Bidirectional Associations Between Early Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms and Positive Affect Regulation Strategy Use in Daily-Life: An Experience Sampling Method Study.

Abstract

Disruptions in positive affect (PA) have been found to characterize several internalizing disorders, including depression, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety. One factor that may contribute to disruptions in PA are individual differences in PA regulation, or the tendency to upregulate ("enhance") or downregulate ("dampen") positive emotions in response to pleasant events. Yet, prospective associations between PA regulation and varying forms of internalizing are not well-understood, particularly during adolescence, a period during which risk for the onset these disorders rises. Thus, the present study evaluated bidirectional associations between daily-life PA regulation strategy use and symptoms of depression, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety in a sample of 151 early adolescents (52.0% girls; 48.0% boys; M_age[SD] = 12.72[.86]). Youth symptoms were assessed using self-report questionnaires at baseline and one year later. Daily-life enhancing and dampening were assessed 3-4 times per day for 9 days using experience sampling methods at baseline and 1-year (31 total assessments per time point). Results of multilevel correlation models demonstrated concurrent associations between dampening and symptoms of depression, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety. Multilevel structural equation models indicated that greater baseline dampening predicted increases in depressive symptoms across one year. Results also suggested that greater baseline depressive symptoms may predict prospective increases in dampening. Together, findings indicate that dampening is a common feature of varying internalizing symptoms during adolescence, and dampening and depressive symptoms may demonstrate relatively unique patterns of interrelation over time.