Girls’ challenging social experiences in early adolescence predict neural response to rewards and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Developmental models of psychopathology posit that exposure to social stressors may confer risk for depression in adolescent girls by disrupting neural reward circuitry. The current study tested this hypothesis by examining the relationship between early adolescent social stressors and later neural reward processing and depressive symptoms. Participants were 120 girls from an ongoing longitudinal study of precursors to depression across adolescent development. Low parental warmth, peer victimization, and depressive symptoms were assessed when the girls were 11 and 12 years old, and participants completed a monetary reward guessing fMRI task and assessment of depressive symptoms at age 16. Results indicate that low parental warmth was associated with increased response to potential rewards in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), striatum, and amygdala, whereas peer victimization was associated with decreased response to potential rewards in the mPFC. Furthermore, concurrent depressive symptoms were associated with increased reward anticipation response in mPFC and striatal regions that were also associated with early adolescent psychosocial stressors, with mPFC and striatal response mediating the association between social stressors and depressive symptoms. These findings are consistent with developmental models that emphasize the adverse impact of early psychosocial stressors on neural reward processing and risk for depression in adolescence.

What Explains Correlates of Peer Victimization? A Systematic Review of Mediating Factors

“…Whereas some studies relied exclusively on the Baron and Kenny approach of mediation testing (1986) where mediation is inferred from comparing direct effect sizes with and without controlling for the mediating variable, studies increasingly used Hayes' well-documented and freely available SPSS macro PROCESS (e.g., Casement et al 2014;Guarneri-White et al 2015;Hamlat et al 2015;Mathieson et al 2014). Such novel approaches are needed to estimate possible double-and multiple-mediation, as are larger sample sizes than used in some of the studies reviewed here (e.g., Baker and Bugay 2011;Espinoza 2015;Giannotta et al 2012;Guarneri-White et al 2015;Harper 2012;Jenkins and Demaray 2015, who all used samples smaller than n = 200).…”

“…Quite different from these mostly questionnaire based studies is a neuroimaging study by Casement et al (2014), who showed differences between victimized and non-victimized girls in activation of the medial prefrontal cortex, which is implicated in memory and decision making. The authors had hypothesized that individual response variation in this area would be related to depression, thus potentially constituting a mediating pathway between peer victimization and internalizing problems, but explicit mediation tests did not support this pathway.…”

Volitional Strategies Through Metacognitive Development in Fostering Reading Motivation

“…At this age they begin to attach great importance to friendship bound together by common interests. In this respect, Casement et al (2014) remarked that for adolescents, their relationships with parents and peers are a crucial factor. Along the same line, Guthrie et al (1998) showed that reading motivation for social interaction is very important aspect.…”

Evaluation of Depression and its Related Factors Among Female Students in Fasa, Iran

“…4 Almost 20% of those who suffer depression during their lifetime have experienced the disorder when they were 12 to 19 years old. 5 According to studies conducted in the recent decade, the degree of depression among adolescents has been reported to range from 8% to 20%. 4 According to a study performed by Nair, it was indicated that 3% of adolescents aged 13 to 19 suffer depression.…”

“…Moreover, in some other studies, it was reported that girls suffer depression twice as many as boys. 1,5,[8][9][10] Given the fact that it will lead to disorders in a broad variety of social, educational, and professional performance, prevalence of depression is required to be significantly taken into consideration. Various studies have shown an estimated depression prevalence rate ranging from 10% to 30%.…”