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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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.