The Dysregulation Profile and Substance Use: Investigating Their Co-Variation From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

Children and youth with the Dysregulation Profile (DP) experience marked difficulties regulating cognition, affect, and behavior. Although these impairments are known to have lasting effects into adulthood, less is understood about how dysregulation changes during the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Dysregulation has also been linked to increased risk for substance use disorder, yet its relationship with substance use during the adolescence-to-emerging-adulthood transition remains unclear. This study examined how dysregulation covaries with substance use from adolescence to emerging adulthood in 662 Canadian youth (Mage = 15.52) followed over 10 years. Multilevel modeling showed that dysregulation increased during adolescence and declined in emerging adulthood. Both between- and within-person substance use predicted dysregulation: higher average substance use was associated with higher overall dysregulation, and above-average substance use corresponded to higher dysregulation at the same time point. These findings clarify developmental changes in dysregulation and highlight its close association with substance use.