An Emotion Regulation Treatment for Young People With Complex Substance Use and Mental Health Issues: A Case-Series Analysis

Individuals accessing treatment within the youth alcohol and other drug (AoD) sector represent a highly vulnerable population who present with complex patterns of substance use and mental health comorbidity. Current treatments often fail to address this complexity. Emotion regulation (ER) has been identified as a promising transdiagnostic treatment target for this population of young people. The current study aimed to investigate the acceptability and feasibility of an adjunct ER intervention, ERIC (Emotion Regulation and Impulse Control) in young people receiving AoD treatment at a residential rehabilitation service. A mixed methods case series design was utilized. Ten participants aged between 16–20 years old completed 4–6 sessions of ERIC as an adjunct to their existing residential treatment. Participants undertook a post intervention feedback session and completed a number of self-report measures of ER, depression and anxiety at baseline and 2 weeks after receiving ERIC. Qualitative feedback from young people following the delivery of ERIC was positive, and suggested that ERIC was a viable and useful intervention. Participants reported that the components of ERIC, which involved metaphors and experiential exercises, were particularly beneficial and memorable. Pre-post measures indicated that 60% of the young people had both reliable and clinically significant reductions in overall emotion dysregulation, while reliable and clinically significant reductions in depression and anxiety were observed in 50% and 60% of participants respectively. Results support the acceptability of ERIC for this cohort of young people with complex substance use and mental health needs. Furthermore, these findings support the viability of delivering flexible and adjunctive ER treatments to young people seeking AoD treatment.     

Response inhibition difficulties in preterm children aged 9–12 years: Relations with emotion and behavior

Previous studies with children have demonstrated inhibition difficulties associated with prematurity, but the question of potentially catching up with a delay in inhibition processes before adolescence still remains. Moreover, preterm adolescents are more at risk than their term-born peers for presenting behavioral problems such as emotional difficulties and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. In addition to examining response inhibition, this study addressed, for the first time, the impact of an emotional context on response inhibition abilities and its relation to behavioral problems in late school-aged preterm children. Fifty-eight preterm children aged 9–12 years were compared with 61 controls on two versions of a stop-signal task, the Delay Frustration Task, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results showed general difficulties in inhibiting a response, rather than a specific impact of emotional context in preterm children. Compared with controls, these children exhibited more and longer button presses in a delay situation, as well as faster go reaction times associated with lower probability of inhibition in the stop-signal tasks. These difficulties reflected impulsivity and were associated with higher hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems. Additionally, intrauterine growth restriction was found to be an additional perinatal risk factor for hyperactivity/inattention symptoms. These findings suggest that remaining inhibition difficulties in the preterm population at preadolescence could reveal increasing behavioral issues.     

Baby do–baby see!: How action production influences action perception in infants

With a series of four experiments we show that self-produced actions influence infants’ perception of actions performed by others. After having played with an object, 7–11-month-olds simultaneously watched two videos presenting adults who act on either the same object or a different one. The 9- and 11-month-old preferred to watch the same-object video indicating an influence of action production on action perception at this age. Follow-up studies showed that this influence was restricted to object-related actions. Agentive experience enhanced interest in actions with objects, but not in watching objects or persons per se. These findings indicate that infants are not only interested in acting on objects themselves, but that this experience increases their interest in the actions of other people with the same object.     

Children's left parietal brain activation during mental rotation is reliable as well as specific

Some recent evidence suggests that mental rotation of characters in children aged 7 or 8 years might be lateralized to the left parietal hemisphere. An alternative statement exists, however, the finding might be completely unspecific for mental rotation but either be simply a function of task difficulty or a consequence of the use of characters as stimuli. To test these alternatives, ERPs of 24 second graders were measured twice: (a) during mental rotation with characters as stimuli and orientations of 30°, 90°, or 150° and (b) during memory scanning with characters as stimuli and set sizes of 1, 2, or 3 letters. In both cases, an amplitude modulation was found. The effect of mental rotation as a function of character orientation turned out to be lateralized to the left parietal hemisphere. The effect of memory scanning as a function of set size, however, turned out to be completely non-lateralized. Thus, children's left hemisphere activation during mental rotation is reliable as well as specific.     

Suppression of intrusive thoughts and working memory capacity in repressive coping

Previous research using a thought suppression paradigm found that repressors are more skilled in suppressing anxious autobiographical thoughts than low anxious, high anxious, and defensive high anxious people. Another line of research showed that individual differences in working memory capacity are related to the ability to intentionally suppress intrusive thoughts. This study aimed at combining these findings and sought to investigate whether repressors' superior ability to suppress intrusive thoughts is related to a larger working memory capacity. Results indicate that in a thought suppression paradigm, repressors report fewer intrusive thoughts for their most anxious experiences than participants in the 3 other subgroups. Furthermore, the superior ability of repressors to avoid intrusive thoughts can be explained largely by their higher working memory capacity.     

Panikattacken,ein Zusammenbruch des „Selbst“?

Anhand der Vorstellung von zwei v?llig unterschiedlich wirkenden Patienten versuche ich, die trotzdem bestehenden Gemeinsamkeiten der Menschen mit Panikattacken darzustellen. Es scheint so, als k?nnten diese Menschen Gefühle zwar allgemein spüren, aber nicht genug differenzieren und zuordnen. Mentzos sieht in der vom Patienten erlebten Angst vor dem Verlust der physischen Existenz als Todesangst eine tiefer liegende Angst vor Selbstverlust. Dieser Hypothese folgend kommt es durch St?rung der frühen Mutter-Kind-Beziehung zur Fehlentwicklung von Repr?sentanzen bei Patienten mit Panikerkrankungen. Diese Menschen reagieren dann in Situationen, denen emotionale Reaktionen entsprechen, mit k?rperlichen Symptomen, weil die Affektrepr?sentanzen nicht ausreichen, um es als psychisches Erlebnis unterzubringen. Für die Therapie von Panikerkrankungen bedeutet diese Arbeitshypothese, dass die Einbringung aller Gefühle trotz hartn?ckiger Abwehr seitens der Patienten sehr wichtig ist, um eine Nachreifung der Repr?sentanzen zu erm?glichen.     

Order Matters! Influences of Linear Order on Linguistic Category Learning

Linguistic category learning has been shown to be highly sensitive to linear order, and depending on the task, differentially sensitive to the information provided by preceding category markers (premarkers, e.g., gendered articles) or succeeding category markers (postmarkers, e.g., gendered suffixes). Given that numerous systems for marking grammatical categories exist in natural languages, it follows that a better understanding of these findings can shed light on the factors underlying this diversity. In two discriminative learning simulations and an artificial language learning experiment, we identify two factors that modulate linear order effects in linguistic category learning: category structure and the level of abstraction in a category hierarchy. Regarding category structure, we find that postmarking brings an advantage for learning category diagnostic stimulus dimensions, an effect not present when categories are non-confusable. Regarding levels of abstraction, we find that premarking of super-ordinate categories (e.g., noun class) facilitates learning of subordinate categories (e.g., nouns). We present detailed simulations using a plausible candidate mechanism for the observed effects, along with a comprehensive analysis of linear order effects within an expectation-based account of learning. Our findings indicate that linguistic category learning is differentially guided by pre- and postmarking, and that the influence of each is modulated by the specific characteristics of a given category system.     

Wanting to Be Boss and Wanting to Be Subordinate: Effects on Performance Motivation

Does dyad members' motivation to take on a high or low power position influence the dyad's performance motivation when assigned to hierarchical roles? Participants in 69 dyads (33 all‐women, 36 all‐men) indicated whether they preferred the high‐power role (owner of an art gallery) or the low power role (assistant to the owner). Power roles were then randomly assigned. The dyad's interaction during task solving was videotaped. Uninvolved coders rated performance motivation as the degree of quality of the superior's and the subordinate's task contributions and effort put into the task. Performance motivation was better if the boss preferred the high power to the low power role, irrespective of the subordinate's role preference. Leadership effectiveness is thus affected by the superior's power motivation.     

The effect of early life stress on the cognitive phenotype of children with an extra X chromosome (47,XXY/47,XXX)

Studies on gene–environment interactions suggest that some individuals may be more susceptible to life adversities than others due to their genetic profile. This study assesses whether or not children with an extra X chromosome are more vulnerable to the negative impact of early life stress on cognitive functioning than typically-developing children.

A total of 50 children with an extra X chromosome and 103 non-clinical controls aged 9 to 18 years participated in the study. Cognitive functioning in domains of language, social cognition and executive functioning were assessed. Early life stress was measured with the Questionnaire of Life Events. High levels of early life stress were found to be associated with compromised executive functioning in the areas of mental flexibility and inhibitory control, irrespective of group membership. In contrast, the children with an extra X chromosome were found to be disproportionally vulnerable to deficits in social cognition on top of executive dysfunction, as compared to typically-developing children. Within the extra X group the number of negative life events is significantly correlated with more problems in inhibition, mental flexibility and social cognition. It is concluded that children with an extra X chromosome are vulnerable to adverse life events, with social cognition being particularly impacted in addition to the negative effects on executive functioning. The findings that developmental outcome is codependent on early environmental factors in genetically vulnerable children also underscores opportunities for training and support to positively influence the course of development.