Which social media platforms matter and for whom? Examining moderators of links between adolescents' social media use and depressive symptoms.

INTRODUCTION: Despite extensive research on social media and risks for mental health, not enough is known about individual differences in these risks. METHODS: The present study, with data collected from 2018 to 2020, investigated the association between social media use (total and for specific platforms) and depressive symptoms in a sample of 237 American adolescents (Mage = 15.10; SD = 0.49; 51.1% girls and 48.5% boys). We investigated several moderators: gender, self-esteem, personality, and negative reactions to social media. Covariates were gender, timing of the follow-up (pre vs. during the pandemic), and depressive symptoms a year earlier. RESULTS: Results indicated that greater total time spent on social media was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. This effect held for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube (but not Snapchat, Facebook, or Twitter). Several moderated effects were found. Twitter was associated with more depressive symptoms for girls but not boys. More frequent Instagram use was linked to more depressive symptoms for less or average-level extraverted teens but not for more extraverted teens, suggesting extraversion may be protective. More frequent TikTok use was associated with more depressive symptoms, particularly for teens who said they have more or average-level negative reactions to social media a year earlier. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that certain adolescents may be at increased risk for serious mental health challenges, like elevated depressive symptoms, when using TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter more frequently, underscoring the importance of examining individual differences and particular social media platforms.

Parenting and Courage: Exploring the Mediating Role of Self-esteem and Emotion Regulation among Adolescents.

With adolescence being a period for potential challenges but also positive growth, courage can aid adolescents in rising to some of these challenges. Yet few studies have investigated predictors and mechanisms of courage. The present study examined how three parenting constructs (attachment, autonomy support, and helicopter parenting) predict courage and if self-esteem or emotion regulation serve as mediators. The present study assessed predictors at Time 1 and courage at one-year follow-up. The sample included 203 American adolescents (51.7% girls, 14-15 year olds). Results suggested that relations between several parental variables (anxious attachment to parents, avoidant attachment to fathers, autonomy support of parents) and adolescent courage were mediated by self-esteem. In addition, cognitive reappraisal mediated associations between two mother-related variables (avoidant attachment, helicopter parenting) and courage. Findings contribute to the limited empirical research on adolescents' development of courage.

Risk and Protective Factors for Changes in Adolescent Psychosocial Adjustment During COVID-19.

The current study examined (1) changes in psychosocial adjustment among adolescents completing two surveys before COVID-19 and those completing the final survey during COVID-19 and (2) related risk/protective factors. Participants were 208 US adolescents (Mage  = 15.09, SD = 0.50, 48.8% female, 86.1% White; 40.9% COVID group) who completed longitudinal surveys assessing psychosocial adjustment and related risk/protective factors (e.g., emotion regulation, well-being pursuits). Only adolescents completing Wave 3 during COVID-19 experienced increases in depressive symptoms, negative affect, and isolation and decreases in positive affect and friendship. Several variables served as risk (i.e., dampening) and protective (i.e., eudaimonic and hedonic motives) factors of these changes. Findings highlight the range of factors that are distinctly associated with negative changes in adolescent adjustment during COVID-19.

Predictors of Initial Status and Change in Self-Control During the College Transition.

Although self-control tends to increase through late adolescence, there are individual differences in patterns of growth. Latent growth modeling was used to investigate change in self-control across students' first year of college (N = 569, M age = 18.03; 70.3% female; 89.6% White), and whether attachment to parents predicted this change when controlling for personality and demographic variables. Self-control decreased linearly across five assessments, with significant heterogeneity in intercepts and slopes. Personality was associated with initial self-control, and greater avoidant attachment to mothers and openness to experience predicted greater declines. Overall, self-control changes across late adolescence, and attachment and personality explain individual differences in that change, indicating potential intervention targets during emerging adulthood.

Mothers' attachment styles and their children's self-reported security, as related to maternal socialization of children's positive affect regulation.

This study investigated how mothers' attachment was related to their responses to their own and their children's positive events and positive affect (PA). Ninety-seven mothers reported on their attachment and their responses to their own and their 7-12-year-old children's positive events and emotions. Children reported on their mothers' responses to the children's positive events and their attachment security with their mothers. The results indicated that more avoidant mothers reported less intense PA in response to their own and their children's positive events. More avoidant mothers also were less likely to encourage their children to savor positive events (through expressing PA, reflecting on PA or themselves, giving rewards, and affectionate responses). Mothers higher on anxiety reported greater likelihood of dampening (e.g., minimizing the event's importance) their own positive events and reported being more likely to feel discomfort and to reprimand their children for expressing PA. Children's security was predicted by mothers' lower likelihood of encouraging children's dampening and of reprimanding children for PA displays. This study advances the literature on how mothers' attachment is related to the ways in which they regulate their own and their children's PA, which may have implications for children's attachment and developing PA regulation.

Children's responses to cognitive challenge and links to self-reported rumination.

We tested the hypothesis that less effective responses during a cognitive challenge would relate to higher levels of self-reported rumination in children. The sample was 100 children (55 boys, 45 girls), aged 7 to 14 years. A portion (n=65) was at high risk for depression due to having a parent with a childhood-onset mood disorder, and 35 were a low-risk comparison group. Using an impossible puzzle task, we assessed children's responses following failure across several domains: emotions (expressed anger, sadness, and negative self-statements), performance (being off-task, the time to solve subsequent puzzles, and the number solved), and physiology (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia). Results indicated that making negative self-blaming statements during the solvable puzzles and taking more time to solve the puzzles were associated with higher levels of self-reported rumination. Our findings advance the understanding of potential correlates of children's tendency to ruminate and may have implications for children's performance on cognitive tasks.

Atypical development of resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia in children at high risk for depression.

Compromised respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, i.e., low cardiac vagal control) frequently characterizes clinically depressed adults and also has been detected in infants of depressed mothers; however, its existence has not been established in older at-risk offspring. We investigated developmental patterns of RSA in a sample of 163 5- to 14-year-old children, who were either at high risk for depression (due to having a parent with a childhood-onset mood disorder) or low-risk for depression. We hypothesized that high-risk children have lower resting RSA than do low-risk children, which could reflect atypical developmental trajectories. Children's RSA was assessed during resting baseline periods on multiple occasions, typically 1-year apart. Linear growth modeling indicated a group by age interaction. Low-risk children (but not the high-risk children) exhibited a significantly increasing trajectory in resting RSA with age. Mood disorders in offspring did not account for the Group X Age interaction effect. Our study provides new evidence that children at high risk for depression have an atypical developmental trajectory of RSA across late childhood.

Transitions in risk-behavior profiles among first-year college students.

ObjectiveThe current study utilized a longitudinal person-centered approach (latent transition analysis [LTA]) to assess transitions into and out of risk-behavior profiles during the transition into and throughout the first year of college. Participants: Participants included 579 first-year college students (Mage = 18.13, SD = .94) from a large mid-Atlantic university. Methods: Participants completed surveys at five points throughout their freshman year. Results: LTA suggested that most individuals either abstained from engaging in risk behaviors or transitioned toward profiles of less risk over time. A smaller portion of individuals either began and ended the year in the same risk profile or transitioned into profiles of greater risk. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of utilizing person-centered analyses to examine change in multiple health-risk behaviors.

Developmental trajectories of positive and negative affect in children at high and low familial risk for depressive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Although low positive affect (PA) and high negative affect (NA) have been posited to predispose to depressive disorders, little is known about the developmental trajectories of these affects in children at familial risk for mood disorders. METHODS: We examined 202 offspring of mothers who had a history of juvenile-onset unipolar depressive disorder (n = 60) or no history of major psychopathology (n = 80). Offspring participated in up to seven annual, structured laboratory tasks that were designed to elicit PA and NA. RESULTS: Growth curve analyses revealed that PA increased linearly and similarly for all children from late infancy through age 9. However, there also were individual differences in early PA. Relative to control peers, offspring of mothers with lifetime unipolar depression had consistently lower levels of PA, and this association remained significant even when controlling for current maternal depression and maternal affect displays. Growth curve analyses also revealed a significant linear decrease in NA in children across time; however, there was no significant inter-individual variation either in early NA or rate of change in NA. CONCLUSION: Attenuated PA (rather than excessive NA) may be an early vulnerability factor for eventual unipolar depressive disorder in at-risk children and may represent one pathway through which depression is transmitted.

Parental warmth during childhood predicts coping and well-being in adulthood.

Numerous studies have shown that early life experiences can affect well-being later in life. Additionally, previous literature has emphasized the importance of exploring the role of mediators in developmental research (e.g., coping strategies). The present study used 3 waves of longitudinal data across 20 years from the national survey Midlife Development in the United States (N = 2,088) to examine the link between retrospectively reported parental warmth and well-being in adulthood by exploring 2 categories of coping strategies (emotion- and problem-focused strategies) as possible mediators. Three cross-lagged panel models, exhibiting good fit, were conducted in Mplus. Significant indirect effects were found where both negative and positive affect (Time 2) partially mediated the association between perceived parental warmth (Time 1) and emotion-focused coping (Time 3). Further, evidence for bidirectional effects were shown by the observed significant indirect effects of problem-focused coping (Time 2) partially explaining the association between perceived parental warmth (Time 1) and eudaimonic well-being (Time 3) as well as eudaimonic well-being (Time 2) partially explaining the link between parental warmth (Time 1) and problem-focused coping (Time 3). These findings suggest that it is important to consider early life experiences when examining both well-being and coping during adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Mothers' Ideal Positive Affect Predicts their Socialization of Children's Positive Affect.

Parents generally want their children to be happy, but little is known about particular types of positive affect (PA) that parents want their children to experience. Tsai's (2007) affect valuation theory offers a useful framework to understand how parents' emotional goals may shape the socialization of particular types of PA (e.g., excitement vs. relaxation). Participants were 96 mothers and their 7- to 12-year-old children. Results indicated that mothers endorsed similar levels of ideal PA (IPA) for low-, moderate-, and high-arousal PA for both themselves and for their child, suggesting that mothers desire the same type of PA for their children as they want for themselves. In support of the study's main hypothesis, mothers' IPA for their children predicted specific socialization responses that would encourage that type of PA (e.g., mothers' high-arousal IPA predicted greater encouragement of their child to celebrate, whereas mothers' low-arousal IPA predicted encouragement of affection). The findings extend affect valuation theory and emotion socialization research by indicating that parents' emotional goals (i.e., IPA) for their children may contribute to their socialization of children's PA.

The cost of believing emotions are uncontrollable: Youths' beliefs about emotion predict emotion regulation and depressive symptoms.

As humans, we have a unique capacity to reflect on our experiences, including emotions. Over time, we develop beliefs about the nature of emotions, and these beliefs are consequential, guiding how we respond to emotions and how we feel as a consequence. One fundamental belief concerns the controllability of emotions: Believing emotions are uncontrollable (entity beliefs) should reduce the likelihood of trying to control emotional experiences using effective regulation strategies like reappraisal; this, in turn, could negatively affect core indices of psychological health, including depressive symptoms. This model holds particular relevance during youth, when emotion-related beliefs first develop and stabilize and when maladaptive beliefs could contribute to emerging risk for depression. In the present investigation, a pilot diary study (N = 223, aged 21-60) demonstrated that entity beliefs were associated with using reappraisal less in everyday life, even when controlling for possible confounds (i.e., self-efficacy, pessimism, stress exposure, stress reactivity). Then, two studies examined whether entity beliefs and associated impairments in reappraisal may set youths on a maladaptive trajectory: In a cross-sectional study (N = 136, aged 14-18), youths with stronger entity beliefs experienced greater depressive symptoms, and this link was mediated by lower reappraisal. This pattern was replicated and extended in a longitudinal study (N = 227, aged 10-18), wherein youth- and parent-reported depressive symptoms were assessed 18 months after assessing beliefs. These results suggest that entity beliefs about emotion constitute a risk factor for depression that acts via reappraisal, adding to the growing literature on emotion beliefs and their consequences for self-regulation and health. (PsycINFO Database Record

Insomnia and hypersomnia associated with depressive phenomenology and comorbidity in childhood depression.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To examine sleep disturbance (insomnia and hypersomnia) and associated clinical profiles among depressed children and adolescents in terms of illness history, depressive severity, depressive phenomenology, and psychiatric comorbid disorders. DESIGN: Clinical profiles from standardized clinical evaluations were compared. SETTING: Twenty-three mental health facilities in Hungary between April 2000 and December 2004. PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS: Five hundred fifty-three children with a current episode of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition major depressive disorder: 55% were boys, mean age was 11.7 years (SD = 2.0, range = 7.3-14.9), and 94% were Caucasian. Sleep and depressive symptoms were assessed with the Interview Schedule for Children and Adolescents-Diagnostic Version. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. RESULTS: Of the total sample, 72.7% had sleep disturbance: 53.5% had insomnia alone, 9.0% had hypersomnia alone, and 10.1% had both disturbances. Depressed girls were more likely to have sleep disturbance than boys (77.0% vs 69.2%, p < .05), but age had no significant effects. Compared with children without sleep disturbance, sleep-disturbed children were more severely depressed and had more depressive symptoms and comorbid anxiety disorders. Across sleep-disturbed children, those with both insomnia and hypersomnia had a longer history of illness, were more severely depressed, and were more likely to have anhedonia, weight loss, psychomotor retardation, and fatigue than were those with either insomnia or hypersomnia. CONCLUSION: Clinical profiles differ between depressed children without and with sleep disturbance, with those presenting insomnia plus hypersomnia being most severely depressed. Differentiating depressed children with different sleep disturbances may have important implications for research efforts on the etiology and therapeutics of child depression.

Early developmental characteristics and features of major depressive disorder among child psychiatric patients in Hungary.

OBJECTIVE: We investigate the relations of early atypical characteristics (perinatal problems, developmental delay, and difficult temperament) and onset-age (as well as severity of) first major depressive disorder (MDD) and first internalizing disorder in a clinical sample of depressed children in Hungary. METHOD: Participants were 371 children (ages 7-14) with MDD, and their biological mothers, recruited through multiple clinical sites. Diagnoses (via DSM-IV criteria) and onset dates of disorders were finalized "best estimate" psychiatrists, and based on multiple information sources. Mothers provided developmental data in a structured interview. RESULTS: Difficult temperament predicted earlier onset of MDD and first internalizing disorder, but its effect was ameliorated if the family was intact during early childhood. Further, the importance of difficult temperament decreased as a function of time. Perinatal problems and developmental delay did not impact onset ages of disorders, and none of the early childhood characteristics associated with MDD episode severity. CONCLUSIONS: Children with MDD may have added disadvantage of earlier onset if they had a difficult temperament in infancy. Because early temperament mirrors physiological reactivity and regulatory capacity, it can affect various areas of functioning related to psychopathology. Early caregiver stability may attenuate some adverse effects of difficult infant temperament.

The relations of temperament and emotion self-regulation with suicidal behaviors in a clinical sample of depressed children in Hungary.

Although major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with suicidal behaviors, some depressed individuals are not suicidal and others evidence various forms of suicidality. We thus investigated whether aspects of temperament and self-regulation of dysphoria represent risk factors for DSM-IV suicidality (recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation, suicidal plan, and suicide attempt) in depressed youths. Using a sample of children with MDD (N = 407; ages 7-14 years), recruited from clinical sites across Hungary, we tested the hypotheses that: (a) suicidality is related to higher levels of trait negative emotionality as well as more maladaptive and fewer adaptive regulatory responses to dysphoria and (b) as the severity of suicidal behavior increases, levels of trait negative emotionality and dysfunctional emotion regulation also increase. We also explored if other aspects of temperament relate to suicidality. Children's DSM-IV diagnoses were based on semi-structured interviews and best-estimate psychiatric consensus. Parents independently provided ratings of their children's temperament, and children separately completed an inventory of emotion regulation (ER). Using multivariate models, we failed to confirm the hypothesized relations of negative trait emotionality and suicidality, but confirmed that high maladaptive and low adaptive ER response tendencies increase the odds of suicidal behaviors, above and beyond the risk posed by depressive illness severity. Unplanned interaction terms between temperament dimensions (other than negative emotionality) and ER suggested that at some high-extremes of temperament, ER has no impact on suicidality but in their absence, adaptive ER lowers the risk of suicidality. The practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Parents' Perceptions of and Responses to Children's Emotions: Relations with Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Adult Attachment.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated how parents' perceptions of, feelings toward, and anticipated responses to children's emotions relate to parents' meta-emotion philosophy (MEP) and attachment. DESIGN: Parents (112 mothers and 95 fathers) completed an online research study where they viewed photographs of unfamiliar girls and boys (aged 10 to 14 years) displaying varying intensities of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and neutral expressions. Parents labeled the emotion, identified the emotion's intensity, and reported their mirrored emotion and responses. They also completed measures assessing their MEP and attachment. RESULTS: MEP predicted parents' responses to children's negative emotion, in that greater emotion-coaching predicted greater accuracy in labeling emotions (boys only), a greater likelihood to interact with children, and for mothers to be further from the mean in either direction in their mirrored emotion. Attachment also predicted parents' responses to children's negative emotions: Parents higher in anxiety reported more mirrored emotion, and those higher in avoidance reported less mirrored emotion, lower intensity, and less willingness to interact (boys only). In exploratory models for positive emotion, parents' MEP did not predict their responses, but parents higher in attachment avoidance rated girls' positive emotions as less intense, reported less mirrored emotion, less willingness to interact, and less supportive responses, and those higher in anxiety showed the opposite pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Despite methodological limitations, results offer new evidence that parents' ratings on a standardized emotion perception task as well as their anticipated responses toward children's emotion displays are predicted by individual differences in their attachment and MEP.

Clinical features of depressed children and adolescents with various forms of suicidality.

OBJECTIVE: To examine various forms of suicidality specified in DSM-IV and their clinical characteristics in a large sample of children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD). METHOD: Subjects included 553 children and adolescents (aged 7.0-14.9 years) recruited between April 2000 and December 2004 from 23 mental health facilities in Hungary. Subjects received standardized clinical evaluations and best-estimate consensus DSM-IV diagnoses of MDD. All subjects were in a current episode of MDD at their assessment date. RESULTS: Approximately 68% of the sample had recurrent thoughts of death, 48% had suicidal ideation, 30% had suicide plan, and 12% had attempted suicide. Compared with nonsuicidal peers, suicidal children and adolescents were more severely depressed, had more depressive symptoms, and more likely had comorbid disorders. However, depressed children and adolescents with various forms of suicidality were very similar in clinical characteristics. Feelings of worthlessness, depressed mood, psychomotor agitation, and comorbid separation anxiety and conduct disorders were independent correlates of at least 1 form of suicidality. Only feelings of worthlessness was related to all 4 suicidal behaviors, after adjustment for other depressive symptoms, comorbid disorders, and demographics. CONCLUSION: Clinical characteristics differ between nonsuicidal and suicidal children and adolescents but are very similar across various forms of suicidality. Feelings of worthlessness may play a central role in the development of suicidal behavior. Interventions toward the enhancement of self-esteem and amelioration of underlying psychopathology may be crucial for the prevention of suicide attempts in depressed children and adolescents.

Age differences in subjective well-being across adulthood: the roles of savoring and future time perspective.

Prior research indicates there are age differences in subjective well-being during adulthood, but research on age differences in savoring (up-regulating positive emotion) is lacking. Using an online survey (N = 218, adults 18-77), this study investigated age differences in subjective well-being and savoring, and whether future time perspective (perceived amount of time left to live) mediated associations between age and savoring. Results indicated a nonlinear effect of age on subjective well-being. Although savoring was associated with subjective well-being, age was not directly associated with savoring. However, an indirect effect of future time perspective linking age and savoring indicated that younger adults reported more perceived time left in life and those perceiving more time left in life reported greater savoring. Overall, the results do not support savoring as a direct explanatory mechanism for age differences in subjective well-being, but future time perspective appears to play an important role in indirect associations between age and savoring.

College students' use of communication technology with parents: comparisons between two cohorts in 2009 and 2011.

Although communication technology is beneficial to maintain important close relationships, not all findings suggest that communication technology use between college students and their parents is indicative of positive adjustment or relational qualities. A study in 2009 found that only 24.2% of college students used a social networking site (SNS) to communicate with a parent, yet those students reported more loneliness, anxious attachment, and conflict with their parent (Gentzler et al., 2011 ). Because technology and trends in use change rapidly, we investigated a new cohort of college students 2 years later to determine if rates of using communication technology with parents and their links to student adjustment have changed. Comparisons between 2009 and 2011 samples indicated that in-person contact and telephone use did not vary across cohorts. However, texting and SNS use with parents became more common, and using e-mail with parents declined. Consistent with the 2009 data, students' phone use with parents was related to positive relationship qualities (satisfaction, intimacy, support, instrumental aid). In the new 2011 sample, e-mail was linked to aid. However, the present findings indicate students' SNS use with parents is no longer linked to maladaptive outcomes. The study highlights how quickly the use and implications of communication technology changes, and suggests that communication patterns may reflect broader psychosocial adjustment and parent-child dynamics.

College students' use of electronic communication with parents: links to loneliness, attachment, and relationship quality.

Despite the ubiquitous use of new communication technologies, gaps in our knowledge remain regarding who is likely to rely on particular technologies and potential ramifications of these forms of communication on individuals' relationships and adjustment. In an online survey, 211 college students reported on their use of electronic communication with a parent who they identified as their closest family member. Results indicated that students who report more frequent phone conversations with parents also report more satisfying, intimate, and supportive parental relationships, but those students who use a social-networking site to communicate with parents report higher levels of loneliness, anxious attachment, as well as conflict within the parental relationship. The findings offer new evidence on how electronic communication technology with parents is related to adjustment in college students. Our study also suggests that further research is needed using longitudinal designs to understand better young adults' use of technology to communicate in today's society.