Daily use of digital technologies to feel better: Adolescents' digital emotion regulation, emotions, loneliness, and recovery, considering prior emotional problems.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents report using digital technologies for emotion regulation (digital ER), with the aim of feeling better (i.e., improving emotions and reducing loneliness). In this 7-day diary study, we investigated associations of digital ER, emotions, and loneliness, and tested whether prior emotional problems moderated these associations. METHOD: Participants were 312 Australian adolescents (Mage = 13.91, SD = 1.52; 44% boys). Daily surveys measured digital ER; end-of-day happiness, sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness; and peak sadness, worry, and anger. End-of day emotions were subtracted from peak emotions to calculate emotion recovery for sadness, worry, and anger. Participants were randomly selected from two symptom strata (high/low) defined by depression and social anxiety measures collected before the diary. Data were analyzed using multilevel path modeling. Cross-level interactions tested whether symptom strata moderated associations. RESULTS: Digital ER was associated with more recovery from peak to end-of-day sadness and worry, but also with increased sadness, worry, anger, and loneliness by the next end-of-day. Higher end-of-day loneliness was associated with increased next-day digital ER. Prior emotional symptoms were not a significant moderator of daily digital ER and emotion associations. CONCLUSION: Adolescents who report more digital ER in a day show more recovery from the peak of negative emotion that day, but this recovery dissipates, with digital ER also associated with increased negative emotion and loneliness by the next day for all adolescents, regardless of prior symptom status. Lonelier adolescents use more digital ER by the next day, suggesting they need support to make social connections-online or offline.

Parental Support and Adolescents' Coping with Academic Stressors: A Longitudinal Study of Parents' Influence Beyond Academic Pressure and Achievement.

Adolescents face many academic pressures that require good coping skills, but coping skills can also depend on social resources, such as parental support and fewer negative interactions. The aim of this study was to determine if parental support and parental negative interactions concurrently and longitudinally relate to adolescents' ways of academic coping, above and beyond the impact of three types of academic stress, students' achievement at school (i.e., grades in school), and age. Survey data were collected from 839 Australian students in grades 5 to 10 (Mage = 12.2, SD = 1.72; 50% girls). Students completed measures of support and negative interactions with parents; academic stress from workload, external pressure (teachers/parents) to achieve, and intrapsychic pressure for high achievement; and ways of academic coping that were grouped into two positive and two negative types. Hypothesized associations were tested concurrently and from one year to the next using path modeling. Beyond the numerous significant influences of academic stress and achievement on coping, and control for age and COVID-19 timing, adolescents with more parental support reported more use of engagement coping (e.g., strategizing) and comfort-seeking, whereas those who reported more negative interactions with parents reported more use of disengagement coping (e.g., concealment) and escape. In the longitudinal model, parental support predicted an increase in engagement and comfort-seeking and a decrease in disengagement coping, whereas negative interaction with parents predicted an increase in disengagement coping. Overall, the findings support the view that coping with academic stressors will continue to depend on parent-adolescent relationships even into the teen years.

Evidence-Based Treatment in Practice: PCIT Research on Addressing Individual Differences and Diversity Through the Lens of 20 Years of Service.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is an intensive parent support program for caregivers and their children who exhibit difficult-to-manage disruptive behaviors. After more than four decades of research supporting its efficacy for reducing children's disruptive behaviors and improving parent-child relationships, PCIT has become one of the most popular and widely disseminated parenting support programs in the world. The evidence for the efficacy of PCIT can be found in many reviews of randomized clinical trials and other rigorous studies. To add to those reviews, our aim was to provide practical guidance on how PCIT can be part of an evidence-based program for families that depends on practitioner expertise, as well as attention to families' diverse needs. To do this, we describe the evolution of PCIT as practiced in a university-community partnership that has continued for over 20 years, alongside a narrative description of selected and recent findings on PCIT and its use in specific client presentations across four themes. These themes include studies of 1) whether the standard manualized form of PCIT is efficacious across a selection of diverse family situations and child diagnoses, 2) the mechanisms of change that explain why some parents and some children might benefit more or less from PCIT, 3) whether treatment content modifications make PCIT more feasible to implement or acceptable to some families, at the same time as achieving the same or better outcomes, and 4) whether PCIT with structural modifications to the delivery, such as online or intensive delivery, yields similar outcomes as standard PCIT. Finally, we discuss how these directions in research have influenced research and practice, and end with a summary of how the growing attention on parent and child emotion regulation and parents' responses to (and coaching of) their children's emotions has become important to PCIT theory and our practice.

Parental-Led Sexual Abuse Education Amongst At-Risk Parents: Associations with Parenting Practices, and Parent and Child Symptomology.

Considering the emphasis on parent-led sexual abuse education (PLSAE) in child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention, and the imperative of prevention in families living with demonstrated risk factors, it is important to understand the extent to which this group delivers PLSAE to their children, whether this is associated with any barriers or facilitators, whether parents are engaging in other protective behaviors (such as monitoring and involvement) and the relationship between these variables and other risk factors such as parent and child symptomology. We surveyed 117 parents, with children ranging in age from 25-89 months (67% boys), attending a parenting program for assistance with a range of parenting difficulties and child behavior problems from 2020-22. A large majority of parents reported not giving their children comprehensive prevention messages, discussing body integrity and abduction dangers to a greater extent. PLSAE was significantly positively associated with child internalizing and externalizing symptoms; parent and child age; and discussion of body integrity and abduction. However, PLSAE was not associated with any other measured variables (protective parenting; CSA knowledge; parenting self-efficacy; general and own-child risk appraisal; parent burnout, stress, depression or anxiety; child diagnosis; parental education level; employment or marital status; or income). The current findings suggest that investing resources into increasing parental knowledge, risk perception and confidence may be misguided. Future endeavors should consider helping parents be protective in other ways, for example, through the creation of safe environments and reducing the risks of CSA.

A pattern-centered analysis of adolescents' concerns and hopes about future crises: Differences in ways of coping and personal adjustment.

INTRODUCTION: Many adolescents are concerned about global and future crises, such as the health of the planet or terrorism/safety. Yet, adolescents can also express hope about the future. Thus, asking adolescents about their concern and hope could yield subgroups with different ways of coping and personal adjustment. METHOD: Australian adolescents (N = 863; age 10-16) completed surveys to report their concern (worry and anger) and hope about the planet, safety, jobs, income, housing, and technology, as well as their active and avoidant coping, depression, and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Four distinct subgroups were identified using cluster analysis: Hopeful (low on concern and high on hope across all issues, 32%), Uninvolved (low in concern and hope; 26%), Concerned about the Planet (CP, 27%), and Concerned about Future Life (CFL, 15%). When compared (adjusting for age, sex, and COVID timing), the CP subgroup was highest in active coping (e.g., taking action) but moderate in personal adjustment. Hopeful had the most positive adjustment, whereas CFL had the poorest adjustment. Uninvolved were lowest in coping but moderate in adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest ways of coping and adjustment may not always align, in that CP is connected with more active coping but also some cost to personal adjustment, whereas Hopeful is associated with optimal adjustment but perhaps at the cost of active coping. In addition, although CFL adolescents emerged as the at-risk group, the low levels of hope and coping in Uninvolved adolescents raise the possibility that they are at risk of future problems.

The Circle of Security Parenting Program (COS-P): A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Low Intensity, Individualized Attachment-Based Program With at-Risk Caregivers.

The Circle of Security-Parenting Intervention (COS-P; Cooper et al., 2009) is a psychoeducational program for caregivers of young children that has been widely disseminated. The program is founded in attachment theory and relies on computer-delivered content and parent reflection and discussion to teach concepts of safety and security to promote better caregiver-child relationships and child wellbeing. The present study is a randomized controlled trial of COS-P, individually delivered to 85 Australian caregivers (51 COS-P, 34 waitlist control) who reported parenting distress and child disruptive behaviors. Caregivers completed a baseline assessment and repeated the assessment after completion of COS-P or 8 weeks on the waitlist. Caregivers completed surveys to report child symptoms, and parenting stress, anxious and avoidant attachment, reflective functioning, parenting practices, and depressive symptoms. No differences in COS-P vs. waitlist participants were found at baseline. Analyses of complete data (35 COS-P, 25-26 waitlist) revealed a greater decline in caregivers' attachment anxiety and negative parenting relative to waitlist, but only attachment anxiety in intent-to-treat analyses. Other improvements were found, but these extended to both the COS-P and waitlist conditions and did not differ between conditions. Overall, effects of COS-P were small and rarely significant, suggesting the need to consider alternative programs that have evidence of effectiveness when providing services to at-risk families.

Mindfulness, rejection, and recovery of positive mood and friendliness: A Cyberball study.

Experiencing stressful events that threaten feelings of social belonging can have far-reaching negative impacts on well-being, but there are individual differences in sensitivity to threat that might be explained by dispositional traits. In particular, naturally occurring dispositional mindfulness may be one trait that can explain such differences. To test this possibility, a pool of 495 young adults completed a measure of dispositional mindfulness and a subset of 90 (M = 19 years, SD = 1.3), selected to represent the full range of mindfulness scores, participated in an induced social rejection task (Cyberball). Threat appraisal was collected by asking about perceived exclusion and rejection post-Cyberball, and participants reported their mood and friendliness before, after, and at 3-mins of recovery, and their self-esteem and life meaning after Cyberball and at recovery. Participants higher in mindfulness reported better mood and less unfriendliness prior to Cyberball. Directly after playing Cyberball, a more heightened appraisal of threat, but not mindfulness, was associated with worse mood, less friendliness, lower self-esteem, and less life meaning. Mindfulness directly mitigated the negative effects of rejection on feelings of friendliness post rejection. When mindfulness and threat appraisal were considered in interaction, the association of perceived threat with pre- to post- changes in positive mood and friendliness was strongly negative when mindfulness was high relative to low. Further, mindfulness was associated with better recovery of mood and life meaning by 3-min after Cyberball, and these effects were additive rather than interactive. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Face-to-Face and Cyber-Victimization: A Longitudinal Study of Offline Appearance Anxiety and Online Appearance Preoccupation.

Most adolescents and young adults navigate seamlessly between offline and online social environments, and interactions in each environment brings with it opportunities for appearance concerns and preoccupation, as well as victimization and teasing about appearance. Yet, research has concentrated primarily on face-to-face victimization and its role in offline appearance anxiety symptoms in adolescents and young adults. To extend this to include cyber-victimization and online behaviors indicative of appearance anxiety, the present longitudinal study investigated the risk of face-to-face and cyber-victimization for offline appearance anxiety and online appearance preoccupation. Participants were 650 adolescents age 15 to 19 years (Mage = 17.3 years, 59% female) who completed two surveys over one-year. Correlations identified both forms of victimization as associated with offline appearance anxiety and online appearance preoccupation. Yet, in a structural equation model, face-to-face peer victimization, but not cyber-victimization, was uniquely associated with increased offline appearance anxiety and online appearance preoccupation from T1 to T2. Offline appearance anxiety and online appearance preoccupation strongly covaried and were bidirectionally associated over time. Female gender and age were associated with more anxiety and preoccupation. When gender moderation was tested, only the stability in appearance anxiety was moderated, with greater stability in females than males. Overall, offline and online appearance anxieties are highly interrelated and share a common risk factor in face-to-face appearance-related victimization by peers.

Emotion regulation and support from others: Buffering of body dysmorphic symptoms in adolescent and young adult men but not women.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents and young adults who overemphasize the social values placed on an attractive appearance may develop body dysmorphic symptoms (BDS), defined as over-preoccupation with perceived appearance flaws and repetitive behaviors to conceal the flaws. Further, research has found that a heightened expectation of judgement and rejection by others because of appearance (i.e., appearance-based rejection sensitivity [appearance-RS]) is both a maintaining and an aggravating factor in BDS. This study focused on emotion regulation (ER), appearance-related support from others and self-acceptance, expecting they would buffer the negative impact of appearance-RS on BDS. METHODS: Participants included 782 Australian high school and young university students, aged 14-28 years (M = 17.94 years, 40% male) who completed a survey to report their BDS, appearance-RS, ER, appearance-related support from others and self-acceptance. RESULTS: Multiple regression analyses revealed that youth reported more BDS when they were higher in appearance-RS but reported less self-acceptance, ER, and support from others. Further, the association between appearance-RS and BDS was weaker when young people reported higher (relative to lower) ER and support from others. However, when three-way interactions with gender were tested, these buffering effects were only significant for young men. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that ER and appearance-related support from important others are promising targets for intervention, given they could mitigate the risk of appearance-RS in young men. However, further research is needed to consider additional factors that buffer against the negative effects of appearance-RS on BDS for young women.

Unique associations of social media use and online appearance preoccupation with depression, anxiety, and appearance rejection sensitivity.

Social media (SM) can create a climate of social comparison and preoccupation with appearance, which can pose risks for emotional problems, such as depression and social anxiety. In this study, 763 adolescents and young adults reported time spent and intensity of social media use and preoccupation with both general and appearance-related (AR) social media activities and content. Associations were investigated with markers of depression and social anxiety symptoms and appearance sensitivities - appearance anxiety and appearance rejection sensitivity (appearance-RS). Social media use was positively associated with symptoms of depression, social anxiety, appearance anxiety, and appearance-RS. General and AR preoccupation had unique and positive associations with depression and social anxiety symptoms and with appearance sensitivities. AR preoccupation was also found to strengthen the relationship between time spent on social media and appearance-RS. Although there were gender differences on all measures, with young women scoring higher on all measures, there was no evidence that gender moderated the effects of AR social media preoccupation. Findings support emerging evidence that social media engagement and behavior, particularly activities involving appearance comparisons and judgements, may be more of a risk to depression and social anxiety symptoms and appearance sensitivities than simply the frequency of social media use.