Examining the Association between Punishment and Reward Sensitivity and Response Inhibition to Previously-Incentivized Cues across Development.

Processing and learning from affective cues to guide goal-directed behavior may be particularly important during adolescence; yet the factors that promote and/or disrupt the ability to integrate value in order to guide decision making across development remain unclear. The present study (N = 1046) assessed individual difference factors (self-reported punishment and reward sensitivity) related to whether previously-rewarded and previously-punished cues differentially impact goal-directed behavior (response inhibition) in a large developmental sample. Participants were between the ages of 8-21 years (Mage = 14.29, SD = 3.97, 50.38% female). Previously-rewarded cues improved response inhibition among participants age 14 and older. Further, punishment sensitivity predicted overall improved response inhibition among participants aged 10 to 18. The results highlight two main factors that are associated with improvements in the ability to integrate value to guide goal-directed behaviour - cues in the environment (e.g., reward-laden cues) and individual differences in punishment sensitivity. These findings have implications for both educational and social policies aimed at characterizing the ways in which youth integrate value to guide decision making.

Developmental trajectories of sensitivity to threat in children and adolescents predict larger medial frontal theta differentiation during response inhibition.

Sensitivity to threat (ST) is thought to be a hallmark of the onset and maintenance of anxiety, which often manifests behaviorally as withdrawal, increased arousal and hypervigilant monitoring of performance. The current study investigated whether longitudinal trajectories of ST were linked to medial frontal (MF) theta power dynamics, a robust marker of performance monitoring. Youth (N = 432, Mage = 11.96 years) completed self-report measures of threat sensitivity annually for 3 years. A latent class growth curve analysis was used to identify distinct profiles of threat sensitivity over time. Participants also completed a GO/NOGO task while electroencephalography was recorded. We identified three threat sensitivity profiles: (i) high (n = 83), (ii) moderate (n = 273) and (iii) low ( n= 76). Participants in the high threat sensitivity class had greater levels of MF theta power differentiation (NOGO-GO) compared to participants in the low threat sensitivity class, indicating that consistently high threat sensitivity is associated with neural indicators of performance monitoring. Of concern, both hypervigilant performance monitoring and threat sensitivity have been associated with anxiety; thus, youth with high threat sensitivity may be at risk for the development of anxiety.

Deliberate Self-injury in Children and Associations With Negative Adjustment.

This study examines patterns between known childhood and adolescence self-injury behavior and longitudinal patterns with negative adjustment.

A developmental examination of medial frontal theta dynamics and inhibitory control.

Medial frontal theta-band oscillations are a robust marker of action-outcome monitoring. In a large developmental sample (n = 432, 9-16 years), we examined whether phase and non-phase locked medial frontal theta power were related to inhibitory control among children and adolescents. Our results showed that the well-established increase in medial frontal theta power during inhibitory control was captured largely by non-phase locked dynamics, which partially mediated the positive effect of age on task performance. A person-centered approach also revealed latent classes of individuals based on their multivariate theta power dynamics (phase locked/non-phase locked, GO/NOGO). The class of individuals showing low phase locked and high non-phase locked medial frontal theta were significantly older, had better inhibitory control, scored higher on measures of general cognitive function, and were more efficient in their behavioural responses. The functional significance of phase and non-phase locked theta dynamics, and their potential changes, could have important implications for action-outcome monitoring and cognitive function in both typical and atypical development, as well as related psychopathology .

An ERP investigation of children and adolescents' sensitivity to wins and losses during a peer observation manipulation.

The purpose of this ERP P3 study was to test a peer observation manipulation (being observed by a peer versus being alone) on neural markers of attention to reward (win-feedback) and punishment (loss-feedback) during the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. Participants (126 children, 53 % male, 8-10 years; 196 early adolescents, 50 % male, 11-13 years; and 121 mid-adolescents, 52 % male, 14-16 years) were assessed by age group and pubertal status. Individual differences in how participants felt about being observed by a peer, and self-report personality factors, also were examined. Findings indicated that early and mid-adolescents (and individuals in mid-puberty and late-puberty) were sensitive to peer observation as both groups showed larger neural responses to loss-feedback in the peer condition than in the alone condition. Conversely, children (and individuals in pre- and early-puberty) were unaffected by peer observation. In addition, there clearly were individual differences in how rewarding versus anxiety-provoking participants found the peer experience. Early adolescents and mid-adolescents (and individuals in mid- and late-puberty) who reported feeling more anxious about the peer observation elicited larger neural responses to loss-feedback, and individuals in mid- and late-puberty in particular reported higher worry and lower sensation-seeking scores than those who reported a positive experience.

A person-centered examination of emotion dysregulation, sensitivity to threat, and impulsivity among children and adolescents: An ERP study.

OBJECTIVES: Adolescence often is characterized by the onset of social anxiety and risk taking; yet, not all youth are anxious and/or risk takers. There are several factors that may help differentiate youth with anxiety (e.g., threat sensitivity and emotion dysregulation) and youth who take risks (e.g., impulsivity and emotion dysregulation). We conducted a latent class analysis to identify groups of youth who differ in these processes, and then investigated group differences on the error-related negativity, an ERP that has been differentially associated with threat sensitivity and impulsivity. METHOD: Youth (N = 1313, Mage = 11, range = 8-15 years) completed a survey assessing their emotion dysregulation, sensitivity to threat, and impulsivity. A subsample (N = 424) also completed a go/no-go task while EEG was recorded. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Four groups were identified with differential levels of emotion dysregulation, sensitivity to threat, and impulsivity. Adolescents had greater odds than children of being in the High_Dysregulation/ThreatSensitivity or ModerateDysregulation/HighImpulsivity Groups in comparison to two other groups with lower scores. The High_Dysregulation/ThreatSensitivity Group had the largest ERN, while the ModerateDysregulation/HighImpulsivity Group had the smallest ERN. The ERN may be a potential biomarker to help distinguish between different profiles of adolescents who may be at risk for either anxiety or risk taking.

A longitudinal study investigating trajectories of sensitivity to threat over time and their association with alpha asymmetry among children and adolescents.

Research has yet to investigate trajectories of sensitivity to threat across childhood and adolescence. Further, neural associations of these trajectories remain unknown. The current 3-year study used a latent class growth curve analysis to investigate whether there were distinct trajectories of sensitivity to threat among children and adolescents over time (N = 363; age range at Time 1 = 8-14). We also examined whether alpha asymmetry (a neural index of motivational tendencies) was associated with the different trajectories. Results revealed three distinct trajectory groups (1) high-stable sensitivity to threat, (2) moderate-increasing sensitivity to threat and (3) low-stable sensitivity to threat. The high-stable sensitivity to threat group had greater right frontal asymmetry activation (i.e., greater neural avoidance motivation) than the other two groups. Additionally, females, those with higher parental education, and individuals with more advanced pubertal development (but not age) had greater odds of being part of the high-stable sensitivity to threat group compared to the other groups. Of interest, puberty rather than age may be an important indicator of heightened sensitivity to threat.

A Latent Class Analysis of Adolescents in First-Year University: Associations with Psychosocial Adjustment Throughout the Emerging Adult Period and Post-University Outcomes.

The long-term outcomes for adolescents who struggle in first-year university remain unexplored. This 7-year longitudinal study aimed to identify distinct groups of adolescents based on their characteristics/behaviors in first-year university, and then assess whether these groups differ in psychosocial adjustment trajectories (i.e., mental health, positive relationships) throughout the emerging adult period, as well as in graduation rates, employment characteristics, and reflections on time spent at university. Participants (N = 1017; 71% female; Year 1 Mage = 19 years) enrolled in a Canadian university completed a survey annually for 7 years. Four groups in Year 1 were identified: Good Students who exhibited no difficulties; Sensation-Seeking who prioritized social engagement and substance use over academic engagement but reported no psychological adjustment difficulties; Struggling Students who had the most difficulties; and Club Involved who exhibited high club involvement. The Struggling Students Group continued to have more psychosocial adjustment difficulties than the other groups during and after university, were more likely to drop out of university, and to later have less job satisfaction. This group requires the most support. Consideration also should be given to the Sensation-Seeking Group, as they reported a lack of academic motivation (and regret about that later) and also were more likely to drop out of university. At the same time, they may be more difficult to target given that they did not report psychosocial difficulties. Overall, the findings highlight the need for early support and discourage a 'one-size fits all' method for promoting psychosocial adjustment.

Sensitivity to negative feedback among children and adolescents: An ERP study comparing developmental differences between high-worriers and low-worriers.

Neurodevelopmental imbalance models suggest that asynchrony in the maturation of interconnections between brain regions contributes to adolescents being more sensitive to emotionally salient events (e.g., negative feedback) than children. There may, however, be important individual differences to consider when investigating sensitivity to negative feedback. For example, worriers tend to have a greater sensitivity to negative feedback than low-worriers. Thus, it may be that adolescents' sensitivity to negative feedback is tied to worry. One way to test this question is to compare worriers to nonworriers separately for both children and adolescents. If only adolescent worriers are sensitive to negative feedback (i.e., low-worriers are not), then sensitivity to negative feedback may be linked to higher rates of worry. If however, adolescent nonworriers also have a sensitivity, then adolescents in general may be sensitive to negative feedback. The current study (N = 100, Mage = 11.26, standard deviation = 1.71) used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate neural differences in sensitivity to negative feedback among adolescents and children with high and low levels of worry. For both children and adolescents, worriers had a larger P3 amplitude to negative feedback than nonworriers. This difference, however, was smaller among the adolescents (i.e., adolescent nonworriers also had a large P3 amplitude to negative feedback). Our results support neurodevelopmental imbalance models that suggest adolescents in general are sensitive to emotionally salient events, such as receiving negative feedback.

The role of emotion dysregulation: A longitudinal investigation of the interpersonal theory of suicide.

Emotion dysregulation is considered to be transdiagnostic in nature, given its association with a variety of problem behaviors. Of concern, emotion dysregulation also may be associated with key components of the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (ITS), namely suicidal desire and acquired capability for suicide (ACS; heightened fearlessness toward death and pain tolerance). ITS suggests that experiencing suicidal desire in conjunction with ACS leads to greater risk for suicide attempts. The present 4-wave longitudinal study tested bidirectional associations among emotion dysregulation, NSSI, ACS, and suicidal desire. Emotion dysregulation was associated with both desire and capability for suicide over time. Specifically, emotion dysregulation was associated with (1) higher levels of suicidal desire, (2) higher levels of NSSI, which in turn predicted higher ACS, and (3) lower ACS, suggesting that individuals with emotion dysregulation may find thoughts of death and pain more aversive. Thus, there are two separate paths for how emotion regulation leads to ACS, one path in which emotion dysregulation indirectly leads to ACS through NSSI, and one path in which emotion dysregulation protects against the development of ACS (note that higher levels of ACS alone are not sufficient to lead to a suicide attempt - suicidal desire also is required).

A count of coping strategies: A longitudinal study investigating an alternative method to understanding coping and adjustment.

Researchers recently have suggested that coping flexibility (i.e., an individual's ability to modify and change coping strategies depending on the context) may be an important way to investigate coping. The availability of numerous coping strategies may be an important precursor to coping flexibility, given that flexibility can only be obtained if an individual is able to access and use different coping strategies. Typically, studies examining the use of coping strategies compute means-based analyses, which assess not only what strategies are used but also how much they are used. Thus, there is limited ability to differentiate between individuals who use a lot of strategies infrequently, and individuals who use only one or two strategies a lot. One way to address this confound is to count the number of strategies that an individual uses without attention to how frequently they use them (i.e., a count-based approach). The present longitudinal study compares a count-based model and a means-based model of coping and adjustment among undergraduates (N = 1132). An autoregressive cross-lagged path analysis revealed that for the count-based approach, using a greater number of positive coping strategies led to more positive adjustment and less suicide ideation over time than using a smaller number of positive coping strategies. Further, engagement in a greater number of negative coping strategies predicted more depressive symptoms and poorer emotion regulation over time. In comparison, the means-based model revealed identical results for negative coping strategies; however, engagement in more frequent positive coping strategies did not predict better positive adjustment over time. Thus, a count-based approach offers a novel way to examine how the number of coping strategies that individuals use can help promote adjustment among university students.

The link between nonsuicidal self-injury and acquired capability for suicide: A longitudinal study.

Despite recent findings that nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a strong predictor of suicide attempts, little empirical attention has been given to the mechanism through which NSSI increases suicide risk. The present 2-wave longitudinal study represents the first critical test of Joiner's (2005) hypothesis that NSSI is linked to lower pain sensitivity and fear of death over time (i.e., NSSI leads to acquired capability for suicide). Undergraduate students (N = 782) at a midsized Canadian university completed measures of NSSI and acquired capability for suicide at 2 time points (1 year apart). Path analyses revealed that higher frequency of NSSI engagement in the past year was associated with greater acquired capability for suicide 1 year later, and that this link was unidirectional. This study provides the first longitudinal evidence that a potential mechanism for the link between NSSI and suicide attempts may be acquired capability for suicide, and suggests that targeting NSSI engagement could help to prevent individuals from acquiring the ability to enact more lethal forms of self-injury.

Impulsivity and nonsuicidal self-injury: A review and meta-analysis.

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI; direct self-injury without lethal intent) often is thought to be associated with impulse control problems. Recent research, however, offers conflicting results about whether impulsivity is a risk factor for NSSI engagement. To disentangle findings on the link between impulsivity and NSSI, an extensive review of the literature was conducted using several electronic databases (i.e., PsychInfo, PsychArticles, ERIC, CINAHL, and MEDLINE). In total, 27 studies that met the specific inclusion criteria were identified. Results of a meta-analysis revealed that individuals who engaged in NSSI self-reported greater impulsivity than individuals who did not engage in NSSI, and that this effect was most consistent for measures of negative urgency. In contrast, there was little evidence of an association between lab-based measures of impulsivity (e.g., Go/No-Go, Stop/Signal Task) and NSSI. Moreover, the link between impulsivity and NSSI found for self-report measures was sometimes eliminated when other risk factors for NSSI were controlled (e.g., abuse, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder). In addition to integrating findings, the present review provides several explanations for the discrepancies in findings between studies employing self-report versus lab-based measures of impulsivity. To conclude, several specific recommendations for future research directions to extend the literature on impulsivity and NSSI are offered.