Capacity For Affect Regulation Research Articles

Dissociative Symptoms and Trauma Exposure

Although dissociation is often described as a posttraumatic response, the actual statistical association between trauma exposure and dissociative symptoms is surprisingly small. This suggests that that some dissociative phenomena may be unrelated to trauma, or may be related in more complex ways. Analysis of the normative data for the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory revealed significant dissociative symptoms in only 8% of trauma-exposed individuals from the general population. However, 90% of those with at least one clinically significant dissociation scale on the Multiscale Dissociation Inventory reported a trauma history, and significant dissociation was found in only 2% of nontraumatized individuals. A history of interpersonal violence, number of different types of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress, and affect dysregulation were univariate predictors of dissociative symptomatology in trauma-exposed participants, but only posttraumatic stress and affect dysregulation were multivariate predictors. Trauma is probably an important, but insufficient, condition for the development of dissociative symptomatology. Additional risk factors, such as high posttraumatic stress and/or reduced affect regulation capacities, may determine whether trauma exposure results in clinically significant dissociation.

Stability and Change in Attachment Security Across Adolescence

This study examined both continuity and familial, intrapsychic, and environmental predictors of change in adolescent attachment security across a 2-year period from middle to late adolescence. Assessments included the Adult Attachment Interview, observed mother-adolescent interactions, test-based data, and adolescent self-reports obtained from an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of moderately at-risk adolescents interviewed at ages 16 and 18. Substantial stability in security was identified. Beyond this stability, however, relative declines in attachment security were predicted by adolescents' enmeshed, overpersonalizing behavior with their mothers; depressive symptoms; and poverty status. Results suggest that although security may trend upward for nonstressed adolescents, stressors that overwhelm the capacity for affect regulation and that are not easily assuaged by parents predict relative declines in security over time.

Child Care as a Relational Context for Early Development: Research in Neurobiology and Emerging Roles for Social Work

The quality of child care in the United States is an important social problem, particularly for economically vulnerable families. This is highlighted by multidisciplinary research on the importance of early caregiving as a determinant of child health and wellbeing. This article examines center-based child care as an important relational and developmental context for infants and young children. Through an integration of psychosocial studies and emerging research in the cognitive neurosciences, this paper describes how developmental research on early emotional development can be utilized to inform our understanding of child care as a critical social and interpersonal context for infants and young children. In particular, this paper examines research on early interpersonal experience as a determinant of the capacity for affect regulation. Focusing on the application of theory to practice, this paper discusses the relevance of this research to informed direct practice, advocacy and program development.

Dialectical behavior therapy for Binge-Eating Disorder.

Binge-eating episodes have alternately been described as stemming from strict dieting behaviors driven by overvalued ideas of weight and shape, or as arising from problematic interpersonal experiences. A third way of conceptualizing an eating binge is as a maladaptive emotion-regulation strategy, suggesting that facilitating more adaptive and effective affect regulation capacities may be a useful treatment. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), a treatment aimed at increasing emotion regulation skill, is currently being adapted for use with a binge-eating disorder population. Assumptions underlying the treatment, methods in treatment delivery, and goals of the treatment package are discussed. A pilot study currently underway of group DBT therapy for individuals with Binge-Eating Disorder is described.