The Effect of Parents and Peers on the Neural Correlates of Risk Taking and Antisocial Behavior During Adolescence.

Social and neurobiological factors independently associate with the development of antisocial behavior during adolescence, yet it is unclear how these factors contribute to antisocial behavior in girls. Using a longitudinal sample of 45 adolescent girls (age in years at scan: M = 15.38, SD = 0.33), this study examined the contributions of parent-adolescent relationship quality and deviant peer affiliation from 6th-8th grades along with the neural correlates of risk taking in 9th grade to later antisocial behavior. High parent-adolescent closeness in early adolescence predicted lower antisocial behavior for girls in later adolescence via lower affiliation with deviant peer groups and less activation of the medial prefrontal cortex during risk taking. Findings highlight the enduring role of parents and peers during adolescence, and the importance of investigating social relationships alongside the brain to identify a holistic understanding of the development of antisocial behavior in girls.

Youth coping and cardiac autonomic functioning: Implications for social and academic adjustment.

Extending literature on youth coping and stress physiology, this two-wave longitudinal study examined independent and interactive roles of youth coping with daily stressors (i.e., peer, academic) and cardiac autonomic functioning in subsequent social and academic adjustment across the transition to middle school. Our sample consisted of 100 typically developing youth (10-12 years old at Time 1, 53 boys, 43% ethnic minorities) who reported on their coping strategies in response to peer and academic stress. Youth participated in laboratory tasks (i.e., baseline, mother-youth conversations about youth's actual peer and academic challenges) during which sympathetic and parasympathetic activities were recorded, and cardiac autonomic functioning indicators were derived. Youth, mothers, and teachers reported on various aspects of youths' social and academic adjustment at Times 1 and 2. Results revealed that, for both peer and academic domains, greater use of engagement coping strategies was prospectively linked with better adjustment 7 months later, but only among youth who exhibited higher (greater sympathetic-parasympathetic coactivation) but not lower (limited coactivation, or coinhibition) cardiac autonomic regulation at baseline. Findings suggest that a match between more engagement coping behaviors and greater cardiac autonomic capacity to coactivate the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches is linked with better social and academic adjustment.