Neural correlates of social exclusion during adolescence: understanding the distress of peer rejection

Neural correlates of ostracism in transgender persons living according to their gender identity: a potential risk marker for psychopathology?

BACKGROUND

Stigmatization in society carries a high risk for development of psychopathology. Transgender persons are at particularly high risk for such stigmatization and social rejection by others. However, the neural correlates of ostracism in this group have not been captured.

METHOD

Twenty transgender men (TM, female-to-male) and 19 transgender women (TW, male-to-female) already living in their gender identity and 20 cisgender men (CM) and 20 cisgender women (CW) completed a cyberball task assessing both exclusion and re-inclusion during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

RESULTS

During psychosocial stress between-group differences were found in the dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Patterns were consistent with sex assigned at birth, i.e. CW showed greater activation in dorsal ACC and IFG relative to CM and TW. During re-inclusion, transgender persons showed greater ventral ACC activity relative to CW, possibly indicating persistent feelings of exclusion. Functional connectivity analyses supported these findings but showed a particularly altered functional connectivity between ACC and lateral prefrontal cortex in TM, which may suggest reduced emotional regulation to the ostracism experience in this group. Depressive symptoms or hormonal levels were not associated with these findings.

CONCLUSION

The results bear implications for the role of social exclusion in development of mental health problems in socially marginalized groups.

Feeling left out: depressed adolescents may atypically recruit emotional salience and regulation networks during social exclusion

Depression is associated with negative attention and attribution biases and maladaptive emotion responsivity and regulation, which adversely impact self-evaluations and interpersonal relationships. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the neural substrates of these impairments. We compared neural activity recruited by 126 clinically depressed and healthy adolescents (ages 11-17 years) during social exclusion (Exclusion > Inclusion) using Cyberball. Results revealed significant interaction effects within left anterior insula (AI)/inferior frontal gyrus and left middle temporal gyrus. Insula hyperresponsivity was associated with peer exclusion for depressed adolescents but peer inclusion for healthy adolescents. In additional, healthy adolescents recruited greater lateral temporal activity during peer exclusion. Complementary effect size analyses within independent parcellations offered converging evidence, as well as highlighted medium-to-large effects within subgenual/ventral anterior cingulate cortex and lateral prefrontal, lateral temporal and lateral parietal regions implicated in emotion regulation. Depressogenic neural patterns were associated with negative self-perceptions and negative information processing biases. These findings suggest a neural mechanism underlying cognitive biases in depression, as reflected by emotional hyperresponsivity and maladaptive regulation/reappraisal of negative social evaluative information. This study lends further support for salience and central executive network dysfunction underlying social threat processing, and in particular, highlights the anterior insula as a key region of disturbance in adolescent depression.

Biological and Behavioral Mechanisms of Identity Pathology Development: An Integrative Review

Although identity disturbance is a transdiagnostic mental health problem, modern explanatory models for its emergence are limited. To date, the social, developmental, clinical, and neuropsychological literatures exploring identity processes are also largely disconnected. Existing theories have laid the foundation for understanding important components of identity pathology, yet many overlook biological, behavioral, and interactive processes by which these difficulties may emerge. In this integrative review, we explore how broad transdiagnostic vulnerabilities for psychopathology and more specific risky behavioral processes may reciprocally interact and be refined over time into an identity disturbance profile. Our primary purpose is to review behavioral and biosocial theories and derive a testable conceptual framework for how identity disturbance emerges over the course of development. We aim to describe and integrate several disparate lines of theory and research in order to illuminate potential etiological pathways to identity pathology.

Perceived discrimination and cardiovascular health disparities: a multisystem review and health neuroscience perspective

There are distinct racial disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, with Black individuals at much greater risk than White individuals. Although many factors contribute to these disparities, recent attention has focused on the role of discrimination as a stress-related factor that contributes to racial disparities in CVD. As such, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which discrimination might affect CVD. Recent studies have examined these mechanisms by focusing on neurobiological mediators of CVD risk. Given this increase in studies, a systematic review of perceived discrimination and neurobiological mediators of CVD risk is warranted. Our review uses a multisystem approach to review studies on the relationship between perceived discrimination and (1) cardiovascular responses to stress, (2) hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis function, and (3) the immune system, as well as (4) the brain systems thought to regulate these parameters of peripheral physiology. In addition to summarizing existing evidence, our review integrates these findings into a conceptual model describing multidirectional pathways linking perceived discrimination with a CVD risk.

Neural correlates of video game empathy training in adolescents: a randomized trial

The ability to understand emotional experiences of others, empathy, is a valuable skill for effective social interactions. Various types of training increase empathy in adolescents, but their impact on brain circuits underlying empathy has not been examined. Video games provide a unique medium familiar and engaging to adolescents and can be used to deliver training at scale. We developed an empathy training video game, Crystals of Kaydor (Crystals), and investigated whether playing Crystals increases empathic accuracy (EA) and related brain activation in adolescents (N = 74; 27 female; mean age(sd) = 12.8(0.7) years; age range 11-14 years). Participants completed a resting state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) scan and an EA task during an fMRI scan before and after 2 weeks of daily gameplay with either the empathy training game, Crystals (N = 34), or the commercial video game Bastion (N = 40), an active control condition. There were no group differences in EA improvement following gameplay, however, engagement with training aspects of Crystals was associated with a higher increase in EA-related activation in right temporoparietal junction following gameplay. Moreover, rs-fMRI connectivity in empathy-related brain circuits (posterior cingulate-medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC) was stronger after Crystals gameplay compared to Bastion. The more individuals' EA increased following Crystals versus Bastion, the stronger their rs-fMRI connectivity in brain circuits relevant for emotion regulation (amygdala-MPFC). These findings suggest that a video game designed to increase empathic accuracy produces behaviorally-relevant, functional neural changes in fewer than 6 h of gameplay in adolescents.

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation during social exclusion mediates the relation between intolerance of uncertainty and trait aggression

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is an important individual difference factor that may contribute to trait-like aggression. Deficient engagement of the ventrolateral PFC (vlPFC) during social situations may also be a mechanism that links these two constructs. The aim of the current study was to test a proposed mediation model whereby IU is associated with trait aggression through neural activation of the vlPFC during a social exclusion task. Fifty-three adults with a range of impulsive-aggressive traits completed validated assessments of IU and trait aggression, and the 'Cyberball' social exclusion task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Results supported the mediation model such that greater levels of IU were associated with greater trait aggression through hypoactivation of the vlPFC during social exclusion. This study is the first to provide evidence suggesting that individuals higher in IU have difficulties engaging regulatory neural processes, which in-turn may increase the propensity for aggression.

Stress-Related Biosocial Mechanisms of Discrimination and African American Health Inequities

This review describes stress-related biological mechanisms linking interpersonal racism to life course health trajectories among African Americans. Interpersonal racism, a form of social exclusion enacted via discrimination, remains a salient issue in the lives of African Americans, and it triggers a cascade of biological processes originating as perceived social exclusion and registering as social pain. Exposure to discrimination increases sympathetic nervous system activation and upregulates the HPA axis, increasing physiological wear and tear and elevating the risks of cardiometabolic conditions. Consequently, discrimination is associated with morbidities including low birth weight, hypertension, abdominal obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Biological measures can provide important analytic tools to study the interactions between social experiences such as racial discrimination and health outcomes over the life course. We make future recommendations for the study of discrimination and health outcomes, including the integration of neuroscience, genomics, and new health technologies; interdisciplinary engagement; and the diversification of scholars engaged in biosocial inequities research.

Immediate and delayed neuroendocrine responses to social exclusion in males and females

Social exclusion is a complex phenomenon, with wide-ranging immediate and delayed effects on well-being, hormone levels, brain activation and motivational behavior. Building upon previous work, the current fMRI study investigated affective, endocrine and neural responses to social exclusion in a more naturalistic Cyberball task in 40 males and 40 females. As expected, social exclusion elicited well-documented affective and neural responses, i.e., increased anger and distress, as well as increased exclusion-related activation of the anterior insula, the posterior-medial frontal cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex. Cortisol and testosterone decreased over the course of the experiment, whereas progesterone showed no changes. Hormone levels were not correlated with subjective affect, but they were related to exclusion-induced neural responses. Exclusion-related activation in frontal areas was associated with decreases in cortisol and increases in testosterone until recovery. Given that results were largely independent of sex, the current findings have important implications regarding between-sex vs. within-sex variations and the conceptualization of state vs. trait neuroendocrine functions in social neuroscience.

The Influence of Different Kinds of Incentives on Decision-Making and Cognitive Control in Adolescent Development: A Review of Behavioral and Neuroscientific Studies

A number of recent hypothetical models on adolescent development take a dual-systems perspective and propose an imbalance in the maturation of neural systems underlying reward-driven and control-related behavior. In particular, such models suggest that the relative dominance of the early emerging subcortical reward system over the later emerging prefrontal-guided control system leads to higher risk-taking and sensation-seeking behavior in mid-adolescents. Here, we will review recent empirical evidence from behavioral and neuroscientific studies examining interactions between these systems and showing that empirical evidence in support for the view of a higher sensitivity to rewards in mid-adolescents is rather mixed. One possible explanation for this may be the use of different kinds and amounts of incentives across studies. We will therefore include developmental studies comparing the differential influence of primary and secondary incentives, as well as those investigating within the class of secondary incentives the effects of monetary, cognitive, or social incentives. We hypothesized that the value of receiving sweets or sours, winning or losing small or large amounts of money, and being accepted or rejected from a peer group may also changes across development, and thereby might modulate age differences in decision-making and cognitive control. Our review revealed that although developmental studies directly comparing different kinds of incentives are rather scarce, results of various studies rather consistently showed only minor age differences in the impact of incentives on the behavioral level. In tendency, adolescents were more sensitive to higher amounts of incentives and larger uncertainty of receiving them, as well as to social incentives such as the presence of peers observing them. Electrophysiological studies showed that processing efficiency was enhanced during anticipation of incentives and receiving them, irrespective of incentive type. Again, we found no strong evidence for interactions with age across studies. Finally, functional brain imaging studies revealed evidence for overlapping brain regions activated during processing of primary and secondary incentives, as well as social and non-social incentives. Adolescents recruited similar reward-related and control-related brain regions as adults did, but to a different degree. Implications for future research will be discussed.

Let's chat: developmental neural bases of social motivation during real-time peer interaction

Humans are motivated to interact with each other, but the neural bases of social motivation have been predominantly examined in non-interactive contexts. Understanding real-world social motivation is of special importance during middle childhood (ages 8-12), a period when social skills improve, social networks grow, and social brain networks specialize. To assess interactive social motivation, the current study used a novel fMRI paradigm in which children believed they were chatting with a peer. The design targeted two phases of interaction: (1) Initiation, in which children engaged in a social bid via sharing a like or hobby, and (2) Reply, in which children received either an engaged ("Me too") or non-engaged ("I'm away") reply from the peer. On control trials, children were told that their answers were not shared and that they would receive either engaged ("Matched") or non-engaged ("Disconnected") replies from the computer. Results indicated that during Initiation and Reply, key components of reward circuitry (e.g., ventral striatum) were more active for the peer than the computer trials. In addition, during Reply, social cognitive regions were more activated by the peer, and this social cognitive specialization increased with age. Finally, the effect of engagement type on reward circuitry activation was larger for social than non-social trials, indicating developmental sensitivity to social contingency. These findings demonstrate that both reward and social cognitive brain systems support real-time social interaction in middle childhood. An interactive approach to understanding social reward has implications for clinical disorders, where social motivation is more affected in real-world contexts.

Ethnicity, Cortisol, and Experimental Pain Responses Among Persons With Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis

OBJECTIVES

Although several factors are known to contribute to ethnic differences in pain, relatively little attention has been devoted to physiological factors. Our first aim was to examine the relationship between cortisol and pain responses during a cold-pressor task (CPT) among African American (AA) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) adults with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Our second aim was to assess the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and cortisol among AA participants.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Participants were 91 (56 AA; 35 NHW) community-dwelling adults between the ages of 45 to 85 with knee OA based upon the American College of Rheumatology clinical criteria. Plasma cortisol was measured at 3 timepoints: (1) baseline, (2) before the CPT, and (3) 20 minutes following the CPT. Perceived racial discrimination was measured by the Experiences of Discrimination scale.

RESULTS

Using linear regression, we found a significant interaction between ethnicity and cortisol before the CPT with pain intensity ratings (β=-0.26; P=0.02). Analysis of simple slopes revealed that cortisol concentrations were negatively associated with pain intensity ratings in NHW participants (β=-0.54; P=0.001), but not in AA participants (β=-0.15; P=0.26). Perceived racial discrimination was not related to cortisol concentrations or pain ratings.

DISCUSSION

Consistent with previous findings in young healthy adults, cold-pressor pain responses are related to pre-CPT cortisol concentrations in NHW persons with knee OA but not in their AA counterparts. Additional studies are required to better understand this finding.

The salience of self, not social pain, is encoded by dorsal anterior cingulate and insula

The human neural correlates of social rejection have attracted significant research interest, but remain subject to vigorous debate. Specifically, it has been proposed that a matrix of brain regions overlapping with the classical pain matrix, and including the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the anterior insular cortex (AI) is critical for processing of social rejection. The present study expands on this conceptualization, by showing that these areas are involved in processing of self-relevant social evaluation, irrespective of valence. Forty healthy adolescents (N = 20 females) were tested in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. We used a novel paradigm that balanced participants' experience of rejection and acceptance. In addition, the paradigm also controlled for whether the social judgment was towards the participants or towards other fictitious players. By creating a "self" and "other" distinction, we show that right AI and dACC are involved in processing the salience of being judged by others, irrespective of the quality of this judgment. This finding supports the idea that these regions are not specific to social rejection or even to pain or metaphorically painful experiences, but activate to self-relevant, highly salient information.

Controlled Social Interaction Tasks to Measure Self-Perceptions: No Evidence of Positive Illusions in Boys with ADHD

Studies have suggested that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) possess a Positive Illusory Bias (PIB) where they have higher self-perceptions of competence than more objective measures of their competence. However, recent research calls into question the primary methodology of these studies, that is, difference scores. This study investigated the PIB in boys with ADHD within the social domain using a novel methodology that refrains from using difference scores. Eighty-one 8- to 12-year-old boys with and without ADHD completed social interaction tasks where their actual social performance was made comparable, allowing for tests of between-group differences in self-perceptions that do not rely on difference scores. In addition, to examine whether clarity of social feedback moderates the presence of the PIB, the social tasks presented unclear, clear positive, or clear negative feedback. Boys rated how well they performed in each social interaction task, and these ratings were compared between ADHD and non-ADHD groups. Compared to the non-ADHD group, boys with ADHD did not show a PIB in their ratings of performance on the social tasks. There also was no moderation of boys' ratings by type of feedback received. In contrast, when the PIB was calculated using difference scores based on child and parent ratings of child competence, boys with ADHD showed a PIB compared to boys without ADHD. These findings call attention to the need to re-examine the phenomenon of the PIB using methodologies outside of difference scores.

Social priming modulates the neural response to ostracism: a new exploratory approach

The present study sought to evaluate whether social priming modulates neural responses to ostracism, such that making arbitrary interpersonal decisions increases the experience of social exclusion more than making arbitrary physical decisions. This exploratory event-related potential (ERP) study utilized the Lunchroom task, in which adults (N = 28) first selected one of two options that included either interpersonal or physical descriptors. Participants then received ostracism outcome feedback within a lunchroom scenario in which they were either excluded (e.g. sitting alone) or included (e.g. surrounded by others). While the N2 component was sensitive to priming decision condition, only the P3 component discriminated between ostracism decisions. Further inspection of the neural sources indicated that the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and superior temporal gyrus were more engaged for exclusion than inclusion conditions during both N2 and P3 temporal windows. Evaluation of temporal source dynamics suggest that the effects of ostracism are predominant between 250-500 ms and were larger following interpersonal than physical decisions. These results suggest that being ostracized evokes a larger neural response that is modulated following priming of the social brain.

Childhood physical maltreatment, perceived social isolation, and internalizing symptoms: a longitudinal, three-wave, population-based study

A number of cross-sectional studies have consistently shown a correlation between childhood physical maltreatment, perceived social isolation and internalizing symptoms. Using a longitudinal, three-wave design, this study sought to assess the mediating role of perceived social isolation in adulthood in the association between childhood physical maltreatment and internalizing symptoms in adulthood. The study has a three-wave design. We used data collected from 1994 to 2008 within the framework of the Tromsø Study (N = 4530), a representative prospective cohort study of men and women. Perceived social isolation was measured at a mean age of 54.7 years, and internalizing symptoms were measured at a mean age of 61.7 years. The difference-in-coefficients method was used to assess the indirect effects and the proportion (%) of mediated effects. Childhood physical maltreatment was associated with an up to 68% [relative risk (RR) = 1.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.33-2.13] higher risk of perceived social isolation in adulthood. Childhood physical maltreatment and perceived social isolation in adulthood were associated with greater levels of internalizing symptoms in adulthood (p < 0.01). A dose-response association was observed between childhood physical maltreatment and internalizing symptoms in adulthood (p < 0.001). Perceived social isolation in adulthood mediated up to 14.89% (p < 0.05) of the association between childhood physical maltreatment and internalizing symptoms in adulthood. The results of this study indicate the need to take perceived social isolation into account when considering the impact of childhood physical maltreatment on internalizing symptoms.

Critical role of the right VLPFC in emotional regulation of social exclusion: a tDCS study

There is abundant evidence suggesting that the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) plays an important role in down-regulating the emotional response to social exclusion. However, a causal relationship between rVLPFC function and explicit emotional regulation is not clear in the context of social exclusion. This study employed anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to activate rVLPFC while participants used emotional regulation to reappraise pictures of social exclusion. Forty-four participants were randomly assigned to an active tDCS group or a sham group. Both groups viewed social exclusion images under two conditions: in the no-reappraisal condition, participants were instructed to passively view social exclusion images; in the reappraisal condition, they reappraised the images to down-regulate negative emotional responses. Compared to sham stimulation, anodal tDCS over the rVLPFC resulted in less negative emotion ratings, and produced significantly smaller pupil diameter in the reappraisal, compared to no-reappraisal block. The tDCS also led to longer fixation durations to rejectees and shorter fixation durations to rejecters. Taken together, these findings suggest a causal role for rVLPFC in down-regulation of negative emotions produced by social exclusion. This study has implications for clinical interventions targeting emotional regulation deficits.

Heightened Salience of Anger and Aggression in Female Adolescents With Borderline Personality Disorder-A Script-Based fMRI Study

Background: Anger and aggression belong to the core symptoms of borderline personality disorder. Although an early and specific treatment of BPD is highly relevant to prevent chronification, still little is known about anger and aggression and their neural underpinnings in adolescents with BPD.

Method: Twenty female adolescents with BPD (age 15–17 years) and 20 female healthy adolescents (age 15–17 years) took part in this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. A script-driven imagery paradigm was used to induce rejection-based feelings of anger, which was followed by descriptions of self-directed and other-directed aggressive reactions. To investigate the specificity of the neural activation patterns for adolescent patients, results were compared with data from 34 female adults with BPD (age 18–50 years) and 32 female healthy adults (age 18–50 years).

Results: Adolescents with BPD showed increased activations in the left posterior insula and left dorsal striatum as well as in the left inferior frontal cortex and parts of the mentalizing network during the rejection-based anger induction and the imagination of aggressive reactions compared to healthy adolescents. For the other-directed aggression phase, a significant diagnosis by age interaction confirmed that these results were specific for adolescents.

Discussion: The results of this very first fMRI study on anger and aggression in adolescents with BPD suggest an enhanced emotional reactivity to and higher effort in controlling anger and aggression evoked by social rejection at an early developmental stage of the disorder. Since emotion dysregulation is a known mediator for aggression in BPD, the results point to the need of appropriate early interventions for adolescents with BPD.

Do Hostile School Environments Promote Social Deviance by Shaping Neural Responses to Social Exclusion?

The present study examined adolescents' neural responses to social exclusion as a mediator of past exposure to a hostile school environment (HSE) and later social deviance, and whether family connectedness buffered these associations. Participants (166 Mexican-origin adolescents, 54.4% female) reported on their HSE exposure and family connectedness across Grades 9-11. Six months later, neural responses to social exclusion were measured. Finally, social deviance was self-reported in Grades 9 and 12. The HSE-social deviance link was mediated by greater reactivity to social deviance in subgenual anterior cingulate cortex, a region from the social pain network also implicated in social susceptibility. However, youths with stronger family bonds were protected from this neurobiologically mediated path. These findings suggest a complex interplay of risk and protective factors that impact adolescent behavior through the brain.

Prefrontal Cortical Response to Negative Social Words Links Social Risk to Depressive Symptoms in Adolescence

Research suggests that altered emotion processing may be one important pathway linking social risk factors and depressive symptoms. We examined the extent to which neural response to negatively valenced social information might help to account for the relationship between social risk and depressive symptoms in youth. Forty-nine youth were scanned while identifying the emotional valence of words that connoted social status. They also completed questionnaires assessing self-reported social risk factors and depressive symptoms. Mediation analysis revealed that reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity in response to negative social status words explained the positive association between social risk and depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that social risk factors present during adolescence may contribute to depressive symptoms by influencing the neural substrates of emotion processing.

Media use and brain development during adolescence

The current generation of adolescents grows up in a media-saturated world. However, it is unclear how media influences the maturational trajectories of brain regions involved in social interactions. Here we review the neural development in adolescence and show how neuroscience can provide a deeper understanding of developmental sensitivities related to adolescents' media use. We argue that adolescents are highly sensitive to acceptance and rejection through social media, and that their heightened emotional sensitivity and protracted development of reflective processing and cognitive control may make them specifically reactive to emotion-arousing media. This review illustrates how neuroscience may help understand the mutual influence of media and peers on adolescents' well-being and opinion formation.

Longitudinal Relations between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Information Processing: Moderating Role of Maternal Supportive Reactions to Children's Emotions

Utilizing multiple measures of interpretive biases, the current study examined the roles of toddlers' behavioral inhibition (BI) and maternal supportive reactions to children's negative emotions in relation to children's interpretive biases across middle to late childhood. Toddlers' BI was measured during several laboratory tasks (n = 248) at 2 and 3 years of age. Mothers reported on their reactions to children's negative emotional expressions when children were 7 years old (n = 203), and children's interpretations of social cues were assessed at 7 and 10 years of age (ns = 179 and 161, respectively). Toddlers with high levels of BI expressed less positivity towards social engagement with unfamiliar peers during discussion of ambiguous social situations. Further, children with high BI were less likely to attribute the cause of negative social situations to external factors, particularly when mothers were less accepting of children's negative emotional displays. Findings are discussed in terms of cognition related to the interpretation of ambiguous and threat-related social situations among temperamentally at-risk children.

Neural Temporal Dynamics of Social Exclusion Elicited by Averted Gaze: An Event-Related Potentials Study

Eye gaze plays a fundamental role in social communication. The averted eye gaze during social interaction, as the most common form of silent treatment, conveys a signal of social exclusion. In the present study, we examined the time course of brain response to social exclusion by using a modified version of Eye-gaze paradigm. The event-related potentials (ERPs) data and the subjective rating data showed that the frontocentral P200 was positively correlated with negative mood of excluded events, whereas, the centroparietal late positive potential (LPP) was positively correlated with the perceived ostracism intensity. Both the P200 and LPP were more positive-going for excluded events than for included events. These findings suggest that brain responses sensitive to social exclusion can be divided into the early affective processing stage, linking to the early pre-cognitive warning system; and the late higher-order processes stage, demanding attentional resources for elaborate stimuli evaluation and categorization generally not under specific situation.

Studying individual differences in human adolescent brain development

Adolescence is a period of social, psychological and biological development. During adolescence, relationships with others become more complex, peer relationships are paramount and social cognition develops substantially. These psychosocial changes are paralleled by structural and functional changes in the brain. Existing research in adolescent neurocognitive development has focused largely on averages, but this obscures meaningful individual variation in development. In this Perspective, we propose that the field should now move toward studying individual differences. We start by discussing individual variation in structural and functional brain development. To illustrate the importance of considering individual differences in development, we consider three sources of variation that contribute to neurocognitive processing: socioeconomic status, culture and peer environment. To assess individual differences in neurodevelopmental trajectories, large-scale longitudinal datasets are required. Future developmental neuroimaging studies should attempt to characterize individual differences to move toward a more nuanced understanding of neurocognitive changes during adolescence.

Neural Correlates of Social Inclusion in Borderline Personality Disorder

Humans engage in social interactions and have a fundamental need and motivation to establish and maintain social connections. Neuroimaging studies particularly focused on the neural substrates of social exclusion in healthy subjects (HC), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and major depression (MD). However, there is evidence regarding neural alterations also during social inclusion in BPD that we intended to elucidate in our study. Considering that patients with BPD often have comorbid MD, we investigated patients with BPD, and comorbid MD, patients with MD without BPD, and a sample of HC. By investigating these two clinical samples within one study design, we attempted to disentangle potential confounds arising by psychiatric disorder or medication and to relate neural alterations under social inclusion specifically to BPD. We investigated 48 females (15 BPD and MD, 16 MD, and 17 HC) aged between 18 and 40 years by fMRI (3T), using the established cyberball paradigm with social exclusion, inclusion, and passive watching conditions. Significant group-by-condition interaction effects (p < 0.05, FWE-corrected on cluster level) were observed within the dorsolateral (dlPFC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), and the precuneus. Comparisons of estimated neural activations revealed that significant interaction effects were related to a relative increase in neural activations during social inclusion in BPD. In detail, we observed a significant increase in differential (social inclusion vs. passive watching) neural activation within the dmPFC and the PCC in BPD compared to both, MD and HC. However, significant interaction effects within the dlPFC and the TPJ could not specifically be linked to BPD considering that they did not differ significantly between the two clinical groups in post-hoc comparisons. Our study supports previous results on effects of social and inclusion in BPD, and provides further evidence regarding disorder specific neural alterations in BPD for brain regions associated with self-referential and mentalizing processes during social inclusion.

The impact of social exclusion on anticipatory attentional processing

The importance of understanding how we anticipate and prepare for social rejection is underscored by the mental and physical toll of continual social vigilance. In this study, we investigate the impact of social rejection on anticipatory attentional processes using the well-known Cyberball task, a paradigm in which participants engage in a game of catch with virtual avatars who after an initial period of fair-play (inclusion condition) then exclude the participant from the game (exclusion condition). The degree of anticipatory attention allocated by subjects towards the avatars was assessed by measuring P3b responses towards the avatars' preparatory actions (i.e. the phase preceding their exclusionary actions) using high density EEG. The results of the study show that relative to the inclusion, participants exhibit elevated levels of anticipatory attentional allocation towards the avatars during the exclusion block. This shift was however significantly moderated by participants' self-reported cognitive regulation tendencies. Participants with higher levels of self-reported cognitive reappraisal tendencies showed larger anticipatory P3b increases from the inclusion to exclusion block relative to participants with reduced levels of reappraisal tendencies. These results highlight the impact of social exclusion on anticipatory neural processing and the moderating role of cognitive reappraisal on these effects.

A Social-Interactive Neuroscience Approach to Understanding the Developing Brain

From birth onward, social interaction is central to our everyday lives. Our ability to seek out social partners, flexibly navigate and learn from social interactions, and develop social relationships is critically important for our social and cognitive development and for our mental and physical health. Despite the importance of our social interactions, the neurodevelopmental bases of such interactions are underexplored, as most research examines social processing in noninteractive contexts. We begin this chapter with evidence from behavioral work and adult neuroimaging studies demonstrating how social-interactive context fundamentally alters cognitive and neural processing. We then highlight four brain networks that play key roles in social interaction and, drawing on existing developmental neuroscience literature, posit the functional roles these networks may play in social-interactive development. We conclude by discussing how a social-interactive neuroscience approach holds great promise for advancing our understanding of both typical and atypical social development.

Assessing the interplay between multigenic and environmental influences on adolescent to adult pathways of antisocial behaviors

The current investigation utilized a developmental psychopathology approach to test the hypothesis that multigenic (i.e., dopaminergic and serotonergic genes) and multienvironmental factors interactively contribute to developmental pathways of antisocial behavior (ASB). A sample of 8,834 Caucasian individuals from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were used to (a) examine the developmental pathways of ASB from age 13 to 32 using growth mixture modeling, (b) compute weighted multigenic risk scores (Add Health MRS) for ASB from six well-characterized polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin genes, and (c) test the interaction between the Add Health MRS and a measures of support (incorporating indicators of both positive and negative support from parents and schools). Four pathways of adolescent to adult ASB emerged from the growth mixture models: low, adolescence-peaked, high decline, and persistent. Add Health MRS predicted the persistent ASB pathway, but not other ASB pathways. Males with high Add Health MRS, but not low MRS, had significantly greater odds of being in the adolescence-peaked pathway relative to the low pathway at low levels of school connectedness. Nonfamilial environmental influences during adolescence may have a cumulative impact on the development of ASB, particularly among males with greater underlying genetic risks.

Increased neural response to social rejection in major depression

BACKGROUND

Being a part of community is critical for survival and individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) have a greater sensitivity to interpersonal stress that makes them vulnerable to future episodes. Social rejection is a critical risk factor for depression and it is said to increase interpersonal stress and thereby impairing social functioning. It is therefore critical to understand the neural correlates of social rejection in MDD.

METHODS

To this end, we scanned 15 medicated MDD and 17 healthy individuals during a modified cyberball passing game, where participants were exposed to increasing levels of social exclusion. Neural responses to increasing social exclusion were investigated and compared between groups.

RESULTS

We showed that compared to controls, MDD individuals exhibited greater amygdala, insula, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex activation to increasing social exclusion and this correlated negatively with hedonic tone and self-esteem scores across all participants.

CONCLUSIONS

These preliminary results support the hypothesis that depression is associated with hyperactive response to social rejection. These findings highlight the importance of studying social interactions in depression, as they often lead to social withdrawal and isolation.

Neural correlates of empathic accuracy in adolescence

Empathy, the ability to understand others' emotions, can occur through perspective taking and experience sharing. Neural systems active when adults empathize include regions underlying perspective taking (e.g. medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC) and experience sharing (e.g. inferior parietal lobule; IPL). It is unknown whether adolescents utilize networks implicated in both experience sharing and perspective taking when accurately empathizing. This question is critical given the importance of accurately understanding others' emotions for developing and maintaining adaptive peer relationships during adolescence. We extend the literature on empathy in adolescence by determining the neural basis of empathic accuracy, a behavioral assay of empathy that does not bias participants toward the exclusive use of perspective taking or experience sharing. Participants (N = 155, aged 11.1-15.5 years) watched videos of 'targets' describing emotional events and continuously rated the targets' emotions during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Empathic accuracy related to activation in regions underlying perspective taking (MPFC, temporoparietal junction and superior temporal sulcus), while activation in regions underlying experience sharing (IPL, anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula) related to lower empathic accuracy. These results provide novel insight into the neural basis of empathic accuracy in adolescence and suggest that perspective taking processes may be effective for increasing empathy.

Altered Empathy for Psychological and Physical Pain in Borderline Personality Disorder

Many patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) experience difficulties in empathizing with others and are sensitive to social exclusion. Accordingly, the authors developed a novel Social Interaction Empathy Task to examine empathy for physical and psychological pain from first- and third-person perspectives. Fifty female patients with BPD and forty-eight controls matched for age and gender were included. Alexithymia was also measured. Patients with BPD rated neutral and psychologically painful situations as more painful than healthy controls, and patients with BPD rated psychological pain as more intense in the first-person perspective than in the third-person perspective. In contrast, controls did not differentiate between the perspectives and rated physical pain as most intense. The impact of early adversity on empathy for psychological pain was mediated by alexithymia. Increased sensitivity for psychological pain in BPD correlated with symptom severity. BPD is associated with altered empathy for pain, which is related to difficulties in reflecting emotional states.

Adolescent Neurological Development and Implications for Health and Well-Being

Adolescence is evolution’s solution to bringing the capacity of our large, complex brains to fruition. It is a critical period for brain development and the experiences of each adolescent during this time helps to shape their adult brain. Brain developments lead to both the hormonal changes and the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics of the teenage years. They drive a growth towards independence via more complex reasoning skills, increased importance of social affiliations outside the family, and an urge to experiment and explore boundaries. In the context of still incomplete inhibitory systems, a heightened sensitivity to rewards, including the need for social acceptance, can mean risk-taking or impulsive behaviour in some. The continued plasticity of the brain can also mean a creativity and openness to novel solutions. These normative steps of adolescence are especially relevant to young people with chronic health conditions. An understanding of brain development at this time can help us appreciate the perspective and priorities of adolescents with health conditions. It can also guide us towards better ways of collaborating with them.

Social status strategy in early adolescent girls: Testosterone and value-based decision making

There has been strong interest, spanning several disciplines, in understanding adolescence as a developmental period of increased risk-taking behavior. Our goals focus on one line of investigation within this larger developmental risk framework. Specifically, we examined levels of pubertal hormones in girls in relation to their willingness to take greater financial risks to gain social status. To this end, we tested the hypothesis that higher levels of testosterone during the ages of pubertal maturation are associated with a greater willingness to sacrifice money for social admiration. Sixty-three girls ages 10-14 (M_age=12.74) participated in laboratory measures and completed at-home saliva sample collection. The Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) and basal hormone levels (testosterone, estradiol, DHEA) measured pubertal maturation. We made use of a developmentally appropriate version of an Auction Task in which adolescents could take financial risks in order to gain socially motivated outcomes (social status). PDS and testosterone were each associated with overall levels of financial risk taking over the course of the Auction Task. In hierarchical models, PDS and testosterone were predictors of the slope of overbidding over the course of the task. Results provide evidence for the role of testosterone and pubertal maturation in girls' motivations to engage in costly decision making in order to gain social status. Findings contribute to our understanding of the developmental underpinnings of some interesting aspects of adolescent risk behavior.

Perceiving rejection by others: Relationship between rejection sensitivity and the spontaneous neuronal activity of the brain

Rejection sensitivity (RS) can be defined as the disposition of a person to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to rejection. Individuals with high RS are likely to suffer from mental disorders. The association between individual differences in RS and spontaneous neuronal activity at resting state has not yet been investigated. In this study, resting state data were used to investigate the relationship between RS and spontaneous neuronal activity in a large sample of healthy men (137) and women (172). The participants completed the rejection sensitivity questionnaire and underwent resting-state magnetic resonance imaging scan. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the correlation between the regional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF) and rejection sensitivity scores adjusted for age and sex. Results showed that the ALFF value in the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) was positively associated with RS. Furthermore, functional connectivity with the middle frontal gyrus was negatively correlated with RS when sgACC was used as the seed region. These findings suggest that the spontaneous neuronal activity of sgACC and its functional connectivity with the lateral prefrontal cortex which are involved in experiencing social exclusion and regulating negative emotions are associated with individual differences in RS.

Brain connectivity dynamics during social interaction reflect social network structure

Social ties are crucial for humans. Disruption of ties through social exclusion has a marked effect on our thoughts and feelings; however, such effects can be tempered by broader social network resources. Here, we use fMRI data acquired from 80 male adolescents to investigate how social exclusion modulates functional connectivity within and across brain networks involved in social pain and understanding the mental states of others (i.e., mentalizing). Furthermore, using objectively logged friendship network data, we examine how individual variability in brain reactivity to social exclusion relates to the density of participants' friendship networks, an important aspect of social network structure. We find increased connectivity within a set of regions previously identified as a mentalizing system during exclusion relative to inclusion. These results are consistent across the regions of interest as well as a whole-brain analysis. Next, examining how social network characteristics are associated with task-based connectivity dynamics, we find that participants who showed greater changes in connectivity within the mentalizing system when socially excluded by peers had less dense friendship networks. This work provides insight to understand how distributed brain systems respond to social and emotional challenges and how such brain dynamics might vary based on broader social network characteristics.

The Daily Relation between Parental Rejection and Emotional Eating in Youngsters: A Diary Study

KEY POINTS  Cross-sectional survey studies have demonstrated significant associations between parental rejection and peer rejection on the one hand and disturbed eating in youngsters, like emotional eating, on the other hand. In this study, we wanted to expand our knowledge on these relationships by investigating the daily fluctuations in these variables. Youngsters completed a 7-day diary to assess daily parental rejection, peer rejection and emotional eating. Using multilevel analyses, our results showed that daily variations in parental rejection were related to daily variations in emotional eating of the youngsters. This highlights the importance of addressing the parent-child relationship in interventions for emotional eating in youngsters. Background: This study investigated the daily relation between parental rejection and peer rejection on the one hand and emotional eating in youngsters on the other hand. Methods: Participants (N = 55) between the ages of 11 and 15 years completed a 7-day diary. A multilevel design was used to examine day-to-day within-person relationships between parental and peer rejection (measured by CHS) and emotional eating (measured by DEBQ-C) of youngsters. Results: The results showed that daily variations in parental rejection were related to daily variations in emotional eating of the youngsters. Daily peer rejection was only marginally significantly related to the emotional eating of the youngsters. Conclusions: These results indicate that especially parental rejection, and to a lesser extent peer rejection, are associated with the emotional eating of youngsters. The findings highlight the importance of addressing the parent-child relationship in interventions for emotional eating in youngsters.

Neural Correlates of Social Influence Among Cannabis Users

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Although peer influence is an important factor in the initiation and maintenance of cannabis use, few studies have investigated the neural correlates of peer influence among cannabis users. The current review summarizes research on the neuroscience of social influence in cannabis users, with the goal of highlighting gaps in the literature and the need for future research.

RECENT FINDINGS

Brain regions underlying peer influence may function differently in cannabis users. Compared to non-using controls, regions of the brain underlying reward, such as the striatum, show greater connectivity with frontal regions, and also show hyperactivity when participants are presented with peer information. Other subcortical regions, such as the insula, show hypoactivation during social exclusion in cannabis users, indicating that neural responses to peer interactions may be altered in cannabis users.

SUMMARY

Although neuroscience is increasingly being used to study social behavior, few studies have specifically focused on cannabis use, and therefore it is difficult to draw conclusions about social mechanisms that may differentiate cannabis users and controls. This area of research may be a promising avenue in which to explore a critical factor underlying cannabis use and addiction.

The push of social pain: Does rejection's sting motivate subsequent social reconnection?

Physical pain motivates the healing of somatic injuries, yet it remains unknown whether social pain serves a similarly reparative function toward social injuries. Given the substantial overlap between physical and social pain, we predicted that social pain would mediate the effect of rejection on greater motivation for social reconnection and affiliative behavior toward rejecters. In Study 1, the effect of rejection on an increased need to belong was mediated by reports of more intense social pain. In Study 2, three neural signatures of social pain (i.e., activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, left and right anterior insula during social rejection), each predicted greater behavioral proximity to rejecters. Our findings reify the overlap between social and physical pain. Furthermore, these results are some of the first to demonstrate the reparative nature of social pain and lend insight into how this process may be harnessed to promote postrejection reconnection.

Neural mechanisms of individual differences in temporal discounting of monetary and primary rewards in adolescents

Adolescents are generally characterized as impulsive. However, impulsivity is a multi-dimensional construct that involves multiple component processes. Which of these components contribute to adolescent impulsivity is currently unclear. This study focused on the neural mechanisms underlying individual differences in distinct components of temporal discounting (TD), i.e., the preference for smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards. Participants were 58 adolescents (12-16 years-old) who performed an fMRI TD task with both monetary and snack rewards. Using mixed-effects modeling, we determined participants' average impatience, and further decomposed TD choices into: 1) amount sensitivity (unique contribution of the magnitude of the immediate reward); and 2) delay sensitivity (unique contribution of delay duration). Adolescents' average impatience was positively correlated with frontoparietal and ventral striatal activity during delayed reward choices, and with ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity during immediate reward choices. Adolescents' amount sensitivity was positively associated with ventral striatal and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activity during immediate reward choices. Delay sensitivity was positively correlated with inferior parietal cortex activity during delayed reward choices. As expected, snacks were discounted more steeply than money, and TD of both reward types was associated with overlapping activation in the inferior parietal cortex. Exploring whether testosterone or estradiol were associated with TD and its neural correlates revealed no significant associations. These findings indicate that distinct components contribute uniquely to TD choice and that individual differences in amount sensitivity are uniquely associated with activation of reward valuation areas, while individual differences in delay sensitivity are uniquely associated with activation of cognitive control areas.

Neural mechanisms of sensitivity to peer information in young adult cannabis users

Though social influence is a critical factor in the initiation and maintenance of marijuana use, the neural correlates of influence in those who use marijuana are unknown. In this study, marijuana-using young adults (MJ; n = 20) and controls (CON; n = 23) performed a decision-making task in which they made a perceptual choice after viewing the choices of unknown peers via photographs, while they underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. The MJ and CON groups did not show differences in the overall number of choices that agreed with versus opposed group influence, but only the MJ group showed reaction time slowing when deciding against group choices. Longer reaction times were associated with greater activation of frontal regions. The MJ goup, compared to CON, showed significantly greater activation in the caudate when presented with peer information. Across groups, caudate activation was associated with self-reported susceptibility to influence. These findings indicate that young adults who use MJ may exhibit increased effort when confronted with opposing peer influence, as well as exhibit greater responsivity of the caudate to social information. These results not only better define the neural basis of social decisions, but also suggest that marijuana use is associated with exaggerated neural activity during decision making that involves social information.

Adolescent externalizing behaviour, psychological control, and peer rejection: Transactional links and dopaminergic moderation

This study investigated (1) reciprocal links among parental psychological control, peer rejection, and adolescent externalizing (aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour), and (2) the moderating effect of an adolescent genetic factor (biologically informed polygenic score for dopamine signalling). Three-year longitudinal data from 1,116 adolescents (51% boys; M age = 13.79) and their parents included psychological measures (adolescent-reported psychological control, peer-reported rejection, and parent-reported aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour). Cross-lagged analyses showed bidirectional effects between psychological control and both aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour and a unidirectional effect of peer rejection on both forms of problem behaviour over time. Multigroup structural equation modelling revealed genetic moderation only for rule-breaking behaviour: for adolescents with intermediate levels of dopamine signalling significant environmental effects were present, whereas adolescent effects of rule-breaking behaviour on psychological control were significant for adolescents with both intermediate and high profiles and effects on peer rejection only for adolescents with high dopamine profiles. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Parental psychological control is related to adolescent externalizing problems. Experiencing peer rejection reinforces aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour. Single-gene studies show that dopaminergic genes influence externalizing problems directly or in interaction with the environment. What does this study add? Parental psychological control and adolescent aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour exacerbate one another longitudinally. Longitudinal associations between peer rejection and both subtypes of externalizing behaviour are unidirectional. With a polygenic approach, dopaminergic moderation is present for rule-breaking behaviour only.

Neural responses to social exclusion in adolescents: Effects of peer status

We examined whether adolescents' neural responses to social exclusion and inclusion are influenced by their own popularity and acceptance and by the popularity of their excluders and includers. Accepted adolescents are highly prosocial. In contrast, popular adolescents, who are central and influential, show prosocial as well as antisocial behaviors, such as peer exclusion. Fifty-two 12-16 year-old adolescents underwent an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan while playing the ball-tossing game Cyberball in which they received or did not receive the ball from other virtual players. The other virtual players were described as either highly popular or average in popularity. Participants' own popularity and acceptance were assessed with peer nominations at school (n = 31). Participants' acceptance was positively correlated with activity of the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) during exclusion. Participants' popularity was positively associated with ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex activity during exclusion, but only when the excluders were popular virtual players. Participants showed increased rostral ACC activation to inclusion by players who were average in popularity. These findings indicate that peer status plays an important role in adolescents' neural processing of social exclusion and inclusion. Moreover, these findings underscore that popularity and acceptance are distinct types of high peer status in adolescence, with not only distinct behavioral correlates, but also distinct neural correlates.

The neural and behavioral correlates of social evaluation in childhood

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Validation of a social evaluation paradigm with a meta-analytical approach.

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The SNAT paradigm provoked reliable behavioral results with large effect sizes.

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Negative social feedback resulted in more behavioral aggression.

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Exploratory analyses over combined samples showed more mPFC activity after negative feedback.

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ROI analyses showed more amygdala, anterior insula and mPFC activity after negative feedback.

Being accepted or rejected by peers is highly salient for developing social relations in childhood. We investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of social feedback and subsequent aggression in 7–10-year-old children, using the Social Network Aggression Task (SNAT). Participants viewed pictures of peers that gave positive, neutral or negative feedback to the participant’s profile. Next, participants could blast a loud noise towards the peer, as an index of aggression. We included three groups (N = 19, N = 28 and N = 27) and combined the results meta-analytically. Negative social feedback resulted in the most behavioral aggression, with large combined effect-sizes. Whole brain condition effects for each separate sample failed to show robust effects, possibly due to the small samples. Exploratory analyses over the combined test and replication samples confirmed heightened activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) after negative social feedback. Moreover, meta-analyses of activity in predefined regions of interest showed that negative social feedback resulted in more neural activation in the amygdala, anterior insula and the mPFC/anterior cingulate cortex. Together, the results show that social motivation is already highly salient in middle childhood, and indicate that the SNAT is a valid paradigm for assessing the neural and behavioral correlates of social evaluation in children.

Neural correlates of social exclusion across ages: A coordinate-based meta-analysis of functional MRI studies

Given the recent surge in functional neuroimaging studies on social exclusion, the current study employed activation likelihood estimation (ALE) based meta-analyses to identify brain regions that have consistently been implicated across different experimental paradigms used to investigate exclusion. We also examined the neural correlates underlying Cyberball, the most commonly used paradigm to study exclusion, as well as differences in exclusion-related activation between developing (7-18 years of age, from pre-adolescence up to late adolescence) and emerging adult (broadly defined as undergraduates, including late adolescence and young adulthood) samples. Results revealed involvement of the bilateral medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices, right precuneus and left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex across the different paradigms used to examine social exclusion; similar activation patterns were identified when restricting the analysis to Cyberball studies. Investigations into age-related effects revealed that ventrolateral prefrontal activations identified in the full sample were driven by (i.e. present in) developmental samples, while medial prefrontal activations were driven by emerging adult samples. In addition, the right ventral striatum was implicated in exclusion, but only in developmental samples. Subtraction analysis revealed significantly greater activation likelihood in striatal and ventrolateral prefrontal clusters in the developmental samples as compared to emerging adults, though the opposite contrast failed to identify any significant regions. Findings integrate the knowledge accrued from functional neuroimaging studies on social exclusion to date, highlighting involvement of lateral prefrontal regions implicated in regulation and midline structures involved in social cognitive and self-evaluative processes across experimental paradigms and ages, as well as limbic structures in developing samples specifically.

Peer victimization in adolescence: The nature, progression, and consequences of being bullied within a developmental context

Since Dan Olweus's seminal work on bullying in the 1970's (Olweus, 1978), there has been a concerted effort by investigators to identify the confluence of factors that contribute to peer victimization and its role in psychosocial development. Although the cause and consequences of peer victimization may include underlying, age-invariant processes, the manifestation of these factors is, in part, driven by the developmental stage being studied. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of peer victimization requires an explicit developmental perspective. This paper examines how peer victimization in adolescence is unique from other developmental periods. Changes in the nature of peer victimization, associated risk factors, the contexts in which victimization is experienced, and the psychosocial outcomes affected are addressed. A primary focus is how maturational processes and interpersonal contexts characteristic of adolescence contribute to changes in victimization, with the objective of informing future research directions and the development of effective interventions.