Adolescent Reactions to Maternal Responsiveness and Internalizing Symptomatology: A Daily Diary Investigation

A daily diary methodology was employed to gather teens’ perceptions of maternal responsiveness to daily stressful events and teens’ reactions to maternal responsiveness in a diverse sample (792 entries from 104 teens; 81% African American, mean age 13.7 years). Additionally, parents and teens completed baseline reports of internalizing symptoms. Diary findings were congruent with prior studies employing self-report measures of global maternal responses to emotion (e.g., higher probability of Accepting reactions to supportive responses, higher probabilities of Attack, Avoid-Withdraw reactions to non-supportive responses). Elevated baseline internalizing symptoms were related to perception of elevated Punish and Magnify responses during the week, and more Avoidant (Avoid-Withdraw and Avoid-Protect) reactions to responsiveness. Results are discussed in the context of reciprocal emotion socialization processes

Perceptions of Parental Awareness of Emotional Responses to Stressful Life Events

There is a need to better understand family processes related to recovery from past stressful life events. The present study aimed to investigate links between perceptions of parental awareness regarding stressful life events, continued event-related rumination, and current symptoms of depression. Students at a diverse, urban university completed a life events checklist and a semistructured interview regarding family processing of stressful life events, as well as self-report measures of event-related rumination and depression. Results indicated that perceptions of mothers’ and fathers’ awareness of sadness regarding stressful life events as well as mothers’ and fathers’ verbal event processing predicted symptoms of event-related rumination and depression. Results support the inclusion of perceptions of parental awareness in the understanding of how emerging adults continue to cope with past stressful life events

Parent emotion coaching buffers the psychological effects of poor peer relations in the classroom

Parent emotion coaching (i.e., child-reported parental responses to sadness and anger) was examined as a moderator of peer relations in the classroom (i.e., peer-rated sociability, number of mutual friends, and respect nominations) and self-perceptions of social competence (i.e., loneliness and optimism). Participants were 129 (44% boys; 66% Caucasian) fourth through sixth graders. If parents were perceived as low in emotion coaching, low sociability and low peer respect were associated with greater loneliness; low peer respect was also associated with low peer optimism when combined with low emotion coaching. Importantly, with high parent emotion coaching, there was no significant association between problematic peer relations and negative self-perceptions of social competence. Parent emotion coaching may buffer the effects of poor peer relations

Examination of Consistency of Adolescent and Parent Reports Across Several Psychosocial Constructs

This study investigated the consistency of discrepancy scores between adolescent and parent reports across several psychosocial constructs (adolescent internalizing, externalizing, emotion regulation difficulties, parent rewarding responses to adolescent emotions, and parent depressive symptoms). Sixty-two adolescents (67.7% females; 76.7% African American) and one of their parents participated. Most of the associations among discrepancy scores were equivalent. There was one instance in which the association among two discrepancy scores (youth internalizing and externalizing) was stronger than the others and one instance in which the association was weaker than the others (youth internalizing and parent rewarding). These results suggest that discrepancies between adolescent and parent reports are not necessarily a stable characteristic of the dyad and depend on the construct under consideration

Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Maladaptive Behaviors: Examination of Deliberate Self-Harm, Disordered Eating, and Substance Misuse in Two Samples

Data from two studies were utilized to examine whether the co-occurrence of maladaptive behaviors thought to serve an emotion regulating function would be associated with greater emotion regulation difficulties compared to one or none of these behaviors. Study 1 included an undergraduate sample (N = 119; 76 % female) and Study 2 included a sample of patients receiving treatment at a residential substance abuse treatment facility (N = 82; 48 % female). Subgroups were created based on the presence or absence of the following maladaptive behaviors: (a) deliberate self-harm (DSH) and disordered eating (Study 1); and (b) DSH, disordered eating, and substance misuse (Study 2). Subgroup differences in mean levels of emotion regulation difficulties (overall and six dimensions) were evaluated for each study. In Study 1, individuals who reported clinically-relevant levels of both DSH and disordered eating had more difficulties with emotion regulation (overall and three dimensions) compared to those who reported neither behavior. In Study 2, individuals who reported clinically-relevant levels of both DSH and substance misuse had more difficulties with emotion regulation (Study 2; overall and five dimensions) compared to those with only substance misuse. Overall, the results of these studies support the hypothesis that the co-occurrence of clinically-relevant maladaptive behaviors is associated with greater difficulties regulating emotions than the presence of only one maladaptive behavior (or no maladaptive behaviors). These findings suggest that clinical interventions targeting emotion regulation skills may be particularly useful for individuals who display a pattern of co-occurring maladaptive behaviors

Intergenerational Transmission of Emotion Dysregulation Through Parental Invalidation of Emotions: Implications for Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors

We examined parent emotion dysregulation as part of a model of family emotion-related processes and adolescent psychopathology. Participants were 80 parent– adolescent dyads (mean age = 13.6; 79 % African-American and 17 % Caucasian) with diverse family composition and socioeconomic status. Parent and adolescent dyads self-reported on their emotion regulation difficulties and adolescents reported on their perceptions of parent invalidation (i.e., punishment and neglect) of emotions and their own internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Results showed that parents who reported higher levels of emotion dysregulation tended to invalidate their adolescent’s emotional expressions more often, which in turn related to higher levels of adolescent emotion dysregulation. Additionally, adolescent-reported emotion dysregulation mediated the relation between parent invalidation of emotions and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Potential applied implications are discussed

Promoting learning health system feedback loops: Experience with a VA practice-based research network card study

BackgroundWe tested the capacity of the 60-site VA Women's Health Practice-Based Research Network (WH-PBRN), embedded within VA, to employ a multisite card study to collect women Veterans' perspectives about Complementary and Integrative Health (CIH) and to rapidly return findings to participating sites and partnered national policy-makers in support of a Learning Health System (LHS) wherein evidence generation informs ongoing improvement.MethodsVA primary care clinic clerks and nurses distributed anonymous surveys (patient feedback forms) at clinics for up to two weeks in fiscal year 2017, asking about CIH behavior and preferred delivery methods. We examined the project's feasibility, representativeness, acceptability, and impact via a tracking system, national administrative data, debriefing notes, and three surveys of WH-PBRN Site Leads.ResultsTwenty geographically diverse and largely representative VA Medical Centers and 11 Community-Based Outpatient Clinics volunteered to participate. Over six months, N = 1191 women Veterans responded (median 57; range 8-151 per site). In under three months, we returned local findings benchmarked against multisite findings to all participating sites and summary findings to national VA partners. Sites and partners disseminated results to clinical and leadership stakeholders, who then applied results as warranted.ConclusionsVA effectively mobilized an embedded PBRN to implement a timely, representative, acceptable and impactful operations project.ImplicationsCard studies by PBRNs within large, national healthcare systems can provide rapid feedback to participating sites and national leaders to guide policies, programs, and practices.Level of evidenceSelf-selected respondents could have biased results