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Background: The perseverative cognition hypothesis stipulates that rumination (repetitive, passive, uncontrollable negative thinking) prolongs the experience of a stressor which impacts stress physiology. In line with this hypothesis, we proposed that in response to real-life experiences of social rejection, adolescent girls who ruminate would show a blunted diurnal cortisol slope the next day relative to girls who do not ruminate. We also examined the effects of social rejection and rumination on waking cortisol levels and the cortisol awakening response. Method: Participants were (n = 50) adolescent girls (mean age = 13.30, SD = 2.34) who varied on psychiatric risk and provided saliva samples 4 times a day for 3 days, as well as, daily diary reports of social rejection and rumination. A lagged multilevel model was utilized to examine the interactive effects of rejection and rumination on diurnal cortisol. Results: There was a significant interaction between social rejection and rumination. Specifically, rumination following social rejection was associated with a flatter diurnal cortisol slope. In the absence of rumination, social rejection was marginally associated with a steeper diurnal cortisol slope. The effects for waking cortisol levels and the cortisol awakening response were null. Conclusion: Findings support the perseverative cognition hypothesis and suggest that cognitive mechanisms such as rumination can impact stress physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5 (DSM-5) definition of alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been criticized on the ground that it leads to high prevalence rates and a highly heterogeneous group. Failure of the DSM to consider development may exacerbate these issues (e.g., conflating experimentation with problematic drinking). Wakefield and Schmitz (2015) proposed a definition of AUD that comports to the harmful dysfunction (HD) theory of mental disorders while data-driven approaches have suggested that key symptoms like craving, failure to fulfill obligations, hazardous use, and alcohol use despite interpersonal consequences are optimal (OPT) criteria for AUD (Stevens et al., 2019). Prior work suggests both may reduce the likelihood of conflating experimentation with problematic drinking during key developmental periods. Continuous and categorical structural equation models of DSM, HD, and OPT criteria were compared on A) prevalence, B) patterns of alcohol use in adolescence (age 10–18 years) C) early AUD symptoms in adolescence (age 13–15) and D) concurrent alcohol use and alcohol consequences to assess prospective and concurrent convergent validity using a longitudinal design (N = 765; ages 10–21 years). Results supported prior literature that the HD and OPT criteria produced a smaller diagnostic class than the DSM. Furthermore, the HD and OPT criteria had larger and more consistent effects with validators than the DSM with the OPT criteria having the largest effects and the least criteria. Future work should consider whether the OPT or HD criteria better reflect AUD severity than the DSM across development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most adolescents experiment with alcohol, but a smaller percentage advance to heavy alcohol use (AU) and AU disorder (AUD). Understanding for whom and how early risk leads to AUD is of interest to prevention, treatment, and etiology of AUD. Informed by developmental and behavioral neuroscience theory, the current study tested whether temperament (effortful control, surgency, and negative affect), peer AU (multi-reporter), and AU with parents' permission interacted to distinguish youth who experiment with alcohol from those who escalate to AUD. Community adolescents (N = 765, 53% female) were assessed annually for seven years (Mage = 11.8, range: 10–13 at Year 1; Mage = 18.7; range = 17–20 at year 7). Temperament by early experience interactions were expected to predict amount of AU. Amount of AU was expected to mediate the relationship between the interactions and AUD symptoms (assessed at Years 3 and 7, Mage = 13.8 and 18.7) above and beyond a range of confounds (e.g., problem behavior and parental AU and AUD). Supporting hypotheses, effortful control and surgency interacted with AU with parents' permission and peer AU, respectively, to predict higher amount of AU (R2 = 0.47) and AUD symptoms (R2 = 0.03). Results support developmental and behavioral neuroscience theory. High surgency and low effortful control in conjunction with peer AU and AU with parents' permission were associated with large effects on AU and moderate mediated effects through AU to AUD. AU with parents' permission was risky at low and high effortful control and protective when peers used alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]