2-190 - Adolescent emotion regulation following adversity: advances in assessment and intervention

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Emotion regulation (ER) problems in youth are now relatively well understood as a marker and risk factor for psychopathology. However, continued research is still needed to specify the facets of ER that connect adverse experiences to psychological difficulties, and to apply these findings to prevention/intervention. This symposium addresses adolescent ER in the wake of adversity, associations with psychopathology, and innovative methods for intervention.
The three papers comprising the symposium represent diverse samples and varied methodologies. The first paper presents data from a large population-representative dataset of Dutch adolescents to elucidate relations between childhood trauma and adolescent psychopathology, emphasizing novel biological measures of maladaptive ER. The second paper investigates relations of childhood maltreatment to incidence of deliberate self-harm among adolescents treated in an inpatient psychiatric setting. Findings suggest that these relations are specific to experiences of emotional maltreatment, and are mediated by emotion dysregulation; path models indicate specificity of the type of ER problems that are related to self-harm. The third paper provides evidence of innovative treatment strategies that can be applied to high-risk problems arising from trauma and severe emotion dysregulation in adolescence, such as self-harm and eating disorders. The investigator offers an overview of a treatment study adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy for adolescents, including treatment outcome data and relevant developmental issues (e.g., parent involvement, social media use). Finally, the discussant will bring to bear expertise on emotion dysregulation in youth, including self-harm and psychopathology, to integrate these findings and present avenues for future research and intervention development.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Anne E Shaffer, University of Georgia

Discussant

• Tuppett M. Yates, University of California

Individual Presentations

• Autonomic Nervous System Reactivity as a Mechanism Linking Child Trauma to Adolescent Psychopathology - Presenting Author: Charlotte Heleniak, University of Washington; Kate McLaughlin, University of Washington; Harriette Riese, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Academic Centre of Psychiatry; Hans Ormel, University Medical Center Groningen

• Child maltreatment and deliberate self-harm: Specificity of emotional abuse and emotion-related competencies - Presenting Author: Kristel Thomassin, Harvard University; Anne E Shaffer, University of Georgia; Amber R. Madden, University of Georgia

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Self-Injury and Associated Psychopathology in Maltreated Girls: Developmental Applications - Presenting Author: Sarah Fischer, George Mason University; Claire Peterson, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center