Suchergebnisse

There is major concern about the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on adolescent suicidal ideation (SI) and peer relationships. We investigated (1) rates of SI and (2) the extent to which peer connectedness and pre‐existing neural activation to social reward predicted SI during the initial stay‐at‐home orders of the pandemic (April–May 2020) in a longitudinal sample of adolescent girls (N = 93; Mage = 15.06; 69% White non‐Hispanic). Daily diary and fMRI methods were used to assess peer connectedness and neural activation to social reward, respectively. Nearly 40% of girls endorsed SI during the initial stay‐at‐home orders. Greater peer connectedness and neural responsivity to anticipated social reward were associated with a reduced odds of SI during the pandemic among girls.

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.

This study investigated the association between maternal affective expression during laboratory‐based interaction tasks and adolescents' experience of positive affect (PA) in natural settings. Participants were 80 healthy adolescents and their mothers. Durations of maternal positive (PA) and negative affective (NA) expressions were observed during a conflict resolution task and a positive event planning interaction task. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) procedures were employed to assess adolescents' momentary and peak experience of PA in daily life. Results indicated that maternal NA, but not maternal PA, was related to adolescents' EMA‐reported PA. Adolescents whose mothers expressed more NA experienced less PA in daily environments. Results suggest that adolescents' exposure to maternal negative affective behavior is associated with adolescents' subjective daily well‐being.