Jamie L. Abaied

Why is Past Depression the Best Predictor of Future Depression? Stress Generation as a Mechanism of Depression Continuity in Girls

This study examined whether a transactional interpersonal life stress model helps to explain the continuity in depression over time in girls. Youth (86 girls, 81 boys; M age = 12.41, SD = 1.19) and their caregivers participated in a three-wave longitudinal study. Depression and episodic life stress were assessed with semistructured interviews. Path analysis provided support for a transactional interpersonal life stress model in girls but not in boys, wherein depression predicted the generation of interpersonal stress, which predicted subsequent depression. Moreover, self-generated interpersonal stress partially accounted for the continuity of depression over time. Although depression predicted noninterpersonal stress generation in girls (but not in boys), noninterpersonal stress did not predict subsequent depression.

Developing Relationships, Being Cool, and Not Looking Like a Loser: Social Goal Orientation Predicts Children's Responses to Peer Aggression.

This research explored the contribution of social goal orientation, specifically, development (improving social skills and relationships), demonstration-approach (gaining positive judgments), and demonstration-avoidance (minimizing negative judgments). Children (N = 373; M age = 7.97, SD = .34) were followed from 2nd to 3rd grades. Validity of the social goal orientation construct was established through correlations with situation-specific goals and social adjustment. Development goals predicted adaptive responses (more effortful engagement, problem solving, advice seeking; fewer involuntary responses); demonstration goals predicted maladaptive responses (less effortful engagement, problem solving; more disengagement, retaliation). This study contributes to theoretical understanding of the process of peer aggression and interventions to promote optimal social health.

Mothers as a resource in times of stress: interactive contributions of socialization of coping and stress to youth psychopathology.

This study examined the hypothesis that maternal socialization of coping would make a differential contribution to youth depression and externalizing psychopathology depending on youths’ level of exposure to life stress. A sample of 155 youth (M age = 12.41, SD = 1.21) and their maternal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in a two-wave longitudinal study over a 1-year period. Results provided evidence for two types of socialization × stress interactions—an amplification-effects model and a differential-effects model. In the context of interpersonal stress, findings supported an amplification-effects model wherein the risk and protective effects of engagement and disengagement socialization of coping emerged in youth exposed to high but not mild levels of stress. In the context of noninterpersonal stress, findings supported a differential-effects model wherein disengagement socialization of coping contributed to heightened risk among youth exposed to high stress but dampened risk among youth exposed to mild stress. This research identifies maternal socialization of coping as a noteworthy contributor to risk for youth psychopathology, and highlights the need to consider parenting × environment interactions when investigating parenting processes related to youth psychopathology.

Contributions of maternal adult attachment to socialization of coping

This research examined whether maternal adult attachment predicted coping suggestions mothers made to their children. A sample of 157 youth (M age = 12.42, SD = 1.20) and their maternal caregivers completed semi-structured interviews and questionnaires in a two-wave longitudinal study. Results revealed that maternal insecure attachment predicted fewer engagement coping suggestions (orienting toward stress) and heightened disengagement coping suggestions (avoiding or denying stress) both concurrently and over time. These associations remained after adjusting for child, mother, and contextual characteristics. This study contributes to our understanding of the implications adult attachment has for parenting behavior, suggesting that insecure attachment undermines a parent’s ability to provide adaptive coping guidance to their children.

Parent Psychological Control and Responses to Interpersonal Stress in Emerging Adulthood Moderating Effects of Behavioral Inhibition and Behavioral Activation

This study examined links between parent psychological control and responses to interpersonal stress in emerging adulthood and whether temperament (i.e., behavioral inhibition [BI] and behavioral activation [BA]) moderated this association. A sample of 161 emerging adults (M age = 19.48, SD = 1.00) enrolled in a public university reported their perceptions of parent psychological control, responses to stress, and BI and BA. Results revealed that parent psychological control and temperament made both independent and interactive contributions to emerging adults’ responses to stress. Specifically, psychological control and BI were associated with maladaptive responses, whereas BA was associated with adaptive responses. In some cases, susceptibility to parent psychological control varied as a function of BI and BA. This study extends previous research with children and adolescents by demonstrating that parenting and temperament are associated with responses to stress in emerging adulthood.

Contributions of maternal emotional functioning to socialization of coping

This study examined whether maternal emotional functioning—emotional awareness and depression—guides the coping suggestions mothers make to their children in the context of a common childhood stressor (peer victimization). Across two waves of a longitudinal study, 330 mothers and their second graders (mean age (M) = 7.95 years, SD = .33; 158 boys and 172 girls) completed questionnaires. Emotional awareness predicted more primary control engagement suggestions (directly addressing stress or emotions). Depression predicted fewer cognitive restructuring suggestions (thinking positively) and more cognitive avoidance suggestions (orienting thoughts away from stress). Interactive effects between maternal emotional functioning and child sex also emerged. This study elucidates the impact of mothers’ emotional functioning on how they teach their children to cope with stress.

Relational victimization and proactive versus reactive relational aggression: The moderating effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and skin conductance

This research examined the moderating effect of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) on the associations between relational victimization and reactive and proactive relational aggression. Both branches of the ANS, the parasympathetic nervous system (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity; RSA-Reactivity) and the sympathetic nervous system (indexed by skin conductance level reactivity; SCL-Reactivity), were examined. Emerging adults (N = 168) self-reported on relational victimization and proactive and reactive relational aggression; RSA-Reactivity and SCL-Reactivity were assessed in response to a laboratory stressor. Relational victimization predicted heightened reactive relational aggression given RSA augmentation/high SCL-Reactivity (i.e., coactivation) and RSA withdrawal/low SCL-Reactivity (i.e., coinhibition). In addition, relational victimization predicted heightened reactive relational aggression given RSA augmentation/low SCL-Reactivity (i.e., reciprocal parasympathetic activation). This study extends previous research on relational victimization and provides novel evidence that (a) exposure to relational victimization is associated with reactive relational aggression, but not proactive relational aggression, and (b) parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system reactivity jointly moderate the link between relational victimization and reactive relational aggression.

Skin conductance level reactivity as a moderator of the link between parent depressive symptoms and psychosocial adjustment in emerging adults

Although research indicates that psychophysiological factors influence youths’ susceptibility to the negative effects of parent depression in childhood and adolescence, little research has examined whether psychophysiology plays this role in emerging adulthood. To address this question, this study examined links between parent self-reported depressive symptoms and emerging adults’ (EAs’) self-reported psychosocial adjustment difficulties (i.e., symptoms of depression, disengagement responses to interpersonal stress, and adult attachment avoidance and anxiety), as moderated by EAs’ skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) to an interpersonal laboratory stressor. Tests were also conducted to determine whether the interactive contributions of parent depressive symptoms and SCLR were consistent with diathesis–stress or differential susceptibility models. The results revealed that parent depressive symptoms contributed to heightened adjustment difficulties only among EAs who exhibited high SCLR, and these interactions were most consistent with a diathesis–stress model. This study provides novel evidence that autonomic stress reactivity modulates the impact of parent depressive symptoms on EAs’ well-being.

The Longitudinal Impact of Screen Time on Adolescent Development: Moderation by Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

PURPOSE To date, little is known about underlying psychophysiological contributions to the impact of media content and overall screen time on adolescent psychological functioning. In the present study we examine respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a moderator of the link between specific types of media content use, overall media exposure, and the development of internalizing and aggressive symptoms in youth. METHODS A sample of 374 adolescents (mean age = 15) reported on their media use, internalizing behavior, and aggressive behavior at time 1 (2011) and 1-year follow-up (2012). RSA reactivity was gathered during a challenging laboratory task. Path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized three-way interaction model between media use, media content, and RSA reactivity, separately for internalizing and aggressive problems. RESULTS Significant interactions were found for aggressive, but not prosocial, media content. For aggressive content, youth exhibiting RSA withdrawal reported significantly greater internalizing and aggressive symptoms when exposed to higher amounts of screen time and aggressive content. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that profiles of heightened RSA withdrawal may place adolescents at greater risk to the negative impact of violent media, whereas prosocial media content may not significantly impact youth development of psychopathology. Implications for the role of psychophysiology in our understanding of media effects are discussed.

Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence.

A burgeoning literature supports the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as an index of physiologic sensitivity to the environment, but extant research is limited in its focus on single branches of the ANS, childhood samples, and solely negative environmental factors. This study seeks to address these limitations by exploring whether reactivity in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems jointly moderate the prospective contributions of both positive (maternal involvement) and negative (maternal psychological control) aspects of the family environment to developmentally relevant outcomes in adolescence (depressive symptoms and emotion regulation). At Wave 1, adolescents (n = 352, 52% female, M age = 15.27, SD = 1.04; 65% White) and their parents completed a problem-solving discussion task, during which adolescent ANS activation was continuously monitored, and reports of maternal involvement, maternal psychological control, adolescent depressive symptoms, and adolescent emotion regulation were obtained. Adolescent depressive symptoms and emotion regulation were assessed again 1 year later (Wave 2). Results indicated that PNS and SNS reactivity jointly moderated the prospective contributions of maternal involvement and maternal psychological control to depressive symptoms and emotion regulation. Specifically, adolescents who exhibited reciprocal SNS activation appeared to be most sensitive to both positive and negative parenting environments. Adolescents exhibiting coinhibition or coactivation profiles of autonomic reactivity were comparatively unreactive to parenting. This study corroborates the notion that consideration of multiple physiological systems is critical to our understanding of biological processes in the development of emotional functioning in adolescence.