| Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 21, Iss. 3, Jul, 2017, pp. 255-266 @2017 Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences Allometric Control of Affective Fluctuations in Early Adolescents: Their Association with Anxiety Symptoms and Temperament Traits Abstract: Many physiological systems are multistable, i.e. they operate at different time scales
under an allometric control process. The multistability of affective fluctuations has been
clearly illustrated in a sample of adults, but little is known about their dynamics in adolescents.
The main aim of this study was to determine whether affective fluctuations in adolescents
show multistability and to explore their relationship with anxiety symptomatology and
temperamental factors. Twenty-five early adolescents self-reported their daily mood,
anxiety and worry levels twice a day over a 100-day period. The time series were analysed
using the allometric aggregation method to obtain the scaling exponent h. Almost all the
(Hurst) scaling exponents were 0.5 > h > 1. The worry exponents were related to temperament factors,
whereas the anxiety exponents were related to social phobia symptoms. The results substantiate that
affective fluctuations in adolescents are multistable, lending support to the presence of
allometric control mechanisms. Keywords: multistability, mood, anxiety, worry, adolescence |