Exploring associations between affect and marijuana use in everyday life via specification curve analysis.

Although frequently hypothesized, the evidence for associations between affect and marijuana use in everyday life remains ambiguous. Inconsistent findings across existing work may be due, in part, to differences in study design and analytic decisions, such as study inclusion criteria, the operationalization of affect, or the timing of affect assessment. We used specification curves to assess the robustness of the evidence for affect predicting same-day marijuana use and marijuana use predicting next-day affect across several hundred models that varied in terms of decisions that reflect those typical in this literature (e.g., whether to average affect prior to marijuana use or select the affect report closest in time to marijuana use). We fitted these curves to data from two ecological momentary assessment studies of regular marijuana and/or alcohol using college students (N = 287). Results provided robust evidence that marijuana use was slightly less likely following experiences of negative affect and slightly more likely following positive affect. Specification curves suggested that differences in previous findings are most likely a function of the specific emotion items used to represent affect rather than differences in inclusion criteria, the temporal assessment and modeling of affect, or the covariates added to the model. There was little evidence for an association between marijuana use and next-day affect. Overall, our findings provide evidence against the predictions made by affect reinforcement models in college students and suggest that future research should model the associations of marijuana use with discrete emotional states rather than general negative and positive affect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Pre-COVID-19 predictors of low-income women's COVID-19 appraisal, coping, and changes in mental health during the pandemic.

Study examined predictors and mental health consequences of appraisal (threat, support satisfaction) and coping (active, avoidant) in a sample of low-income women during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Pre-COVID-19 contextual risk and individual resources and COVID-19-specific risk factors were examined as predictors of COVID-19 appraisal and coping, which, in turn, were tested as predictors of changes in depression and anxiety across the pandemic. Pre-COVID-19 resilience predicted more active coping, whereas pre-COVID-19 anxiety and depression predicted more avoidant coping and lower support satisfaction, respectively. Increases in anxiety were predicted by lower pre-COVID-19 self-compassion and higher concurrent threat appraisal and avoidant coping. Increases in depression were related to lower pre-COVID-19 self-compassion, active coping and support satisfaction, and higher COVID-19 hardships and health risk. Findings highlight contextual and individual factors and processes that contribute to mental health problems in a vulnerable population during community-level stressors, with implications for prevention and intervention.

The relations between real-time use of emotion regulation strategies and anxiety and depression symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: How individuals differentially implement specific emotion regulation (ER) strategies is a critical indicator of the progression of depressive and anxiety disorders. Symptoms of anxiety and depression may be associated with differences in ER, but little evidence to date had examined whether anxiety and depression were associated with individual differences in the real-time use of ER strategies. METHODS: This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in two samples (n = 276) of undergraduate students from a single university who were assessed for 8-10 days. Baseline surveys captured participant self-reported anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms using the PROMIS-Anxiety scale and the PROMIS-Depression scale, respectively. We measured ER through EMA-adapted prompts from the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ), which participants received on their internet-enabled cell phones. In pre-registered analyses, we tested the associations between anxiety symptoms with the use of discrete ER strategies in EMA using generalized estimating equations with a log-link function to account for nesting of EMA observations within participants, and further tested whether the findings generalized to depression (not pre-registered). RESULTS: Symptoms of anxiety and depression were associated with greater odds of using both maladaptive and adaptive ER strategy use during the EMA period, and with lower odds of reporting no strategy use. Moreover, associations were generally stronger for maladaptive than adaptive ER strategies. CONCLUSION: Anxiety and depressive symptoms are related to increased regulatory efforts overall, and results suggest that individuals with anxiety and depressive symptoms may be especially prone to use maladaptive ER strategies. Tracking ER strategies in a natural environment can further inform our understanding of how anxious and depressed individuals attempt to regulate emotions.

Specific emotion and momentary emotion regulation in adolescence and early adulthood.

Emotion regulation (ER) is an important factor in resilience and overall well-being throughout development, and youth report increased variation in emotion and capacity for regulation across adolescence and early adulthood. Specific emotions may be associated with the use of different ER strategies, but much evidence exclusively collapses across negative and positive affect or may not reflect the daily experience of emotion and emotion regulation. The present study examined associations between the experience of unique positive and negative emotions and the use of common ER strategies in adolescence and early adulthood during daily life using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). The sample included 184 high school and college students (55% female, Mage = 17.88, SD = 1.25) who completed EMA surveys three times daily for 10 days (89% compliance). Participants reported on their recent emotional states and which of eight ER strategies they had used. Multilevel logistic regressions tested emotions as predictors of ER strategies, separately for each emotion-ER strategy combination across 96 total models, using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure to control the false discovery rate. Individuals had higher odds of engaging in maladaptive ER strategies, particularly suppression or rumination, when reporting most types of negative emotions-with the largest associations among unhappiness and anger. Conversely, positive emotions were generally linked to reported use of no ER strategies, though happiness and engagement were related to higher odds of problem-solving, while calm was related to less use of nearly all strategies. Specific emotion-strategy combinations may have implications for clinical targets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Early-childhood temperament moderates the prospective associations of coping with adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms.

While appraisal and coping are known to impact adolescent psychopathology, more vulnerable or resilient responses to stress may depend on individual temperament. This study examined early life temperament as a moderator of the prospective relations of pre-adolescent appraisal and coping with adolescent psychopathology. The sample included 226 (62% female, 14-15 years) adolescents with assessments starting at 3 years of age. Adolescents were predominately White (12% Black 9% Asian, 11% Latinx, 4% Multiracial, and 65% White). Observed early-childhood temperament (fear, frustration, executive control, and delay ability) were tested as moderators of pre-adolescent coping (active and avoidant) and appraisal (threat, positive) on internalizing and externalizing symptoms during the pandemic. Interaction effects were tested using regression in R. Sex and family context of stress were covariates. Early-childhood temperament was correlated with pre-adolescent symptoms, however, pre-adolescent appraisal and coping but not temperament predicted adolescent psychopathology. Frustration moderated the relations of active and avoidant coping and positive appraisal to symptoms such that coping and appraisal related to lower symptoms only for those low in frustration. Executive control moderated the associations of avoidant coping with symptoms such that avoidance reduced the likelihood of symptoms for youth low in executive control. Findings underscore the role of emotionality and self-regulation in youth adjustment, with the impact of coping differing with temperament. These findings suggest that equipping youth with a flexible assortment of coping skills may serve to reduce negative mental health outcomes.

Tests of Bidirectional Relations of TV Exposure and Effortful Control as Predictors of Adjustment in Early Childhood in the Context of Family Risk Factors.

This study examined bidirectional relations between television exposure and effortful control accounting for the effects of family contextual risk factors. Methods: Data were from a sample (N=306) of parents and their preschool-age children (T1 M = 36 mos. in 2008-2010) assessed four times, once every 9 mos. Results: At T1, adolescent parent status predicted lower child delay ability (DA), and maternal depression predicted higher TV time. Above these effects, higher T1 and T2 child executive control (EC) prospectively predicted lower T2 and T3 TV time, while higher T1 TV time predicted lower T2 EC. Higher EC at T4 predicted fewer total problems, greater social competence, and greater academic readiness at T4, and higher TV time at T4 predicted lower academic readiness. DA was unrelated to TV time or adjustment. Conclusion: Findings suggest executive control and TV time predict changes in each other in early childhood, and in turn, executive control predicts better child adjustment while TV time might be more relevant for academic readiness. Moreover, family risk factors appear to play a role in both TV viewing time and effortful control.

A meta-analysis on the affect regulation function of real-time self-injurious thoughts and behaviours.

Prominent theories suggest that self-injurious thoughts and behaviours are negatively reinforced by decreased negative affect. The present meta-analysis quantifies effects from intensive longitudinal studies measuring negative affect and self-injurious thoughts and behaviours. We obtained data from 38 of the 79 studies (48%, 22 unique datasets) involving N = 1,644 participants (80% female, 75% white). Individual-participant data meta-analyses revealed changes in affect pre/post self-injurious thoughts and behaviours. In antecedent models, results supported increased negative affect before nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviour (k = 14, 95% CI 0.09 to 0.31) and suicidal thoughts (k = 14, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.19). For consequence models, negative affect was reduced following nonsuicidal self-injurious thoughts (k = 6, 95% CI -0.79 to -0.44), nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviours (k = 14, 95% CI -0.73 to -0.19) and suicidal thoughts (k = 13, 95% CI -0.79 to -0.23). Findings, which were not moderated by sampling strategies or sample composition, support the affect regulation function of self-injurious thoughts and behaviours.

Maternal Mental Health and Child Adjustment Problems in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Families Experiencing Economic Disadvantage.

Parents living in low-income contexts shouldered disproportionate hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic with consequences to maternal mental health and child adjustment. The current study uses a sample of first-time mothers (N = 147) of young toddlers, all living in low-income contexts, to examine the roles of pre-pandemic and COVID-19-specific risk and individual resilience factors in the prediction of changes to maternal mental health coinciding with the onset of the pandemic. Maternal mental health symptoms, in turn, were examined as predictors of child adjustment problems across 6 months of the pandemic and as a potential mechanism conferring pandemic risks to children. While pre-pandemic cumulative contextual risk (i.e., low income, single parent status, adolescent parent status, financial instability) did not predict changes in maternal mental health from prior to during the pandemic, COVID-19-specific health risks predicted changes in maternal mental health from before the pandemic, as well as across 6 months of the pandemic. Regarding individual resilience factors to changes in maternal mental health, pre-pandemic self-compassion predicted better maternal mental health during the pandemic, as did COVID-19-specific appraisal and coping strategies. In turn, maternal mental health predicted children's early pandemic levels of adjustment problems and changes in adjustment problems across 6 months of the pandemic, with maternal mental health serving an indirect pathway of COVID-19-specific health risks to children's adjustment. The findings highlight pathways of risk and resilience during a global health crisis and point to targets for interventions in community level crises to promote maternal and child mental health.

Preschoolers' broad mathematics experiences with parents during play.

The current study broadens our understanding of preschoolers' early math experiences with parents, recognizing that math knowledge and experiences are inclusive of numeracy as well as non-numeracy domains. Parents and preschoolers (N = 45) were observed exploring three domains of early mathematics knowledge (i.e., number, space, and pattern) during play in three activities (playing cards, building with blocks, and stringing beads, all with activity suggestions). Children were administered a broad math and numeracy measure and individual measures of spatial and patterning skills concurrently and 7 months later. Dyads explored math broadly across most activities but emphasized number more than space or patterning. In addition, there was more overall math exploration during card and bead play than during block play, with the greatest parent support during card play. Parent support was not linked to children's skills, although children's exploration of space and patterns related moderately to their concurrent spatial and pattern skills. Overall, parents and young children explored a variety of early math domains in guided play contexts, with an emphasis on numeracy. Future work should aim to increase the breadth and rigor of individual concepts that parents and preschoolers explore during play.

Emotion regulation processes linking peer victimization to anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence.

Difficulties with emotion regulation can take many forms, including increased sensitivity to emotional cues and habitual use of maladaptive cognitive or behavioral regulation strategies. Despite extensive research on emotion regulation and youth adjustment, few studies integrate multiple measures of emotion regulation. The present study evaluated the underlying structure of emotion regulation processes in adolescence using both task- and survey-based measures and determined whether differences in these emotion regulation latent factors mediated the association between peer victimization and internalizing psychopathology. Adolescents aged 16-17 years (n = 287; 55% female; 42% White) recruited in three urban centers in the United States completed baseline and follow-up assessments 4 months apart. Three models of emotion regulation were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis. A three-factor model fit the data best, including cognitive regulation, behavioral regulation, and emotional reactivity latent factors. Task-based measures did not load onto these latent factors. Difficulties with behavioral regulation mediated the association between peer victimization and depression symptoms, whereas cognitive regulation difficulties mediated the association with anxiety symptoms. Findings point to potential targets for intervention efforts to reduce risk for internalizing problems in adolescents following experiences of peer victimization.