Sylia Wilson

Premorbid risk factors for major depressive disorder: Are they associated with early onset and recurrent course?

Premorbid risk for major depressive disorder (MDD) and predictors of an earlier onset and recurrent course were examined in two studies in a large, community-based sample of parents and offspring, prospectively assessed from late childhood into adulthood. In Study 1 (N = 2,764 offspring and their parents), parental psychiatric status, offspring personality at age 11, and age 11 offspring internalizing and externalizing symptoms predicted the subsequent development of MDD, as did poor quality parent-child relationships, poor academic functioning, early pubertal development, and childhood maltreatment by age 11. Parental MDD and adult antisocial behavior, offspring negative emotionality and disconstraint, externalizing symptoms, and childhood maltreatment predicted an earlier onset of MDD, after accounting for course; lower positive emotionality, trait anxiety, and childhood maltreatment predicted recurrent MDD, after accounting for age of onset. In Study 2 (N = 7,146), we examined molecular genetic risk for MDD by extending recent reports of associations with glutamatergic system genes. We failed to confirm associations with MDD using either individual single nucleotide polymorphism based tests or gene-based analyses. Overall, results speak to the pervasiveness of risk for MDD, as well as specific risk for early onset MDD; risk for recurrent MDD appears to be largely a function of its often earlier onset.

Adolescent drinking and motivated decision-making: a cotwin-control investigation with monozygotic twins.

The present study used a monozygotic (MZ) cotwin-control (CTC) design to investigate associations between alcohol use and performance on the Iowa gambling task (IGT) in a sample of 96 adolescents (half female). The MZ CTC design is well suited to shed light on whether poor decision-making, as reflected on IGT performance, predisposes individuals to abuse substances or is a consequence of use. Participants completed structural MRI scans as well, from which we derived gray matter volumes for cortical and subcortical regions involved in IGT performance and reduced in adolescents with problematic alcohol use. Drinking was associated with poorer task performance and with reduced volume of the left lateral orbital-frontal cortex. CTC analyses indicated that the former was due to differences between members of twin pairs in alcohol use (suggesting a causal effect of alcohol), whereas the latter was due to factors shared by twins (consistent with a pre-existing vulnerability for use). Although these preliminary findings warrant replication, they suggest that normative levels of alcohol use may diminish the quality of adolescent decision-making and thus have potentially important public health implications.

Adolescent drinking and brain morphometry: A co-twin control analysis

Highlights • Examined brain structures previously linked to adolescent drinking.• Used co-twin control study design to disentangle risk from effects of exposure.• Confirmed several previous findings primarily reflecting preexisting vulnerability.

Parental personality disorder symptoms are associated with dysfunctional parent-child interactions during early childhood: A multilevel modeling analysis

Personality disorders (PDs) have been linked to impaired functioning in important interpersonal domains. The present study examined the effects of parental PD symptoms on observationally assessed parent-child interaction behaviors in a community sample of 145 mothers, fathers, and their 3- to 6-year-old children. As expected, parents who endorsed more PD symptoms generally demonstrated more negative parenting; effects were also found for childrens interaction behaviors. Some effects on parent-child interaction were pervasive across PD constructs, whereas others were specific to particular PDs; several moderating effects of parent sex and child age were also found. Our results provide further evidence that personality pathology reflects pervasive dysfunction that is manifested across situational and interpersonal contexts, including the parent-child relationship, even within a community sample of participants with relatively mild levels of PD symptoms.

Pain Catastrophizing in Youths With Physical Disabilities and Chronic Pain

OBJECTIVE The current study examined the associations between catastrophizing and pain intensity, psychological adjustment, functional ability, and community participation in youths with physical disability and chronic pain. METHODS Participants consisted of 80 youths, aged 8-20 years, with cerebral palsy (n = 34), neuromuscular disease (n = 22), or spina bifida (n = 24). Measures from a cross-sectional survey included demographic, pain, and disability information, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Child Health Questionnaire, and the Functional Disability Inventory. RESULTS Results suggested that catastrophizing was significantly associated with pain intensity and psychological adjustment; however, catastrophizing did not demonstrate significant associations with functional ability or community participation. CONCLUSIONS The study extends previous findings of significant associations between catastrophizing and both pain intensity and psychological adjustment to samples of youths with chronic pain and disabilities not previously examined. Further research that examines the causal association between catastrophizing and outcomes in youths with chronic pain and physical disability is warranted.

Dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood: contributions of parental and child personality traits.

Individual differences in personality play a major role for functioning in a multitude of important life domains, including ones interpersonal relationships. The present study examined the effects of parental personality and child temperament traits on dyadic parent-child interaction during early childhood. Participants were a community sample of 145 mothers, 145 fathers, and their 3- to 6-year-old children. Child traits were assessed using standardized laboratory paradigms, parents reported on their own traits, and parent-child interaction was assessed observationally. Parental positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and constraint subtraits were related to parental responsiveness; the number and type of parental bids and the quality of parental responsiveness were also a function of child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits and, for mothers, child negative emotionality subtraits. Child traits were related to their own interaction behaviors; children higher on positive emotionality subtraits made more social bids, and children higher on effortful control subtraits made more influence attempts and fewer negative bids; child positive emotionality and effortful control subtraits were associated with higher quality child responsiveness. Findings speak to coherence in personality constructs across the life span, with comparable traits measured in adults and early childhood-aged children demonstrating remarkably consistent effects on dyadic interaction behavior.

Age of Onset and Course of Major Depressive Disorder: Associations With Psychosocial Functioning Outcomes in Adulthood

BACKGROUND Major depressive disorder (MDD) that onsets by adolescence is associated with various deficits in psychosocial functioning. However, adolescent-onset MDD often follows a recurrent course that may drive its associated impairment. METHOD To tease apart these two clinical features, we examined the relative associations of age of onset (adolescent versus adult) and course (recurrent versus single episodes) of MDD with a broad range of psychosocial functioning outcomes assessed in early adulthood. Participants comprised a large, population-based sample of male and female twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS; n = 1252) assessed prospectively from ages 17 to 29 years. RESULTS A recurrent course of MDD predicted impairment in several psychosocial domains in adulthood, regardless of whether the onset was in adolescence or adulthood. By contrast, adolescent-onset MDD showed less evidence of impairment in adulthood after accounting for recurrence. Individuals with both an adolescent onset and recurrent episodes of MDD represented a particularly severe group with pervasive psychosocial impairment in adulthood. CONCLUSIONS The negative implications of adolescent-onset MDD for psychosocial functioning in adulthood seem to be due primarily to its frequently recurrent course, rather than its early onset, per se. The results highlight the importance of considering both age of onset and course for understanding MDD and its implications for functioning, and also in guiding targeted intervention efforts.

Marital Quality Spillover and Young Children's Adjustment: Evidence for Dyadic and Triadic Parenting as Mechanisms

Research has evidenced support for the spillover model, which posits that parents’ marital functioning influences child adjustment by eroding parenting and coparenting in dyadic (mother–child and father–child) and triadic (mother–father–child) contexts. However, prior work has not simultaneously investigated dyadic and triadic parenting as mechanisms of spillover. Furthermore, although evidence indicates that the marital system affects child adjustment by influencing parents’ behavior, research has not explored whether child behaviors in parent–child interactions also serve as mechanisms. To address these gaps, we examined the spillover model using observational measures of parent and child behavior in parent–child dyadic interactions as well as coparenting in triadic interactions. We also explored parent and child gender differences in spillover effects. Participants were families with children 3 to 6 years of age (n = 149; 62% Caucasian). Findings indicated that marital functioning influences child adjustment by disrupting parent–child interactions in dyadic and triadic contexts, although results differed by child/parent gender and outcome examined. First, childrens responsiveness to their mothers emerged as a significant mechanism of spillover effects for boys’ internalizing and girls’ externalizing behavior. Second, for girls and boys, marital functioning was indirectly related to childrens internalizing and externalizing behavior through reductions in coparenting warmth. Finally, there was little evidence that parent gender moderated the indirect effect of dyadic parenting, except that child responsiveness to mothers (vs. to fathers) was more strongly related to child adjustment. These findings underscore the need for interventions targeting dyadic and triadic parent–child interactions in the face of marital distress.

Prospective inter-relationships between late adolescent personality and major depressive disorder in early adulthood.

BACKGROUND A well-established body of literature demonstrates concurrent associations between personality traits and major depressive disorder (MDD), but there have been relatively few investigations of their dynamic interplay over time. METHOD Prospective inter-relationships between late-adolescent personality and MDD in early adulthood were examined in a community sample of male and female twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS; n = 1252). Participants were classified into naturally occurring MDD groups based on the timing (adolescent versus adult onset) and course (chronic/recurrent versus remitting) of MDD. MDD diagnoses were assessed at ages 17, 20, 24 and 29 years, and personality traits [negative emotionality (NEM), positive emotionality (PEM) and constraint (CON)] were assessed at ages 17, 24 and 29 years. RESULTS Multilevel modeling (MLM) analyses indicated that higher age-17 NEM was associated with the subsequent development of MDD, and any MDD, regardless of onset or course, was associated with higher NEM up to age 29. Moreover, the chronic/recurrent MDD groups failed to show the normative decrease in NEM from late adolescence to early adulthood. Lower age-17 PEM was also associated with the subsequent development of MDD but only among the chronic/recurrent MDD groups. Finally, the adolescent-onset MDD groups reported lower age-17 CON relative to the never-depressed and adult-onset MDD groups. CONCLUSIONS Taken together, the results speak to the role of personality traits for conferring risk for the onset of MDD in late adolescence and early adulthood, in addition to the pernicious implications of chronic/recurrent MDD, particularly when it onsets during adolescence, for adaptive personality development.

A Pilot Intervention of Multifamily Dialectical Behavior Group Therapy in a Treatment-Seeking Adolescent Population: Effects on Teens and Their Family Members

This open pilot trial examined the feasibility of a 16-week multifamily dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills group adapted for a multifamily context as an addendum to treatment as usual. Psychopathology symptoms in both adolescents (N = 13) and caregivers (N = 16) were assessed pre- and posttreatment using multiple methods and reporters. There was a significant reduction in adolescent borderline and antisocial personality disorder symptoms as assessed by diagnostic interview, as well as a significant decrease in caregiver-reported adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors. However, adolescents did not self-report a significant decrease in symptoms. Results suggest that multifamily DBT skills group may be a feasible treatment in this population and speak to the importance of further research examining the implementation and dissemination of DBT with adolescents in a family context.