Data Entry: Please note that the research database will be replaced by UNIverse by the end of October 2023. Please enter your data into the system https://universe-intern.unibas.ch. Thanks
Emotion dysregulation, anticipatory cortisol, and substance use in urban adolescents
Journal
Personality and Individual Differences
Volume
99
Pages / Article-Number
200-205
Keywords
Anticipatory cortisol; Emotion dysregulation; Family climate; Sex differences; Substance use; interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant; financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome.
Abstract
Anticipatory cortisol is associated with risk for substance use in adolescents. The present study extended prior literature by testing a model linking family emotional climate, emotion dysregulation, anticipatory cortisol, and substance use. Participants were 229 adolescents (M = 11.94 years, SD = 1.55; 41% male; 92% African American) enrolled in a 4-wave study of stressors, physiological stress responses, and substance use. Caregivers completed measures of family emotional climate at baseline and adolescents' emotion dysregulation one and two years later; adolescents reported on their substance use at baseline and three years later at Wave 4. Adolescents completed a stress task at Wave 4; saliva samples taken immediately prior to the task were analyzed for cortisol. Longitudinal path models revealed that a negative emotional climate at home was associated with elevated emotion dysregulation at subsequent waves for all youth. Emotional dysregulation was prospectively associated with blunted anticipatory cortisol, which in turn was associated with elevated substance use, controlling for baseline substance use and age. However, these associations only were observed for females. This study suggests that helping girls in particular manage their emotional responses to stress more effectively may impact their physiological responses and reduce risk for substance use.
