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Research has shown that anxiety in adolescents has a negative impact on a wide range of psychosocial variables, including academic performance. This study explored the role of parental emotional expressivity during conflict interactions with their children as a potential moderator of the relationship between anxiety symptomatology and academic performance in adolescents. The sample consisted of 54 adolescents and both of their parents, who were videotaped while discussing a conflict. The adolescents' anxious symptomatology was evaluated through a self-report questionnaire, while their academic performance was operationalized by using their grade point average. The total duration of the parents' emotional expressivity (both positive and negative affect) was obtained after being encoded. The results indicated that both the positive and negative affect of mothers served to moderate the relationship between the adolescents' anxiety symptomatology and academic performance. However, such association was only moderated when the mothers presented moderate/high levels of negative affect or low/moderate levels of positive affect. Paternal emotional expressivity, on the other hand, was found not to be associated with their children's academic performance. These results point to the importance of developing parental intervention guidelines that help to raise awareness of the impact of emotional expression when interacting with their children.

Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that temperamental traits are not static throughout adolescence. The known links between both reactive and regulatory temperament and anxiety symptoms should be investigated bearing this hypothesis in mind. This study collected self-reported data on behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity, attentional control (AC), and anxiety symptomatology, from 296 adolescents (64.2% girls; M = 12.96 years at the first assessment, SD = 0.47) every six months, four times over eighteen months. The relationships between temperament factors (AC and BIS sensitivity), considered longitudinally (by means of their trajectories) and anxiety symptoms were investigated using Multigroup Latent Growth Modeling (MLGM), as well as the mediating effect of sex on trajectories and anxiety. BIS sensitivity decreased over time and showed differential patterns across sexes. AC remained relatively stable and we found no sex influence on its trajectory. On the other hand, we observed that the BIS sensitivity trajectory was a significant predictor of anxiety symptomatology at age 15. In conclusion, temperamental changes between the ages of 13 and 15 seem to play a relevant role in explaining subsequent anxiety symptomatology, under the mediating influence of sex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescence is a vulnerable period in terms of the onset of anxiety disorders, and dyadic parent–adolescent interactions may play a key role in either increasing or reducing the risk of psychopathologies. This study examines the presence of physiological synchrony (specifically, linkage in interbeat interval series) and non‐verbal synchrony in positive and negative interactions between adolescents (aged 13–16) and their fathers. Non‐verbal synchrony was quantified through the coordination of the interactants' body movements, using an automated video‐analysis algorithm (motion energy analysis). Participants were made up of 53 parent–adolescent dyads, the latter at either low (n = 28) or high (n = 25) risk of anxiety. Adolescents at low risk of anxiety displayed statistically significant levels of non‐verbal synchrony with their fathers during positive interactions. Non‐verbal synchrony was not found in the father–adolescent dyads featuring adolescents at high risk of anxiety. Physiological synchrony was not significantly present above chance level in either of the groups of adolescents. Overall, the results suggest that adolescents at high risk of anxiety may have difficulties in managing non‐distressing interactions with their fathers. The results also suggest that physiological synchrony is not a straightforward phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed to (a) validate a novel technique that quantifies the length of the trajectories the cardiac system follows within a two-dimensional state-space, and (b) test its usefulness to better understand how cognitive emotion regulation (CER) style is associated with cardiac output. A positive CER style was assessed in a sample of healthy adolescents (n = 57), and mean and total distances, in addition to heart rate variability (HRV) measures and cardiac entropy (SampEn), were calculated during a conflict discussion with the adolescents' mothers. Associations between distances and HRV measures in timeand frequency-domains and SampEn were examined to better understand the physiological meaning of distances; further, whether a positive CER style would predict distances, HRV, and SampEn. Correlation analysis revealed that associations of distances with time-domain HRV measures were stronger than associations with frequency-domain HRV measures, while correlations between distances and SampEn were moderate. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that a positive CER style predicted distances and SampEn, but not HRV measures. Distances are clearly time-domain measures of HRV, but only partly capture the complexity of the heart signal. The results highlight the importance of assessing heart rate dynamics beyond HRV in the study of CER. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An inverted U-shaped pattern in heart rate (HR) and a U-shaped pattern in heart rate variability (HRV) are easily recognizable when individuals experience any acute stressor. How cardiac complexity (scaling and entropy) changes under acute stress is not well known. Psychologically, emotion regulation (ER) style is likely to influence the individual's specific behavioral response when c®·onting stress. This study tested whether adolescents with distinct ERstyles would show diffdrent patterns oflinear and nonlinear cardiac changes under stressful conditions. We predicted less autonomic jlexibility for adolescents with a highly negative emotional regulation (HNER) style (n = 10) than for those adolescents with a highly positive emotional regulation (HPER) style (n= 10). Further, associations between linear and nonlinear measures during each condition were examined for each group. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that HR and HRV changed according to the predicted pattern. Higuchi's fractal dimension and Sample Entropy followed a U-shaped pattern, whereas the short-term scaling exponent followed the reverse pattern. Cardiac changes across conditions were larger in the HPER group. SigniAcant associations between linear and nonlinear measures were /bund in the HPER group but not in the HNER group. Results are cautiously discussed within a multiscalefraniework offluctuations of the different cardiac feantres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive emotion regulation (ER) strategies are particularly important within the framework of anxiety problems amongst youths and how they cope with stressful events. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between both negative and positive ER style and cardiac regulation under stressful conditions.Design: Eighty-nine adolescents (M = 13.31 years, SD = 0.68, 44.94% girls) were exposed to a socially relevant stress induction protocol.Methods: Participants' emotion regulation strategies were assessed and their cardiac function was recorded.Results: A negative ER style predicted heart rate (HR) entropy at the stressful stage after controlling for anxiety scores. In addition, heart rate variability reactivity and recovery and HR entropy recovery were larger (p < .05) in the low negative ER style group (n = 16) than in the high negative ER style group (n = 23).Conclusions: Results suggest that individuals with a highly negative ER style have diminished autonomic flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new measure to evaluate heart output from a dynamical systems approach. The measure is based on the time delay technique for two-dimensional state space reconstruction from time series of interbeat intervals. The system's trajectories within this space are depicted and the mean distance, as well as the total and maximum distances travelled by the system, are calculated in pixels. Preliminary data from adolescents with highly positive emotional regulation (HPER) style (n=JO) and adolescents with highly negative (HNER) style (n= 10) who underwent a protocol of stress induction show the usefulness ofthe new metrics to distinguish the dynamical behavior of the heart systems from these groups. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that changes in all three distances across conditions (baseline. anticipation of stress. exposure to stress, and recovery) were significant in the HPER group but not in the HNER group. As to the physic, logical meaning of the new measure a correlational analysis revealed that associations with time-domain HRV measures were stronger than associations with frequency-domain HRV measures in both groups. Because of the small sample size, bootstrap resampling was used to obtain confidence intervals. Distances calculated with the new measure are sensitive to the ER-related cardiac flexibility under acute stress conditions. However, the physiological meaning of the new indices remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The association between decreased heart rate variability (HRV) and increased internalizing symptoms is well documented. Adolescence is a critical period for the development of mental health problems, in particular internalizing symptoms. Previous research has illustrated sex differences in adolescent HRV, such that females have reduced short-term resting state HRV compared to males. Studies on long-term ecological recordings of HRV in adolescents are scarce. The aims of the present study were, (a) to test if adolescent females show decreased long-term HRV and cardiac complexity (CC) compared to males, and (b) to explore whether sex and HRV and CC measures, as well as their interaction, would predict internalizing symptoms. Materials and Methods: HRV was recorded in n = 166 adolescents (86 girls), on a normal school day. HRV and CC measures were calculated on the interbeat interval time series. Results: Females showed lower HRV and CC in most of the assessed indices. Internalizing symptoms were mainly predicted by HRV whereas sex only predicted symptoms of social anxiety. The interaction between sex and HRV did not predict internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: Results suggest that reduced HRV should be considered as a potential contributor to exacerbating internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Girls with reduced HRV and CC might be prone to the development of internalizing disorders. HRV is a promising tool for the early identification of vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of suffering anxiety disorders is associated with sustained subthreshold symptoms of anxiety. This study evaluated the stability of anxiety scores (high, moderate or low) across a six-month period in early adolescents (N = 95). The associations between sustained anxiety, vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV), sympathetic activity, and heart rate fractal dynamics in everyday life conditions were analyzed. The anxiety scores from 71.50% of participants remained at the same level. The linear correlations between anxiety and cardiac measures were weak but a group-based approach revealed that the fractal dimension (FD) from stable-low anxiety participants was higher than the FD from participants with stable-moderate anxiety scores but not higher than the FD from the stable-high anxiety group. The short-term correlations’ exponent α1 from the stable-high anxiety group was higher than the α1 from the stable-moderate anxiety group but not higher than the exponent from the stablelow anxiety group. No differences were found in the vmHRV nor sympathetic activity. The lack of a direct association between the complexity of the heart rate and the level of sustained anxiety suggests a nonlinear pattern of associations that would be in accordance with the optimum variability principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Diminished heart rate variability has been found to be associated with high anxiety symptomatology. Since adolescence is the period of onset for many anxiety disorders, this study aimed to determine sex- and anxiety-related differences in heart rate variability and complexity in adolescents.Methods: We created four groups according to sex and anxiety symptomatology: high-anxiety girls (n = 24) and boys (n = 25), and low-anxiety girls (n = 22) and boys (n = 24) and recorded their cardiac function while they performed regular school activities. A series of two-way (sex and anxiety) MANOVAs were performed on time domain variability, frequency domain variability, and non-linear complexity.Results: We obtained no multivariate interaction effects between sex and anxiety, but highly anxious participants had lower heart rate variability than the low-anxiety group. Regarding sex, girls showed lower heart rate variability and complexity than boys.Conclusions: The results suggest that adolescent girls have a less flexible cardiac system that could be a marker of the girls' vulnerability to developing anxiety disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many physiological systems are multistable, i.e. they operate at different time scales under an allometric control process. The multistability of affective fluctuations has been clearly illustrated in a sample of adults, but little is known about their dynamics in adolescents. The main aim of this study was to determine whether affective fluctuations in adolescents show multistability and to explore their relationship with anxiety symptomatology and temperamental factors. Twenty-five early adolescents self-reported their daily mood, anxiety and worry levels twice a day over a 100-day period. The time series were analysed using the allometric aggregation method to obtain the scaling exponent h. Almost all the (Hurst) scaling exponents were 0.5 > h > 1. The worry exponents were related to temperament factors, whereas the anxiety exponents were related to social phobia symptoms. The results substantiate that affective fluctuations in adolescents are multistable, lending support to the presence of allometric control mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed at elucidating (a) whether heart rate (HR) complexity measures are associated with the attentional orienting function, and (b) which of these measures better predicts orienting efficiency indexes. Vagal tone, sample entropy, scaling exponents αl and α2, and fractal dimension (FD) were calculated in HR time series (n=109). Vagal tone, entropy, and FD were positively associated with orienting, while this association was negative for oc2. These results show that HR scaling properties, which underlie the role of vagal tone and reflect allometric control mechanisms, are associated with orienting deficits. FD was the best predictor of attentional orienting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attentional network functioning in emotionally neutral conditions and self-reported attentional control (AC) were analysed as predictors of the tendency to engage in dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies. Diminished attentional orienting predicted an increased tendency to engage in brooding rumination, and enhanced alertness predicted a greater chance of suppression, beyond trait anxiety and self-reported AC, which were not predictive of either rumination or suppression. This is the first study to show that some forms of dysfunctional emotion regulation are related to the attentional network functioning in emotionally neutral conditions. Results are discussed in relation to regulatory temperament and anxiety-related attentional biases literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study tested the hypothesis that flight-phobic patients experience change at different rates even when they are receiving identical treatment. Faster within-session rates of change (WSRC) were expected for patients who required fewer exposure sessions. The study also tested the theoretical role of autonomic flexibility on WSRC. High flexibility should be associated with faster rates of change. Thirty-seven flight-phobic patients were successfully treated with a computer-assisted fear of flying treatment. A significant negative correlation was found between total number of sessions and WSRC: The fewer sessions patients attended, the faster their rate of change was. The role of autonomic flexibility was partially supported: A significant correlation between heart rate variability and WSRC revealed that flexible patients improved faster than less-flexible patients. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 67:1-11, 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is recognized as an early risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders. This study evaluates whether a brief school-based selective prevention program reduces AS and anxious and depressive symptoms in children and youth. Participants scoring high in AS but without any current psychopathological disorder were selected from a sample of 613 individuals (61% female, 11-17 years old) and randomly assigned to the prevention program (n=47) or to a waiting-list control (WLC) (n=45) group. A normal control (NC) group (n=53) was also included. After treatment, a significant decrease in AS and in anxiety and depressive symptoms were observed in both prevention and WLC groups. Differences between experimental conditions only emerged, partially, at six-month follow-up (FU) with the prevention group (PG) exhibiting significantly lower AS (p<.05), and equalling NCs. Although the magnitude of change in the PG is comparable to that reported in previous studies with longer and more complex prevention programs, a parallel reduction in the WLCs suggests that the observed decrease in the short term could be mostly time-linked. Despite this, our results encourage research into brief preventive interventions at an individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How well adolescents can self‐regulate in the face of stressors has considerable implications for long‐term well‐being and risk of psychopathology. This study investigated sex differences in adolescents' cardiac reactivity and recovery during a stressful task. Measures of cardiac variability (linear) and complexity (nonlinear) were obtained from N = 92 adolescents, 41 males (M age = 13.28, SD = 0.69; BMI = 21.9) and 51 females (M age = 13.36, SD = 0.67; BMI = 21.5). The adolescents underwent the Trier Social Stress Test, consisting of five conditions: baseline, anticipation, social exposure, math task, and recovery. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that female in comparison to male adolescents showed lower cardiac complexity revealed by higher short‐term scaling exponent at baseline (p =.006) and math (p =.013) and lower entropy at exposure (p =.013) and math (p =.012). A marginal between‐groups effect was found for Higuchi's fractal dimension, F(1, 90) = 3.67, p =.059, ηp2 =.041, with females showing lower fractal dimension than males in math (p =.037). Linear measures did not reveal sex‐related differences. Results suggest that adolescent females show lower cardiac complexity during stress. These findings support the importance of nonlinear cardiac measures for understanding cardiac reactivity during stress. Further research is needed to test the hypothesis that cardiac complexity is useful to detect an increased risk of emotional disorders, disorders that are more prevalent in women. Adolescents' self‐regulation during stress has deep implications for the risk for psychopathology. This study examines the presence of sex differences in adolescents' cardiac reactivity and recovery during stress. Linear (variability) and nonlinear (complexity) cardiac measures were calculated from 92 adolescents who underwent the Trier Social Stress Test. Females showed lower cardiac complexity than males across different stages of the task. These results support the importance of nonlinear measures for understanding cardiac reactivity during stress. Further research is needed to test whether cardiac complexity is useful to detect increased risk of emotional disorders, which are more prevalent in women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effects of temperament and emotion regulation styles in determining negative emotional states Introduction. The interplay of reactive and regulatory temperamental processes appears to be essential for a better understanding of emotional states and disorders. In this study we explored the prospective relationship between reactive temperament (negative affect), regulatory temperament (effortful control), negative emotion regulation styles (rumination and suppression) and self-recorded anxiety, worry, and avoidance in naturalistic conditions. Method. Thirty-two young adults were first assessed through questionnaires on negative affectivity, effortful control, and two forms of negative emotion regulation (rumination and suppression). After this they recorded anxiety, worry, and avoidance three times a day over 50 consecutive days through an on-line access electronic diary. Results. High levels of negative affect and low levels of effortful control were associated with higher levels of anxiety, worry, and avoidance (p<.01). The prospective association between negative affectivity and avoidance was moderated by effortful control (Total R² =.49). Moreover, the brooding facet of rumination totally mediated the association between negative affect and anxiety with a significant indirect effect (Effect=.30, Boot CI95%=.09 to .69). Conclusions. Avoidance patterns are significantly determined by negative affect -- effortful control interaction and rumination, especially brooding, totally mediates the relationship between negative affect and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. The interplay of reactive and regulatory temperamental processes appears to be essential for a better understanding of emotional states and disorders. In this study we explored the prospective relationship between reactive temperament (negative affect), regulatory temperament (effortful control), negative emotion regulation styles (rumination and suppression) and self-recorded anxiety, worry, and avoidance in naturalistic conditions. Method. Thirty-two young adults were first assessed through questionnaires on negative affectivity, effortful control, and two forms of negative emotion regulation (rumination and suppression). After this they recorded anxiety, worry, and avoidance three times a day over 50 consecutive days through an on-line access electronic diary. Results. High levels of negative affect and low levels of effortful control were associated with higher levels of anxiety, worry, and avoidance (p<.01). The prospective association between negative affectivity and avoidance was moderated by effortful control (Total R² =.49). Moreover, the brooding facet of rumination totally mediated the association between negative affect and anxiety with a significant indirect effect (Effect=.30, Boot CI95%=.09 to .69). Conclusions. Avoidance patterns are significantly determined by negative affect -- effortful control interaction and rumination, especially brooding, totally mediates the relationship between negative affect and anxiety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The risk of suffering anxiety disorders is associated with sustained subthreshold symptoms of anxiety. This study evaluated the stability of anxiety scores (high, moderate or low) across a six-month period in early adolescents (N = 95). The associations between sustained anxiety, vagally-mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV), sympathetic activity, and heart rate fractal dynamics in everyday life conditions were analyzed. The anxiety scores from 71.50% of participants remained at the same level. The linear correlations between anxiety and cardiac measures were weak but a group-based approach revealed that the fractal dimension (FD) from stable-low anxiety participants was higher than the FD from participants with stable-moderate anxiety scores but not higher than the FD from the stable-high anxiety group. The short-term correlations' exponent a1 from the stable-high anxiety group was higher than the a1 from the stable-moderate anxiety group but not higher than the exponent from the stable-low anxiety group. No differences were found in the vmHRV nor sympathetic activity. The lack of a direct association between the complexity of the heart rate and the level of sustained anxiety suggests a nonlinear pattern of associations that would be in accordance with the optimum variability principle.

Effective regulation of emotions requires the ability to voluntarily manage attention, i.e. attentional control (AC), which has been related to heart rate variability and vagal tone in laboratory based research. In this study, we calculated the correlation dimension (CD), the fractal-like properties (scaling exponents ?1 and ?2, and fractal dimension) and the sample entropy of heart rate time series obtained from ECG recordings (4 hours long each) taken from a sample of healthy students (n=47) during everyday activities. AC was assessed through a self-reported questionnaire. As expected, a linear positive correlation was found between AC scores and CD and entropy, but no associations were found between AC and ?1 and fractal dimension. The association between AC and ?2 was negative and marginally significant. No associations were found between AC and linear heart rate variability measures. These results show that nonlinear measures of long, everyday life, heart rate time series may provide useful information about the AC ability of healthy students.