Untangling Rumination and Negative Urgency: An Exploration of Emotional Cascade Theory in Adolescents

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Background: The Emotional Cascade Theory (Selby et al., 2008; Selby & Joiner, 2009) posits that rumination initiates a cascade of negative affect, which can eventually lead to engagement in risky and self-destructive behavior. Those who ruminate tend to respond to a negative affective state with a repetitive negative thought cycle. They work to understand their negative experiences and feelings, but often end up increasing their negative affect rather than alleviating it. When this rumination exacerbates negative affect to a certain level, negative urgency may become active and result in impulsive behavior. Selby et al. (2008) discuss this pathway as emotion dysregulation leading to behavioral dysregulation. In this view, negative urgency serves as an intermediary between rumination and dysregulated behavior. Though this is one possibility, it is also possible that the effect moves in the opposite direction. Due to the trait-like nature of negative urgency, it may actually precede rumination. If this is the case, individuals who are high in negative urgency engage in rumination as another means of coping with or understanding their negative emotions, or pondering their negatively urgent actions.
Both rumination and negative urgency are linked to the development of internalizing disorders among youth, such as depression and anxiety (e.g., Berg et al., 2015; Schäfer et al., 2017; Smith et al., 2013), as well as maladaptive behaviors, such as non-suicidal self-injury (e.g., Bjärehed & Lundh, 2008; You et al., 2016). While these associations exist among young adults, neither Emotional Cascade Theory nor the alternative model has been evaluated in youth. Since rumination and negative urgency increase in prevalence during the transition into adolescence and pose risk for psychopathology and maladaptive behaviors, understanding the associations between these variables in youth would aid in properly addressing them.

Objective: The present study sought to clarify the directionality of rumination and negative urgency in adolescence.

Method: The sample included 279 adolescents between the ages of 9 and 14 (Mage = 11.69, 78% female). Participants completed a questionnaire at two time points approximately four months apart. We used a cross-lagged panel model to explore the relations of negative urgency and rumination with each other across two time points.

Results: Results indicate that Time 1 rumination significantly predicted Time 2 negative urgency (b = 0.02, p = 0.01), but Time 1 negative urgency did not significantly predict Time 2 rumination (b = 1.51, p = 0.15).

Conclusion: These findings suggest that one response to rumination may be a tendency towards impulsive, destructive actions when feeling upset. This is consistent with Emotional Cascade Theory (Selby et al., 2008; Selby & Joiner, 2009), such that rumination elevates negative affect to a level at which youth feel inclined to act in order to alleviate the intensity of these emotions. It is when youth reach this heightened state of negative affect that negative urgency becomes active—youth who are high in this trait are then prone to behave in risky and impulsive ways to resolve their negative emotional states.

Authors

• Sabrina Elyse Porcelli, Cornell University
  Presenting Author

• Mary Kate Koch, University of Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jane E Mendle, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author