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Background: Insufficient sleep and insomnia are associated with alcohol use as well as anxiety during adolescence and young adulthood. A negative reinforcement path to explain the association between sleep difficulties and alcohol misuse has been proposed. Within this pathway, it is speculated that while sober, insomnia and insufficient sleep lead to increased anxiety as well as anxiolytic responses to alcohol, thereby increasing the risk for both alcohol use and alcohol use problems. No work to date has examined the negative reinforcement path to alcohol use among adolescents who have consumed alcohol. Objectives: The current study aims to address this gap in the literature by examining if sleep quality is related to adolescent alcohol use problems and frequency through serial indirect effects of adolescent anxiety symptoms and coping motives for alcohol use. A total of 147 adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years ( M = 16.31; SD = 0.96) from all geographic regions in the US were recruited using social media platforms (i.e., Facebook and Instagram). Participants who reported having tried alcohol at least once completed self-report measures to examine sleep quality, anxiety symptoms, alcohol use problems, alcohol use frequency, and coping motives for alcohol use. age Adolescent sleep quality was found to be associated with higher levels of both alcohol use problems and alcohol use frequency through the serial indirect effect of anxiety symptoms and coping motives for alcohol use. Results: Overall, these findings represent a step towards understanding the complex relationship between sleep quality, alcohol, anxiety, and coping motives among adolescents.Conclusions: Overall, these findings represent a step towards understanding the complex relationship between sleep quality, alcohol, anxiety, and coping motives among adolescents.

Both maternal symptoms and adolescent offspring characteristics are associated with maladaptive parenting among families at risk for anxiety. One disorder that may be particularly associated with maladaptive parenting behaviors is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Previous work suggests that offspring negative affect (NA) is associated with different levels of maladaptive parenting behaviors among mothers with GAD. No work to date, however, has examined the association between offspring reported NA, maternal GAD, and maternal worry about offspring or maternal perceptions of psychological control (PC) among mothers of adolescents. Sixty-five mothers who were elevated in anxious arousal and their adolescent offspring between the ages of 12 and 16 years old (n = 65, 55% male, M age = 13.89) reported on parenting (mother report), NA (offspring report), and GAD symptoms (assessed via structured clinical interview), and maternal anxiety sensitivity (AS) symptoms. Study results indicated that maternal GAD status interacted with offspring NA in relation to maternal reported use of PC and worry about offspring. Specifically, offspring NA was positively related to PC for mothers without GAD, but not for mothers with GAD. Further, for mothers with GAD, offspring NA was negatively related to worry about offspring, but this relation did not persist for mothers without GAD. Maternal AS was related to overall higher levels of worry about offspring and PC. Mothers with GAD report using higher levels of maladaptive parenting when offspring report lower levels of NA, and lower levels when offspring report high NA. This pattern was specific to maternal GAD (c.f. anxiety sensitivity)., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Evidence suggests that, compared to parents without anxiety, parents with anxiety may be more likely to engage in a range of maladaptive parenting behaviors. Parents with elevated anxiety levels may tend to hold negative beliefs about their child's experiences and ability to cope with anxiety; it is not clear, however, whether parental beliefs about offspring anxiety may play a role in the association among parental anxiety, parental perceptions of offspring anxiety, and parenting behaviors. The current study was designed to address this gap by evaluating the association among parental anxiety, parental perceptions of child anxiety, parental beliefs about offspring anxiety, and anxious rearing behaviors. One-hundred and forty-six parents (105 females) between the ages of twenty-four and sixty-three years (Mage = 38.77 years, SD = 7.08 years) reported on parental anxiety levels, parental perceptions of child anxiety levels, parental beliefs about offspring anxiety, and anxious rearing behaviors. Results indicated that parental anxiety was significantly associated with anxious rearing behaviors through parental beliefs about offspring anxiety. Results further suggested that parent and child anxiety may be both directly associated with anxious rearing behaviors and indirectly associated with anxious rearing behaviors through parental beliefs about anxiety. Findings are discussed in terms of next steps needed to improve our understanding of the processes that may account for maladaptive parenting behaviors in parents with elevated anxiety. Highlights: Parental anxiety was significantly associated with anxious rearing behaviors through parental beliefs about offspring anxiety. Parental perceptions of offspring anxiety were indirectly and directly associated with anxious rearing behaviors through parental beliefs about anxiety. Results suggest that parental beliefs about anxiety may be an important underlying mechanism in the relation between parent anxiety and rearing behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cigarette use during adolescence has been linked to increased risk for insomnia symptoms, but limited work has examined factors that may account for this association. Adolescent cigarette use and anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal evidence bidirectional associations, as do anxiety symptoms and insomnia symptoms. This suggests that adolescent cigarette use, anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal, and insomnia symptoms may increase and maintain one another. The current study tests physiological hyperarousal anxiety symptoms as a potential indirect effect in the cigarette-insomnia symptoms link across adolescence and young adulthood.Methods: We examined data from adolescents and young adults from Waves 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 2,432 with full data). Insomnia symptoms were assessed at baseline (ages 12-16 years), 1 year later (13-17 years), and 14 years after baseline (26 - 30 years) among a nationally representative sample of adolescents. Cigarette use was assessed at baseline, 1 year later, 6 years after baseline, and 14 years after baseline. Anxiety symptoms were assessed at baseline and 1 year later.Results: Structural equation models indicated that anxiety symptoms exerted an indirect effect on the longitudinal associations between adolescent cigarette use and adult insomnia symptoms. Anxiety symptoms and cigarette use evidenced bidirectional associations during adolescence.Conclusions: These results suggest that increases in anxiety symptoms characterized by physiological hyperarousal may be one mechanism whereby cigarette use during adolescence is associated with increased insomnia symptoms during early adulthood. Prevention efforts aimed at reducing cigarette use during adolescence may have long term additional benefits for anxiety symptoms and insomnia symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]