Emotion Regulation and Disordered Eating in Youths: Two Daily-Diary Studies (preprint)

Disordered eating cognitions and behaviors in childhood and adolescence have been identified as precursors for the development of eating disorders. Another important contributor to eating disorder risk is maladaptive emotion regulation. However, while the regulation of negative affect has been the focus of much research, the literature on the role of positive emotion regulation in eating pathology is extremely limited. The present study extends previous research by examining the regulation of both positive and negative affect in disordered eating using two waves of a daily diary design. Every evening for 21 days, 139 youths (8-15 years) reported their use of rumination, dampening, and disordered eating cognitions and behaviors. One year later, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 115 of these youths were followed-up. As predicted, higher levels of rumination and dampening were found to be associated with a higher frequency of weight concerns and restrictive eating behaviors on person-level (both Waves) and day-level (Wave 2). Further, a higher frequency of rumination at Wave 1 predicted increases in the frequency of restrictive eating behaviors one year later. Our findings underline the importance of examining regulation of both positive and negative emotion in order to understand eating disorder risk.

Connections during Crisis: Adolescents’ social dynamics and mental health during COVID-19 (preprint)

Adolescence is a critical period for social development, which COVID-19 has dramatically altered. Quarantined youths had limited in-person interactions with peers. The present study used an intensive longitudinal design to investigate changes in interpersonal dynamics and mental health during COVID-19. Specifically, we investigated whether the associations between different social contexts – i.e., “spillover” – changed during COVID-19, and whether changes in social interactions during COVID-19 was associated with changes in depressive symptoms. Approximately one year prior to the onset of COVID-19, 139 youths reported depressive symptoms and daily interactions with parents, siblings, and friends, every day for 21 days via online questionnaires. Shortly after schools closed due to COVID-19, 115 of these youths completed a similar 28-day diary. Analyses included 112 youths (62 girls, 73% Caucasian; Mage=11.77, range 8-15 in Wave 1) who completed at least 13 diary days in each data wave. Our results show that younger adolescents experienced significant decreases in negative and positive interactions with friends, whereas older adolescents showed significant decreases in negative interactions with friends and significant increases in positive interactions with siblings. As predicted, within-day spillover of positive interactions and person-level association of negative interactions increased within the family during COVID-19, whereas within-day spillover of positive interactions between family and friends decreased. We also found a dramatic increase in depressive symptoms. More negative interactions and fewer positive interactions with family members were associated with changes in depressive symptoms. Our study sheds light on how youths’ social development may be impacted by COVID-19.

Mental Health and Clinical Psychological Science in the Time of COVID-19: Challenges, Opportunities, and a Call to Action (preprint)

COVID-19 presents significant social, economic, and medical challenges. Because COVID-19 has already begun to precipitate huge increases in mental health problems, clinical psychological science must assert a leadership role in guiding a national response to this secondary crisis. In this paper, COVID-19 is conceptualized as a unique, compounding, multi-dimensional stressor that will create a vast need for intervention and necessitate new paradigms for mental health service delivery and training. Urgent challenge areas across developmental periods are discussed, followed by a review of psychological symptoms that likely will increase in prevalence and require innovative solutions in both science and practice. Implications for new research directions, clinical approaches, and policy issues are discussed to highlight the opportunities for clinical psychological science to emerge as an updated, contemporary field capable of addressing the burden of mental illness and distress in the wake of COVID-19 and beyond.