Emotion dysregulation, anticipatory cortisol, and substance use in urban adolescents

Anticipatory cortisol is associated with risk for substance use in adolescents. The present study extended prior literature by testing a model linking family emotional climate, emotion dysregulation, anticipatory cortisol, and substance use. Participants were 229 adolescents (M = 11.94 years, SD = 1.55; 41% male; 92% African American) enrolled in a 4-wave study of stressors, physiological stress responses, and substance use. Caregivers completed measures of family emotional climate at baseline and adolescents' emotion dysregulation one and two years later; adolescents reported on their substance use at baseline and three years later at Wave 4. Adolescents completed a stress task at Wave 4; saliva samples taken immediately prior to the task were analyzed for cortisol. Longitudinal path models revealed that a negative emotional climate at home was associated with elevated emotion dysregulation at subsequent waves for all youth. Emotional dysregulation was prospectively associated with blunted anticipatory cortisol, which in turn was associated with elevated substance use, controlling for baseline substance use and age. However, these associations only were observed for females. This study suggests that helping girls in particular manage their emotional responses to stress more effectively may impact their physiological responses and reduce risk for substance use

Prescription Drug Misuse and Arrest History

Background: Prescription drug misuse is widely acknowledged as a major public health issue in the United States. Surprisingly little research examines the association between prescription drug misuse and history of arrest among adults. Methods: We use data from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine this association. Arrest was self-reported and separated into three categories: any, property crime, or violent crime. Prescription drug misuse was defined as use without a prescription or solely for the feeling or experience caused by the drug. We looked at the misuse of any prescription drug and also separate classes of misuse (pain relievers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants). Several multivariate logistic regression models were estimated to examine the association between prescription drug misuse and arrest. Results: Findings showed that 8.62% of respondents reported prescription drug misuse and 3.55% reported any arrest. In multivariate models that included demographic characteristics and measures of alcohol and other drug use, respondents who reported prescription drug misuse were at increased odds of arrest. Conclusions: The current research shows that prescription drug misuse is significantly associated with arrest, but more research is needed on the causal nature of this association. The criminal justice and drug treatment systems must develop treatment and rehabilitation services that understand the close association between prescription drug misuse and arrest

Cumulative Risk, Emotion Dysregulation, and Adjustment in South African Youth

Research on cumulative risk is growing, however, little work has occurred in low- or middle-income countries, and few studies have focused on processes linking risk to outcomes. This study explored relations between components of cumulative risk and adjustment in a sample of 324 South African youth (M age = 13.11 years; SD = 1.54 years; 65% female; 56% Black/African; 14% Colored; 23% Indian; 7% White), and tested competing models of emotion dysregulation as a mediator or moderator of risk-adjustment links. Data was collected from youth and their female caregivers during home interviews. Structural equation models and regression analyses accounting for age and sex contributions revealed that emotion dysregulation mediated associations between sociodemographic risk and internalizing symptoms, externalizing problem behavior, and drug use severity, and moderated links between psychosocial risk and internalizing symptoms and externalizing problem behavior. For the mediator models, sociodemographic risk was associated with impaired emotion regulation, which in turn was linked with heightened adjustment difficulties. For the moderator models, psychosocial risk was linked with adjustment problems only when emotion dysregulation was high. These data indicate the importance of disentangling components of cumulative risk. Future research within the South African cultural context might build on these findings by adapting and testing school- or family-based prevention or intervention programs that include modules on emotion regulation