Emotion Regulation & Reactivity to Daily Stress in Young People
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Emotion Regulation & Reactivity to Daily Stress in Young People: An Experience Sampling Study.
IRAS ID
169929
Contact name
Laura Maclean
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
ACCORD
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research into the development of mental health problems has emphasized a number of different factors that can predispose or protect young people from mental health difficulties. This study aims to build on this research by identifying developmental factors that will predict heightened reactivity to stress and high risk for the development of mental health difficulties.
Repeated measures of individual distress in daily life will be collected using a method known as experience sampling. This involves participants completing a number of questions regarding their mood and current environment at random times throughout the day. The way in which individuals respond to their daily environment will be explored in relation to developmental factors (attachment, mentalization and coping) to examine whether these developmental factors can predict how individuals respond to daily hassles. Individual responses to daily hassles will also be examined in relation to how young people regulate their emotions; and experiences of psychosis.
It has been argued that reactivity to daily hassles may be a more reliable method of establishing who may develop a mental health problem compared to current approaches which focus on establishing at-risk mental states. This involves establishing the presence of symptoms with less severity or frequency.
Given that at-risk mental states often emerge during adolescence, this project will recruit young adults from 16 – 35 years of age and will compare results from three groups of participants; a non-clinical group, an at-risk group and a clinical group. Participants will complete 6 days of experience sampling allowing for emotion regulation and reactivity to daily stress to be explored in a real-life context.
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
15/SS/0048
Date of REC Opinion
1 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion