Emotion dysregulation and dyadic conflict in depressed and typical adolescents: evaluating concordance across psychophysiological and observational measures

Abstract

Many depressed adolescents experience difficulty in regulating their emotions. These emotion regulation difficulties appear to emerge in part from socialization processes within families and then generalize to other contexts. However, emotion dysregulation is typically assessed within the individual, rather than in the social relationships that shape and maintain dysregulation. In this study, we evaluated concordance of physiological and observational measures of emotion dysregulation during interpersonal conflict, using a multilevel actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Participants were 75 mother-daughter dyads, including 50 depressed adolescents with or without a history of self-injury, and 25 typically developing controls. Behavior dysregulation was operationalized as observed aversiveness during a conflict discussion, and physiological dysregulation was indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Results revealed different patterns of concordance for control versus depressed participants. Controls evidenced a concordant partner (between-person) effect, and showed increased physiological regulation during minutes when their partner was more aversive. In contrast, clinical dyad members displayed a concordant actor (within-person) effect, becoming simultaneously physiologically and behaviorally dysregulated. Results inform current understanding of emotion dysregulation across multiple levels of analysis.

Keywords: Depression; Dyadic conflict; Emotion dysregulation; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA).

Figure 1

Level 1 model examining minute-to-minute concordance between behavioral and physiological dysregulation Note: Group status, average aversiveness, and the group × average aversiveness interaction are modeled at Level 2 of the APIM. In this model, two- and three-way interactions occur across Level 1 and Level 2. Two-way interactions test group × minute-to-minute aversiveness on RSA. Three-way interactions test group × average aversiveness × minute-to-minute aversiveness on RSA.

Figure 2

Three way interaction of within-person concordance for adolescents in the clinical group. Adolescents who were most aversive across the 10 min interaction task showed a negative association between minute-to-minute aversiveness and RSA reactivity.

Figure 3

Three way interaction of between-person concordance for adolescents in the control group. When mothers scored low or at the mean on overall aversiveness across the 10 min interaction task, their adolescents showed a positive association between minute-to-minute aversiveness and RSA reactivity.

Figure 4

Plots of minute-to-minute aversiveness and RSA change scores.