Negative Emotion Differentiation through a Developmental Lens: Associations with Parental Factors and Age in Adolescence.

Negative emotion differentiation (NED) is the ability to precisely discern negatively-valenced emotional states. Low NED has been linked to numerous negative outcomes. However, little is known about the conditions under which individual differences in NED emerge, particularly during adolescence, a potentially important developmental stage. We examined associations between NED (assessed using intraclass correlations between negative emotion [NE] ratings collected via intensive longitudinal methods), parental variables, and age. Adolescents (N=233, M age=15.90, 53% female) and their parents completed interview measures of depression and self-report questionnaires; adolescents then completed a seven-day ecological momentary assessment. Lower NED was associated with greater parental depression, greater authoritarian parenting style, and lower parental attachment security. Age was negatively and linearly associated with NED. Results held controlling for mean NE and adolescent depression, although authoritarian parenting was non-significant controlling for other developmental variables. Findings suggest healthy parent-child relationships may relate to adolescents' ability to perceive NEs with nuance.

The perils of murky emotions: Emotion differentiation moderates the prospective relationship between naturalistic stress exposure and adolescent depression.

Negative emotion differentiation (NED) refers to the ability to identify and label discrete negative emotions. Low NED has been previously linked to depression and other indices of low psychological well-being. However, this construct has rarely been explored during adolescence, a time of escalating depression risk, or examined in the context of naturalistic stressors. Further, the association between NED and depression has never been tested longitudinally. We propose a diathesis-stress model wherein low NED amplifies the association between stressful life events (SLEs) and depression. A sample of 233 community-recruited midadolescents (Mage 15.90 years, 54% female) completed diagnostic interviews and reported on mood and daily stressors 4 times per day for 7 days. SLEs were assessed using a semistructured interview with diagnosis-blind team coding based on the contextual threat method. Follow-up interviews were conducted 1.5 years after baseline. Low NED was correlated with depression but did not predict prospective changes in depression as a main effect. Confirming predictions and supporting a diathesis-stress model, low NED predicted (a) within-subjects associations between daily hassles and momentary depressed mood, (b) between-subjects associations between SLE severity and depression, and (c) prospective associations between SLE severity and increases in depression at follow-up. Results were specific to negative (vs. positive) emotion differentiation. Results suggest that low NED is primarily depressogenic in the context of high stress exposure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Chronic stress exposure, diurnal cortisol slope, and implications for mood and fatigue: Moderation by multilocus HPA-Axis genetic variation.

Chronic stress exposure has been shown to alter hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, which may mediate its effects on psychopathology and negative health outcomes. The nature of the chronic stress-HPA axis dysregulation is unclear and individuals likely vary in the extent to and manner in which indices of HPA axis regulation, such as diurnal cortisol slope, are influenced by chronic stress. We examined whether HPA-axis-linked genetic variation moderates the association between chronic stress and diurnal cortisol slope, and potential implications for mood and fatigue (possible manifestations of negative clinical outcomes). 211 adolescents (M age 15.89, 54.5% female) completed chronic stress interviews and provided DNA samples. Participants then provided saliva samples at waking and 12 h post-waking for two consecutive weekdays. HPA-axis genetic variation was calculated using a multilocus genetic profile score (MGPS) approach, using ten SNPs from CRHR1, NR3C1, NR3C2, and FKBP5 to generate an additive score of HPA-axis-linked genetic risk. Neither chronic stress nor MGPS directly predicted diurnal slope, but MGPS moderated the association between chronic stress and diurnal slope, with stress predicting a high waking cortisol followed by steep slope among youth with low but not high MGPS scores. MGPS also interacted with chronic stress to predict both negative affect and fatigue, and moderated the indirect effect of chronic stress on mood and fatigue via diurnal slope. Results suggest that diurnal cortisol regulation may be one mechanism by which genetic risk intensifies the association between chronic stress and negative outcomes.

Insomnia mediates the longitudinal relationship between anxiety and depressive symptoms in a nationally representative sample of adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depression are commonly comorbid with each other, with anxiety often temporally preceding the development of depression. Although increasingly research has begun to investigate the role of sleep problems in depression, no study has examined insomnia as a mediator in the longitudinal relationship between anxiety and subsequent depression. METHODS: The current study utilizes data from Waves I, II, and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative prospective study conducted over a 14-year period (n = 20,745, 50.5% female, M age at Wave I = 16.20). Participants completed portions of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale at Waves I and IV to assess depressive symptoms, a six-item anxiety measure at Wave I, and three items assessing insomnia, sleep quality, and sleep duration at Wave II. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling indicated that insomnia and unrestful sleep significantly mediated the relationship between anxiety and subsequent depression. The relationship between anxiety and depression was not significantly mediated by sleep duration. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that anxiety may increase risk for the development of later depression through insomnia.

Childhood adversity moderates the influence of proximal episodic stress on the cortisol awakening response and depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Childhood adversity (CA) is known to predict sensitization to proximal stressors. Researchers have suggested that disruptions in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning may be a biological mechanism. If so, CA may predict altered associations between proximal life stress and markers of cortisol secretion. We examined whether CA moderates associations between recent episodic stress and (a) the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and (b) depressive symptoms, in 241 adolescents aged 14-17 years (cortisol n = 196). Salivary cortisol was sampled at 0, 30, and 60 min postawakening for 2 days. The CAR was calculated as the area under the curve with respect to increase and waking cortisol. CA and episodic stress were assessed using contextual-threat-method-coded objective interviews. CA significantly interacted with episodic stress to predict both the CAR and depression. Among those with low CA, episodic stress predicted increased CAR but did not predict depression. For adolescents with high CA, episodic stress predicted lower CAR and higher depression. These interactions were found only for independent (uncontrollable, fateful) events, and not for dependent (self-generated) stress. Increased allostatic load resulting from CA exposure may interfere with adolescents' ability to optimally regulate their CAR in relation to recent stress, contributing to increased depression risk.