Social anxiety and emotion regulation flexibility: a daily diary approach.

Previous research suggests that social anxiety symptoms are maintained and intensified by inflexible emotion regulation (ER). Therefore, we examined whether trait-level social anxiety moderates ER flexibility operationalised at both between-person (covariation between variability in emotional intensity and variability in strategy use across occasions) and within-person (associations between emotional intensity and strategy use on a given day) levels. In a sample of healthy college-aged adults (N = 185, Mage = 21.89), we examined overall and emotion-specific intensities (shame, guilt, anxiety, anger, sadness) and regulatory strategies (i.e. experiential avoidance, expressive suppression, and rumination) in response to each day's most emotionally intense event over 6 days. During the study period, we found a positive association between variability in emotional intensity and variability of experiential avoidance in individuals with lower, rather than higher, levels of trait social anxiety after controlling for key covariates (i.e. gender, personality traits, and stress exposure). However, we did not find evidence for the moderating role of trait social anxiety in ER flexibility assessed at within-person levels. Our findings highlight the need to delineate dynamic ER flexibility across everyday events.

To switch or not to switch? Individual differences in executive function and emotion regulation flexibility.

Emotion regulation (ER) constitutes strategies that modulate the experience and expression of emotions. While past work has predominantly assumed that ER strategies are consistently adaptive (or maladaptive) across situations, recent research has begun to examine individual-difference factors that are associated with the flexible use of ER strategies in line with contextual demands (i.e., ER flexibility). Theoretical accounts maintain that the choice to use ER strategies in a given context is contingent on individual differences in executive function (EF), which refers to a collection of general-purpose regulatory operations. Based on a comprehensive battery of EF tasks, we investigated how the various EF facets (i.e., common EF, working-memory-specific, and shifting-specific factors) are related to the frequency of maintaining and switching ER strategies in response to stimuli that elicit varying levels of emotional intensity. Results indicated that individuals with higher EF demonstrated a more flexible pattern of ER strategy use across high- and low-intensity conditions. Specifically, better working-memory-specific ability (i.e., manipulating information within a mental workspace) was associated with a greater frequency of reappraisal-to-distraction strategy switching in high-intensity contexts. Furthermore, more proficient common EF (i.e., sustaining relevant goals in the face of competing goals and responses) corresponded to a higher propensity to maintain the use of reappraisal in low-intensity situations. The outcomes of this study offer a first glimpse of the cognitive factors underlying ER flexibility. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Executive functions predict the trajectories of rumination in middle-aged and older adults: A latent growth curve analysis.

Previous studies suggest that executive functions (EF)-a set of domain-general cognitive control processes that contribute to the regulation of emotion-are generally associated with ruminative tendencies. However, there is a dearth of research that examines how EF influences changes in rumination over time, especially in middle-aged and older adults who typically experience a decline in EF. To fill this gap in the literature, we analyzed a large-scale combined dataset from the MIDUS Refresher, Daily Diary, and Cognitive Projects. We examined the impact of EF on the trajectory of rumination across 8 days using latent growth curve analysis. We also examined age as a moderator using a latent interaction term in our structural equation model. Higher executive functioning predicted lower levels of baseline rumination and faster rates of decline in rumination over time, which reflect the successful regulation of maladaptive rumination. The age x EF interaction term was not significant, indicating that the impact of EF on the trajectory of rumination was not modulated by age. Our study offers new insights into the cognitive underpinnings of rumination and underscores the beneficial role of EF for effective regulation of ruminative tendencies in middle and late adulthood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The influence of subjective socioeconomic status on executive functions in middle-aged and older adults.

Subjective socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to influence both psychological and biological outcomes. However, less is known about whether its influence extends to cognitive outcomes. We examined the relation between subjective SES and executive functions (EF)-a set of cognitive control processes-and its underlying mechanisms. By analyzing a nationally representative cohort of middle-aged and older adults (age 40-80) from the MIDUS 2 National Survey and Cognitive Project, we tested a serial mediation model with sense of control and health as sequential mediators. Using structural equation modeling, we found that subjective SES is indirectly related to EF via sense of control and health, above and beyond objective SES and other key covariates. Our study highlights one of the possible biopsychosocial mechanisms that underlies the relation between status-related subjective perceptions of inequalities and executive functioning skills in middle and late adulthood.

Sense of Control Mediates the Relation between Discrimination and Executive Functions in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

BACKGROUND: Despite previous findings of a negative association between everyday discrimination and executive functions (EF) - a set of domain-general cognitive control processes - in middle-aged and older adults, less is known about the underlying mechanism. Thus, we focused on sense on control and its two facets - perceived constraints and personal mastery - as potential psychosocial mediators of this relation. METHODS: By analyzing a nationally representative adult cohort from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) 2 study, we examined two mediational models: a single mediation model with sense of control and a parallel mediation model with perceived constraints and personal mastery as mediators. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling analyses showed that sense of control, as well as personal mastery and perceived constraints, mediated the relationship between discrimination and EF in middle-aged and older adults. This held true when we controlled for age, race, gender, education, and health status. CONCLUSION: Our findings underscore the unique and distinctive roles of sense of control and its two facets in the relation between everyday discrimination and EF in middle-aged and older adults.

Investigating the Link Between IADL and Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Serial Mediation Model.

OBJECTIVES: There is a dearth of research on the psychological processes that underlie the negative relation between impaired instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) and depressive symptoms in older adults. Drawing on the stress process model and the resilience framework, we investigated whether purpose in life and resilience serially mediate the relationship between impaired IADL and depressive symptoms. METHODS: We recruited 111 cognitively healthy community-dwelling older adults (ages 54-85; M = 66.5) who scored a minimum of 25 points on the Mini-Mental State Examination. RESULTS: We found that purpose in life and resilience serially mediated the relationship between IADL and depressive symptomatology in older adults. This association held true when we controlled for covariates. Additional sensitivity analyses also supported these findings. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends our understanding of how IADL limitations contribute to depressive symptoms. Using a community-dwelling, cognitively healthy sample, we demonstrate that functional limitations indirectly influence older adults' depressive symptoms through a decreased sense of purpose in life and decreased resilience. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our findings have implications for intervention programs that aim to alleviate IADL limitations and mental health issues in an aging population and promote healthy aging by improving psychosocial resources (i.e., purpose in life and resilience).

Inconsistent Media Mediation and Problematic Smartphone Use in Preschoolers: Maternal Conflict Resolution Styles as Moderators.

Previous studies suggest that inconsistent parenting leads to undesired consequences, such as a child's defiant reactance or parent-child conflicts. In light of this, we examined whether mothers' inconsistent smartphone mediation strategies would influence their children's problematic smartphone use during early childhood. Furthermore, given that harsh parenting often escalates a child's behavioral problems, we focused on parent-child conflict resolution tactics as moderators. One hundred fifty-four mothers (ages 25-48 years; M = 35.58 years) of preschoolers (ages 42-77 months) reported their media mediation and parent-child conflict resolution tactics and their child's problematic smartphone use. We found that the positive association between the mother's inconsistent mediation and their child's problematic smartphone use was more pronounced when mothers relied on negative parent-child resolution tactics-i.e., psychological aggression and physical assault. Our findings provide vital theoretical and empirical insights into mother-child relational characteristics for the child's problematic smartphone use.

Executive function moderates the effect of reappraisal on life satisfaction: A latent variable analysis.

Emotion regulation strategies, such as reappraisal and suppression, have been shown to dissimilarly affect life satisfaction. Specifically, reappraisal is linked to higher life satisfaction, while suppression is associated with lower life satisfaction. Less is known, however, about the potential moderators of these established relations. Given that reappraisal and suppression are contingent, in part, on executive function (EF), which comprises a group of adaptive, goal-orientated control processes (i.e., inhibitory control, working memory, and shifting), we explored whether different components of EF could moderate the impact of reappraisal and suppression on life satisfaction. Using latent moderated structural equation analyses, we found that the positive contribution of reappraisal to life satisfaction was more pronounced at higher than lower levels of inhibitory control and working memory. Shifting did not moderate the associations of reappraisal and suppression with life satisfaction. Further analyses, however, indicated that the interactive effects of reappraisal with inhibitory control and working memory on life satisfaction were driven primarily by the shared variance among EF constructs (i.e., common EF). Our findings underscore the pivotal role of common EF in moderating the relation of reappraisal with life satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Testing theoretical assumptions underlying the relation between anxiety, mind wandering, and task-switching: A diffusion model analysis.

Despite the well-documented negative effects of anxiety on task-switching (switch costs), few studies have directly tested major theoretical assumptions about (a) the specific processing component of task-switching that is impaired by anxiety, (b) anxious individuals' strategies during task-switching, and (c) the mediating role of mind wandering in the relation between anxiety and task-switching. We addressed these issues using a stochastic diffusion model analysis and novel thought-probe technique in the task-switching paradigm. Our results suggest that the locus of impaired switch costs under state anxiety lies in the efficiency of task-set reconfiguration and not in proactive interference processing. Moreover, state anxiety was associated with impaired mixing costs, which are another crucial index of task-switching. We found only partial evidence for anxious individuals' proneness to compensatory strategies during task-switching. However, no evidence was found for a mediating role of task-unrelated thoughts and a moderating role of working memory in the relation between anxiety and task-switching. Our findings elucidate theoretical assumptions underlying anxiety and cognitive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Coping strategies mediate the relation between executive functions and life satisfaction in middle and late adulthood: a structural equational analysis.

Recent studies have suggested that executive functions (EF) predict life satisfaction for older adults. However, the mechanism is not known. By analyzing a sample (N = 3,287, ages 32- 84 years) from the Midlife Development in the United States 2, we examined the mediational role of coping strategies in the relation between EF and life satisfaction. Both active coping and behavioral disengagement mediated the relation between EF and life satisfaction, and age significantly moderated the mediational pathways. Specifically, the positive effect of EF on active coping was more pronounced in middle-aged and older adults than in young adults. However, the negative effect of EF on behavioral disengagement was apparent only in older adults, disappeared in middle-aged adults and reversed in younger adults. Our findings underscore EF as crucial cognitive resources that facilitate the adoption of healthy coping strategies, which in turn, affect life satisfaction in middle and late adulthood.

Common executive function predicts reappraisal ability but not frequency.

Cognitive reappraisal is an emotion-regulation strategy that positively impacts various facets of adaptive functioning (e.g., interpersonal relations, subjective well-being). Although reappraisal implicates cognitive processing, no clear consensus has been reached regarding its cognitive correlates. Therefore, we examined how executive function (EF)-i. e., a group of general-purpose control abilities comprising working memory, inhibition, and shifting-would be associated with task-based reappraisal ability and self-reported reappraisal frequency. Using a latent-variable approach, we found that the shared variance among EF facets (i.e., common EF)-a general goal-management ability that facilitates the activation and maintenance of task-relevant goals-was positively related to reappraisal ability but not reappraisal frequency. However, the three EF components were not uniquely associated with either reappraisal ability or frequency. Further, when EF was conceptualized at the individual-task level, we found inconsistent patterns of associations between EF constituents and reappraisal. This underscores the need to measure all aspects of EF using multiple indicators at the latent-variable level. Our findings provide vital theoretical, methodological, and empirical insights into the cognitive correlates of reappraisal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Seeking control during uncontrollable times: Control abilities and religiosity predict stress during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent need to understand the protective factors that can buffer individuals against psychological distress. We employed a latent-variable approach to examine how control-related factors such as religiosity, self-control, cognitive control, and health locus of control can act as resilience resources during stressful periods. We found that cognitive control emerged as a protective factor against COVID-19-related stress, whereas religiosity predicted a heightened level of stress. These results provide novel insights into control factors that can safeguard individuals' psychological well-being during crises such as a pandemic.

Smartphone Addiction and Checking Behaviors Predict Aggression: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Despite the potential risks of excessive smartphone use for maladaptive outcomes, the link between smartphone use and aggression remains less understood. Furthermore, prior findings are inconclusive due to a narrow focus on limited aspects of smartphone use (e.g., screen time) and reliance on self-reported assessments of smartphone use. Therefore, using objective measures of smartphone use, we sought to examine the associations between several key indices of smartphone use-screen time, checking behaviors, and addictive tendency-and multifaceted aggression (i.e., confrontation, anger, and hostility). In a cross-sectional study, we administered a series of questionnaires assessing aggressive tendencies (i.e., The Aggression Questionnaire) and various aspects of smartphone use (N = 253, Mage = 21.8 years, female = 73.2%). Using structural equation modeling, we found that smartphone checking and addictive smartphone use predicted only hostility. In contrast, both objective and subjective measures of screen time did not predict any facets of aggression. These results highlight differing impacts of various indices of smartphone use on aggression and imply that excessive checking and addictive smartphone use are problematic smartphone-use behaviors that require more targeted interventions with respect to hostility.

Interactional Effects of Multidimensional Perfectionism and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Eating Disorder Symptoms in Female College Students.

Given the inconclusive findings regarding the relation between perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms, it is important that we determine whether this relation is modulated by emotion dysregulation, which is a prominent risk factor for eating disorders. We sought to identify specific cognitive emotion regulatory strategies-rumination, self-blame, and catastrophizing-that interact with multidimensional perfectionism to shape eating disorder symptoms (i.e., shape, weight, eating concerns, and dietary restraint). Using latent moderated structural equation modeling, we analyzed data from 167 healthy young female adults. We found that only rumination significantly moderated the relation between socially prescribed perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms. However, this was not observed for self-oriented perfectionism or other regulatory strategies. These findings held true when a host of covariates were controlled for. Our findings underscore the crucial role of rumination, a modifiable emotion regulatory strategy, in augmenting the relation between socially prescribed perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms in young women.

Loneliness, Sense of Control, and Risk of Dementia in Healthy Older Adults: A Moderated Mediation Analysis.

Objectives: Despite the rising prevalence of dementia, little research has been conducted to identify modifiable psychological factors that alleviate the risk of dementia in older adults and the underlying mechanisms. Given that loneliness is, in part, concomitant with a weakened sense of control, we examined whether sense of control would mediate the relation between loneliness and dementia risk. Further, considering that working -memory capacity is a critical cognitive resource that serves as a buffer against age-related cognitive decline, we examined a second-order moderated mediational model whereby working-memory capacity moderates the relation between control beliefs and dementia risk in older adults. METHODS: We administered a series of measures to older community-dwelling adults (ages 60-93; N = 69), including the participant-rated AD8 to assess the risk of dementia. Using the PROCESS macro, we examined the moderated mediation model for the relation between loneliness, sense of control, and dementia risk. RESULTS: We found that sense of control significantly mediated the relation between loneliness and risk of dementia. Moreover, the indirect effect of loneliness on dementia risk via lowered sense of control was significant only in individuals with poorer working-memory capacity. Notably, these findings held true when important covariates were controlled for. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the critical role of control beliefs and working memory in protecting against dementia risk. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Our findings have implications for intervention programs that target alleviating dementia risk and promoting healthy aging in older adults by improving socioemotional health and cognitive functioning.

Effects of Social Media and Smartphone Use on Body Esteem in Female Adolescents: Testing a Cognitive and Affective Model.

We examined the predictive relations of social media and smartphone use to body esteem in female adolescents and the mechanism that underlies these relations. As a result of frequent social media and smartphone use, adolescents are continually exposed to appearance-related media content. This likely reinforces a thin ideal and fosters appearance-based comparison and increases fear of external evaluation. Hence, we investigated a cognitive-affective framework in which the associations of social media and smartphone use with body esteem are serially mediated by cognitive internalization of an ideal body image, appearance comparisons, and social appearance anxiety. By testing female adolescents (N = 100) aged 13 to 18, we found that excessive social media use leads to unhealthy body esteem via intensified cognitive internalization, which aggravates appearance comparisons and anxiety regarding negative appearance evaluation. Further, we found that screen time for specific smartphone activities also harmed body esteem, independent of social media use. However, overall smartphone screen time did not affect body esteem when social media use was taken into consideration. Our findings underscore the multifactor mechanism that elucidates the negative impacts of social media and smartphone activities on body esteem in female adolescents, who are developmentally susceptible to poor body esteem.

Mitigation of a Prospective Association Between Early Language Delay at Toddlerhood and ADHD Among Bilingual Preschoolers: Evidence from the GUSTO Cohort.

There is accumulating evidence of a prospective relation between early language problems and ADHD, a disorder associated with deficits in executive functioning. However, little is known regarding this link among bilingual children. Here, we investigate whether (i) the prediction from language to ADHD may be lower among bilinguals, and (ii) explore if this moderation can be explained by differential executive functioning ability. Utilising a prospective sample of 408 South-East Asian toddlers, bilingual exposure as a moderator of the link between language delay at 24 months to ADHD intermediate diagnosis at 54 months was first examined with an interaction model. Next, structural equation mediated moderation models examined if the proposed moderation could be explained by executive function measures of Snack Delay and Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task, when children were 41 months. Results indicate that higher levels of bilingual exposure moderated the prospective risk of language delay to ADHD diagnosis (Predominantly single-language exposed OR = 6.37; p = .011; Predominantly dual-language exposed OR = 0.30, p = .156). Thus, language delay associated with ADHD among toddlers predominantly exposed to one but not two languages. However, this could not be explained by differential executive functioning, as this moderation was not mediated by performance on Snack Delay or DCCS. Unexpectedly, bilingual exposure associated with ADHD among toddlers of typical language development. Possible explanations, including variation in the degree of social stigma and persistence of language delay between bilingual and monolingual children, and bilingualism as an additional cognitive load for ADHD, are discussed.

Executive Function and Subjective Well-being in Middle and Late Adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: A growing body of research has investigated psychosocial predictors of subjective well-being (SWB), a key component of healthy aging, which comprises life satisfaction and affective well-being. However, few studies have examined how executive function (EF)-a collection of adaptive, goal-directed control processes-could affect SWB in middle and late adulthood. METHODS: By analyzing a nationally representative adult cohort ranging from the early 30s to early 80s from the Midlife Development in the United States 2 study, we examined two potential mediators (i.e., sense of control vs positive reappraisal) that could underlie the relation between EF and SWB. Further, we assessed how these mediational pathways would differ across midlife and older adulthood. RESULTS: Our results revealed that sense of control, but not positive reappraisal, significantly mediated the relation between EF and life satisfaction and affective well-being. Moreover, these mediation effects were significantly moderated by age, with more pronounced effects among older adults. DISCUSSION: We found that EF in later adulthood facilitates a sense of control over obstacles that interfere with the attainment of goals, which in turn is associated with greater life satisfaction and positive affect. This underscores the role of EF as an increasingly valuable resource that buffers against declines in sense of control and SWB in late adulthood.

The role of bilingual interactional contexts in predicting interindividual variability in executive functions: A latent variable analysis.

Despite a growing number of studies on bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF), their findings have been inconsistent. To shed light on this issue, we aimed to address both the conceptual and methodological limitations that have prevailed in the literature: failure to consider diverse bilingual experiences when assessing bilingual advantages or to address the task impurity problems that can arise with EF tasks. Drawing on the adaptive control hypothesis and control process model of code-switching, we adopted theory-driven and latent variable approaches to examine the relations between bilingual interactional contexts and EF. By administering 9 EF tasks to 175 bilingual participants over multiple sessions, we found that bilinguals' dual-language context significantly predicted the latent variable of task-switching, while a dense code-switching context significantly predicted 2 latent variables of inhibitory control and goal maintenance. These findings remained robust after controlling for potential confounds of demographics, socioeconomic status, nonverbal intelligence, and unintended language-switching tendency. Our study suggests that bilingual interactional context is a key language experience that modulates bilingual advantages in EF. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).