Jessica E. Salvatore

Recovering From Conflict in Romantic Relationships A Developmental Perspective

This study adopted a developmental perspective on recovery from conflict in romantic relationships. Participants were 73 young adults (target participants), studied since birth, and their romantic partners. A novel observational coding scheme was used to evaluate each participant’s degree of conflict recovery, operationalized as the extent to which the participant disengaged from conflict during a 4-min “cool-down” task immediately following a 10-min conflict discussion. Conflict recovery was systematically associated with developmental and dyadic processes. Targets who were rated as securely attached more times in infancy recovered from conflict better, as did their romantic partners. Concurrently, having a romantic partner who displayed better recovery predicted more positive relationship emotions and greater relationship satisfaction. Prospectively, target participants’ early attachment security and their partners’ degree of conflict recovery interacted to predict relationship stability 2 years later, such that having a partner who recovered from conflict better buffered targets with insecure histories.

Polygenic Risk for Externalizing Disorders Gene-by-Development and Gene-by-Environment Effects in Adolescents and Young Adults

In this project, we aimed to bring large-scale gene-identification findings into a developmental psychopathology framework. Using a family-based sample, we tested whether polygenic scores for externalizing disorders—based on single nucleotide polymorphism weights derived from genome-wide association study results in adults (n = 1,249)—predicted externalizing disorders, subclinical externalizing behavior, and impulsivity-related traits among adolescents (n = 248) and young adults (n = 207) and whether parenting and peer factors in adolescence moderated polygenic risk to predict externalizing disorders. Polygenic scores predicted externalizing disorders in adolescents and young adults, even after we controlled for parental externalizing-disorder history. Polygenic scores also predicted subclinical externalizing behavior and impulsivity traits in the adolescents and young adults. Adolescent parental monitoring and peer substance use moderated polygenic scores to predict externalizing disorders. This illustrates how state-of-the-science genetics can be integrated with psychological science to identify how genetic risk contributes to the development of psychopathology.

The Impact of Early Interpersonal Experience on Adult Romantic Relationship Functioning Recent Findings From the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation

Adopting an organizational view on social development, we have investigated how interpersonal experiences early in life predict how well individuals will resolve relationship conflicts, recover from conflicts, and have stable, satisfying relationships with their romantic partners in early adulthood. We have also identified specific interpersonal experiences during middle childhood and adolescence that mediate the connection between how individuals regulated their emotions with their parents very early in life and how they do so as young adults in their romantic relationships. We discuss the many advantages of adopting an organizational view on social development.

Polygenic Scores Predict Alcohol Problems in an Independent Sample and Show Moderation by the Environment

Alcohol problems represent a classic example of a complex behavioral outcome that is likely influenced by many genes of small effect. A polygenic approach, which examines aggregate measured genetic effects, can have predictive power in cases where individual genes or genetic variants do not. In the current study, we first tested whether polygenic risk for alcohol problems—derived from genome-wide association estimates of an alcohol problems factor score from the age 18 assessment of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; n = 4304 individuals of European descent; 57% female)—predicted alcohol problems earlier in development (age 14) in an independent sample (FinnTwin12; n = 1162; 53% female). We then tested whether environmental factors (parental knowledge and peer deviance) moderated polygenic risk to predict alcohol problems in the FinnTwin12 sample. We found evidence for both polygenic association and for additive polygene-environment interaction. Higher polygenic scores predicted a greater number of alcohol problems (range of Pearson partial correlations 0.07–0.08, all p-values ≤ 0.01). Moreover, genetic influences were significantly more pronounced under conditions of low parental knowledge or high peer deviance (unstandardized regression coefficients (b), p-values (p), and percent of variance (R2) accounted for by interaction terms: b = 1.54, p = 0.02, R2 = 0.33%; b = 0.94, p = 0.04, R2 = 0.30%, respectively). Supplementary set-based analyses indicated that the individual top single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) contributing to the polygenic scores were not individually enriched for gene-environment interaction. Although the magnitude of the observed effects are small, this study illustrates the usefulness of polygenic approaches for understanding the pathways by which measured genetic predispositions come together with environmental factors to predict complex behavioral outcomes.

Spit for Science: launching a longitudinal study of genetic and environmental influences on substance use and emotional health at a large US university.

Finding genes involved in complex behavioral outcomes, and understanding the pathways by which they confer risk, is a challenging task, necessitating large samples that are phenotypically well characterized across time. We describe an effort to create a university-wide research project aimed at understanding how genes and environments impact alcohol use and related substance use and mental health outcomes across time in college students. Nearly 70% of the incoming freshman class (N = 2715) completed on-line surveys, with 80% of the students from the fall completing spring follow-ups. 98% of eligible participants also gave DNA. The participants closely approximated the university population in terms of gender and racial/ethnic composition. Here we provide initial results on alcohol use outcomes from the first wave of the sample, as well as associated predictor variables. We discuss the potential for this kind of research to advance our understanding of genetic and environment influences on substance use and mental health outcomes.

The Impact of Early Interpersonal Experience on Adult Romantic Relationship Functioning

Adopting an organizational view on social development, we have investigated how interpersonal experiences early in life predict how well individuals will resolve relationship conflicts, recover from conflicts, and have stable, satisfying relationships with their romantic partners in early adulthood. We have also identified specific interpersonal experiences during middle childhood and adolescence that mediate the connection between how individuals regulated their emotions with their parents very early in life and how they do so as young adults in their romantic relationships. We discuss the many advantages of adopting an organizational view on social development.

Developmental and Dyadic Perspectives on Commitment in Adult Romantic Relationships

We tested hypotheses concerning the developmental roots of becoming the “weak-link” (less committed) partner in adult romantic relationships and the associations between partners’ absolute and relative levels of commitment and dyadic outcomes. We examined 78 target 20- to 21-year-olds who were involved in a romantic relationship and who had been studied since birth. As predicted, people who received lower-quality support from caregivers in toddlerhood or who were less able to resolve conflicts with a best friend in midadolescence were more likely to become the weak-link partner in a romantic relationship at age 20 to 21. Furthermore, lower commitment on the part of the weak-link partner coupled with greater discrepancy in commitment between partners predicted a greater likelihood that the couple would display hostility (rated by observers) during a videotaped conflict-resolution task when they were 20 to 21 years old. These findings are discussed from developmental and dyadic perspectives.

Early patterns of self-regulation as risk and promotive factors in development: A longitudinal study from childhood to adulthood in a high-risk sample:

The present study examines two childhood markers of self-regulation, ego control and ego resiliency, as promotive factors for the development of global adjustment and as risk factors for the development of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a high-risk sample. Teachers and observers rated ego control and ego resiliency when participants (n = 136) were in preschool and elementary school. Ratings showed evidence for convergent and discriminant validity and stability over time. Ego resiliency, but not ego control, emerged as a powerful predictor of adaptive functioning at ages 19 and 26, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems at 16, 23, 26, and 32 years. We interpret these findings as evidence that flexibility and adaptability—measured with ego resiliency—may reduce risk and promote successful adaptation in low socioeconomic status (SES) environments.

Shared and Distinctive Origins and Correlates of Adult Attachment Representations: The Developmental Organization of Romantic Functioning

To test proposals regarding the hierarchical organization of adult attachment, this study examined developmental origins of generalized and romantic attachment representations and their concurrent associations with romantic functioning. Participants (N=112) in a 35-year prospective study completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and Current Relationship Interview (CRI). Two-way analysis of variance tested interactive associations of AAI and CRI security with infant attachment, early parenting quality, preschool ego resiliency, adolescent friendship quality, and adult romantic functioning. Both representations were associated with earlier parenting and core attachment-related romantic behavior, but romantic representations had distinctive links to ego resiliency and relationship-specific romantic behaviors. Attachment representations were independent and did not interactively predict romantic functioning, suggesting that they confer somewhat distinctive benefits for romantic functioning.

Shared and Distinctive Origins and Correlates of Adult Attachment Representations

To test proposals regarding the hierarchical organization of adult attachment, this study examined developmental origins of generalized and romantic attachment representations and their concurrent associations with romantic functioning. Participants (N=112) in a 35-year prospective study completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) and Current Relationship Interview (CRI). Two-way analysis of variance tested interactive associations of AAI and CRI security with infant attachment, early parenting quality, preschool ego resiliency, adolescent friendship quality, and adult romantic functioning. Both representations were associated with earlier parenting and core attachment-related romantic behavior, but romantic representations had distinctive links to ego resiliency and relationship-specific romantic behaviors. Attachment representations were independent and did not interactively predict romantic functioning, suggesting that they confer somewhat distinctive benefits for romantic functioning.