Testing sampling bias in estimates of adolescent social competence and behavioral control

From developmental neuroscience to policy: A novel framework based on participatory research

Insights from developmental neuroscience are not always translated to actionable policy decisions. In this review, we explore the potential of bridging the gap between developmental neuroscience and policy through youth participatory research approaches. As the current generation of adolescents lives in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing society, their lived experiences are crucial for both research and policy. Moreover, their active involvement holds significant promise, given their heightened creativity and need to contribute. We therefore advocate for a transdisciplinary framework that fosters collaboration between developmental scientists, adolescents, and policy makers in addressing complex societal challenges. We highlight the added value of adolescents' lived experiences in relation to two pressing societal issues affecting adolescents' mental health: performance pressure and social inequality. By integrating firsthand lived experiences with insights from developmental neuroscience, we provide a foundation for progress in informed policy decisions.

Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS): A team science effort to predict societal trajectories in adolescence and young adulthood

Our society faces a great diversity of opportunities for youth. The 10-year Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) program has the long-term goal to understand which combination of measures best predict societal trajectories, such as school success, mental health, well-being, and developing a sense of belonging in society. Our leading hypothesis is that self-regulation is key to how adolescents successfully navigate the demands of contemporary society. We aim to test these questions using socio-economic, questionnaire (including experience sampling methods), behavioral, brain (fMRI, sMRI, EEG), hormonal, and genetic measures in four large cohorts including adolescents and young adults. Two cohorts are designed as test and replication cohorts to test the developmental trajectory of self-regulation, including adolescents of different socioeconomic status thereby bridging individual, family, and societal perspectives. The third cohort consists of an entire social network to examine how neural and self-regulatory development influences and is influenced by whom adolescents and young adults choose to interact with. The fourth cohort includes youth with early signs of antisocial and delinquent behavior to understand patterns of societal development in individuals at the extreme ends of self-regulation and societal participation, and examines pathways into and out of delinquency. We will complement the newly collected cohorts with data from existing large-scale population-based and case-control cohorts. The study is embedded in a transdisciplinary approach that engages stakeholders throughout the design stage, with a strong focus on citizen science and youth participation in study design, data collection, and interpretation of results, to ensure optimal translation to youth in society.

Dynamic Associations Between Anxiety Symptoms and Drinking Behavior From Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood

PURPOSE

Research is inconclusive with respect to the possible risk-increasing effect of anxiety symptoms on heavy drinking behavior among adolescents and young adults. Adult role transitions and changes in the social context from early adolescence into young adulthood may impact the association between anxiety symptoms and alcohol use.

METHODS

The TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey, including 2,229 individuals at baseline, was used to evaluate the bi-directional and longitudinal associations between anxiety symptoms and alcohol use, using data at 14, 16, 19, 22, and 25 years of age.

RESULTS

Cross-lagged models revealed a relatively stable negative association at 14, 16, and 19 years, showing that relatively higher anxiety symptoms were associated with relatively lower drinking levels three years later. This effect was absent in young adulthood. There was no evidence for significant associations between alcohol use and subsequent anxiety symptoms, with the exception of alcohol use at age 19, which predicted relatively lower levels of anxiety symptoms at age 22.

DISCUSSION

Overall, the results indicated that anxiety symptoms may withhold adolescents from (heavy) drinking, although this protective effect disappeared in young adulthood. Transitions in social contexts as well as autonomy and adult responsibilities could underlie the changing association between alcohol use and anxiety symptoms throughout adolescence and young adulthood.

Probing apathy in children and adolescents with the Apathy Motivation Index-Child version

Apathy is linked to mental health and altered neurocognitive functions such as learning and decision-making in healthy adults. Mental health problems typically begin to emerge during adolescence, yet little is known about how apathy develops due to an absence of quantitative measurements specific to young people. Here, we present and evaluate the Apathy Motivation Index-Child Version (AMI-CV) for children and adolescents. We show across two samples of young people (aged 8 to 17 years, total N = 191) tested in schools in the UK and on a smartphone app, that the AMI-CV is a short, psychometrically sound measure to assess levels of apathy and motivation in young people. Similar to adult versions, the AMI-CV captures three distinct apathy domains: Behavioural Activation, Social Motivation and Emotional Sensitivity. The AMI-CV showed excellent construct validity with an alternative measure of apathy and external validity replicating specific links with related mental health traits shown in adults. Our results provide a short measure of self-reported apathy in young people that enables research into apathy development. The AMI-CV can be used in conjunction with the adult version to investigate the impact of levels of apathy across the lifespan.

The dimensionality of the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory across age and relationships

Close interpersonal conflicts between parents and children, marital or romantic partners, and between friends are common, and adjustment in youth and adults depends on how these conflicts are managed. While conflict management is important for relationships and adjustment, the structure of conflict management in adults or in youths has rarely been examined. Knowing how conflict management is structured, and whether this structure changes with age and relationships, is important to understanding what factors influence the development of conflict management skills, and how to intervene. In the current study, we explored the unidimensional vs. multidimensional structure of conflict management in family relationships, friendships and romantic relationships across adolescence and adulthood. The sample consisted of 497 Dutch adolescents (57% boys, Mage = 13.03, SD = 0.46, 11-15 years old) who were followed over 11 years in 9 measurement waves, and their parents, siblings, best friends (six waves), and romantic partner (three waves). First-order factor analyses (CFA) showed that the structure of conflict management is similar for adolescents and adults, across relationships. The results of second-order models, including the theoretical higher dimensions positive/negative conflict management and engagement/disengagement, showed no support for these higher dimensions. The results of bifactor models showed differences between adults and youths: while positive problem solving was part of the general factor of conflict management in adults, it was not part of this general factor in adolescents. The general factor was linked to increases in internalizing and externalizing problems, and with decreases in prosocial behavior. Overall, the bifactor models increased the interpretability and validity of the conflict management measure.

Decline in positive future orientations among adolescents during covid-19: The role of socioeconomic status, parental support, and sense of control

INTRODUCTION

Before coronavirus disease (covid-19), adolescents from a lower socioeconomic status (SES) background tend to have less positive future orientations, receive less parental support, and have a weaker sense of control than adolescents from a higher SES background. The covid-19 pandemic has potentially increased the socioeconomic gaps in positive future orientations, parental support, and sense of control among adolescents who are currently in vocational education. As societies are aiming to return back to precovid norms, certain groups of adolescents might require more attention for ensuring a stable future than others.

METHODS

Two-wave questionnaire data of 689 Dutch adolescents (Mage  = 17.8; 56% female) from the Youth Got Talent project was analyzed. Latent Change Score models are a relatively novel approach that allows two-wave data to estimate associations between precovid predictor variables and changes in outcome variables from before to during covid-19 (e.g., SES, positive future orientations, parental support, and sense of control). Analyses were preregistered.

RESULTS

The precovid socioeconomic differences in adolescent's positive future orientations and sense of control remained stable during covid-19, whereas the socioeconomic difference in parental support decreased during covid-19. A decline in parental support, an increase in sense of control, and more covid-19 hardships were associated with an increase in future orientations.

CONCLUSION

The covid-19 situation has not substantially increased socioeconomic differences in positive future orientations and sense of control, but did decrease socioeconomic differences in parental support among adolescents. Short-term policies should aim to facilitate parental support and positive future orientations to all adolescents who experienced a decline, while also long-term focusing on the more consistent socioeconomic difference in sense of control among adolescents.

A perspective on enhancing representative samples in developmental human neuroscience: Connecting science to society

Marginalized groups are often underrepresented in human developmental neuroscientific studies. This is problematic for the generalizability of findings about brain-behavior mechanisms, as well as for the validity, reliability, and reproducibility of results. In the present paper we discuss selection bias in cohort studies, which is known to contribute to the underrepresentation of marginalized groups. First, we address the issue of exclusion bias, as marginalized groups are sometimes excluded from studies because they do not fit the inclusion criteria. Second, we highlight examples of sampling bias. Recruitment strategies are not always designed to reach and attract a diverse group of youth. Third, we explain how diversity can be lost due to attrition of marginalized groups in longitudinal cohort studies. We provide experience- and evidence-based recommendations to stimulate neuroscientists to enhance study population representativeness via science communication and citizen science with youth. By connecting science to society, researchers have the opportunity to establish sustainable and equal researcher-community relationships, which can positively contribute to tackling selection biases.

Socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent health behaviours across 32 different countries - The role of country-level social mobility

Higher family affluence is associated with healthier behaviours in adolescents, but the strength of this association varies across countries. Differences in social mobility at the country-level, i.e. the extent to which adolescents develop a different socioeconomic status (SES) than their parents, may partially explain why the association between family affluence and adolescent health behaviours is stronger in some countries than in others. Using data from adolescents aged 11-15 years from 32 countries, participating in the 2017/2018 wave of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (N = 185,086), we employed multilevel regression models with cross-level interactions to examine whether country-level social mobility moderates the association between family affluence and adolescent health behaviours (i.e. moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, vigorous physical activity, healthy and unhealthy foods consumption, having breakfast regularly, and weekly smoking). Higher family affluence was more strongly associated with higher levels of adolescent physical activity in countries characterized by high levels of social mobility. No cross-level interactions were found for any of the other health behaviours. Differences in social mobility at the country-level may contribute to cross-national variations in socioeconomic inequalities in adolescent physical activity. Further research can shed light on the mechanisms linking country-level social mobility to inequalities in adolescent physical activity to identify targets for policy and interventions.

Exploration heuristics decrease during youth

Deciding between exploring new avenues and exploiting known choices is central to learning, and this exploration-exploitation trade-off changes during development. Exploration is not a unitary concept, and humans deploy multiple distinct mechanisms, but little is known about their specific emergence during development. Using a previously validated task in adults, changes in exploration mechanisms were investigated between childhood (8-9 y/o, N = 26; 16 females), early (12-13 y/o, N = 38; 21 females), and late adolescence (16-17 y/o, N = 33; 19 females) in ethnically and socially diverse schools from disadvantaged areas. We find an increased usage of a computationally light exploration heuristic in younger groups, effectively accommodating their limited neurocognitive resources. Moreover, this heuristic was associated with self-reported, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in this population-based sample. This study enriches our mechanistic understanding about how exploration strategies mature during development.

Adverse childhood experiences and fronto-subcortical structures in the developing brain

The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) differs between individuals and depends on the type and timing of the ACE. The aim of this study was to assess the relation between various recently occurred ACEs and morphology in the developing brain of children between 8 and 11 years of age. We measured subcortical volumes, cortical thickness, cortical surface area and fractional anisotropy in regions of interest in brain scans acquired in 1,184 children from the YOUth cohort. ACEs were based on parent-reports of recent experiences and included: financial problems; parental mental health problems; physical health problems in the family; substance abuse in the family; trouble with police, justice or child protective services; change in household composition; change in housing; bereavement; divorce or conflict in the family; exposure to violence in the family and bullying victimization. We ran separate linear models for each ACE and each brain measure. Results were adjusted for the false discovery rate across regions of interest. ACEs were reported for 83% of children in the past year. Children were on average exposed to two ACEs. Substance abuse in the household was associated with larger cortical surface area in the left superior frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.724, p _FDR = 0.0077, right superior frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.409, p _FDR = 0.0110, left pars triangularis, t(781) = 3.614, p _FDR = 0.0077, left rostral middle frontal gyrus, t(781) = 3.163, p _FDR = 0.0195 and right caudal anterior cingulate gyrus, t(781) = 2.918, p _FDR = 0.0348. Household exposure to violence (was associated with lower fractional anisotropy in the left and right cingulum bundle hippocampus region t(697) = -3.154, p _FDR = 0.0101 and t(697) = -3.401, p _FDR = 0.0085, respectively. Lower household incomes were more prevalent when parents reported exposure to violence and the mean parental education in years was lower when parents reported substance abuse in the family. No other significant associations with brain structures were found. Longer intervals between adversity and brain measurements and longitudinal measurements may reveal whether more evidence for the impact of ACEs on brain development will emerge later in life.

Gaze and speech behavior in parent–child interactions: The role of conflict and cooperation

A primary mode of human social behavior is face-to-face interaction. In this study, we investigated the characteristics of gaze and its relation to speech behavior during video-mediated face-to-face interactions between parents and their preadolescent children. 81 parent–child dyads engaged in conversations about cooperative and conflictive family topics. We used a dual-eye tracking setup that is capable of concurrently recording eye movements, frontal video, and audio from two conversational partners. Our results show that children spoke more in the cooperation-scenario whereas parents spoke more in the conflict-scenario. Parents gazed slightly more at the eyes of their children in the conflict-scenario compared to the cooperation-scenario. Both parents and children looked more at the other's mouth region while listening compared to while speaking. Results are discussed in terms of the role that parents and children take during cooperative and conflictive interactions and how gaze behavior may support and coordinate such interactions.

I know better! Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice

Adolescents aspire for independence. Successful independence means knowing when to rely on one's own knowledge and when to listen to others. A critical prerequisite thus is a well‐developed metacognitive ability to accurately assess the quality of one's own knowledge. Little is known about whether the strive to become an independent decision maker in adolescence is underpinned by the necessary metacognitive skills. Here, we demonstrate that metacognition matures from childhood to adolescence (N = 107) and that this process coincides with greater independent decision‐making. We show that adolescents, in contrast to children, take on others’ advice less often, but only when the advice is misleading. Finally, we demonstrate that adolescents’ reduced reliance on others’ advice is explained by their increased metacognitive skills, suggesting that a developing ability to introspect may support independent decision‐making in adolescence.