly assigned to an EST (n = 17), FAM (n = 16), Combined (n = 17), or a waitlist control (WLC) (n = 16) groups. Mothers completed The Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC) and Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) at pre-test, post-test, and at 6-month of follow-up. The results showed that the EST, FAM, and Combined groups were more effective than WLC in improving ER and reducing anxiety severity at post-test and follow-up. Among the intervention groups, children in the combined group showed greater reductions in the severity of anxiety symptoms and emotion dysregulation than the other two groups. Assisting parents to use strategies that encourage healthy emotion regulation and decrease family accommodation might help reduce the severity of children's anxiety symptoms.     

Maternal Emotion Dysregulation Predicts Emotion Socialization Practices and Adolescent Emotion Lability: Conditional Effects of Youth ADHD Symptoms

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Maternal emotional functioning and emotion socialization practices can facilitate or hinder children’s emotional development, and youth with...     

Conduct Disordered Youth in Group Care: An Examination of Negative Peer Influence

We examined the potential impact of negative peer influence within a treatment-focused residential care setting. Subjects were 712 youth consecutively admitted to a large residential treatment program (9–19 years of age). Based on Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) scores, 247 (35%) of these youth qualified for a Conduct Disorder diagnosis at admission. The dependent measures were the number of DISC Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)/Conduct Disorder (CD) symptoms and the sum of Conduct Problem behaviors observed daily for each youth. Both the Conduct Problem Behaviors and the ODD/CD symptoms for both CD and non-CD groups decreased over time. Youth with a CD diagnosis or who were female improved at a faster rate than their peers. The data analyzed in this study do not support a negative peer influence effect for antisocial youth placed in a treatment-focused residential care setting.     

Preschool Children's Emotional Expressions with Peers: The Roles of Gender and Emotion Socialization

This study examined whether mothers and fathers reported using different emotion socialization strategies and whether these differences were related to preschoolers' gender and emotional expressiveness during peer play. Ninety percent of the children were Caucasian, 6% were Asian-American, and 4% were Mexican-American. The positive expressive behavior of 82 preschoolers participating in two conflict eliciting situations with two same gender peers were coded. The scores for the two sessions were averaged. All of the mothers and 63 of the fathers were administered three emotion socialization questionnaires. Results revealed that girls expressed more positive emotion than boys. In addition, mothers and fathers also reported using different emotion socialization practices and, in some cases, this was dependent upon their child's gender. The findings also showed that mothers' and fathers' reports of emotion socialization practices were differentially related to children's emotionally expressive behavior during peer play. In addition, fathers' emotion socialization practices accounted for unique variance in children's emotionally expressive behavior over and above that explained by the maternal emotion socialization variables. These findings highlight the importance of mothers' and fathers' emotion socialization practices for preschoolers' emotional competence in emotionally challenging situations with peers.     

Relations of Parenting and Negative Life Events to Cognitive Diatheses for Depression in Children

In a sample of 299 children (grades 2, 4, and 6), we examined parenting and negative life events as predictors of depressive cognitions, specifically low self-perceived competence, depressive cognitive schemas, and depressogenic attributional style. We also examined developmental trends in these relations. Children completed measures of parenting, negative life events, and depressive cognitions. Parents also completed measures of parenting and negative life events. Consistent with our hypotheses, negative parenting and negative life events corresponded with higher levels of depressive cognitions, whereas positive parenting corresponded with lower levels of depressive cognitions. The relations between negative parenting and negative automatic thoughts were stronger for older children. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Maternal Emotion Socialization and the Development of Inhibitory Control in an Emotional Condition

Although several studies have implicated parental socialization in children's development of multiple executive functions, little is known about how parenting may predict inhibitory control when emotion is involved. In this study, 42 children completed two tasks with their mothers at 3.5 years. Maternal emotion language was coded during a storybook task, and maternal scaffolding was coded during a puzzle task. At 3.5 and 4 years, children's inhibitory control was assessed with Day–Night and Happy–Sad card games, Stroop‐like tasks that differ in that the latter contains emotion content. Accuracy and latency on Happy–Sad were predicted by maternal emotion language but not scaffolding. In contrast, latency on Day–Night was predicted by scaffolding but not emotion language. This shows context‐specificity in the links between parenting and cognitive control, such that emotion socialization predicted children's performance in an emotional context only, while more general scaffolding behaviours predicted inhibitory control in the non‐emotional condition. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emotion Regulation in Youth with Emotional Disorders: Implications for a Unified Treatment Approach

Given the relationship between internalizing disorders and deficits in emotion regulation in youth, the emotion science literature has suggested several avenues for increasing the efficacy of interventions for youth presenting with anxiety and depression. These possibilities include the identification and addition of emotion-regulation skills to existing treatment packages and broadening the scope of those emotions addressed in cognitive-behavioral treatments. Current emotion-focused interventions designed to meet one or both of these goals are discussed, and the developmental influences relevant to the selection of emotion-focused treatment goals are explored using the framework of a modal model of emotion regulation. These various lines of evidence are woven together to support the utility of a novel emotion-focused, cognitive-behavioral intervention, the Unified Protocol for the Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Youth, a transdiagnostic treatment protocol that aims to treat the range of emotional disorders (i.e., anxiety and depression) simultaneously. Avenues for future directions in treatment outcome and assessment of emotion regulation are also discussed.     

网络成瘾倾向者对负性表情注意的脱离困难

采用Young编制的IAT量表从382名青少年中筛选出网络成瘾倾向者15名,非网络成瘾控制组被试18名,利用视觉搜索范式比较了两组被试对真人面孔和卡通面孔表情的注意偏向差异。结果表明：（1）在注意快速定向阶段,当要求被试快速准确地从中性面孔矩阵中搜索高兴或者愤怒面孔时,相较于控制组被试,网络成瘾倾向者搜索愤怒面孔更迅速,尤其表现为对卡通愤怒面孔的快速定向优势;（2）在注意的维持和脱离阶段,当在愤怒或高兴面孔矩阵中搜索中性面孔时,相较于控制组被试,网络成瘾倾向者在更具威胁性的真人愤怒面孔矩阵中最难脱离。结论：网络成瘾倾向者具有负性注意偏向特点,表现为对负性表情具有快速定向和解脱困难。且相较于控制组被试,网络成瘾倾向者对卡通面孔注意定向更快而更难从真人愤怒面孔矩阵中脱离,也说明了其注意偏向主要为对负性信息的注意解除困难。     

Emotion Socialization in the Context of Family Risks: Links to Child Emotion Regulation

The current study expands upon the extant literature by examining the influence of contextual risk factors (e.g., parental psychological distress, household income, educational attainment) on parental responses to children’s emotional experiences. Participants included 97 ethnically and demographically diverse mother–child dyads with children ranging in age from 7 to 12. Mothers reported indicators of supportive and unsupportive emotion socialization practices, and measures of child emotion regulation and emotion dysregulation. Higher scores on the familial risk index were positively related to increased emotion dysregulation and negatively related to decreased emotion regulation through mediated effects of mothers’ unsupportive reactions to children’s negative emotional expressions. These findings suggest the importance of considering contextual influences on the emotion socialization process and offer potential avenues to foster adaptive emotional development in the context of high risk.     

Peer Experiences of Anxious and Socially Withdrawn Youth: An Integrative Review of the Developmental and Clinical Literature

Prior research indicates that both anxious youth and socially withdrawn youth tend to experience challenges and difficulties in various aspects of their peer relationships and social functioning. While clinical psychology researchers have examined how anxiety relates to peer experiences using normative and clinically anxious samples, developmental psychologists have focused primarily on the peer experiences of shy and withdrawn children. Research from these two fields has progressed on related yet separate paths, producing similar results despite using different terminology and assessment techniques. The purpose of this review is to bring together the developmental and clinical bodies of literature on the peer experiences of anxious and socially withdrawn youth by identifying common themes and unique contributions of each discipline. Studies reviewed focus specifically on the peer constructs of acceptance, friendship, peer victimization, social skills, and social-cognitive processes. Limitations including methodological inconsistencies and insufficient examination of age-, gender-, and ethnicity-related issues are identified. Recommendations for future collaborations between developmental and clinical researchers as well as implications for interventions targeting the peer relations of anxious and withdrawn youth are discussed.     

Continuity in Emotion Knowledge from Preschool to Middle-Childhood and Relation to Emotion Socialization

This longitudinal study examined the preschool correlates of middle school children's knowledge of emotional display rules. Participants included 50 children (29 girls) who were seen at preschoolage and again 4 years later. A total of 91% of the children were Caucasian, 4.5% were Mexican American, and 4.5% were Asian American. During the preschool period, measures included children's knowledge of facial expressions, knowledge of emotion-eliciting situations, and emotional role-taking ability. In addition, the rate at which their mothers explained the causes of emotions was assessed. Four years later, the children's knowledge of emotional display rules was assessed. The display rule measures included expression regulation knowledge (i.e., whether the children altered the facial expression relative to the internal feeling without providing a motive), self-protective display rules, and prosocial display rules. Results revealed that preschoolers' situation knowledge was a negative predictor of expression regulation knowledge and that emotional role-taking was inversely related to knowledge of self-protective display rules. The results also demonstrated that the rate at which mothers' explained emotions to their children as preschoolers was positively associated with expression regulation knowledge and knowledge of prosocial display rules.     

Effects of Peer Victimization on Child Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties: The Moderating Role of Parenting

While the harmful effects of peer victimization have been well documented, there is limited research on the parental behaviors as potential moderators of victimization and child mental health outcomes. The current study examined the moderating effects of parental warmth, parental rejection, and child gender on the relation between peer victimization and child mental health difficulties, i.e., emotional and behavioral difficulties. Participants included 425 Chinese elementary school children in grades 3 to 6 (M_age?=?10.59, SD_age?=?1.11), who self-reported on peer victimization experiences, perceived parental warmth and rejection, and mental health difficulties. Data were collected at two-time points, six months apart. Victimization and parental rejection positively predicted child emotional and behavioral difficulties, while parental warmth negatively predicted child emotional and behavioral difficulties at both time points. Victimization significantly predicted emotional difficulties (at time 1) and behavioral difficulties (at time 2) for girls, but not boys. In addition, gender moderated the interaction of victimization and parental rejection in predicting child behavioral difficulties at time 1, i.e., parental rejection exacerbated the effects of peer victimization on behavioral difficulties for girls only. Findings highlight the need to target bullying prevention efforts, and underscore the importance of evaluating peer and parental factors while working with children with emotional and behavioral issues.

     

Threat-Related Attentional Bias in Anxious Youth: A Review

The research literature suggests that children and adolescents suffering from anxiety disorders experience cognitive distortions that magnify their perceived level of threat in the environment. Of these distortions, an attentional bias toward threat-related information has received the most theoretical and empirical consideration. A large volume of research suggests that anxiety-disordered youth selectively allocate their attention toward threat-related information. The present review critically examines this research and highlights several issues relevant to the study of threat-related attentional bias in youth, including the influences of temperament, trait anxiety, and state anxiety on threat-related attentional bias. It furthermore identifies the need for developmental and methodological considerations and recommends directions for research.     

Emotion Regulation and Parenting in AD/HD and Comparison Boys: Linkages with Social Behaviors and Peer Preference

Children's emotion regulation strategies and parenting responses in a family task that elicited frustration are investigated by, comparing core attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) symptomatology, emotional reactivity, and emotional regulation in the prediction of social behaviors and peer social preference. Participants were boys, ages 6–12 years, either with AD/HD (n = 45) or without problem behaviors (comparison; n = 34). A high-aggressive subgroup of AD/HD boys showed a significantly less constructive pattern of emotional coping than did both a low-aggressive AD/HD subgroup of boys and nondiagnosed comparison boys, who did not differ. With statistical control of core AD/HD symptomatology, noncompliance in a naturalistic summer camp was predicted by boys' overall emotion regulation and three specific strategies (emotional accommodation, problem solving, negative responses) during the parent–child interaction. Emotional accommodation and negative responses to the frustration task also marginally predicted social preference at the camp. These emotion regulation variables outperformed emotional reactivity in predicting such outcomes. Some emotion-related parenting behaviors were associated with child coping in the task. We discuss the relationship of emotion regulation to core AD/HD symptomatology and emotional reactivity, and the role of parents' behaviors in influencing children's emotional responses.     

The Role of ADHD and Negative Emotional Lability in Predicting Changes in Parenting Daily Hassles

The present study examined the extent to which children’s negative emotional lability (measured via ecological momentary assessment—EMA) and ADHD diagnostic status predicted changes in the frequency of daily parenting hassles and the stress resulting from daily hassles at one-week follow-up when controlling for baseline parenting hassles. Parents of 84 children 8–12 years-old (47 with ADHD, 37 without ADHD) completed a measure of parenting daily hassles at baseline and follow-up and participated in EMA assessment protocol ratings of their child’s mood (3-times daily) for one week. Analyses of covariance indicated that parents of children with ADHD reported significantly greater frequency of daily parenting hassles and intensity of parenting stress resulting from daily hassles than parents of children without ADHD at baseline and follow-up. Hierarchical regression analyses suggested that children’s negative emotional lability was a significant predictor of the intensity of parenting stress resulting from daily hassles, but not the frequency of daily parenting hassles. There was also an interaction of ADHD diagnostic status and greater EMA-derived negative emotional lability in the prediction of the frequency of daily parenting hassles due to children’s challenging behaviors. Specifically, greater negative emotional lability predicted more frequent daily parenting hassles due to children’s challenging behaviors among parents of children without ADHD but not among parents of children with ADHD. Overall, this study suggests that children’s negative emotional lability is a significant predictor of aspects of daily parenting hassles across parents of children with and without ADHD.