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

Modeling Trajectories of Adolescent-Perceived Family Conflict: Effects of Marital Dissatisfaction and Parental Alcoholism

We evaluated the effects of marital dissatisfaction on adolescent-perceived conflict in 435 families with and without a parental history of alcoholism. On average, family conflict decreased linearly as adolescents aged. Families with an alcoholic parent demonstrated higher adolescent-reported family conflict and this effect was partially mediated by higher mother- and father-reported marital dissatisfaction. Families with higher marital dissatisfaction had greater conflict when adolescents were young (based on fathers' marital dissatisfaction) and as they aged (based on mother's marital dissatisfaction). Years in which mothers reported higher marital dissatisfaction than usual coincided with years in which adolescents reported greater family conflict. Results indicate that marital dissatisfaction has both within and between-family effects on adolescent perceptions of conflict

The evolutionary capacitor HSP90 buffers the regulatory effects of mammalian endogenous retroviruses

Understanding how genotypes are linked to phenotypes is important in biomedical and evolutionary studies. The chaperone heat-shock protein 90 (HSP90) buffers genetic variation by stabilizing proteins with variant sequences, thereby uncoupling phenotypes from genotypes. Here we report an unexpected role of HSP90 in buffering cis-regulatory variation affecting gene expression. By using the tripartite-motif-containing 28 (TRIM28; also known as KAP1)-mediated epigenetic pathway, HSP90 represses the regulatory influence of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) on neighboring genes that are critical for mouse development. Our data based on natural variations in the mouse genome show that genes respond to HSP90 inhibition in a manner dependent on their genomic location with regard to strain-specific ERV-insertion sites. The evolutionary-capacitor function of HSP90 may thus have facilitated the exaptation of ERVs as key modifiers of gene expression and morphological diversification. Our findings add a new regulatory layer through which HSP90 uncouples phenotypic outcomes from individual genotypes

The Association Between Observed Parental Emotion Socialization and Adolescent Self-Medication

The current study examined the moderating influence of observed parental emotion socialization (PES) on self-medication in adolescents. Strengths of the study include the use of a newly developed observational coding system further extending the study of PES to adolescence, the use of an experience sampling method to assess the daily covariation between negative affect and substance use, and a focus on PES styles defined by the interaction of emotion-dismissing and emotion–coaching behaviors. Using multi-leveling modeling, we tested PES as a moderator of daily negative mood-substance use relation in a sample of 65 elevated-risk adolescents (48% male, 58% Caucasian, with a median age of 14). Results showed a three-way interaction between emotion-coaching PES, emotion-dismissing PES and daily negative mood in predicting daily substance use. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of PES styles and their effects on self-medication through compromised emotion regulation and interpersonal processes

Youth Internalizing Problems and Changes in Parent–Child Relationships Across Early Adolescence: Lability and Developmental Trends

Few longitudinal studies examine how changes in parent–child relationships are associated with changes in youth internalizing problems. In this longitudinal study, we investigated how developmental trends (linear change) and year-to-year lability (within-person fluctuations) in parental warmth and hostility across Grades 6 to 8 predict youth internalizing problems in Grade 9 (N = 618) and whether these linkages differ for boys and girls. Developmental trends (greater decreases in warmth and increases in hostility) were associated with more youth internalizing problems. Greater year-to-year lability (more fluctuations) in father hostility and warmth were also associated with more internalizing problems. Greater lability in mother warmth was associated with more internalizing problems for girls only. The strongest effects of lability on internalizing problems were found for youth with the highest lability scores. This study underscores the importance of differentiating developmental trends from lability in parent–child relationships, both of which may be important for youth internalizing problems

Lability in the parent's hostility and warmth toward their adolescent: Linkages to youth delinquency and substance use

According to family systems and life course theories, periods of intense change, such as early adolescence, can disrupt stable family systems, leading to changes in family relationships. In this longitudinal study, we investigate 2 types of change in parental hostility and warmth toward their children during early adolescence (Grades 6 to 8)-developmental trends (linear declines) and lability (within-person fluctuations around developmental trends)-and their linkages to youth substance use and delinquency in Grade 9 (N = 618). We also test if the linkages between lability and youth risky behavior are moderated by youth gender. After controlling for between-person differences in level and developmental trends, we find greater lability (more fluctuations) in youth-reported parents' warmth and hostility are associated with greater youth delinquency, tobacco use, and polysubstance use initiation. The associations between youth-reported lability in mother and father hostility and polysubstance use demonstrated an inverted U shape pattern: Moderate levels of lability were associated with higher substance use but very low and high lability was associated with relatively lower rates of substance use. Many of the linkages between lability and youth delinquency were significant for girls but not boys. Fewer effects of lability on youth outcomes were found using parent reports. Developmental trends in parents' warmth and hostility were also associated with youth delinquency. Lability has unique implications for youth adjustment, yet appears to differ by youth outcome, gender, and reporter. The discussion focuses on mechanisms that might link changes in parent-youth warmth and hostility to youth risky behavior

Child Effects on Lability in Parental Warmth and Hostility: Moderation by Parents’ Internalizing Problems

Research documents that lability in parent-child relationships–fluctuations up and down in parent-child relationships–is normative during adolescence and is associated with increased risk for negative outcomes for youth. Yet little is known about factors that predict lability in parenting. This study evaluated whether children’s behaviors predicted lability in parent-child relationships. Specifically this study tested whether youth maladjustment (delinquency, substance use, internalizing problems) in Grade 6 was associated with greater lability (e.g., more fluctuations) in parents’ warmth and hostility towards their children across Grades 6–8. The study also tested whether the associations between youth maladjustment and lability in parents’ warmth and hostility were moderated by parents’ internalizing problems. The sample included youth and their parents in two parent families who resided in rural communities and small towns (N = 618; 52% girls, 90% Caucasian). Findings suggest that parents’ internalizing problems moderated the associations between child maladjustment and parenting lability. Among parents with high levels of internalizing problems, higher levels of youth maladjustment were associated with greater lability in parents’ warmth. Among parents with low in internalizing problems, higher levels of youth maladjustment were associated with less lability in parents’ warmth. The discussion focuses on how and why parent internalizing problems may affect parental reactivity to youth problem behavior and intervention implications

Grateful parents raising grateful children: Niche selection and the socialization of child gratitude

Given that children’s exposure to gratitude-related activities may be one way that parents can socialize gratitude in their children, we examined whether parents’ niche selection (i.e., tendency to choose perceived gratitude-inducing activities for their children) mediates the association between parents’ reports of their own and their children's gratitude. Parent-child dyads (N =101; children aged 6-9; 52% girls; 80% Caucasian; 85% mothers) participated in a laboratory visit and parents also completed a seven-day online diary regarding children’s gratitude. Decomposing specific indirect effects within a structural equation model, we found that parents high in gratitude were more likely to set goals to use niche selection as a gratitude socialization strategy, and thereby more likely to place their children in gratitude-related activities. Placement in these activities, in turn, was associated with more frequent expression of gratitude in children. We describe future directions for research on parents’ role in socializing gratitude in their children