Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:03:59.523Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The developmental trajectory of perceived stress mediates the relations between distress tolerance and internalizing symptoms among youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2017

Julia W. Felton*
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Anne N. Banducci
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park University of Mississippi Medical Center National Center for PTSD
Julia M. Shadur
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Ryan Stadnik
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Laura MacPherson
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Carl W. Lejuez
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Julia W. Felton, Department of Psychology, BPS 1121-B, University of Maryland, 4094 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742; E-mail: jfelton1@umd.edu.

Abstract

The current study examines the relation between distress tolerance, perceived stress, and internalizing symptoms across adolescence. Participants included 331 youth, ages 10 to 14 at the first wave of the study, assessed annually over 5 years. A latent growth curve approach was used to test three research questions, including whether perceived stress would increase across adolescence, whether distress tolerance (as measured by a behavioral task) would predict changes in perceived stress, and whether changes in perceived stress would mediate the relation between distress tolerance and internalizing symptoms. Results suggest that, consistent with previous findings, rates of perceived stress do increase across adolescence. Further, findings indicate that distress intolerance at baseline predicted increases in perceived stress, which in turn drove increases in internalizing symptoms. These findings point to the critical role of distress tolerance in bringing about changes in depression and anxiety symptoms and suggest support for utilizing a negative reinforcement framework to understand the emergence of internalizing symptomology.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This research was partly supported by National Institute of Drug Abuse Grants 1 F31 DA035033-01 (Principal Investigator, A.N.B.) and R01DA018647 (Principal Investigator, C.W.L.).

References

Abrantes, A. M., Strong, D. R., Lejuez, C. W., Kahler, C., Carpenter, L. L., Price, L. H., … & Brown, R. A. (2008). The role of negative affect in risk for early lapse among low distress tolerance smokers. Addictive Behaviors, 33, 13941401. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.06.018 Google Scholar
Amstadter, A. B., Daughters, S. B., MacPherson, L., Reynolds, E. K., Danielson, C., Wang, F., … & Lejuez, C. W. (2012). Genetic associations with performance on a behavioral measure of distress intolerance. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 46, 8794. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2011.09.017 Google Scholar
Angold, A., Costello, J. E., Farmer, E. M. Z., Burns, B. J., & Erkanli, A. (1999). Impaired but undiagnosed. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 38, 129137. doi:10.1097/00004583-199902000-00011 Google Scholar
Barlow, D. H., Allen, L. B., & Choate, M. L. (2004). Toward a unified treatment for emotional disorders. Behavior Therapy, 35, 205230. doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(04)80036-4 Google Scholar
Bentler, P. M. (1988). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238246. doi:10.1037/033-2909.107.2.238 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Billy, J. O., & Udry, J. R. (1985). Patterns of adolescent friendship and effects on sexual behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 48, 2741. doi:10.2307/3033779 Google Scholar
Bodden, D. M., Dirksen, C. D., & Bögels, S. M. (2008). Societal burden of clinically anxious youth referred for treatment: A cost-of-illness study. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 36, 487497. doi:10.1007/s10802-007-9194-4 Google Scholar
Bornovalova, M. A., Gratz, K. L., Daughters, S. B., Hunt, E. D., & Lejuez, C. W. (2012). Initial RCT of a distress tolerance treatment for individuals with substance use disorders. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 122, 7076. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2011.09.012 Google Scholar
Chorpita, B. F., Yim, L., Moffitt, C., Umemoto, L. A., & Francis, S. E. (2000). Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety and depression in children: A revised child anxiety and depression scale. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 38, 835855. doi:10.1016/S0005-7967(99)00130-8 Google Scholar
Cohen, S. (1986). Contrasting the Hassles Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale: Who's really measuring appraised stress? American Psychologist, 41, 716718. doi:10.1037/0003-66X.41.6.716 Google Scholar
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 385396. doi:10.2307/2136404 Google Scholar
Cohen, S., Tyrrell, D. A., & Smith, A. P. (1993). Negative life events, perceived stress, negative affect, and susceptibility to the common cold. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 131140. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.1.131 Google Scholar
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. M. (1991). Stress and infectious disease in humans. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 524. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.109.1.5 Google Scholar
Cohen, S., & Williamson, G. M. (1988). Perceived stress in a probability sample of the United States. In Spacapan, S. & Oskamp, S. (Eds.), The social psychology of health (pp. 3167). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Compas, B. E., Davis, G. E., Forsythe, C. J., & Wagner, B. M. (1987). Assessment of major and daily stressful events during adolescence: The Adolescent Perceived Events Scale. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 534541. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.55.4.534 Google Scholar
Copeland, W. E., Angold, A., Shanahan, L., & Costello, J. E. (2014). Longitudinal patterns of anxiety from childhood to adulthood: The Great Smoky Mountains study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 53, 2133. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2013.09.017 Google Scholar
Copeland, W. E., Shanahan, L., Costello, J., & Angold, A. (2009). Childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders as predictors of young adult disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66, 764772. doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.85 Google Scholar
Costello, E., Mustillo, S., Erkanli, A., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Prevalence and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60, 837844. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.60.8.837 Google Scholar
Cummings, J. R., Bornovalova, M. A., Ojanen, T., Hunt, E., MacPherson, L., & Lejuez, C. (2013). Time doesn't change everything: The longitudinal course of distress tolerance and its relationship with externalizing and internalizing symptoms during early adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 41, 735748. doi:10.1007/s10802-012-9704-x Google Scholar
Danielson, C. K., Ruggiero, K. J., Daughters, S. B., & Lejuez, C. W. (2010). Distress tolerance, risk-taking propensity, and PTSD symptoms in trauma-exposed youth: Pilot study. Behavior Therapist, 33, 2834.Google Scholar
Daughters, S. B., Gorka, S. M., Magidson, J. F., MacPherson, L., & Seitz-Brown, C. J. (2013). The role of gender and race in the relation between adolescent distress tolerance and externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 10531065. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.08.008 Google Scholar
Daughters, S. B., Reynolds, E. K., MacPherson, L., Kahler, C. W., Danielson, C. K., Zvolensky, M., & Lejuez, C. W. (2009). Distress tolerance and early adolescent externalizing and internalizing symptoms: The moderating role of gender and ethnicity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 198205. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.001 Google Scholar
Dell'Osso, L., Rucci, P., Ducci, F., Ciapparelli, A., Vivarelli, L., Carlini, M., … & Cassano, G. B. (2003). Social anxiety spectrum. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 253, 286291. doi:10.1007/s00406-003-0442-5 Google Scholar
Eisenbarth, C. (2012). Coping profiles and psychological distress: A cluster analysis. North American Journal of Psychology, 14, 485496.Google Scholar
Ellis, A., Vanderlind, M., & Beevers, C. (2013). Enhanced anger reactivity and reduced distress tolerance in major depressive disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9494-z Google Scholar
Enders, C. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Galaif, E. R., Sussman, S., Chou, C., & Wills, T. A. (2003). Longitudinal relations among depression, stress, and coping in high risk youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 243258. doi:10.1023/A:1023028809718 Google Scholar
Garber, J. (1984). Classification of childhood psychopathology: A developmental perspective. Child Development, 55, 3048. doi:10.2307/1129833 Google Scholar
Garber, J., Kriss, M. R., Koch, M., & Lindholm, L. (1988). Recurrent depression in adolescents: A follow-up-study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 27, 4954. doi:10.1097/00004583-198801000-00008 Google Scholar
Ge, X., Conger, R. D., Lorenz, F. O., & Simons, R. L. (1994). Parents’ stressful life events and adolescent depressed mood. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 35, 2844. doi:10.2307/2137333 Google Scholar
Glick, D. M., & Orsillo, S. M. (2011). Relationships among social anxiety, self-focused attention, and experiential distress and avoidance. Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies, 11, 112.Google Scholar
Glied, S., & Neufeld, A. (2001). Service system finance: Implications for children with depression and manic depression. Biological Psychiatry, 49, 11281135.Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (1998). The emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of General Psychology, 2, 271299. doi:10.1037/1089-2680.2.3.271 Google Scholar
Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology, 39, 281291. doi:10.1017/S0048577201393198 Google Scholar
Hager, A. D., & Runtz, M. G. (2012). Physical and psychological maltreatment in childhood and later health problems in women: An exploratory investigation of the roles of perceived stress and coping strategies. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36, 393403. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.02.002 Google Scholar
Halama, P., & Bakošova, K. (2009). Meaning in life as a moderator of the relationship between perceived stress and coping. Studia Psychologica, 51, 143148.Google Scholar
Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 293319. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143938 Google Scholar
Hancock, G. R., Harring, J. R., & Lawrence, F. R. (2013). Using latent growth modeling to evaluate longitudinal change. In Hancock, G. R. & Mueller, R. O. (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: A second course (pp. 309342). Charlotte, NC: IAP.Google Scholar
Harrington, N. (2006). Frustration intolerance beliefs: Their relationship with depression, anxiety, and anger in a clinical population. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 699709. doi:10.1007/s10608-006-9061-6 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, K., Macatee, R., Guthrie, W., & Cougle, J. (2013). Concurrent and prospective relations between distress tolerance, life stressors, and anger. Cognitive Therapy and Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9487-y Google Scholar
Henry, D. B., Schoeny, M. E., Deptula, D. P., & Slavick, J. T. (2007). Selection and socialization effects on adolescent intercourse without a condom and attitudes about the costs of sex. Child Development, 78, 825838. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01035.x Google Scholar
Jose, P. E., & Ratcliffe, V. (2004). Stressor frequency and perceived intensity as predictors of internalizing symptoms: Gender and age differences in adolescence. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 33, 145154.Google Scholar
Keough, M. E., Riccardi, C. J., Timpano, K. R., Mitchell, M. A., & Schmidt, N. B. (2010). Anxiety symptomatology: The association with distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity. Behavior Therapy, 41, 567574. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2010.04.002 Google Scholar
Kessler, R. C., Demler, O., Frank, R. G., Olfson, M., Pincus, H. A., Walters, E. E., … & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2005). Prevalence and treatment of mental disorders, 1990 to 2003. New England Journal of Medicine, 352, 25152523. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa043266 Google Scholar
Larson, R., & Ham, M. (1993). Stress and “storm and stress” in early adolescence: The relationship of negative events with dysphoric affect. Developmental Psychology, 29, 130140. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.29.1.130 Google Scholar
Laurent, J., Catanzaro, S. J., Joiner, T. J., Rudolph, K. D., Potter, K. I., Lambert, S., … & Gathright, T. (1999). A measure of positive and negative affect for children: Scale development and preliminary validation. Psychological Assessment, 11, 326338. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.11.3.326 Google Scholar
Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Lejuez, C. W., Daughters, S. B., Danielson, C. W., & Ruggiero, K. (2006). The Behavioral Indicator of Resiliency to Distress (BIRD). Unpublished manual.Google Scholar
Lejuez, C. W., Kahler, C. W., & Brown, R. A. (2003). A modified computer version of the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT) as a laboratory-based stressor. Behavior Therapist, 26, 290293.Google Scholar
Lewinsohn, P. M., Clarke, G. N., Seeley, J. R., & Rhode, P. (1994). Major depression in community adolescents: Age at onset, episode duration, and time to recurrence. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33, 809818. doi:10.1097/00004583-199407000-00006 Google Scholar
Leyro, T. M., Zvolensky, M. J., & Bernstein, A. (2010). Distress tolerance and psychopathological symptoms and disorders: A review of the empirical literature among adults. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 576600. doi:10.1037/a0019712 Google Scholar
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Dialectical and biosocial underpinnings of treatment. In Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder (pp. 2865). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Little, R. J. (1988). A test of missing completely at random for multivariate data with missing values. Journal of American Statistical Association, 83, 11981202.Google Scholar
Little, R. J., & Rubin, D. B. (1989). Statistical analysis with missing data. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Livheim, F., Hayes, L., Ghaderi, A., Magnusdottir, T., Hogfeldt, A., Rowse, J., … & Tengstrom, A. (2015). The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for adolescent mental health: Swedish and Australian pilot outcomes. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 10161030. doi:10.1007/s10826-014-9912-9 Google Scholar
Lotan, G., Tanay, G., & Bernstein, A. (2013). Mindfulness and distress tolerance: Relations in a mindfulness preventive intervention. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 6, 371385. doi:10.1521/ijct.2013.6.4.371 Google Scholar
Lynch, F. L., & Clarke, G. N. (2006). Estimating the economic burden of depression in children and adolescents. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(6, Suppl. 1), S143S151. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2006.07.001 Google Scholar
Lynch, T. R., & Mizon, G. A. (2011). Distress overtolerance and distress intolerance: A behavioral perspective. In Zvolensky, M. J., Bernstein, A., & Vujanovic, A. A. (Eds.), Distress tolerance: Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 5279). New York: Guilford Press Google Scholar
MacPherson, L., Reynolds, E. K., Daughters, S. B., Wang, F., Cassidy, J., Mayes, L. C., & Lejuez, C. W. (2010). Positive and negative reinforcement underlying risk behavior in early adolescents. Prevention Science, 11, 331342. doi:10.1007/s11121-010-0172-7 Google Scholar
Magidson, J. F., Listhaus, A. R., Seitz-Brown, C. J., Anderson, K. E., Lindberg, B., Wilson, A., & Daughters, S. B. (2013). Rumination mediates the relationship between distress tolerance and depressive symptoms among substance users. Cognitive Therapy and Research. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s10608-012-9488-x Google Scholar
Mandell, D. S., Guevara, J. P., Rostain, A. L., & Hadley, T. R. (2003). Economic grand rounds: Medical expenditures among children with psychiatric disorders in a Medicaid population. Psychiatric Services, 54, 465467. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.54.4.465 Google Scholar
Martin, R. A., Kazarian, S. S., & Breiter, H. J. (1995). Perceived stress, life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression in adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 17, 8195. doi:10.1007/BF02229205 Google Scholar
McRae, K., Gross, J. J., Weber, J., Robertson, E. R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R. D., … & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). The development of emotion regulation: An fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 1122. doi:10.1093/scan/nsr093 Google Scholar
Merikangas, K. R., He, J., Burstein, M., Swanson, S. A., Avenevoli, S., Cui, L., … & Swendsen, J. (2010). Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in U.S. adolescents: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication—Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49, 980989. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2010.05.017 Google Scholar
Monroe, S. M. (2008). Modern approaches to conceptualizing and measuring human life stress. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 3352. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.4.022007.141207 Google Scholar
Monroe, S. M., & Kelley, J. M. (1995). Measurement of stress appraisal. In Cohen, S., Kessler, R. C., & Gordon, L. U. (Eds.), Measuring stress: A guide for health and social scientists (pp. 122147). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (2010). Mplus user's uide (6th ed.). Los Angeles: Author.Google Scholar
O'Cleirigh, C., Ironson, G., & Smits, J. A. J. (2007). Does distress tolerance moderate the impact of major life events on psychosocial variables and behaviors important in the management of HIV? Behavior Therapy, 38, 314323. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2006.11.001 Google Scholar
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavioral Medicine Research, 40, 879891. doi:10.3758/BRM.40.3.879 Google Scholar
Rao, U., Ryan, N. D., Birmaher, B., Dahl, R. E., Williamson, D. E., Kaufman, J., … & Nelson, B. (1995). Unipolar depression in adolescents: Clinical outcome in adulthood. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 566578. doi:10.1097/00004583-199505000-00009 Google Scholar
Rathus, J. H., & Miller, A. L. (2015). DBT®skills manual for adolescents. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Roemer, L., Salters, K., Raffa, S. D., & Orsillo, S. M. (2005). Fear and avoidance of internal experiences in GAD: Preliminary tests of a conceptual model. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 7188. doi:10.1007/s10608-005-1650-2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roza, S. J., Hofstra, M. B., van der Ende, J., & Verhulst, F. C. (2003). Stable prediction of mood and anxiety disorders based on behavioral and emotional problems in childhood: A 14-year follow-up during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160, 21162121. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.12.2116 Google Scholar
Schmeelk-Cone, K. H., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2003). A longitudinal analysis of stress in African American youth: Predictors and outcomes of stress trajectories. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 419430. doi:10.1023/A:1025934301468 Google Scholar
Schweizer, K. (2010). Improving the interpretability of the variances of latent variables by uniform and factor-specific standardizations of loadings. Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 6, 152159. doi:10.1027/1614-2241/a000016 Google Scholar
Sontag, L. M., & Graber, J. A. (2010). Coping with perceived peer stress: Gender-specific and common pathways to symptoms of psychopathology. Developmental Psychology, 46, 16051620. doi:10.1037/a0020617 Google Scholar
Steiger, J. H. (1990). Structural model evaluation and modification: An interval estimation approach. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25, 173180. doi:10.1207/s15327906mbr25024 Google Scholar
Taylor, J. M. (2015). Psychometric analysis of the Ten-Item Perceived Stress Scale. Psychological Assessment, 27, 90101. doi:10.1037/a0038100 Google Scholar
Telch, M. J., Jacquin, K., Smits, J. A. J., & Powers, M. B. (2003). Emotional responding to hyperventilation as a predictor of agoraphobia status among individuals suffering from panic disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 34, 161170. doi:10.1016/S0005-7916(03)00037-5 Google Scholar
Timpano, K. R., Buckner, J. D., Richey, J. A., Murphy, D. L., & Schmidt, N. B. (2009). Exploration of anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance as vulnerability factors of hoarding behaviors. Depression and Anxiety, 26, 343353. doi:10.1002/da.20469 Google Scholar
Tucker, L. R., & Lewis, C. (1973). A reliability coefficient for maximum likelihood factor analysis. Psychometrika, 38, 110. doi:10.1007/BF02291170 Google Scholar
van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Fidler, J. A., Steptoe, A., Boniface, D., & Wardle, J. (2009). Perceived stress and weight gain in adolescence: A longitudinal analysis. Obesity, 17, 21552161. doi:10.1038/oby.2009.183 Google Scholar
Varni, J. W., & Katz, E. R. (1997). Stress, social support and negative affectivity in children with newly diagnosed cancer: A prospective transactional analysis. Psycho-Oncology, 6, 267278. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1611(199712)6:4<267::AID-PON277>3.0.CO;2-O Google Scholar
Wills, T. A., Sandy, J. M., & Yaeger, A. M. (2002). Stress and smoking in adolescence: A test of directional hypotheses. Health Psychology, 21, 122130. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.21.2.122 Google Scholar
Wolitzky-Taylor, K., Guillot, C. R., Pang, R. D., Kirkpatrick, M. G., Zvolensky, M. J., Buckner, J. D., & Leventhal, A. M. (2015). Examination of anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance as transdiagnostic mechanisms linking multiple anxiety pathologies to alcohol use problems in adolescents. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 39, 532539. doi:10.1111/acer.12638 Google Scholar
Yarcheski, A., & Mahon, N. E. (2000). A causal model of depression in early adolescents. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 22, 879894. doi:10.1177/01939450022044854 Google Scholar
Yeager, D. S., Johnson, R., Spitzer, B. J., Trzesniewski, K. H., Powers, J., & Dweck, C. S. (2014). The far-reaching effects of believing people can change: Implicit theories of personality shape stress, health, and achievement during adolescence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 867884. doi:10.1037/a003633 Google Scholar