Laura Wante

Bio: Laura Wante is an academic researcher from Ghent University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychology & Cognition. The author has an hindex of 11, co-authored 26 publications receiving 280 citations.

Emotion Regulation in Children with Emotional Problems

Abstract: The emotion regulation (ER)-specificity hypothesis assumes that a specific psychological problem is characterized by a specific maladaptive ER strategy. This hypothesis will be investigated for six child-DSM symptom clusters (Study 1) and for depressive symptoms (Study 2). We also investigated whether certain emotion regulation strategies can be detected through different forms of symptom clusters. Study 1 includes 432 school aged non-referred youngsters (60 % girls; age range between 8 and 18 years) and Study 2 includes 128 school aged non-referred youngsters (55 % girls; age range between 10 and 14 years). A self-report questionnaire, FEEL-KJ investigates a wide range of adaptive and maladaptive ER strategies. DSM symptom clusters (affective, anxiety, somatic, conduct, oppositional and ADHD problems) were measured by parent report on the Child Behaviour Checklist; depressive symptoms were measured with the Child Depression Inventory. Youngsters with emotional problems have specifically less adaptive ER strategies. The relation with maladaptive ER strategies can only be detected with self-reported depressive symptoms. ER strategies problem-oriented action and acceptance are transdiagnostically related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. For affective, somatic, conduct and ADHD problems the ER-specificity hypothesis is confirmed. Investigating ER strategies could be of clinical relevance specifically in children with affective, somatic, conduct and ADHD problems. Next, training deficits in the ER strategies Problem-oriented action and Acceptance can be considered as important in the treatment of all children with emotional problems.

How do I feel right now? Emotional awareness, emotion regulation, and depressive symptoms in youth.

Abstract: Decreased emotional awareness contributes to the risk of internalizing disorders, such as depression. Although emotional awareness may be especially important during adolescence, a developmental period in which emotional arousal is high and the risk of depression rises dramatically, little research has examined the mechanisms linking emotional awareness to depression. Starting from affect regulation models, the current study proposes emotion regulation (ER) as a key underlying mechanism in the emotional awareness—depression relationship. The current study investigated whether maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies mediate the relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms among youth using a cross-sectional design. Participants were 220 youth (65% girls; $$M_{\text{age}}$$ = 11.87, SD = 1.94) who filled out a set of questionnaires assessing emotional awareness, ER strategies, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed no direct relationship between emotional awareness and depressive symptoms. However, emotional awareness yielded a significant mediation effect through total adaptive ER strategies on higher depressive symptoms. No evidence was found for the mediating role of maladaptive ER strategies in this relationship. The current study provides further support for affect regulation models positing that emotional awareness may be a basic skill that is required for learning adaptive ER skills, and thus call for greater attention to adaptive ER strategies.

The effects of emotion regulation strategies on positive and negative affect in early adolescents

Abstract: Recent research suggests that impaired emotion regulation (ER) may play an important role in the development of youth psychopathology. However, little research has explored the effects of ER strategies on affect in early adolescents. In Study 1 (n = 76), we examined if early adolescents are able to use distraction and whether the effects of this strategy are similar to talking to one’s mother. In Study 2 (n = 184), we compared the effects of distraction, cognitive reappraisal, acceptance, and rumination. In both studies, participants received instructions on how to regulate their emotions after a standardised negative mood induction. In general, the results indicated that distraction, but also cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, had promising short-term effects on positive and negative affect in early adolescents. These findings suggest that targeting adaptive ER skills, such as distraction, acceptance, and cognitive reappraisal, may be an important strategy to prevent or treat psychological pro...

The mediating effect of adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies on executive functioning impairment and depressive symptoms among adolescents

Abstract: Past research results suggest that executive functioning (EF) impairment represents an important vulnerability factor in depression. Little research, however, has examined mechanisms underlying this association. The current study investigates the associations between EF impairment, emotion regulation (ER) strategies, and depressive symptoms in a sample of 579 adolescents (320 females, mean age = 12.06 years). Parents reported on adolescents’ EF and general psychopathology, and adolescents self-reported ER strategies and depressive symptoms. The results indicate that greater EF impairment is associated with more depressive symptoms. Youth with greater EF impairment reported more maladaptive ER and less adaptive ER, and maladaptive and adaptive ER strategies jointly mediated the association between EF impairment and depressive symptoms. The results highlight an important role of both maladaptive and adaptive ER in explaining the relationship between EF and depressive symptoms and suggest that clinic...

The Self-medication Hypothesis of Substance Use Disorders: A Reconsideration and Recent Applications

Abstract: The self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders derives primarily from clinical observations of patients with substance use disorders. Individuals discover that the specific actions or effects of each class of drugs relieve or change a range of painful affect states. Self-medication factors occur in a context of self-regulation vulnerabilities--primarily difficulties in regulating affects, self-esteem, relationships, and self-care. Persons with substance use disorders suffer in the extreme with their feelings, either being overwhelmed with painful affects or seeming not to feel their emotions at all. Substances of abuse help such individuals to relieve painful affects or to experience or control emotions when they are absent or confusing. Diagnostic studies provide evidence that variously supports and fails to support a self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders. The cause-consequence controversy involving psychopathology and substance use/abuse is reviewed and critiqued. In contrast, clinical observations and empirical studies that focus on painful affects and subjective states of distress more consistently suggest that such states of suffering are important psychological determinants in using, becoming dependent upon, and relapsing to addictive substances. Subjective states of distress and suffering involved in motives to self-medicate with substances of abuse are considered with respect to nicotine dependence and to schizophrenia and posttraumatic stress disorder comorbid with a substance use disorder.

Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-Focused Approach

Abstract: Expanding the Boundaries of Cognitive Therapy Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-Focused Approach Young, Jeffrey E. Sarasota, FL: Professional Resource Exchange, Inc., 1990. (79 pp.) $11.70 (paperback). The author's primary aim for this book is to show how cognitive therapy can be adapted and expanded to address the unique challenges presented by clients with personality disorders. In the first section, a rationale for such an adaptation and expansion is provided. Young outlines seven basic assumptions associated with cognitive therapy and shows how many of these assumptions are violated when treating clients with personality disorders. More specifically, he points out that the high degree of rigidity, avoidance, and long-term interpersonal difficulties characteristic of this clinical population are significant obstacles to successful treatment when using the "short-term cognitive therapy" approaches pioneered by Beck and others. Young contends that more effective treatments require an expanded cognitive theory-one which can account for the salient themes and patterns exhibited by clients with personality disorders. The second section of the book is devoted to an outline of the conceptual underpinnings of Young's proposed expansion. Drawing upon schema theory in cognitive psychology, Young contends that any complete understanding of personality disorders must go beyond the three levels of cognitive phenomena identified with short-term cognitive therapy (automatic thoughts, cognitive distortions, and underlying assumptions) and include a focus on the "deepest level of cognition"-what he terms the Early Maladaptive Schema (EMS). According to Young, EMSs are "extremely stable and enduring themes that develop during childhood and are elaborated upon throughout an individual's lifetime. These schemas serve as templates for the processing of later experience." (p. 9) In brief relief, through the EMS construct Young presents a case for the developmental etiology of personality disorders. EMSs are characterized as unconditional and self-perpetuating beliefs about oneself and the world that are presumed to be the consequence of dysfunctional childhood experiences with parents. Young suggests that EMSs are typically activated by current environmental events related to the schema and are often associated with a high level of emotional arousal. In his most recent revised list of specific schemas (found in Appendix B of the book), Young identifies 16 distinctEMSs that are grouped into five categories (Impaired Autonomy, Disconnection, Undesirability, Restricted Self-Expression, and Insufficient Limits). A thorough understanding of the themes and issues associated with these "core" schemas is fundamental to the practice of schema-focused therapy. In the final and perhaps most significant section of the book, Young details the assessment and intervention aspects of his schema-focused model. Because the primary goal of assessment is to determine the predominant EMSs of the client, Young outlines an eight-step evaluation procedure and guides the reader through each step by way of a case example. EMS assessment is multifaceted and includes the use of questionnaire data (Lazarus' Multimodal Life History Questionnaire and Young's own Schema Questionnaire); procedures for "triggering" schemas both within and outside of sessions; ways of educating the client about schemas; techniques for identifying schema maintenance, avoidance, and compensation behaviors; and a methodology for distinguishing among primary, secondary, and associated schemas. Young presents a wealth of applied information at this juncture and does an excellent job of bringing the material to life through the case illustration and accompanying summary tables and appendices. Particularly noteworthy is the "Client's Guide to Schema-Focused Therapy" (Appendix D) which is designed to be used as a handout for orienting clients to the schemafocused approach. …

Scientific Foundations of Cognitive Theory and Therapy of Depression

Abstract: Although there are dozens of books on cognitive therapy of depression, a majority are edited volumes and relatively few are distinguished by the comprehensive mastery of the material and clarity of exposition apparent in this book by Clark, Beck, and Alford. This volume offers a relatively up-to-date (circa 1999) and scholarly review of the phenomenology of depressive disorders from the cognitive perspective, along with detailed evaluations of the literature pertaining to the key hypotheses of the cognitive model of depression. The book is well written, but it is not for the cognitive therapy neophyte. It is rather lengthy and detailed. Moreover, as might be expected, the discussions of criticisms of the cognitive model are somewhat partisan, and the authors consistently present the cognitive model as dynamic and organic (as opposed to static) in response to new and at times contradictory data. Nevertheless, it provides a valuable source companion to the classic but outdated treatment manual originally published in 1979 by Dr. Beck and colleagues (Cognitive Therapy of Depression) and the excellent how-to book by Dr. Judith Beck, Cognitive Therapy: Basics and Beyond, which was published in 1995. Subheads, periodic summaries, and statements of key points within each chapter focus the reader's attention and enhance comprehension; the authors are, after all, expert cognitive therapists. There is a minimum of redundancy across the 11 chapters, and although the copyediting is not infallible (e.g., influential early behaviorist Charles Ferster is referred to as “Fester” in both the text and the reference list), typographical errors are few. As a treatment researcher, I was disappointed that the authors did not devote at least one chapter to reviewing the comparative outcome research studies of CT. Outcomes data has been one of the key aspects of the scientific foundation of CT for nearly 25 years.1 This is a shortcoming, particularly in view of work linking early evidence of CT's superiority (over other therapies) to strong allegiance effects2 and the increasing number of studies in which CT has not performed so well under more “neutral”3,4 or even potentially “allegiance-disadvantaged”5–7 conditions. Ultimately, the most pragmatic benefit of an elegant, scientifically strong model of psychopathology is the ability to translate such knowledge into greater or more enduring benefits for our patients. In this regard, it is not yet clear that the elaborate suprastructure of schema theory actually adds such benefits relative to simpler behavioral5 or interpersonal6 models of intervention.