Emotional distress may increase risk for self-medication and lower risk for mood-related drinking consequences in adolescents

The current study examines indicators of emotional distress and coping that may define sub-populations of adolescents at risk for two potential affect-related mechanisms underlying substance misuse: self-medication and mood-related drinking consequences. Although theory and empirical evidence point to the salience of affect-related drinking to current and future psychopathology, we have little knowledge of whether or for whom such mood-related processes exist in adolescents because few studies have used methods that optimally match the phenomenon to the level of analysis. Consequently, the current study uses multi-level modeling in which daily reports of negative mood and alcohol use are nested within individuals to examine whether adolescents with more emotional distress and poorer coping skills are more likely to evidence self-medication and moodrelated drinking consequences. Seventy-five adolescents participated in a multi-method, multi-reporter study in which they completed a 21-day experience sampling protocol assessing thrice daily measures of mood and daily measures of alcohol use. Results indicate that adolescents reporting greater anger are more likely to evidence self-medication. Conversely, adolescents displaying lower emotional distress and more active coping are more likely to evidence mood-related drinking consequences. Implications for identifying vulnerable sub-populations of adolescents at risk for these mechanisms of problematic alcohol use are discussed.peer-reviewe

The role of coping with peer stress in adolescent depression: a closer look at coping in process

The current study examined how theoretically relevant yet unexplored aspects of adolescent coping responses were related to symptoms of depression. Specifically, the emotion regulatory function of coping behaviors as well as an adolescent's relative use of coping dimensions and trajectories of adolescent coping were examined in response to a peer-related stressor. The Adolescent Coping Process Interview (ACPI), a scenario-based video vignette measure designed to assess adolescents' unfolding emotional arousal and coping responses as well as a standard depression measure were administered to 84 adolescents (mean age = 14.8, 43% males) from a predominantly rural school district. Results from the current study do not support the emotion regulatory function of coping behaviors in relation to depression. However, results do suggest that an adolescent's relative use of coping dimensions, possibly reflecting a more "ruminative" response pattern, are positively associated with depressive symptoms above and beyond demographic characteristics or single dimensions of coping. In addition, findings offer preliminary support for the importance of the timing of coping behaviors within the coping process. Findings are discussed within the broader framework of using the current approach to assess adolescent coping responses and their relation to psychopathology

Conduct Problems Moderate Self-Medication and Mood-Related Drinking Consequences in Adolescents

We tested whether conduct problems moderate the relation between negative mood and drinking in adolescents as consistent with either a self-medication or a drinking consequences model

The Adolescent Coping Process Interview: Measuring temporal and affective components of adolescent responses to peer stress

The way in which adolescents cope with stressors in their lives has been established as an important correlate of adjustment. While most theoretical models of coping entail unfolding transactions between coping strategies and emotional arousal, the majority of coping measures tap only trait-level coping styles, ignoring both temporal and affective components of the coping process. The current study fills this gap by establishing the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure, the Adolescent Coping Process Interview (ACPI), that is more in line with transactional and developmental models of coping. Results indicate that the ACPI displays good psychometric properties, captures significant intra-individual variability in coping over the process, and points to emotional arousal as informing several coping-adjustment relationships. Moreover, the ACPI and similar approaches may help promote the development of more adaptive patterns of coping in adolescents by helping to identify specific points within the coping process at which to intervene

Applying an on-track indicator for high school graduation: Adapting the Consortium on Chicago School Research indicator for five Texas districts.

This study uses a measure of the on-track or off-track status of students at the end of grade 9 as an indicator of whether students in five Texas districts would graduate from high school in four years. In all five districts, on-time graduation rates were higher for students who were on track at the end of grade 9 than for students who were off track, both for students overall and for all racial/ethnic groups

The Adolescent Coping Process Interview: Measuring temporal and affective components of adolescent responses to peer stress

The way in which adolescents cope with stressors in their lives has been established as an important correlate of adjustment. While most theoretical models of coping entail unfolding transactions between coping strategies and emotional arousal, the majority of coping measures tap only trait-level coping styles, ignoring both temporal and affective components of the coping process. The current study fills this gap by establishing the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure, the Adolescent Coping Process Interview (ACPI), that is more in line with transactional and developmental models of coping. Results indicate that the ACPI displays good psychometric properties, captures significant intra-individual variability in coping over the process, and points to emotional arousal as informing several coping-adjustment relationships. Moreover, the ACPI and similar approaches may help promote the development of more adaptive patterns of coping in adolescents by helping to identify specific points within the coping process at which to intervene