Emotion Regulation as a Predictor of Patterns of Change in Behavior Problems in Previously-Institutionalized Youth

• In Event: Biobehavioral Developmental Mechanisms Linking Early Institutional Care to Later Externalizing Psychopathology

Abstract

Few studies consider longitudinal trajectories of behavior problems across multiple developmental periods in previously-institutionalized (PI) populations. Thus, whether patterns of psychopathology differ between never-institutionalized and PI youth is unclear. Little is also known regarding the developmental mechanisms through which early institutional care leads to negative child outcomes, primarily because the majority of this work identifies deficits caused by early institutional rearing, rather than focusing on distinct developmental differences in processes that explain why and how early experiences may lead to increased psychopathology. We posit that PI youths’ difficulties regulating emotional arousal and behavior may be one mechanism underlying the link between early adverse care and externalizing trajectories.
We hypothesized that for PI youth, early emotion regulation skills would be associated with a greater likelihood of following a trajectory characterized by lower externalizing behaviors from middle childhood to young adulthood. For NA youth, these associations would not be as strong, highlighting biobehavioral emotion regulation as a particularly important predictor for longitudinal patterns of psychopathology in PI populations.
Participants completed three sessions 1 year apart with child age ranging from 7.08 to 15.12 years at the initial assessment. The 4th assessment of remote data collection (T4) took place 2-4 years after the last in-person assessment when participants were 12-21 years old. PI children (N=132) were 40% white, 41% Asian, 11% indigenous to the Americas, 5% Black or African, and 3% multiracial. NA children (N= 175) were 90% white, 2% Black, 1% Asian, and 7% multiracial.
Parent-reported mental health data were collected across the 4 time points using the MacArthur Health and Behavior Questionnaire (HBQ-P 2.1l; Essex et al., 2002). Using semiparametric group-based methods, we estimated the probability that each individual belonged to a distinct group that followed a specific pattern of externalizing behaviors across time. We then tested whether unique aspects of emotion regulation (global, observed, and biological) were differentially associated with membership in externalizing trajectory groups using multinomial logistic regression models. Global regulation was measured via parent-report on the Emotion Regulation Checklist (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997), biological responding was indexed by a functional cortisol response to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C; Yim et al., 2015), and observed emotion regulation was coded during the TSST-C.
Four externalizing trajectories were identified for the PI and NA groups. PI youth demonstrated the following trajectories: moderate/stable (44%), low/stable (39%), high/decreasing (9%), and high/increasing (8%). NA youth demonstrated the following trajectories: low/stable (63%), moderate/stable (25%), moderate/increasing (7%), and high/stable (5%). For PI youth, global, observed, and biological emotion regulation processes were uniquely predictive across externalizing group membership. For NA youth, only parent-reported global emotion regulation was predictive of externalizing patterns. This work provides evidence that emotion regulation processes functioning at the biological, behavioral, and global level, are predictive of variation in PI youths’ externalizing trajectories over time. Moreover, findings from this study suggest that targeting distinct emotion regulation competencies may have a unique and significant impact for interventions aiming to improve mental health in PI populations.

Authors

• Nicole Perry, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Bonny Donzella, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities