Self-Regulation and Health Behaviors in a Sample of High-Risk Youth Facing Adversity

• In Event: Influences on child obesity and obesity-related health behaviors from infancy through adolescence

Abstract

Introduction: Challenges in self-regulation are common among high-risk youth facing adversity, in part driven by the deleterious effects of chronic stress and poverty on brain and neuroendocrine development. Self-regulation difficulties have been consistently associated with poorer academic, mental health, and psychosocial outcomes. One of the most important contributors to adjustment and well-being across the life span, self-regulation has a critical role in shaping youth’s developmental trajectories. Two related but distinct aspects of self-regulation, emotion regulation and executive functioning (EF), have been increasingly recognized as important drivers of core health-related behavior such as eating, sleep, and physical activity. Yet our understanding of self-regulation and its role in shaping health behavior among high-risk youth facing adversity is limited. The goal of this study is 1) to examine associations between emotion regulation and health behaviors in a sample of high-risk youth, and 2) to examine whether clinical deficits in EF differentially relate to health behaviors.
Hypotheses: It was hypothesized 1) that emotion regulation would explain significant variance in reward-based eating, sleep quality, and physical activity, and 2) that youth with clinical deficits in EF would demonstrate significantly greater difficulties in health-related behaviors compared to those without EF deficits.
Study population: N=119 children and adolescents aged 10-18 years (Mage=13.73), referred to a community-based mentoring program for high-risk youth, and their caregivers were enrolled in the study.
Methods: Youth completed a battery of questionnaires assessing emotion regulation and health-related behaviors including reward-based eating, sleep quality, and physical activity. Caregivers completed a proxy-reported measure of youth’s EF. Additionally, a subset of youth (n=44) completed the Eating in the Absence of Hunger (EAH) protocol, which assesses snacks consumed after a meal, yielding an objective indicator of disinhibited eating. Multiple regression and analysis of covariance were utilized to examine study hypotheses after controlling for pertinent demographic and anthropomorphic variables.
Results: Youth self-reported difficulties in domains of emotion regulation (e.g., impulsivity, emotional awareness) explained significant variance in reward-based eating (R2 = .21, F(1, 101) = 26.2, p < .001; β = .45; p < .001) and sleep quality (R2 = .14, F (3, 101) = 5.4, p = .002; β = .20; p = .038). Emotion regulation did not relate significantly to physical activity or EAH. Prevalence rates of clinically significant impairments in domains of caregiver-reported EF ranged from 46% (Emotional Control) to 59% (Plan/Organize). Youth with clinical impairments in EF did not exhibit significantly more reward-based eating nor consumed more kilocalories during the EAH meal compared to those without EF clinical deficits. Similarly, they did not report poorer sleep quality nor less physical activity compared to peers without deficits.
Conclusion: The present study builds on previous work by highlighting the role of emotion regulation in eating and sleep behavior among high risk-youth with high levels of executive dysfunction. The lack of significant relationships between self-regulation and physical activity should be further explored in the context of the built environment that youth facing adversity live in and how it may promote or challenge physical activity independent of self-regulatory capacity.

Authors

• Ana Gutierrez-Colina, Colorado State University
  Presenting Author

• Reagan L. Miller, Colorado State University

• Megan Joy Moran

• Rachel Lucas-Thompson, Colorado State University

• Lauren Shomaker, Colorado State University