Emotion Regulation Capacity and Alcohol Use Predict Depression Symptoms During Late Adolescence

• In Event: Substance Use Risk in Adolescence: The Role of Emotion Processes and Family Variables

Abstract

Background: Depression and alcohol use are highly comorbid conditions that often emerge during adolescence. The presence of depression is a risk factor for alcohol use and vice versa. Importantly, order of occurrence is variable: for some individuals, depressive symptoms precede alcohol use and for others, primary alcohol use precedes depressive symptoms. Causal inferences about these developmental associations have led to the former being identified as the self-medication model, and the latter as the alcohol-induced disruption model, yet relatively little is known about how the comorbidity of adolescent depression and alcohol use develops. Problems with emotion regulation are notable in both disorders, and may be a key piece of the puzzle when trying to understand comorbidity. Poorer emotion regulation is associated with greater risk for psychopathology, thus, problems with emotion regulation may demarcate greater likelihood for comorbid depressive symptoms and alcohol use in adolescence. Additionally, baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure of heart rate variability, has been used in the literature as a biomarker for emotion regulation capacities. Lower baseline RSA values have been shown to predict psychopathology. Thus, the present study examined both self-reported emotion regulation and RSA as factors in the development of comorbidity.
We hypothesized that 1) earlier depressive symptoms would predict the development of alcohol use, 2) that earlier alcohol use would predict the development of depressive symptoms and 3) that emotion regulation (as measured either by self-report or indexed by RSA) would moderate these predictive associations. Specifically, we hypothesized that earlier depressive symptoms would predict development of alcohol use, and earlier alcohol use would predict the development of depressive symptoms, more strongly when self-reported or physiological emotion regulation was lower than when either was higher.
Methods: The present study included 229 Mexican-origin youth in California (49.34% female; M age = 17.15 years, SD = 0.42), followed for two years. At Time 1 and Time 2, youths reported depressive symptoms using the Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire and alcohol use using the Alcohol Tobacco and Other Drugs survey. At Time 1, youths reported on their use of cognitive reappraisal (CR) as a form of emotion regulation using the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and their baseline RSA was recorded while seated for 5 minutes. CR and RSA were examined as moderators of the developing comorbidity of alcohol use and depressive symptoms in separate cross-lagged panel models within a structural equation modeling framework.
Results: Earlier alcohol use predicted depressive symptoms (b = 1.45, p = .04), but earlier depressive symptoms did not predict alcohol use (b = .003, ns). Lower CR predicted future depressive symptoms (b = -.13, p = .002), but did not predict alcohol use (b = -.01, ns). Lower RSA values did not predict depressive symptoms or alcohol use. Further, our moderation hypotheses were not supported: neither CR nor RSA emerged as moderators of the relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol use.
Conclusions: Our results support the alcohol-induced disruption model. Alcohol use and low self-reported emotion regulation capacities in late adolescence may together contribute to development of depressive symptoms over time.

Authors

• Rashmi D Risbud, University of California, Davis
  Presenting Author

• Elisa Ugarte, University of California - Davis

• Richard Whitney Robins, University of California - Davis

• Amanda E Guyer, University of California - Davis

• Paul David Hastings, University of California - Davis