Lauren M. Fussner

Dynamics of Positive Emotion Regulation: Associations with Youth Depressive Symptoms

Depression is frequently considered a disorder of impaired affect regulation with deficits across both positive and negative affective systems. However, where deficits in emotion regulation occur in youth, specifically regarding regulation of positive emotions, is relatively unknown. The current study tested whether deficits in broad (felt and expressed) and specific (up-regulation and maintenance) positive emotion processes are associated with youth depressive symptoms. Adolescents (n = 134; 65 girls) in grades 7 to 9 completed a self-report measure of depressive symptoms prior to participating in two parent–child interactions tasks, a rewarding trivia task and a problem-solving conflict task. During the interaction tasks, adolescent’s overall self-reported experience and observed expression of positive affect (PA) was examined. Following the reward task, youth’s ability to up-regulate PA (PA response) and maintain PA while buffering against NA (PA persistence) was explored observationally. Results suggested that reduced experience and expression of PA was associated with depression symptoms, but only in a context that elicited negative emotions. No association was found between PA response and depression symptoms; however, shorter PA persistence was associated with elevated depressive symptoms. Youth higher in depressive symptoms appear able to respond similarly to rewarding events, but fail to maintain PA and ward off NA when transitioning from a positive to negative task.

It’s Not Me, It’s You: Perceptions of Partner Body Image Preferences Associated With Eating Disorder Symptoms in Gay and Heterosexual Men

This study explored perceptions of partner body image preferences and symptoms of disordered eating in gay and heterosexual men. Participants were male college students (n = 201; M age = 20.46), and over one third identified as gay. We compared discrepancies between participants’ current and ideal body type and participants’ current body type and the body type they believed they should have to attract a dating partner. For gay men, the discrepancy between their current body and the body they believed they should have to attract a dating partner was significantly greater than the discrepancy between their current and ideal body types. In gay and heterosexual men, the discrepancy between current body and the body they believed they should have to attract a dating partner predicted eating, shape, and weight concern. Results suggest that perceptions of partner body image preferences may contribute to eating disorder pathology in men.

Role of adolescent and maternal depressive symptoms on transactional emotion recognition: context and state affect matter.

Depressive symptomatology is associated with impaired recognition of emotion. Previous investigations have predominantly focused on emotion recognition of static facial expressions neglecting the influence of social interaction and critical contextual factors. In the current study, we investigated how youth and maternal symptoms of depression may be associated with emotion recognition biases during familial interactions across distinct contextual settings. Further, we explored if an individuals current emotional state may account for youth and maternal emotion recognition biases. Mother-adolescent dyads (N = 128) completed measures of depressive symptomatology and participated in three family interactions, each designed to elicit distinct emotions. Mothers and youth completed state affect ratings pertaining to self and other at the conclusion of each interaction task. Using multiple regression, depressive symptoms in both mothers and adolescents were associated with biased recognition of both positive affect (i.e., happy, excited) and negative affect (i.e., sadness, anger, frustration); however, this bias emerged primarily in contexts with a less strong emotional signal. Using actor-partner interdependence models, results suggested that youths own state affect accounted for depression-related biases in their recognition of maternal affect. State affect did not function similarly in explaining depression-related biases for maternal recognition of adolescent emotion. Together these findings suggest a similar negative bias in emotion recognition associated with depressive symptoms in both adolescents and mothers in real-life situations, albeit potentially driven by different mechanisms.

Dimensionality of Helicopter Parenting and Relations to Emotional, Decision-Making, and Academic Functioning in Emerging Adults.

The current study tests the underlying structure of a multidimensional construct of helicopter parenting (HP), assesses reliability of the construct, replicates past relations of HP to poor emotional functioning, and expands the literature to investigate links of HP to emerging adults’ decision-making and academic functioning. A sample of 377 emerging adults (66% female; ages 17-30; 88% European American) were administered several items assessing HP as well as measures of other parenting behaviors, depression, anxiety, decision-making style, grade point average, and academic functioning. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested a four-factor, 23-item measure that encompassed varying levels of parental involvement in the personal and professional lives of their children. A bifactor model was also fit to the data and suggested the presence of a reliable overarching HP factor in addition to three reliable subfactors. The fourth subfactor was not reliable and item variances were subsumed by the general HP factor. HP was found to be distinct from, but correlated in expected ways with, other reports of parenting behavior. HP was also associated with poorer functioning in emotional functioning, decision making, and academic functioning. Parents’ information-seeking behaviors, when done in absences of other HP behaviors, were associated with better decision making and academic functioning.

Emotion Dysregulation Mediates the Longitudinal Relation between Peer Rejection and Depression: Differential Effects of Gender and Grade.

The goal of the current investigation was to test emotion dysregulation as a mechanism explaining the longitudinal association between peer rejection and depressive symptoms across 1 school year in middle childhood and to determine whether this process differed based on gender and grade. Youth in Grades 3 through 6 (N = 131; 71 girls) and their primary school teachers (n = 8) were recruited from a Midwestern elementary school. Youth reported on their emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms at two time points (T1 and T2), approximately 6 months apart. Teachers completed ratings of peer rejection at T1. Peer rejection at T1 predicted youth-report of depressive symptoms at T2, even after controlling for depression at T1. Moderated mediation suggested that change in emotion dysregulation mediated the relation of peer rejection to depressive symptoms over time, but only for older boys. Results underscore the importance of considering gender-specific processes within interpersonal risk models of depression, and provide support for peer rejection as a critical social process shaping emotion regulation in middle childhood.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder: Using facial electromyography to examine the association between eating disorder symptoms and perceptions of emaciation among undergraduate women

Thin-ideal internalization, drive for thinness, and over-evaluation of the importance of thinness are associated with eating disorders (EDs). However, little research has examined to what extent perceptions of emaciation are also associated with ED symptoms. In the present study, 80 undergraduate women self-reported on ED symptomatology and perceptions of emaciated, thin, and overweight female bodies. While participants viewed images of these different body types, facial electromyography was used to measure activation of facial muscles associated with disgust reactions. Emaciated and overweight bodies were rated negatively and elicited facial responses consistent with disgust. Further, ED symptomatology was associated with pronounced aversion to overweight bodies (assessed via self-report pleasantness ratings), and attenuated negative affect to emaciated bodies (assessed via facial electromyography). The latter association was significant even when controlling for self-reported perceptions of emaciation, suggesting that psychophysiological methods in ED research may provide valuable information unavailable via self-report.

Social reward and social punishment sensitivity in relation to dietary restraint and binge/purge symptoms

Disordered eating symptoms are associated with disrupted sensitivity to reward and punishment, broadly assessed. However, it is unknown how eating pathology is related to sensitivity to social reward and social punishment specifically. Drawing on Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, the current study utilized a multi-method design to test whether disordered eating symptoms, specifically dietary restraint (DR) and binge/purge (BP), were similarly or uniquely related to sensitivity to social punishment and social reward. Female university students (N = 110, M = 18.66, SD = 0.89) completed self-report measures and a novel behavioral task measuring willingness to work for or to avoid social feedback. DR and BP symptoms were related to increased self-reported and behavioral sensitivity to social punishment, yet only when symptoms were tested in isolation. DR was associated with increased sensitivity to social reward across self-report and behavioral paradigms. BP symptoms were uniquely and positively related to self-reported sensitivity to social reward, but decreased behavioral sensitivity to social reward. Findings suggest that sensitivity to punishment may be a common factor related to DR and BP, whereas sensitivity to social reward may be a key factor differentiating disordered eating symptoms.