Understanding adolescence as a period of social-affective engagement and goal flexibility

Evaluation of the English Version of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS) among an Adolescent Sample

The increased use of smartphones among adolescents has highlighted the need to distinguish between problematic and non-problematic smartphone use. To date, there are a lack of short, easy-to-use, and valid psychometric tools to assess smartphone addiction. The primary aim of the present study was to conduct the first psychometric assessment and evaluation of the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS) among English-speaking adolescents. Participants were 1175 students recruited from across four different high schools in New Zealand, of which 1031 completed all questions and were used in the final analyses. Several psychometric tests were conducted to ascertain reliability and validity. The SABAS had high internal consistency. Consistent with earlier validation studies, the SABAS displayed weak-moderate, positive relationships with symptoms of depression (PHQ-2), anxiety (GAD-2), and sleep quality. Overall, the SABAS is a sound, unidimensional scale with robust psychometric properties and is a short and easy-to-use measure that can be used confidently among English-speaking adolescents.

Risks and rewards in adolescent decision-making

Adolescent decision-making has been characterized as risky, and a heightened reward sensitivity may be one of the aspects contributing to riskier choice-behavior. Previous studies have targeted reward-sensitivity in adolescence and the neurobiological mechanisms of reward processing in the adolescent brain. In recent examples, researchers aim to disentangle the contributions of risk- and reward-sensitivity to adolescent risk-taking. Here, we discuss recent findings of adolescent's risk preferences and the associated neural mechanisms. We highlight potential frameworks that target individual differences in risk preferences in an effort to understand adolescent risk-taking, and with an ultimate goal of leveraging undesirable levels of risk taking.

Transgender Youth Executive Functioning: Relationships with Anxiety Symptoms, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Gender-Affirming Medical Treatment Status

Executive function (EF) underlies broad health and adaptive outcomes. For transgender youth, navigating gender discernment and gender affirmation demand EF. Yet, factors associated with transgender youth EF are unknown. We investigate hypothesized predictors of EF: over-represented conditions among transgender youth (anxiety and depression symptoms, autism spectrum disorder [ASD]) and gender-affirming care. One-hundred twenty-four transgender 11-21-year-olds participated. Parents/caregivers completed EF and mental health report measures. ASD diagnostics and gender-affirming medication histories were collected. 21 % of non-autistic and 69 % of autistic transgender youth had clinically elevated EF problems. Membership in the gender-affirming hormone treatment group was associated with better EF. ASD, anxiety symptoms, and membership in the long-duration pubertal suppression group were associated with poorer EF. Given the importance of EF skills for multiple outcomes, and the unique and additional EF demands specific to transgender youths' experiences, EF skill monitoring-and when appropriate, supports-should be considered for transgender youth.

Adolescents Are More Likely to Help Others on Days They Take Risks and Crave Social Connections

This study examined how adolescents' risk-taking behaviors were related to their prosocial behaviors on a daily level and how this association differed depending on adolescents' daily and average levels of sensation seeking and social craving. Adolescents (N = 212; Mage  = 15 years) completed daily diaries for 14 days. Adolescents were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior on days when they also took risks, but only when they also felt high levels of social craving. The daily link between risk-taking and prosocial behavior did not vary based on daily or individual differences in sensation seeking. Results suggest that when adolescents feel highly motivated to connect with others, their risk-taking and prosocial tendencies co-occur on a daily basis.

Resilience in Deafness, Adolescence and Gender

Deaf and hearing Adolescents are facing the adversity of life like social expectations, academic and economic demands. The purpose of this study was to describe deaf and female adolescents' resilience with their respective counterparts using the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25). Methods: The study was conducted on 160 adolescent (80 deaf [40 female] and 80hearing [40 female]) students who were selected based on multistage sampling. Quantitative and qualitative data collections were made through the questionnaire as well as interview. The study employed Mean, Standard Deviation, independent t-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results revealed that hearing adolescent students' average resilience score was significantly greater than deaf students. It was also shown that female adolescent students' level of average resilience score was found significantly less than their counterparts. Analysis of variance revealed that there was a significant difference in resilience score among deaf female, deaf male, hearing female, and hearing male adolescent students in which deaf female adolescent students' resilience score was the lowest. The difference in resilience between deaf and hearing students signified deaf students' capability to cope with stressors and academic demands was less than their counterparts, and the resilience of deaf female students was found the lowest among the groups. This calls for health and psychological professional and families to provide adequate support for deaf and female adolescents to develop resilience.

Emotion Recognition and Inhibitory Control in Adolescent Players of Violent Video Games

Developmental changes during adolescence may make youth susceptible to violent media effects. Two studies with male adolescents (N₁  = 241; N₂  = 161; aged 12-17) examined how habitual and short-term violent video gaming may affect emotion recognition and inhibitory control. We found that not habitual exposure to violent video games, but to antisocial media content predicted worse emotion recognition. Furthermore, higher habitual exposure to violent games predicted better inhibitory control over emotional stimuli in a stop signal task. However, short-term causal effects of violent gameplay on adolescents were not found. While these results do not indicate a negative impact of violent video games on young players, future research may further investigate possible effects of antisocial media content on adolescents.

Understanding Problematic Social Media Use in Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Narrative Review and Clinical Recommendations

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is consistently associated with a host of social problems, such as victimization and difficulties in maintaining close friendships. These problems are not limited to offline relations but also manifest in the online social world, as previous research shows that ADHD is associated with problematic use of social media. Given the ubiquitous nature of social media, the goal of the current review is to understand why adolescents with ADHD demonstrate more problematic social media use than their typically developing peers. To this end, we provide a narrative review on the evidence for the link between ADHD and social media use, and consequently present an integrative framework, which encompasses neurobiological mechanisms (i.e., imbalance theory of brain development and dual pathway model of ADHD) and social mechanisms, including influences from peers and parents. We conclude that empirical work shows most consistent evidence for the link between problematic social media use and ADHD (symptoms), while intensity of social media use is also associated with several other behaviors and outcomes. Finally, we hypothesize how existing interventions for ADHD may work on the identified mechanisms and provide at-hand clinical recommendations for therapists working with adolescents with ADHD who exhibit problematic social media use.

The Role of Emotional Dysregulation, Impulsivity Traits and Aggressive Behaviors in Adolescents Who Sustain Multiple Motor-Vehicle Crashes

Adolescents tend to experience multiple motor-vehicle crashes (MVCs). Recent literature has thoroughly explored the psychological consequences following an MVC, but prior psychological functioning, the ability to regulate one's emotions and tendencies to impulsivity and aggressive behaviors have been far less explored. This study aims to explore the emotional-behavioral functioning, measured with the Youth Self-Report (YSR); emotional dysregulation, measured with the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale (DERS); impulsivity traits, measured with the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11); and the capacity to be mindful, measured with the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), in adolescents that have experienced one or more MVCs in a year. N = 295 adolescents who visited an emergency department for MVCs were divided in two groups based on the number of MVCs they had sustained over the course of a year. The adolescents in Group 1 sustained more than three MVCs, and adolescents in Group 2 sustained only one. Participants were assessed through self-report questionnaires. Adolescents showed difficulties in emotional regulation, impulsivity traits, aggressive behaviors and a low capacity to be mindful. These results may be useful in the creation of intervention and prevention programs focused on emotional awareness targets for adolescents.

Mapping the effects of pregnancy on resting state brain activity, white matter microstructure, neural metabolite concentrations and grey matter architecture

While animal studies have demonstrated a unique reproduction-related neuroplasticity, little is known on the effects of pregnancy on the human brain. Here we investigated whether pregnancy is associated with changes to resting state brain activity, white matter microstructure, neural metabolite concentrations and grey matter architecture using a comprehensive pre-conception cohort study. We show that pregnancy leads to selective and robust changes in neural architecture and neural network organization, which are most pronounced in the Default Mode Network. These neural changes correlated with pregnancy hormones, primarily third-trimester estradiol, while no associations were found with other factors such as osmotic effects, stress and sleep. Furthermore, the changes related to measures of maternal-fetal bonding, nesting behavior and the physiological responsiveness to infant cues, and predicted measures of mother-infant bonding and bonding impairments. These findings suggest there are selective pregnancy-related modifications in brain structure and function that may facilitate peripartum maternal processes of key relevance to the mother-infant dyad.

Adolescents' own views on their risk behaviors, and the potential effects of being labeled as risk-takers: A commentary and review

Adolescents are stereotypically viewed as risk-takers ("stereotypical risk-takers") in science, mainstream media, fictional literature and in everyday life. However, increasing research suggests that adolescents do not always engage in "heightened" risk-taking, and adolescents' own perspectives (motives) on risk-taking are largely neglected in research. Hence, this paper is a commentary and review with two aims. First, taking a cross-national perspective, we discuss the definition of adolescence and risk behavior. We argue that much of the research on what drives adolescent risk behavior (e.g., substance use) focuses on the harms that this behavior promotes rather than on the need to explore and grow into adulthood. Thereafter we summarize the dominant approach to studying motives behind substance use, which has mostly considered young adults, and which has typically not focused on adolescents' own self-generated motives. The few empirical studies (including one of our qualitative studies) on adolescents' own motivations for engaging in risk behavior (i.e., cannabis use, alcohol use, and tobacco smoking) show that the most frequently mentioned motives by adolescents were being cool/tough, enjoyment, belonging, having fun and experimenting and coping. Interestingly, the "cool/tough identity" motive is virtually overlooked in research on adolescent risk-taking. The above-mentioned motives, however, generally support newer theories, such as the Developmental Neuro-Ecological Risk-taking Model (DNERM) and the Life-span Wisdom Model that suggest that adolescents' motivations to engage in risk-taking include experimentation, identity development, explorative behavior, and sensation seeking, all of which run counter to the stereotype of adolescents engaging in risk-taking due to "storm and stress." Hence, we also briefly consider additional recent attempts to study positive forms of risk taking. Second, extrapolating from sociological/criminological theories on labeling, we suggest that caution is warranted when (inaccurately) labeling adolescents as the "stereotypical risk-takers," because this can instigate a risk-taking identity in adolescents and/or motivate them to associate with risk-taking peers, which could in turn lead to maladaptive forms of risk-taking. Empirical research testing these hypotheses is needed. To conclude we argue that research on adolescent risk-taking could further benefit from considering adolescent's own motivations, which is also in line with the participatory approach advocated by international children's rights standards.

Uptake of planning as a self-regulation strategy: Adolescents' reasons for (not) planning physical activity in an intervention trial

OBJECTIVES

Planning is an effective self-regulation strategy. However, little is known why some people take up planning and some do not. Such understanding would help interventions to promote planning. We investigated how adolescents explain their (non) use of planning for physical activity after an intervention.

METHODS

Qualitative content analysis was employed to investigate follow-up interviews (a purposeful sampling; n = 19 low-to-moderately active, vocational school students) of Let's Move It trial participants twice post-intervention: 6-8 weeks and 14 months post-baseline. In the intervention, planning was one of the key techniques used to promote PA.

RESULTS

We identified seven categories linked to reasons for (not) using planning. Most were related to feelings anticipated to result from planning. Action- and identity-related concerns were also raised. The reasons for planning were that the plan (1) helps to clarify what to do and to get things done, (2) strengthens the feeling of autonomy, (3) promotes a sense of progress, ability and control over one's PA. The reasons for not planning were that (having) a plan may (1) feel forced and like an unpleasant duty, (2) take away life's spontaneity and freedom, (3) result in anticipated annoyance and bad mood if one fails to enact the plan, or (4) be an effective strategy for others but not for the interviewee.

CONCLUSIONS

Planning may not only link to behavioural control but also the sense of autonomy, and thus subsequent motivation. We suggest various strategies to promote planning, including challenging non-planner identity and harnessing social dimension of planning.

Developmental connections between socioeconomic status, self-regulation, and adult externalizing problems

Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds are at particularly heightened risk for developing later externalizing problems. A large body of research has suggested an important role for self-regulation in this developmental linkage. Self-regulation has been conceptualized as a mediator as well as a moderator of these connections. Using data from the Child Development Project (CDP, N = 585), we probe these contrasting (mediating/moderating) conceptualizations, using both Frequentist and Bayesian statistical approaches, in the linkage between early SES and later externalizing problems in a multi-decade longitudinal study. Connecting early SES, physiology (i.e., heart rate reactivity) and inhibitory control (a Stroop task) in adolescence, and externalizing symptomatology in early adulthood, we found the relation between SES and externalizing problems was moderated by multiple facets of self-regulation. Participants from lower early SES backgrounds, who also had high heart rate reactivity and lower inhibitory control, had elevated levels of externalizing problems in adulthood relative to those with low heart rate reactivity and better inhibitory control. Such patterns persisted after controlling for externalizing problems earlier in life. The present results may aid in understanding the combinations of factors that contribute to the development of externalizing psychopathology in economically marginalized youth.

Momentary Associations Among Minority Stress, Craving, Affect, and Nicotine Use Among Sexual Minority Youth

OBJECTIVES

Sexual minority youth are more likely to use nicotine relative to heterosexual youth. The minority stress model posits these disparities are partly due to unique stress (i.e., minority stress) specific to their stigmatized identities. However, there is a dearth of research exploring the fine-grained dynamic interplay between minority stressors, mediating processes, and nicotine use in sexual minority youth's daily lives and natural environment. We leveraged ecological momentary assessment over a 30-day monitoring period to test the mediating effects of craving and negative and positive affect on the momentary associations between minority stressors and subsequent nicotine use among sexual minority youth who were active nicotine users and recruited from the community.

METHODS

Participants were 85 nicotine users, ages 15-19 years old (M age = 17.96, SD = 1.10; 56.6% cisgender female; 56.6% bisexual; 73.5% non-Hispanic White) and half (51.8%) were daily nicotine users.

RESULTS

Results indicated that exposure to a minority stressor was associated with momentary elevations in nicotine craving and negative affect and decreases in positive affect. Nicotine craving and positive affect were also associated with greater probability of subsequent nicotine use. The associations between minority stressors and subsequent nicotine use were mediated through craving and positive, but not negative affect.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings provide the first ecological momentary assessment evidence of these associations among sexual minority youth and help support and advance both addictions and sexual minority-specific models (e.g., minority stress) of nicotine use among youth.

Understanding patterns of heterogeneity in executive functioning during adolescence: Evidence from population-level data

Executive functioning (EF) is fundamental to positive development. Yet, little is known about how to best characterize constellations of EF skills that may inform disparate associations between EF and behavior during adolescence. In the current study, cross-validated latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to derive profiles of EF based on measures of inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility using data from 11,672 youth (52.2% male, mean age = 9.91 years) in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. Four meaningful EF profiles emerged from the data representing Average EF, High EF, Low Inhibitory Control, and Low EF. Boys, youth from low-income households, and early developing youth were more likely to be in profiles distinguished by lower EF. Profile membership also predicted differences in externalizing, internalizing, and other problem behaviors assessed one year later. Findings indicate that youth may have distinct constellations of EF skills, underscoring the need for person-centered approaches that focus on patterns of individual characteristics.

Cortisol awakening response and testosterone jointly affect adolescents' theory of mind

Adolescence is a critical period for the maturation of neurobiological processes and hormone secretion. Recent studies on the dual-hormone hypothesis have indicated that basal cortisol and testosterone jointly affect dominant and aggressive behavior among adolescents and adults. Whether this hypothesis applies to prosocial-related understanding of others' mental states remains unclear. The present study investigated associations between basal testosterone, basal cortisol (and cortisol awakening response [CAR]), and the cognitive/affective theory of mind (ToM) in 243 adolescents (67.9 % male, aged 14 to 17 years, M_age = 16.09, standard deviation = 0.62). Cognitive ToM (cToM) and affective ToM (aToM) were assessed with a cartoon story reasoning task: In the cToM condition, participants viewed a comic strip story and needed to predict what would happen based on a character's intentions, and in the aToM condition, they viewed a comic strip of two characters interacting and needed to think about what would make the protagonist feel better. The results showed that basal testosterone and basal cortisol did not interact with each other to affect the performance of ToM, either in terms of ToM accuracy or response speed. However, under the condition of low CAR, testosterone is associated with the fast performance of cToM, although the interaction of testosterone and CAR occurred only in female adolescents. Overall, our data provide new evidence for the dual-hormone hypothesis and further extend the hypothesis to social understanding.

Positive Effects of Digital Technology Use by Adolescents: A Scoping Review of the Literature

This study examines the research literature published from 2012 to 2022 on the relationship between increases in adolescent consumption of digital technologies and its impact on multiple areas of development, with a focus on how adolescent immersion in an increasingly ubiquitous digital world engenders positive outcomes in terms of brain, cognitive, and social-emotional development. The literature search yielded 131 articles, 53 of which were empirical studies of the relationship between increases in consumption of digital technology and brain development, cognitive development, or social-emotional development among adolescents. Overall, these studies identify positive outcomes for adolescents who use different types of digital tech, including the internet, social media, and video games.

The Role of the Adenosine System on Emotional and Cognitive Disturbances Induced by Ethanol Binge Drinking in the Immature Brain and the Beneficial Effects of Caffeine

Binge drinking intake is the most common pattern of ethanol consumption by adolescents, which elicits emotional disturbances, mainly anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as cognitive alterations. Ethanol exposure may act on the adenosine neuromodulation system by increasing adenosine levels, consequently increasing the activation of adenosine receptors in the brain. The adenosine modulation system is involved in the control of mood and memory behavior. However, there is a gap in the knowledge about the exact mechanisms related to ethanol exposure’s hazardous effects on the immature brain (i.e., during adolescence) and the role of the adenosine system thereupon. The present review attempts to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of the adenosinergic system on emotional and cognitive disturbances induced by ethanol during adolescence, exploring the potential benefits of caffeine administration in view of its action as a non-selective antagonist of adenosine receptors.

Adolescent-onset depression is associated with altered social functioning into middle adulthood

Depression during sensitive periods of social development may have consequences that extend well beyond mental health, and far into adulthood. This study compared the social functioning of adults with adolescent-onset depression (ages 10-20) to those with adult-onset depression (ages 21+). Participants were 3,360 adults (67.2% female; ages 42 ± 15) who had experienced major depression. Adult functional outcomes were marital status, divorce, number of children, years of education, employment status, household income, dependency on welfare, and obesity. Participants with depression during adolescence were less likely to get married, have children, and more likely to have lower household incomes. Depression during adolescence may be associated with broader functional outcomes that impact individuals and society, and may be mitigated through intervention and effective policy.

Childhood trauma and posttraumatic stress symptoms in adolescents and young adults: The mediating role of mentalizing and emotion regulation strategies

OBJECTIVES

Childhood trauma (physical, emotional, sexual abuse and/or physical and emotional neglect) represents a specific risk for developmental perturbations and long-term negative outcomes. Adolescents and young adults with childhood trauma have rarely experienced a single type of traumatic event but rather multiple traumatic experiences. However, studies on adolescent PTSD are sparse. This study examines the possible mediating role of mentalizing, cognitive and interpersonal emotion regulation strategies between multiple types of childhood trauma exposure and PTSD in adolescents and young adults.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 456 adolescents and young adults aged 15 and 25, recruited from four high schools and one university. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing childhood trauma, mentalizing, cognitive and interpersonal strategies of emotion regulation and PTSD.

RESULTS

Structural Equation Modeling revealed that multiple types of childhood trauma exposure have a significant indirect effect on PTSD symptoms through its association with hypomentalizing and maladaptive cognitive strategies of emotion regulation (i.e. self-blame, rumination, catastrophizing). Results also showed a significant indirect effect between multiple types of childhood trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms through its association with hypomentalizing and maladaptive interpersonal strategies of emotion regulation (i.e. emotional reactivity and tendency to avoid emotional connection). Indirect paths were also run in reverse to control for the direction of the effect.

CONCLUSION

Our findings show that exposure to multiple types of childhood trauma contributes to severe PTSD through several complex pathways including both hypomentalizing and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies in adolescence and young adulthood.

Adolescent to young adult longitudinal development across 8 years for matching emotional stimuli during functional magnetic resonance imaging

We investigated development from adolescence to young adulthood of neural bottom-up and top-down processes using a functional magnetic resonance imaging task on emotional attention. We followed 249 participants from age 14-22 in up to four waves resulting in 687 total scans of a matching task in which participants decided whether two pictures were the same including distracting emotional or neutral scenes. We applied generalized additive mixed models and a reliability approach for longitudinal analysis. Reaction times and error rates decreased longitudinally. For top-down processing, we found a longitudinal increase for the bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for negative stimuli and in the left IFG also for positive and neutral stimuli. For bottom-up activation in the bilateral amygdala, we found a relative stability for negative and neutral stimuli. For positive stimuli, there was an increase starting in the twenties. Results show ongoing behavioral and top-down prefrontal development relatively independent from emotional valence. Amygdala bottom-up activation remained stable except for positive stimuli. Current findings add to the sparse literature on longitudinal top-down and bottom-up development into young adulthood and emphasize the role of reliability. These findings might help to characterize healthy in contrast to dysfunctional development of emotional attention.

Differentiated nomological networks of internalizing, externalizing, and the general factor of psychopathology ('p factor') in emerging adolescence in the ABCD study

BACKGROUND

Structural models of psychopathology consistently identify internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) specific factors as well as a superordinate factor that captures their shared variance, the p factor. Questions remain, however, about the meaning of these data-driven dimensions and the interpretability and distinguishability of the larger nomological networks in which they are embedded.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 10 645 youth aged 9-10 years participating in the multisite Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. p, INT, and EXT were modeled using the parent-rated Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Patterns of associations were examined with variables drawn from diverse domains including demographics, psychopathology, temperament, family history of substance use and psychopathology, school and family environment, and cognitive ability, using instruments based on youth-, parent-, and teacher-report, and behavioral task performance.

RESULTS

p exhibited a broad pattern of statistically significant associations with risk variables across all domains assessed, including temperament, neurocognition, and social adversity. The specific factors exhibited more domain-specific patterns of associations, with INT exhibiting greater fear/distress and EXT exhibiting greater impulsivity.

CONCLUSIONS

In this largest study of hierarchical models of psychopathology to date, we found that p, INT, and EXT exhibit well-differentiated nomological networks that are interpretable in terms of neurocognition, impulsivity, fear/distress, and social adversity. These networks were, in contrast, obscured when relying on the a priori Internalizing and Externalizing dimensions of the CBCL scales. Our findings add to the evidence for the validity of p, INT, and EXT as theoretically and empirically meaningful broad psychopathology liabilities.

Positive risk taking and neural sensitivity to risky decision making in adolescence

This study examines associations between adolescents' positive risk taking and neural activation during risky decision-making. Participants included 144 adolescents ages 13-16 years (Mage = 14.23; SDage = 0.7) from diverse racial and ethnic groups. Participants self-reported their engagement in positive and negative risk taking. Additionally, participants played the Cups task during fMRI, where they chose between a safe choice (guaranteed earning of 15 cents) and a risky choice (varying probabilities of earning more than 15 cents). Using a risk-return framework, we examined adolescents' sensitivity to both risks (safe versus risky) and returns (expected value, or potential reward as a function of its probability of occurring) at the behavioral and neural levels. All participants took more risks when the expected value of the choice was high. However, high positive risk taking was uniquely associated with dampened dmPFC tracking of expected value. Together, results show that adolescents' positive risk taking is associated with neural activity during risky decision-making. Findings are among the first to identify brain-behavior correlations associated with positive risk taking during adolescence.

Efficacy and Risk Factor Analysis of DBT Therapy for PTSD-Related Symptoms in Mainland Chinese College Students Based on Data Mining

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder characterized by a delayed onset and long-lasting psychiatric disorder in an individual due to unusual threatening or catastrophic stressful events, characterized by repeated experiences of the situation, avoidant behaviors, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, and other mental symptoms. It seriously affects the occupational, psychological, and social functions of the human body, leads to a decrease in the quality of life, and brings a greater economic burden to the patients themselves, their families, and the society. It has attracted widespread attention worldwide. Due to social transformation and fierce competition, college students are increasingly exposed to various stressful or traumatic events, and PTSD is becoming more and more obvious. Therefore, this study took a university student as the research object, analyzed the risk factors of PTSD, and used the method of data mining to analyze the effectiveness of DBT therapy and completed the following work: (1) this paper introduces the research status of PTSD pathogenesis at home and abroad and expounds the treatment methods and research results of DBT. (2) The basic principle of BPNN is introduced, the weight and threshold of BPNN are screened by genetic algorithm, and the best weight and threshold after screening are given to BPNN. A GA-BP model is constructed to improve the learning quality of BPNN. (3) The optimal parameters of the model are selected through experiments, and the model is verified by the collected data. The results show that the model has superiority in evaluating the effectiveness of DBT therapy. Then, it was proved by experiments that DBT therapy has a good effect in the treatment of PTSD. Finally, the influencing factors of PTSD were analyzed one by one through the experimental results.

Opportunities, challenges, and contextual supports to promote enacting maturing during adolescence

Conceptions of adolescent "storm and stress" may be tied to a developmental mismatch that exists between young people's need for meaningful roles and autonomy - which we refer to as a need for enacting maturity - and the lack of such opportunities in most adolescents' contexts. First, we summarize our previous work on enacting maturity, including a review of the key components, links to wellbeing, and the nuances and limitations of this construct. Next, we extend this work by considering how the ecological contexts (e.g., family, school, community) young people are embedded in and their various intersecting social positions and identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, immigrant origin) influence their experiences with enacting maturity. In this section, we pose several key questions for developmental scientists around: (a) identifying a young person's desire for, and phenomenological processing of, their adult-like roles, (b) understanding how complex and unequal responses to physical maturation shape opportunities for enacting maturity, and (c) attending to disparities in curricular and extracurricular pathways to leadership, responsibility, and autonomy. Finally, we discuss spaces with high potential to support enacting maturity, including both specially designed programs (e.g., youth participatory action research, leadership programs) as well as routine, everyday opportunities (e.g., interactions with teachers, training for companies that employ youth). We offer two levers for supporting enacting maturity across both types of spaces: adult allies and responsive organizations. Looking to exemplary programs, innovative leaders, social media, and case studies, we re-imagine how adults and organizations can promote young people enacting maturing in ways that are safe, worthwhile, and equitable.

Social learning across adolescence: A Bayesian neurocognitive perspective

Adolescence is a period of social re-orientation in which we are generally more prone to peer influence and the updating of our beliefs based on social information, also called social learning, than in any other stage of our life. However, how do we know when to use social information and whose information to use and how does this ability develop across adolescence? Here, we review the social learning literature from a behavioral, neural and computational viewpoint, focusing on the development of brain systems related to executive functioning, value-based decision-making and social cognition. We put forward a Bayesian reinforcement learning framework that incorporates social learning about value associated with particular behavior and uncertainty in our environment and experiences. We discuss how this framework can inform us about developmental changes in social learning, including how the assessment of uncertainty and the ability to adaptively discriminate between information from different social sources change across adolescence. By combining reward-based decision-making in the domains of both informational and normative influence, this framework explains both negative and positive social peer influence in adolescence.

Real-World Exploration Increases Across Adolescence and Relates to Affect, Risk Taking, and Social Connectivity

Cross-species research suggests that exploratory behaviors increase during adolescence and relate to the social, affective, and risky behaviors characteristic of this developmental stage. However, how these typical adolescent behaviors manifest and relate in real-world settings remains unclear. Using geolocation tracking to quantify exploration—variability in daily movement patterns—over a 3-month period in 58 adolescents and adults (ages 13–27) in New York City, we investigated whether daily exploration varied with age and whether exploration related to social connectivity, risk taking, and momentary positive affect. In our cross-sectional sample, we found an association between daily exploration and age, with individuals near the transition to legal adulthood exhibiting the highest exploration levels. Days of higher exploration were associated with greater positive affect irrespective of age. Higher mean exploration was associated with greater social connectivity in all participants but was linked to higher risk taking selectively among adolescents. Our results highlight the interplay of exploration and socioemotional behaviors across development and suggest that societal norms may modulate their expression in naturalistic contexts.

Multiple Impacts of Ethiopia's Health Extension Program on Adolescent Health and Well-Being: A Quasi-Experimental Study 2002-2013

PURPOSE

Ethiopia has registered remarkable achievements in reaching global development goals, including reducing child marriage. Policymakers are keen to understand which investments have contributed to this. We evaluated the association between Ethiopia's Health Extension Program (HEP) and 12 adolescent health and wellbeing outcomes.

METHODS

We used Young Lives Ethiopia cohort data between 2002 and 2013. We evaluated associations between household support from HEP at age 15 and 12 adolescent outcomes spread across health, gender-based violence, education, and employment at age 19 using the inverse probability of treatment weighting propensity score approach, stratifying by sex. Adjusted probability differences (APDs) and adjusted mean differences (AMDs) were used to contrast exposure to HEP versus no exposure.

RESULTS

Of 775 adolescents with complete follow-up, 46% were female. Sixty-six percent of adolescents reported support from HEP, with higher rates of support in poorer, less educated, and rural households, particularly in Tigray Province. In boys, HEP was positively associated with education enrolment (APD: +20 percentage points [ppts], 95% confidence interval [CI]: +9 ppts, +31 ppts) and literacy (AMD: +6 ppts, 95% CI: +0.2, +11), and negatively associated with >4 hours in income-generating activities per day (APD: -19 ppts, 95% CI: -30 ppts, -9 ppts). In girls, HEP was positively associated with no child marriage (APD: +16 ppts, 95% CI: +4 ppts, +27 ppts), no adolescent pregnancy (APD: +17 ppts, 95% CI: +6 ppts, +28 ppts), education enrolment (APD: +27 ppts, 95% CI: +15 ppts, +39 ppts), literacy (AMD: +5 ppts, 95% CI: +0.2, +11), and numeracy (AMD: +8 ppts, 95% CI: +3; +13).

DISCUSSION

Policies promoting HEP are likely to have supported improvements in multiple areas of adolescents' lives in Ethiopia.

Day-to-Day Decision Making by Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer must negotiate the transition between childhood and adulthood while dealing with a life-threatening illness. AYA involvement in decision making varies depending on the type of decision and when decisions occur during treatment, and evidence suggests that AYAs want to be involved in decision making. Objective: To explore involvement of AYAs with cancer in day-to-day decisions affected by their cancer and treatment. Methods: This qualitative study used interpretive focused ethnography within the sociologic tradition, informed by symbolic interactionism. Semi-structured interviews and informal participant observation took place at two quaternary pediatric oncology programs. Results: Thirty-one interviews were conducted with 16 AYAs ages 15 to 20 years. Major day to day decision-making categories identified included: (1) mental mindset, (2) self-care practices, (3) self-advocacy, and (4) negotiating relationships. Participants described how they came to grips with their illness early on and decided to fight their cancer. They described decisions they made to protect their health, how they advocated for themselves and decisions they made about relationships with family and friends. Conclusions: Through day-to-day decisions, participants managed the impact of cancer and its treatment on their daily lives. Research should focus on developing and implementing interventions to empower AYAs to participate in day-to-day decisions that will affect how they manage their cancer, its treatment and ultimately their outcomes. Implications for Practice: Healthcare providers can facilitate AYA's participation in day-to-day decision making through encouraging autonomy and self-efficacy by providing support and through effective communication.

Emotion Regulation Moderates the Associations of Food Parenting and Adolescent Emotional Eating

OBJECTIVE

To explore parental feeding practices and eating behavior as predictors of the child's emotional eating (EE) and child's emotion regulation (ER) as a potential moderator.

DESIGN

Parental eating behavior (emotional, external, and restrained eating), 9 parental feeding practices (restriction, food as reward, food as ER, monitoring, healthy modeling, healthy environment, child control, and child involvement), ER, and EE were analyzed cross-sectionally and 5 parental practices longitudinally (subsample, n = 115).

SETTING

Belgium.

PARTICIPANTS

Two hundred eighteen adolescents (aged 13.7 ± 1.77 years) and parent dyads.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Child's EE.

ANALYSIS

Linear regression and moderation (cross-sectional) and linear mixed models (longitudinal). Models adjusted for multiple testing with a false discovery rate of 10% (Benjamini-Hochberg), age, sex, body mass index, socioeconomic status, and cohort.

RESULTS

Cross-sectionally but not longitudinally, there was a positive association between predictors restriction and monitoring with the outcome child's EE (β = 0.19, P = 0.006; β = 0.17, P = 0.01, respectively). Restrained eating of the parent was negatively associated with the child's EE (β = -0.22, P = 0.003). The child's maladaptive ER significantly moderated the associations of 5 feeding practices and parental EE with the child's EE.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Parents continue to play a role in the eating behavior of their adolescent offspring, not only through their feeding practices (restrictive parenting was most detrimental) but also by displaying restrained eating (beneficial). A child's ER appears as an important moderator of the established associations; however, more research is needed to better understand these observations.

Perceptual cognitive abilities in young athletes: A gender comparison

To achieve optimal performance in sports, it is essential to have strong perceptual cognitive abilities. Evidence suggests that athletes have superior perceptual abilities compared to nonathletes. However, gender differences in athletes’ perceptual cognitive abilities have not been previously reported. This project aims to evaluate perceptual cognitive abilities among male and female adolescents. To measure perceptual abilities, a 3-dimensional multiple-object tracking task was used. The findings confirm the superior perceptual cognitive abilities in young athletes relative to nonathletes. However, our results indicate differences in performance patterns between male and female athletes. These results demonstrate that sports engagement and perceptual cognitive abilities are strongly related during adolescence and that this relationship seems more prevalent in male athletes for this age group.

No evidence for association between late pregnancy maternal cortisol and gray matter volume in a healthy community sample of young adolescents

A compelling amount of animal and human research has shown that perceived maternal stress during pregnancy can affect the neurodevelopment of the offspring. Prenatal maternal cortisol is frequently proposed as the biological key mechanism underlying this link; however, literature that investigates the effects of prenatal cortisol on subsequent neurodevelopment in humans is scarce. By using longitudinal data from a relatively large community sample of mother-child dyads (N = 73), this pre-registered study prospectively examined the role of maternal prenatal cortisol concentrations on subsequent individual differences in gray matter volume (GMV) and hippocampal subfield volumes at the onset of puberty of the offspring (12 years of age). Two markers of cortisol, that is, evening cortisol and circadian decline over the day, were used as indicators of maternal physiological stress during the last trimester of pregnancy. The results indicate that prenatal maternal cortisol levels were not associated with GMV or hippocampal subfield volumes of the children. These findings suggest that late pregnancy maternal cortisol may not be related to the structural development of the offspring's brain, at least not in healthy community samples and at the onset of puberty. When examining the influence of prenatal stress on offspring neurodevelopment, future investigations should delineate gestational timing effects of the cortisol exposure, cortisol assessment method, and impact of additional biomarkers, as these were not investigated in this study.

Age-related differences in the effect of chronic alcohol on cognition and the brain: a systematic review

Adolescence is an important developmental period associated with increased risk for excessive alcohol use, but also high rates of recovery from alcohol use-related problems, suggesting potential resilience to long-term effects compared to adults. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the current evidence for a moderating role of age on the impact of chronic alcohol exposure on the brain and cognition. We searched Medline, PsycInfo, and Cochrane Library databases up to February 3, 2021. All human and animal studies that directly tested whether the relationship between chronic alcohol exposure and neurocognitive outcomes differs between adolescents and adults were included. Study characteristics and results of age-related analyses were extracted into reference tables and results were separately narratively synthesized for each cognitive and brain-related outcome. The evidence strength for age-related differences varies across outcomes. Human evidence is largely missing, but animal research provides limited but consistent evidence of heightened adolescent sensitivity to chronic alcohol's effects on several outcomes, including conditioned aversion, dopaminergic transmission in reward-related regions, neurodegeneration, and neurogenesis. At the same time, there is limited evidence for adolescent resilience to chronic alcohol-induced impairments in the domain of cognitive flexibility, warranting future studies investigating the potential mechanisms underlying adolescent risk and resilience to the effects of alcohol. The available evidence from mostly animal studies indicates adolescents are both more vulnerable and potentially more resilient to chronic alcohol effects on specific brain and cognitive outcomes. More human research directly comparing adolescents and adults is needed despite the methodological constraints. Parallel translational animal models can aid in the causal interpretation of observed effects. To improve their translational value, future animal studies should aim to use voluntary self-administration paradigms and incorporate individual differences and environmental context to better model human drinking behavior.

Suicidal ideation in college students having major depressive disorder: Role of childhood trauma, personality and dysfunctional attitudes

BACKGROUND

Suicide in college students is a major public health concern. Suicidal ideation (SI) is associated with childhood trauma, personality, dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms, but how they interact to predict SI remains unclear.

METHODS

Using cross-sectional design and convenience sampling method, a survey was conducted among 565 college students having major depressive disorder (MDD). The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale and Hamilton Depression Scale assessed participants' psychosocial factors. Chi-square test, t-test, Pearson correlation, and Structural Equation Model were used in data analysis.

RESULTS

Overall, 66.02% of participants with MDD had SI. Those with SI showed significant differences in physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, psychoticism, neuroticism, extroversion, dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms compared with those without SI. Childhood trauma, psychoticism, neuroticism, extroversion and dysfunctional attitudes affected SI through chain mediation. In addition, depressive symptoms, psychoticism, neuroticism and extroversion directly affected SI.

LIMITATIONS

The convenience sampling method may limit the generalizability of the findings. Results may be biased due to the self-report nature of the data collection procedure, the number of research subjects and differences in suicide risk assessment. The cross-sectional study cannot be used to infer causality.

CONCLUSIONS

The factors of childhood trauma, personality and dysfunctional attitudes affect SI through chain mediation. In addition, depressive symptoms and personality independently predict the occurrence of SI.

Physical Distancing and Social Media Use in Emerging Adults and Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Large-scale Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Survey Study

Background

Although emerging adults play a role in the spread of COVID-19, they are less likely to develop severe symptoms after infection. Emerging adults’ relatively high use of social media as a source of information raises concerns regarding COVID-19–related behavioral compliance (ie, physical distancing) in this age group.

Objective

This study aimed to investigate physical distancing among emerging adults in comparison with adults and examine the role of using social media for COVID-19 news and information in this regard. In addition, this study explored the relationship between physical distancing and using different social media platforms and sources.

Methods

The secondary data of a large-scale longitudinal national survey (N=123,848) between April and November 2020 were used. Participants indicated, ranging from 1 to 8 waves, how often they were successful in keeping a 1.5-m distance on a 7-point Likert scale. Participants aged between 18 and 24 years were considered emerging adults, and those aged >24 years were considered adults. In addition, a dummy variable was created to indicate per wave whether participants used social media for COVID-19 news and information. A subset of participants received follow-up questions to determine which platforms they used and what sources of news and information they had seen on social media. All preregistered hypotheses were tested with linear mixed-effects models and random intercept cross-lagged panel models.

Results

Emerging adults reported fewer physical distancing behaviors than adults (β=−.08, t_86,213.83=−26.79; P<.001). Moreover, emerging adults were more likely to use social media for COVID-19 news and information (b=2.48; odds ratio 11.93 [95% CI=9.72-14.65]; SE 0.11; Wald=23.66; P<.001), which mediated the association with physical distancing but only to a small extent (indirect effect: b=−0.03, 95% CI −0.04 to −0.02). Contrary to our hypothesis, the longitudinal random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed no evidence that physical distancing was not influenced by social media use in the previous wave. However, evidence indicated that social media use affects subsequent physical distancing behavior. Moreover, additional analyses showed that the use of most social media platforms (ie, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram) and interpersonal communication were negatively associated with physical distancing, whereas other platforms (ie, LinkedIn and Twitter) and government messages had no or small positive associations with physical distancing.

Conclusions

In conclusion, we should be vigilant with regard to the physical distancing of emerging adults, but the study results did not indicate concerns regarding the role of social media for COVID-19 news and information. However, as the use of some social media platforms and sources showed negative associations with physical distancing, future studies should more carefully examine these factors to better understand the associations between social media use for news and information and behavioral interventions in times of crisis.

Identifying Promising Themes for Adolescent Vaping Warnings: A National Experiment

INTRODUCTION

Adolescent vaping remains a problem in the United States, yet little is known about what health warning themes most discourage vaping among adolescents. We sought to identify the most compelling themes for vaping warnings for US adolescents.

METHODS

Participants were a national probability sample of 623 US adolescents aged 13-17 years, recruited in the summer of 2020. Adolescents were randomized to one of the five warning message themes about the potential health effects of vaping: 1. chemical harms, 2. lung harms, 3. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) harms, 4. nicotine addiction, or 5. control (messages about vape litter). The primary outcome was perceived message effectiveness (PME; 3-item scale). Secondary outcomes were negative affect (fear), attention, anticipated social interactions, and message novelty.

RESULTS

Adolescents rated the chemical, lung, and COVID-19 harms warning messages higher on PME than nicotine addiction and control (all p < .05), while nicotine addiction was rated higher than control (p < .05). The chemical, lung, and COVID-19 harms warning themes also elicited greater negative affect than nicotine addiction and control (all p < .05). For all other secondary outcomes, the COVID-19 harms warning message theme was rated higher than nicotine addiction and control (all p < .05).

CONCLUSION

Adolescents perceived warning message themes about lung, chemical and COVID-19 health effects of vaping as more effective than nicotine addiction. To discourage vaping, the FDA and others should communicate to youth about the health effects of vaping beyond nicotine addiction.

IMPLICATIONS

Adolescents rated warning message themes about the lung, chemical, and COVID-19 health effects of vaping as more effective than nicotine addiction, while nicotine addiction was rated as more effective than control themes about vaping litter. To discourage vaping among adolescents, health messaging should expand message themes to communicate about a broader set of health effects of vaping beyond nicotine addiction.

COVID-19, adversities and depression among older adolescents in urban slums of India

PURPOSE

We report findings from a survey on the mental health impact of COVID-19 factoring environmental adversities among older adolescents (15-19 years) living in urban slums in India.

METHODS

We report survey results of 3490 older adolescents. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 was used to assess depression, slum adversity questionnaire for slum conditions, and for COVID-19 infection we recorded self-reported positivity status. Sociodemographic details were also collected. Additional sub-group analyses of sample who had depression and tested positive for COVID-19 infection was conducted. We used univariate and multivariate logistic regression models to identify factors and COVID-19 infection that were associated with depression.

RESULTS

Adolescents with adversities were three times more likely to report depression. Adolescents who reported COVID-19 infection were about two times more likely to have depression. Sub-group analyses showed that adolescents having experienced adversities and girls were more likely to report depression following COVID-19 infection.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for an intersectional research framework that incorporates stress arising out of a pandemic, social disadvantage, and systemic inequities. Such a framework will help to assess mental health issues of developmentally vulnerable groups residing in disadvantageous conditions.

Risk-Taking Behavior Among Male Adolescents: The Role of Observer Presence and Individual Self-Control

A number of studies have focused on the same-sex peer effect on and the developmental difference in adolescent risk-taking in terms of the dual systems model. Little research, however, addresses the effects of different observers, the role of different levels of individual self-control, and their interactions. To fill this gap, the present study examined the main and interactive effects of observer presence and individual self-control on male adolescents' risk-taking behavior with an experimental design. A total of 261 male adolescents (M_age = 15.79 ± 0.79, range = 14-18) completed an adapted Stoplight Task, which measures risk-taking behavior, in the presence of an observer, either peer or adult, either male or female. The results indicated that a same-sex peer's presence and low self-control were both risk factors of male adolescents' risk-taking, but did only low self-control male adolescents take serious risks when in the presence of a same-sex peer whereas those with high self-control consistently had low levels of risk-taking under any condition. An opposite-sex observer, particularly an opposite-sex adult's presence, played a similar protective role for male adolescents with low self-control. The findings suggest that a high level of self-control closely related to the cognitive control system may significantly buffer the negative effect of an adverse social stimulus which activates the social-emotional system on male adolescents' risk-taking; the findings also reveal that an opposite-sex adult's presence may contribute to a decrease in male adolescents' risk-taking by improving their cognitive control system.

Association between relational mobility, brain structure, and prosociality in adolescents

Trust plays a vital role in human society. Previous studies have suggested that trust comprises general trust and caution. General trust is a belief that others, in general, are trustworthy, and caution is a belief in the importance of vigilance in dealing with others. Adolescence is a critical period for establishing these psychological traits. It is a period of physical and mental development, and the social environment during this period influences adolescents' psychology, including their brain structures. In this study, we focus on relational mobility as a socio-environmental factor that influences the development of adolescents' psychology and the brain. Relational mobility refers to the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and consists of two subfactors (the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships and the number of opportunities to meet new people). Accordingly, we analyzed each subfactor separately. Results showed that the degree of freedom to choose and replace social relationships was only negatively associated with caution and left posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) volume in adolescents. Furthermore, the effect of the freedom to choose and replace social relationships on caution was significantly relevant to the left pSTG volume. In contrast, the degree of opportunities to meet new people was associated with neither general trust nor caution, whereas it was positively associated with the right supramarginal gyrus volume. This study suggests that the social environment during adolescence influences brain structures related to prosociality.

An initial examination of the associations between appearance-related safety behaviors, socioemotional, and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence

INTRODUCTION

Adolescence is characterized by the onset of a relatively specific set of socioemotional disorders (i.e., depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and eating disorders) as well as body dysmorphia symptoms. Appearance-related concerns are a central feature of these disorders. Emerging evidence in adults suggests that appearance-related safety behaviors may play an instrumental role in the onset and maintenance of a number of disorders. To date, no work has examined appearance-related safety behaviors during adolescence. The present study examined the extent to which appearance-related safety behaviors may be associated with socioemotional and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence.

METHODS

Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17 years old (N = 387, M_age  = 14.82 years, 31.3% identified as male, 47.0% identified as female, and 19.1% identified as nonbinary/third gender, 2.6% declined to report gender identity) completed measures assessing negative affect, anxiety-relevant safety behavior use, cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, appearance-related safety behaviors, body dysmorphia symptoms, and socioemotional symptoms. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test hypotheses.

RESULTS

The results of this study suggest that appearance-related safety behaviors evidenced associations with latent factors corresponding to affective (i.e., depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety), eating disorders, and body dysmorphia symptoms after controlling for previously established vulnerability factors.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings demonstrate that appearance-related safety behaviors may evidence transdiagnostic associations with socioemotional symptoms and body dysmorphia symptoms during adolescence.

Social influence in adolescence as a double-edged sword

Social learning is fundamental to human development, helping individuals adapt to changing circumstances and cooperate in groups. During the formative years of adolescence, the social environment shapes people's socio-cognitive skills needed in adulthood. Although peer influence among adolescents is traditionally associated with risky and unruly conduct, with long-term negative effects on educational, economic and health outcomes, recent findings suggest that peers may also have a positive impact. Here, we present a series of experiments with 10-20-year-olds (n = 146) showing that positive and negative peer effects reflect a domain-general factor of social information use which declines during adolescence. Exposure to disobedient peers provoked rule breaking, and selfish peers reduced prosocial behaviour, particularly in early adolescence. However, compliant peers also promoted rule compliance and fair peers increased prosociality. A belief formation task further revealed that younger adolescents tend to assimilate social information, while older adolescents prioritize personal views. Our results highlight early adolescence as a key window for peer-based interventions to improve developmental trajectories.

Giving to others and neural processing during adolescence

Adolescence is marked by an increased sensitivity to the social environment as youth navigate evolving relationships with family, friends, and communities. Prosocial behavior becomes more differentiated such that older adolescents increasingly give more to known others (e.g., family, friends) than to strangers. This differentiation may be linked with changes in neural processing among brain regions implicated in social decision-making. A total of 269 adolescents from 9–15 and 19–20 years of age completed a decision-making task in which they could give money to caregivers, friends, and strangers while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Giving to caregivers and friends (at a cost to oneself) increased with age, but giving to strangers remained lower and stable across age. Brain regions implicated in cognitive control (dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex) showed increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) activation with increasing age across giving decisions to all recipients; regions associated with reward processing (ventral striatum and ventral tegmental area) showed increased activation across all ages when giving to all recipients. Brain regions associated with social cognition were either not active (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex) or showed reduced activation (temporal parietal junction and posterior superior temporal sulcus) when giving to others across all ages. Findings have implications for understanding the role of brain development in the increased complexity of social decision-making during adolescence.

Peer Facilitators as Core Co-developers of an Online Peer Encouragement Network (OPEN2chat) for Austrian Adolescents

Adolescence is a crucial developmental time, and it is essential to ensure stable mental health during the transition to adulthood. Peer-to-peer networks seem to be a promising tool to support adolescents during that time. While co-development often concentrates on the end-user, this paper focuses on the peer facilitators of an online peer encouragement network (OPEN2chat), where adolescents can chat with peer facilitators about their problems. We conducted 3 group discussions with 18 peer facilitators after a testing phase to improve the process of these interactions. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data after transcription. The four main themes were the responsibility of the peer facilitators toward their peers, especially their role of giving advice; the interaction process itself; time management; and technology aspects of the application. Including these stakeholders in the development process empowered the young people, helped eliminate problems with the application, and made the researchers more sensitive toward potential issues and emotions that peer facilitators encounter that may have been missed without a co-development process. Eliminating these problems might also help establish a better environment and support system for the actual end-users.

A methodological perspective on learning in the developing brain

The brain undergoes profound development across childhood and adolescence, including continuous changes in brain morphology, connectivity, and functioning that are, in part, dependent on one's experiences. These neurobiological changes are accompanied by significant changes in children's and adolescents' cognitive learning. By drawing from studies in the domains of reading, reinforcement learning, and learning difficulties, we present a brief overview of methodological approaches and research designs that bridge brain- and behavioral research on learning. We argue that ultimately these methods and designs may help to unravel questions such as why learning interventions work, what learning computations change across development, and how learning difficulties are distinct between individuals.

Adolescent Carers' Psychological Symptoms and Mental Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Study Using Data From the UK Millennium Cohort Study

PURPOSE

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescent carers in the UK may have experienced psychological distress owing to increased caring burden and loss of a break from their caring role. This study investigated longitudinal association between adolescents' caring status and mental health outcomes from 2018/2019 to February-March 2021.

METHODS

The participants (n = 3,927) answered mental health questions in both the Millennium Cohort Study sweep 7 survey (age 17 years in 2018/2019) and at least one of three waves of the COVID-19 survey from May 2020 to February-March 2021. Caring status at the age of 17 years was assessed using a single question regarding whether the participant regularly looked after anyone who needed care, without being paid. Outcome measures were psychological symptoms, measured using the Kessler Distress Scale, and mental well-being, measured using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale.

RESULTS

Compared with 3,616 noncarers, 311 (7.9%) adolescent carers reported significantly higher Kessler Distress Scale and lower Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scores during the pandemic. These associations were largely explained by psychosocial risk factors. Worse outcomes were associated with poor sleep quality, attempted suicide at baseline, low social support, and a strong feeling of loneliness during the pandemic. These factors were significantly more likely to be observed among adolescent carers than noncarers.

DISCUSSION

UK adolescent carers exhibited worsened mental health outcomes one year after the first national lockdown. This increased distress may be attributable to psychosocial risk factors during the pre-COVID-19 and current COVID-19 periods, and they require psychosocial support.

Why do young people engage in dating relationships during early adolescence? An inter-generational qualitative analysis from Blantyre, Malawi

Engagement in dating relationships plays an important role in the health trajectories of young people, particularly during the early adolescent period between ages 10-14. Yet little is known about such relationships among youth in low resource contexts. This study sought to contribute to the literature on this topic by exploring reasons why school-going young people aged 12-14 years engage in dating relationships in Blantyre, Malawi. A thematic analysis was used to code and analyse in-depth interview data from 23 young people and 19 caregivers. Against the backdrop of growing sexual desires and feelings of attraction, participants stressed harassment from boys and coercion from older men, peer pressure, social status attainment, financial deprivation and encouragement during initiation ceremonies as reasons for engaging in dating relationships. Girls were found to be subject to multiple power dynamics-including gender power relations, as well as power dynamics within same-gender peer groups-that influenced their sex and relationship involvement. These findings carry implications for the design and timing of sexual and reproductive health youth programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa and emphasise the need for multi-level interventions to address the multiple influences in young people's dating lives.