ABSTRACT
Do Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders Recognize and Adopt Self-Regulation from Peers? - A Qualitative Interview Study Self-regulation often plays a central role for adolescents who develop a substance use disorder, as deficits may trigger the onset of the disease. Likewise, the improvement of self-regulation strategies is an important element of many therapy programs. Additionally, peers are important in the development of substance use disorders.The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of self-regulation by other peers in adolescents with substance use disorders through a qualitative interview study. For this purpose, a total of N = 13 (54 % female) adolescents were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, which were then evaluated using a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring.The results showed that the adolescents were familiar with the concept of self-regulation but did not name the interplay between cognitions, emotions, motivation, and behavior within self-regulation. Furthermore, the adolescents reported having observed and adopted both adaptive and maladaptive self-regulation strategies in others, placing the maladaptive strategies retrospectively before the start of therapy, while the adaptive strategies were rather placed during the therapy phase. This might partly explain the effect that peers pose a risk factor for the development of substance use disorders. However, peers might also be considered as a resource in therapeutic settings.
ABSTRACT
Positive peer experiences and self-regulation (SR) skills are crucial for children's healthy development, but little is known about how they interact during middle childhood. Therefore, we examined the prospective links between adverse peer experiences (APEs) and SR, drawing from the dataset of the PIER study. Across three measurement points, 1654 children aged 6-11 (T1), 7-11 (T2), and 9-13 years (T3) were included. We assessed the SR facets updating, flexibility, inhibition, emotional reactivity, inhibitory control, and planning using computerized tasks, parent- and teacher-reports. The latent variable of APEs consisted of measures of peer victimization and peer rejection assessed via self-, parent-, and teacher-report. Separate cross-lagged panel models were calculated, investigating the interplay of each SR facet and APEs. Results indicated that experiencing more APEs at T1 predicted higher emotional reactivity, and lower inhibition, inhibitory control, updating, and flexibility at T2. More APEs at T2 predicted higher emotional reactivity and lower planning at T3. Lower inhibition, updating, and flexibility at T2 predicted more APEs at T3. Accordingly, we found a negative bidirectional relationship between inhibition, updating, and flexibility with APEs. Our findings highlight that during middle childhood more APEs predict lower SR, which in turn predicts more experiences of peer victimization and rejection.
Subject(s)
Bullying , Hominidae , Self-Control , Humans , Child , Animals , Peer Group , Bullying/psychology , EuphoriaABSTRACT
Enhanced amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN) have been suggested to be a transdiagnostic neural risk marker for internalizing psychopathology. Previous studies propose worry to be an underlying mechanism driving the association between enhanced ERN and anxiety. The present preregistered study focused on disentangling possible effects of trait and state worry on the ERN by utilizing a cross sectional observational and a longitudinal randomized controlled experimental design. To this end, we examined the ERN of n = 90 students during a flanker task (T0), which were then randomly assigned to one of three groups (worry induction, worry reduction, passive control group). Following the intervention, participants performed another flanker task (T1) to determine potential alterations of their ERN. Manipulation checks revealed that compared to the control group, state worry increased in the induction but also in the reduction group. ERN amplitudes did not vary as a function of state worry. An association of trait worry with larger ERN amplitudes was only observed in females. Furthermore, we found larger ERN amplitudes in participants with a current or lifetime diagnosis of internalizing disorders. In summary, our findings suggest that the ERN seems to be insensitive to variations in state worry, but that an elevated ERN is associated with the trait-like tendency to worry and internalizing psychopathology, which is consistent with the notion that the ERN likely represents a trait-like neural risk associated with anxiety.
