A longitudinal model of rejection sensitivity and internalizing symptoms: Testing emotion regulation deficits as a mechanism and outcome of symptoms

Objective Individuals who experience heightened rejection sensitivity (RS) are at greater risk of increased internalizing symptoms over time. This is especially so for adolescents and young adults, as this is a time of many social transitions and an average increase in such symptoms. Yet, little longitudinal research has explored specific mechanisms that may help explain how RS lends itself to increased symptomology during adolescence and young adulthood. In this study, we tested the summative effect of emotion dysregulation, expressive suppression, and social avoidance (i.e., ER‐deficits) as mechanisms. Moreover, we estimated bidirectional temporal associations between ER‐deficits and symptoms. Method Participants included 402 adolescents and young adults aged 17 to 27 years (M = 19.9 years, 66% female) who completed two assessments over a 1‐year period. Results In a path model, participants who reported more RS increased in anxious symptoms, and RS was indirectly associated with increased anxious and depressive symptoms via the three ER‐deficits. Additionally, cross‐lagged panel analyses showed that dysregulation and suppression predicted increased symptoms over time, while anxious symptoms predicted increased social avoidance over time. Conclusion These findings expand understanding of the role of RS in young people's increasing internalizing symptoms, implicating ER‐deficits in these processes

Ambulatory assessment of adolescent coping: It's a complicated process

Scholars have long‐called for researchers to treat coping as a process that is measured over an arc of time. Ambulatory assessment (AA) offers an appealing tool for capturing the dynamic process of adolescent coping. However, challenges in capturing the coping process are not altogether circumvented with AA designs. We conducted a scoping review of the AA literature on adolescent coping and draw from 60 studies to provide an overview of the field. We provide critiques of different AA approaches and highlight benefits and costs associated with various types of measurement within AA. We also speak to considerations of participant burden and compliance. We conclude with recommendations for developmental scholars seeking to deploy AA to capture this quintessential process among adolescents

Adolescent Coping with Peer Exclusion: A Person-Centered Analog Approach

Peer exclusion is a significant stressor that can have detrimental effects on adolescents, depending on how they cope with such exclusion. As adolescents rarely rely on one strategy when coping with exclusion, the present study relied upon a person-oriented approach in order to identify clusters of adolescents that share their pattern of coping with peer exclusion. Thereby, we focused on their coping responses to standardized situations of peer exclusion. Further, we examined between-cluster differences in their psychosocial adjustment and perceived parenting. Swiss adolescents (N = 338) completed self-report questionnaires, where coping responses were assessed using an analog methodology with standardized vignettes. A cluster-analytic procedure yielded four coping clusters: a self-reliant cluster, an active cluster, a helpless-avoidant cluster, and a cluster of low copers. Adolescents from the helpless-avoidant cluster generally reported the lowest scores for psychosocial adjustment, less parental autonomy-support and more psychological control, whereas the opposite was the case for the self-reliant cluster.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe