Matching Items (9)
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- All Subjects: Twins
- All Subjects: psychopathology
- Creators: Davis, Mary
- Status: Published
Description
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic musculoskeletal disorder characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, and a variety of other comorbid physiological and psychological characteristics, including a deficit of positive affect. Recently, the focus of research on the pathophysiology of FM has considered the role of a number of genomic variants. In the current manuscript, case-control analyses did not support the hypothesis that FM patients would differ from other chronic pain groups in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and mu-opioid receptor (OPRM1) genotype. However, evidence is provided in support of the hypothesis that functional single nucleotide polymorphisms on the COMT and OPRM1 genes would be associated with risk and resilience, respectively, in a dual processing model of pain-related positive affective regulation in FM. Forty-six female patients with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of FM completed an electronic diary that included once-daily assessments of positive affect and soft tissue pain. Multilevel modeling yielded a significant gene X environment interaction, such that individuals with met/met genotype on COMT experienced a greater decline in positive affect as daily pain increased than did either val/met or val/val individuals. A gene X environment interaction for OPRM1 also emerged, indicating that individuals with at least one asp allele were more resilient to elevations in daily pain than those homozygous for the asn allele. In sum, the findings offer researchers ample reason to further investigate the contribution of the catecholamine and opioid systems, and their associated genomic variants, to the still poorly understood experience of FM.
ContributorsFinan, Patrick Hamilton (Author) / Zautra, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Children's chronic pain has many contributing factors, including family environment, genetics, and parenting. Still, pediatric chronic pain remains understudied, and little research has been conducted on predictors of child pain onset. This study aims to elucidate some of these factors by examining the role of parenting style and parental pain in children's chronic pain experience. The study answered the following questions: 1) Is child chronic pain heritable?; 2) Do parenting styles and/or parental pain predict child pain?; and 3) Is parenting style the mediating variable in the relation between parent pain and child pain? A twin study design was employed to account for both genetic and environmental influences in pain. Primary and secondary caregivers completed pain questionnaires regarding their own and their children's pain. The caregivers also completed questionnaires regarding their own parenting styles. Observer ratings were used as additional measures of primary caregiver parenting. Results indicated that child pain is heritable and that parental pain was significantly related to child pain. However, parenting style did not predict child pain and was not a mediator in the relationship between parental pain and child pain. Further research on other parenting factors or predictors of pain may lead to prevention of pediatric chronic pain or more effective management of child pain symptoms.
ContributorsPatel, Maya (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Lemery, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Sibling interactions are natural contexts for learning about the appropriate expression of emotions. The emotionally charged nature of sibling interactions creates a convenient context to explore emotional reactivity and regulation. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among parent-reported sibling relationship quality, observed sibling prosocial and antisocial behaviors displayed when playing a competitive marble game, and children's emotions coded from videotape. The sample consisted of 58 twin children who are currently participating in the longitudinal Arizona Twin Project. Parents completed the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire online at 5 and 8 years. Additionally, a competitive marble game interaction between the siblings took place in the home at 8 years and was videotaped for objective coding of prosocial, antisocial, and control behavior. Facial expressions were also coded from videotape using Emotient FACET software across the marble game interaction. Three mean composites of emotion were created, including positive and negative emotional facial expressions. Results showed that parent reported warmth did not predict the occurrence of positive emotions during the sibling interaction. However, siblings with high conflict showed less fear during the interaction. Parent reports of warmth predicted the extent to which siblings differed on emotion expression, however conflict did not. Parent ratings of conflict and warmth did not predict the extent to which the sibling dyad was emotionally intense. Findings regarding genetic and environmental effects were in line with previous reports of genetic influence on prosocial behavior and negative emotion, and expressions of joy being influenced by the environment. This study investigated noteworthy aspects of the sibling relationship that appear to promote children's adaptive development.
ContributorsGanase, Anaelle Shelina (Co-author) / Oro, Veronica (Co-author) / Roth, Winter (Co-author) / Doane, Leah (Co-author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Co-author, Thesis director) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Pediatric chronic pain is pervasive and associated with myriad adverse consequences, yet due consideration has not been given to the mental health disturbances that often present alongside chronic pain and the etiological mechanisms that potentially underlie both. The current study examined the etiology underlying chronic pain and internalizing symptomology in middle childhood, considering both independent and co-occurring symptom presentations. Phenotypic parent-offspring associations across chronic pain and internalizing symptomology were also examined. Lastly, nuclear twin family models were tested to determine the extent to which genetic and environmental factors underlie parent-offspring transmission. The sample comprised 795 children (399 families; Mage= 9.7 years; SD = 0.92) and their parents drawn from the Arizona Twin Project. Results indicated that chronic pain was highly heritable (78%), whereas internalizing symptomology was modestly heritable (32%) and further subject to moderate shared environmental influence (50%). Moreover, 9% of the variance in chronic pain was explained by additive genetic factors shared with internalizing symptomology. Maternal chronic pain and internalizing symptomology were positively associated with both child chronic pain and internalizing symptomology. The association between maternal chronic pain and child chronic pain was more pronounced for girls than boys, whereas the association between maternal internalizing symptomology and child internalizing symptomology was more pronounced for boys than girls. Paternal chronic pain was not significantly associated with child chronic pain but was unexpectedly associated with lower child internalizing symptomology. The negative association between paternal chronic pain and child internalizing symptomology was more pronounced for boys than girls. Paternal internalizing symptomology was not significantly associated with child chronic pain but was positively associated with child internalizing symptomology. Lastly, the best fitting reduced nuclear twin family models for both chronic pain and internalizing symptomology retained additive genetic, sibling-specific shared environmental, and nonshared environmental parameters, where parent-offspring transmission was solely explained by shared genetics and sibling-specific shared environmental factors further accounted for co-twin resemblance. Results provide novel insight into common liabilities underlying chronic pain and internalizing symptomology in middle childhood, parent-offspring associations across chronic pain and internalizing symptomology, and the etiological mechanisms that explain symptom aggregation across generations.
ContributorsOro, Veronica (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Su, Jinni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Experiencing poor, unrefreshing sleep is a common occurrence for individuals with chronic pain. Sleep disturbance predicts not only greater pain and disability, but also heightened negative affect and reduced positive affect in individuals with chronic pain. Such fluctuations in affect have been linked with more negative and fewer positive social events. For those with chronic pain, negative social relations can exacerbate pain, whereas positive social interactions can help decrease disability. Thus, exploring the sleep‒social functioning process in chronic pain may be one way to improve daily functioning and quality of life. The current study examined positive and negative affect as two parallel mediators of the within-day relations between sleep quality and positive and negative social events in individuals with chronic pain. For 21 days, electronic daily diary reports were collected from 220 individuals with fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by widespread chronic pain. Within-person relations among reports of last night’s sleep quality, afternoon affects and pain, and evening social events were estimated via multilevel structural equation modeling. Findings showed that positive affect mediated both the sleep quality‒positive social events and sleep quality‒negative social events relations. That is, greater than usual sleep disturbance last night predicted afternoon reports of lower than usual positive affect. Low positive affect, in turn, predicted evening reports of fewer than usual positive social events and more than usual negative social events that day, controlling for the effects of afternoon pain. In addition, negative affect mediated the sleep quality‒negative social events link. That is, greater than usual sleep disturbance last night predicted afternoon reports of higher than usual negative affect, which, in turn, predicted evening reports of more than usual negative social events that day, controlling for the effects of afternoon pain. Of the three significant mediated paths, the sleep quality‒positive affect‒positive social events path was the strongest in magnitude. Thus, a night of poor sleep can have an impact on social events the next day in those with chronic pain by dysregulating affect. Further, findings highlight the key role of positive affect in the sleep‒social functioning process and potential socio-affective benefits of sleep interventions in chronic pain.
ContributorsKothari, Dhwani J. (Author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Luecken, Linda (Committee member) / Karoly, Paul (Committee member) / Infurna, Frank (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Stress in individuals presents in various forms and may accumulate across development to predict maladaptive physical and psychological outcomes, including greater risk for the onset of internalizing symptoms. Early life stress, daily life experiences, and the stress response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis have all been examined as potential predictors of the development of psychopathology, but rarely have researchers attempted to understand the covariation or interaction among these stress domains using a longitudinal design when looking at the influence of stress on internalizing psychopathology. Further, most research has examined these processes in adulthood or adolescence with much less attention given to the influence of these dynamic stress pathways in childhood. Guided by the biopsychosocial model of stress, this study explored early life stress, daily life stress, diurnal cortisol (cortisol AM slope), and internalizing symptoms in a racially/ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of twins participating in an ongoing longitudinal study (N=970 children; Arizona Twin Project; Lemery-Chalfant et al. 2013). An additive model of stress and a stress sensitization framework model were considered as potential pathways of stress to internalizing symptoms in middle childhood. Based on a thorough review of relevant literature, it was expected that each stress indicator would individually predict internalizing symptoms. It was also predicted that early life stress would moderate the associations between diurnal cortisol and internalizing symptoms, as well as daily life stress and internalizing symptoms. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that early life stress and cortisol AM slope, but not daily life stress, predicted internalizing symptoms. Early life stress did not moderate the associations between daily life stress and internalizing symptoms or cortisol AM slope and internalizing symptoms. Results support independent additive contributions of both physiological stress processes and early life parental stressors in the development of internalizing symptoms in middle childhood. Future investigation is needed to better understand the sensitizing effects of early parental life stress during this developmental stage.
ContributorsLecarie, Emma (Author) / Doane, Leah (Thesis advisor) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Hand-coding systems of measuring facial expressions were developed to study and analyze human emotions, but they are time-intensive and thus seldom used. As technology has advanced, new computer software programs, such as Affectiva, were developed to code facial expressions automatically using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Since this technology is still new, Affectiva and its validity remain understudied, and no psychological research has been conducted to compare Affectiva computer coding and hand coding of children’s emotions. The purpose of this study was to compare hand and computer coding of children’s expressions of emotion during a videotaped parent-child interaction. The study answered the following questions: 1) Do hand and computer coding agree?; and 2) Are hand and computer coding in higher agreement for some emotions than others? The sample included 25 pairs of twins from the Arizona Twin Project. Facial expressions were coded from videotape by a trained and reliable human coder and using the software Affectiva. The results showed that hand and computer coded emotion were in agreement for positive, but not negative emotions. Changing the context of the interaction to elicit more negative emotion, and using the same indicators of each emotion in computer and hand coding are suggested to improve the comparison of computer and hand coding.
ContributorsKwok, Connie (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Miadich, Samantha (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Pediatric chronic pain is surprisingly common and impactful, prospectively predicting poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Internalizing symptoms represents one such outcome. It is the most common cluster of symptoms in children, it is related to poorer child functioning, and it has been linked to future functioning/psychopathology. The psychosocial mechanisms through which child pain may impact internalizing have yet to be fully elaborated, but withdrawal from social engagement with peers has been proposed as one possible mechanism. Additionally, sibling relationships may play a role in enhancing or diminishing a child’s social engagement while they are in pain. The current study aimed to examine whether child social engagement at age 8 mediates the relation between child chronic pain at age 8 and internalizing symptoms at age 9. Further, the study tested whether sibling warmth and sibling conflict act as moderators between child chronic pain and child social engagement. The physical and emotional health, quality of sibling relations, and extracurricular social engagement of 491 twin children from 247 families were assessed at age 8 and age 9 via surveys completed by the children’s primary caregivers. Findings showed that child pain at age 8 did not predict lower levels of social engagement, and social engagement did not predict child internalizing at age 9. Sibling warmth, but not conflict, significantly moderated the pain—social engagement relation. Together, these findings indicate that the relation between chronic pain and internalizing functions differently in children than in adults through a variety of cognitive, environmental, and social factors. More longitudinal research in this area will help establish changes in the relation between pain and internalizing from childhood into adulthood.
ContributorsRichards, Nicole Eve (Co-author) / Richards, Nicole (Co-author) / Davis, Mary (Thesis director) / Presson, Clark (Committee member) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Committee member) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Art (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Approximately 20% of youth experience mental health problems (Vasileva et al., 2021), and dimensions of early childhood temperament, specifically negative affectivity and effortful control, predict later mental health (Rothbart, 2007). Examining temperament using person-centered methods, particularly in stressful contexts, may improve our understanding of vulnerability to adolescent emotional problems. The current study examined whether specific patterns, or types, of infant temperament longitudinally predicted adolescent anxiety and depression symptoms and whether family relationship stress moderated this association. We hypothesized that infants with a Negative Dysregulated temperament would experience higher anxiety and depression symptoms in later childhood compared to those with a Typical Expressive temperament, and that family relationship stress would exacerbate this link. In an ongoing-longitudinal study of families with twins (N=563, 51% female, 29.8% Hispanic/Latinx, 58.4% White; Lemery-Chalfant et al., 2019), primary caregivers (PCs) reported on infant temperament at 12 months (IBQ; Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003, α=.74-.90). In a prior study (Murillo et al., 2023), latent profile analysis yielded three infant temperament types: Negative Dysregulated, Positive Well-Regulated, and Typical Expressive. PCs reported on partner strain (PSS; Schuster, Kessler, & Asseltine, 1990, α=.87) and family conflict (FCS; Porter & O’Leary, 1980, α=.80) at age 8 and a composite of these two measures represented Family Relationship Stress (r = .689). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to form Depression and Anxiety outcome composites based on PC (4 reports), secondary caregiver (2 reports), teacher (2 reports), and self-report (3 reports) measures of depression and anxiety symptoms collected from ages 8-11 (HBQ, Armstrong & Goldstein, 2003; BPI, Measelle et al., 1998, all α’s > .80). We randomly selected one twin from each pair and conducted regression analyses, and then used the second twin for an internal replication. Family relationship stress had a significant main effect on both anxiety and depressive symptoms. The Negative Dysregulated temperament type did not predict anxiety and depression at ages 8-11, however, it interacted with family relationship stress to predict anxiety and depression in 1 of 2 samples. When family relationship stress was low, the Negative Dysregulated type was significantly associated with higher anxiety and depression outcomes compared to the Typical Expressive type, and high family relationship stress was significantly associated with lower depression outcomes. Elucidating these longitudinal relations is important for informing early intervention and reducing the burden of adolescent psychopathology.
ContributorsSingh, Ajuni (Author) / Lemery-Chalfant, Kathryn (Thesis director) / Corbin, William (Committee member) / Davis, Mary (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor)
Created2023-12