Parent-adolescent reminiscing and youth psychopathology: A cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation.

INTRODUCTION: Robust research links qualities of parent-child discussions about past emotion-laden events to socioemotional development and broader psychological outcomes during childhood. The role of parent-adolescent reminiscing in adolescent psychological adjustment, however, has received less attention, despite adolescence being a time of heightened vulnerability for the development of internalizing symptoms. In the current multimethod study, we investigated cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between the qualities of conversations between mothers and adolescents (ages 13-16) and adolescents' internalizing problems. METHODS: Participants were 67 mother-adolescent dyads (total N = 134, 58.8% of youth identified as female) located across regions of New Zealand/Aotearoa. Each dyad discussed a past shared conflict, coded for supportive and unsupportive reminiscing conversational qualities with an adapted dyadic coding scheme. Youth internalizing symptoms were assessed at two-time points, 12-month apart. RESULTS: Dyadic structural equation modeling analyzed cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between conversational qualities and adolescents' internalizing problems. Findings indicated concurrent associations between unsupportive mother-adolescent reminiscing qualities and heightened youth anxiety symptoms: Specifically, mothers' avoidance and lower levels of emotion discussion and adolescents' emotional disengagement were linked to greater youth anxiety symptoms. Moreover, increases in youth anxiety symptoms 12 months later were weaker for youth who engaged in greater levels of the supportive reminiscing qualities of balanced emotion discussion and active problem-solving. CONCLUSIONS: These novel findings highlight the transactional nature and complex dynamics of reminiscing during adolescence and their relationship with youth mental health, which has implications for theory and clinical practice.

Delving into the detail: Greater episodic detail in narratives of a critical life event predicts an increase in adolescent depressive symptoms across one year.

Depressed people have reduced ability to recall specific autobiographical memories, yet the role of reduced memory specificity in the development of adolescent depression is unclear. Two reasons are the limited longitudinal studies with this age group and the dominant use of just one measure of memory specificity, the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986). In the current one-year longitudinal study, community adolescents (N = 132, M = 16.13 years at Time 1) wrote about a life turning point, and their narratives were coded with respect to the amount of episodic and semantic detail. Participants also completed an adapted version of the Minimal Instructions AMT. Greater episodic detail in young people's turning point narrative was positively associated with depressive symptoms separately at Times 1 and 2, and uniquely predicted increases in depressive symptoms across the year. A non-positive valence of the turning point resolution also positively predicted Time 2 depressive symptoms. In contrast, specificity as assessed by the AMT did not predict such an increase. The results suggest that episodic detail in highly self-relevant narratives may be a sensitive predictor of increases in adolescent depressive symptoms across time. We consider excessive self focus and retrieval style as potential explanations of our findings.

Repetitive Negative Thinking as a Transdiagnostic Predictor of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents.

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic process associated with numerous emotional disorders. Most measures of RNT are disorder-specific, limiting utility in comorbid populations. Transdiagnostic measures of RNT have been developed in adults and are associated with anxiety and depression. However, a transdiagnostic measure is needed to assess RNT in adolescents as a potential vulnerability factor for emotional disorders. This study validates a transdiagnostic measure of RNT-Repetitive Thinking Questionnaire-10 (RTQ-10)-in adolescents ( N = 840, Mage = 15.7 years). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a unidimensional structure. The RTQ-10 manifested good internal consistency and measurement invariance across genders and age. RNT was equally associated with anxiety and depression symptoms irrespective of gender or age. Convergent validity was demonstrated by correlations with disorder-specific measures of RNT. These findings support the RTQ-10 as a reliable and valid transdiagnostic measure of RNT in adolescents.