Emotional self-control and dysregulation: A dual-process analysis of pathways to externalizing/internalizing symptomatology and positive well-being in younger adolescents
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: There is little knowledge about how emotional regulation contributes to vulnerability versus resilience to substance use disorder. With younger adolescents, we studied the pathways through which emotion regulation attributes are related to predisposing factors for disorder. METHODS: A sample of 3561 adolescents (M age 12.5 years) was surveyed. Measures for emotional self-control (regulation of sadness and anger), emotional dysregulation (angerability, affective lability, and rumination about sadness or anger), and behavioral self-control (planfulness and problem solving) were obtained. A structural model was analyzed with regulation attributes related to six intermediate variables that are established risk or protective factors for adolescent substance use (e.g., academic involvement, stressful life events). Criterion variables were externalizing and internalizing symptomatology and positive well-being. RESULTS: Indirect pathways were found from emotional regulation to symptomatology through academic competence, stressful events, and deviance-prone attitudes and cognitions. Direct effects were also found: from emotional dysregulation to externalizing and internalizing symptomatology; emotional self-control to well-being; and behavioral self-control (inverse) to externalizing symptomatology. Emotional self-control and emotional dysregulation had independent effects and different types of pathways. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents scoring high on emotional dysregulation are at risk for substance dependence because of more externalizing and internalizing symptomatology. Independently, youth with better behavioral and emotional self-control are at lower risk. This occurs partly through relations of regulation constructs to environmental variables that affect levels of symptomatology (e.g., stressful events, poor academic performance). Effects of emotion regulation were found at an early age, before the typical onset of substance disorder.
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The few studies that have examined the relationships between school connectedness and substance use/well-being have confirmed them.
“However, the few studies that have examined these relationships have confirmed them (Wills et al., 2006; Wills et al., 2016).”
From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Wills et al., 2016
The Results (§3.2.2; page unavailable) report a substantial path from academic involvement to positive well-being, which supports the well-being part of the claim at a related but different level of specificity. The paper does not establish a relationship between school connectedness and substance use: its stated outcomes were symptomatology and well-being, not substance use (§1.3; page unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.83)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMeasures of academic involvement have been an important mediator of the effects of more distal factors on substance use.
“and also have been an important mediator of the effects of more distal factors on substance use (Wills et al., 2011, Wills et al., 2016).”
From Assessment of culture and environment in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study: Rationale, description of measures, and early data (2018) · cites this paper as Wills et al., 2016
The Results (§3.2) identify academic involvement and alienation as mediator variables linked to more distal self-control and family factors. The Discussion (§4.1) describes indirect pathways through academic variables, but the modeled outcomes were symptomatology and well-being, not substance use itself. The claim extends the paper’s finding to an outcome it did not directly test. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 137 · Cited by 98
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Gibbons FX Stock ML Gerrard M Finneran S Conner M Norman P The prototype-willingness model Predicting and Changing Health Behaviour: Research and Practice with Social Cognition Models 2015 3rd Berkshire, UK Open University Press 189 224
- Jessor R Jessor S Problem Behavior and Psychosocial Development 1977 New York Academic Press
- Wills TA Forbes M Gibbons FX Scheier LW Hansen WB Parental and peer support: an analysis of their relations to adolescent substance use Parenting and Teen Drug Use 2014 New York Oxford 148 165
- Zvolensky MJ Bernstein A Vujanovic AA Distress Tolerance: Theory, Research, And Clinical Applications 2011 New York Guilford Press
- Authors
- Wills, T. A., Simons, J. S., Sussman, S., & Knight, R.
- Affiliations
- Cancer Center of Hawaii (US)
- University of South Dakota (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wills, Thomas A.
- Venue
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-06
- Volume
- 163
- Pages
- S37-S45
- ISSN
- 0376-8716 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4911542
- OpenAlex
- W2417895445
- Cited by
- 98
- References
- 137
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 14.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Drug and Alcohol Dependence (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01da020138-05)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01AA020519)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (R01DA033296, R01DA021856, R01-DA020138)
- National Cancer Institute (P30CA071789)
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (U54MD007584)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- emotion regulation, emotional dysregulation, behavioral self-control, adolescent substance use, externalizing problems, internalizing problems, positive well-being, academic competence, life events, anger, sadness, rumination, resilience
- MeSH terms
- Self-Control, Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Anger, Cognition, Cross-Sectional Studies, Emotions, Female, Humans, Internal-External Control, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Substance-Related Disorders
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