Adolescent Neurodevelopmental Variance Across Social Strata.

This cohort study explores variability in neurodevelopment across sociodemographic factors among youths.

Mood variability during adolescent development and its relation to sleep and brain development.

Mood swings, or mood variability, are associated with negative mental health outcomes. Since adolescence is a time when mood disorder onset peaks, mood variability during this time is of significant interest. Understanding biological factors that might be associated with mood variability, such as sleep and structural brain development, could elucidate the mechanisms underlying mood and anxiety disorders. Data from the longitudinal Leiden self-concept study (N = 191) over 5 yearly timepoints was used to study the association between sleep, brain structure, and mood variability in healthy adolescents aged 11-21 at baseline in this pre-registered study. Sleep was measured both objectively, using actigraphy, as well as subjectively, using a daily diary self-report. Negative mood variability was defined as day-to-day negative mood swings over a period of 5 days after an MRI scan. It was found that negative mood variability peaked in mid-adolescence in females while it linearly increased in males, and average negative mood showed a similar pattern. Sleep duration (subjective and objective) generally decreased throughout adolescence, with a larger decrease in males. Mood variability was not associated with sleep, but average negative mood was associated with lower self-reported energy. In addition, higher thickness in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) compared to same-age peers, suggesting a delayed thinning process, was associated with higher negative mood variability in early and mid-adolescence. Together, this study provides an insight into the development of mood variability and its association with brain structure.

Strength and resilience of developing brain circuits predict adolescent emotional and stress responses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound but incompletely understood adverse effects on youth. To elucidate the role of brain circuits in how adolescents responded to the pandemic's stressors, we investigated their prepandemic organization as a predictor of mental/emotional health in the first ~15 months of the pandemic. We analyzed resting-state networks from n = 2,641 adolescents [median age (interquartile range) = 144.0 (13.0) months, 47.7% females] in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, and longitudinal assessments of mental health, stress, sadness, and positive affect, collected every 2 to 3 months from May 2020 to May 2021. Topological resilience and/or network strength predicted overall mental health, stress and sadness (but not positive affect), at multiple time points, but primarily in December 2020 and May 2021. Higher resilience of the salience network predicted better mental health in December 2020 (ß = 0.19, 95% CI = [0.06, 0.31], P = 0.01). Lower connectivity of left salience, reward, limbic, and prefrontal cortex and its thalamic, striatal, amygdala connections, predicted higher stress (ß = -0.46 to -0.20, CI = [-0.72, -0.07], P < 0.03). Lower bilateral robustness (higher fragility) and/or connectivity of these networks predicted higher sadness in December 2020 and May 2021 (ß = -0.514 to -0.19, CI = [-0.81, -0.05], P < 0.04). These findings suggest that the organization of brain circuits may have played a critical role in adolescent stress and mental/emotional health during the pandemic.

[Current status of pubertal sexual characteristics development of 2 704 girls aged 6-18 years in Tongzhou District of Beijing].

Objective: To understand the current status of pubertal sexual characteristics development of girls aged 6-18 years in Tongzhou District of Beijing and to compare the differences in sexual characteristics development among girls characterized as thin, normal, overweight, and obese. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2 844 girls aged 6-18 years in Tongzhou District of Beijing from September 2022 to July 2023. The developmental stages of breast and pubic hair were assessed on site, and menarche status was inquired. Weight and height were measured. The girls were subsequently characterized into thin, normal, overweight and obese groups. Basic information (including family and personal history) was obtained through questionnaires. Probit probability unit regression was applied to calculate the age of each Tanner stage of sexual characteristics development and the age of menarche. The χ2 test was applied to compare the counting data between two or multiple groups. Results: A total of 2 844 girls were surveyed and 2 704 girls met the inclusion criteria, resulting in a valid response rate of 95.1%. Among these girls, 1 105 (40.9%) were aged 6-9 years, 1 053 (38.9%) were aged 10-13 years, and 546 (20.2%) were aged 14-18 years. The of height-for-age Z-score (HAZ), weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ), and body mass index-for-age Z-score (BAZ) were 0.46(-0.23,1.16), 0.69(-0.16,1.67), and 0.67(-0.27,1.73) respectively. The prevalences of thin, overweight, and obesity were respectively 1.7% (45/2 704), 17.3% (467/2 704), and 19.9% (538/2 704), respectively. There were 45 girls in the thin group, 1 654 girls in the normal weight group, 1 005 girls in the overweight and obesity group. The age of Tanner stage breast 2 (B2), Tanner stage pubic hair 2 (P2), and menarche was 9.0 (95%CI 8.9-9.1), 10.5 (95%CI 10.4-10.6), and 11.4 (95%CI 11.3-1.5) years, respectively. The current status of breast and pubic hair maturity in girls with pubertal development shows that 64.6% (1 211/1 874) of these girls had breast development preceding pubic hair development, 32.4% (607/1 874) had concurrent breast and pubic hair development, and 3.0% (56/1 874) had pubic hairs development preceding breast development. The interval age between B2 and B5 was 4.7 (95%CI 4.6-4.8) years, between P2 and P5 was 4.5 (95%CI 4.4-4.6) years, and between B2 and menarche was 2.4 (95%CI 2.3-2.5) years. The ages of sexual characteristics development in overweight and obese groups were earlier than that in normal and thin groups. The ages of B2 in thin, normal, overweight, and obese groups were 10.0 (95%CI 9.5-10.6), 9.3 (95%CI 9.2-9.4), and 8.6 (95%CI 8.4-8.7) years, respectively. The age of menarche in thin, normal, overweight, and obese groups were 13.1 (95%CI 12.4-13.7), 11.6 (95%CI 11.4-11.7), and 11.1 (95%CI 11.0-11.2) years, respectively. The interval ages between B2 and B5 and between P2 and P5 was 4.5 and 4.1 years, respectively in the overweight and obese groups, and those in normal group and thin group was 4.7 and 4.5 years, 4.6 and 4.7 years, respectively. Conclusions: The ages of sexual characteristics development and menarche tend in Tongzhou District of Beijing to be earlier than that being reported of Beijing's survey 20 years ago. Girls characterized as overweight and obese not only start puberty at an earlier age than girls of normal weight, but also have a shorter developmental process.

Genetic correlation and Mendelian randomization analyses support causal relationships between dietary habits and age at menarche.

Dietary habits are essential in the mean age at menarche (AAM). However, the causal relationship between these factors remains unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to elucidate the genetic relationship between dietary habits and AAM. Genetic summary statistics for dietary habits were obtained from the UK Biobank. GWAS summary data for AAM was obtained from the ReproGen Consortium. Linkage disequilibrium score regression was used to test genetic correlations between dietary habits and AAM. The Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses used the inverse-variance weighted method. Genetic correlations with AAM were identified for 29 candi-date dietary habits, such as milk type (skimmed, semi-skimmed, full cream; coefficient = 0.2704, Pldsc = 1.13 × 10-14). MR evaluations revealed that 19 dietary habits were associated with AAM, including bread type (white vs. any other; OR 1.71, 95% CI 1.28-2.29, Pmr = 3.20 × 10-4), tablespoons of cooked vegetables (OR 0.437, 95% CI 0.29-0.67; Pmr = 1.30 × 10-4), and cups of coffee per day (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.57-0.92, Pmr = 8.31 × 10-3). These results were observed to be stable under the sensitivity analysis. Our study provides potential insights into the genetic mechanisms underlying AAM and evidence that dietary habits are associated with AAM.

Review of Handbook of Positive Youth Development: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice in Global Contexts.

Reviews the book, Handbook of Positive Youth Development: Advancing Research, Policy, and Practice in Global Contexts edited by Radosveta Dimitrova and Nora Wiium (2021). This volume deals with both the applications and interventions of positive youth development (PYD) in the context of families and other systems in global contexts. Additionally, it advances empirical and theoretical knowledge in PYD, refinement of methodological issues, and measurement and integration of PYD-related knowledge with policy, research, and practice. This book will interest a broad spectrum of readers, including social scientists, students, professionals, policymakers, and practitioners from various disciplines. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Associations of parental age at pregnancy with adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems: a birth cohort in rural Western China.

BACKGROUND: The relationship between parental age at pregnancy and offspring development in low- and middle-income countries remains unclear. We aimed to examine the associations of parental age at pregnancy with adolescent development in rural China. METHODS: We conducted a prospective birth cohort study of offspring born to pregnant women who participated in an antenatal micronutrient supplementation trial in rural Western China. Adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems were assessed by using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-IV and the Youth Self-Report-2001, respectively. After accounting for the possible nonlinear relationships, we examined the linear associations between parental age (in years) at pregnancy and scores of adolescent cognitive development and emotional and behavioural problems by performing generalized estimating equations. RESULTS: Among 1897 adolescents followed from birth to early adolescence, 59.5% were male with a mean age of 11.8 (standard deviation (SD): 0.8) years. The mean ages of mothers and fathers at pregnancy were 24.6 (SD: 4.4) and 27.9 (SD: 4.1) years old, respectively. All the P values of the nonlinear terms between parental age and adolescent development in all domains were greater than 0.05. Each one-year increase in maternal age at pregnancy was associated with a 0.29-point (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06, 0.52) increase in the full-scale intelligence quotient in early adolescence. After parental age was categorized into quartiles, the total behavioural problem scores of adolescents with fathers with an age in the fourth quartile (Q4) were 6.71 (95% CI 0.86, 12.57) points higher than those of adolescents with fathers with an age in the first quartile (Q1), with a linear trend P value of 0.01. Similarly, higher scores (worse behavioural problems) were observed for internalizing behavioural problems and other emotional and behavioural symptoms related to anxiety, withdrawal, social problems, thought problems and aggressive behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: At conception, older maternal age was independently linked to better adolescent cognitive development, whereas advanced paternal age was independently associated with a greater risk of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems. These findings suggest that public health policies targeting an optimal parental age at pregnancy should be developed in the context of offspring developmental consequences.

Diffusion MRI harmonization via personalized template mapping.

One fundamental challenge in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) harmonization is to disentangle the contributions of scanner-related effects from the variable brain anatomy for the observed imaging signals. Conventional harmonization methods rely on establishing an atlas space to resolve anatomical variability and generate a unified inter-site mapping function. However, this approach is limited in accounting for the misalignment of neuroanatomy that still widely persists even after registration, especially in regions close to cortical boundaries. To overcome this challenge, we propose a personalized framework in this paper to more effectively address the confounding from the misalignment of neuroanatomy in dMRI harmonization. Instead of using a common template representing site-effects for all subjects, the main novelty of our method is the adaptive computation of personalized templates for both source and target scanning sites to estimate the inter-site mapping function. We integrate our method with the rotation invariant spherical harmonics (RISH) features to achieve the harmonization of dMRI signals between sites. In our experiments, the proposed approach is applied to harmonize the dMRI data acquired from two scanning platforms: Siemens Prisma and GE MR750 from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development dataset and compared with a state-of-the-art method based on RISH features. Our results indicate that the proposed harmonization framework achieves superior performance not only in reducing inter-site variations due to scanner differences but also in preserving sex-related biological variability in original cohorts. Moreover, we assess the impact of harmonization on the estimation of fiber orientation distributions and show the robustness of the personalized harmonization procedure in preserving the fiber orientation of original dMRI signals.

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.

Secular trend in age at menarche among Indian women.

Age at menarche is not only a parameter that signifies biological characteristics for women but is also considered as an indicator to measure the quality of life of a population. Moreover, menarche has significant implications on women's health and information about menarcheal age is crucial for health policymakers. However, little is known about the trends in menarcheal age in India. Thus, in order to fill this research gap, the present study aimed to explore the age at menarche, its trend and regional heterogeneity among Indian women. A birth cohort approach was used by polling data from the 1st (1992-93), 4th (2015-16) and 5th (2019-21) rounds of NFHS. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were performed to present the distribution of age at menarche and mean age at menarche across birth cohorts and each category of covariates. A multiple linear regression model was fitted to examine the trend in age at menarche and further to investigate the association of covariates with menarcheal age among Indian women. The analysis demonstrated that a majority of women (66.2%) attained menarche between the ages of 13-14 years. Moreover, about 17.2% of women experienced an early age at menarche, whereas 16.7% of women had a late age at menarche. The mean age at menarche for the sampled women was 13.49 years. The analysis also observed a secular declining trend in menarcheal age among Indian women and a significant variation in the mean age at menarche across birth cohorts. It also highlighted significant socio-economic patterning in menarcheal age among women.

Parenting, Coparenting, and Adolescents' Sense of Autonomy and Belonging After Divorce.

Although there is ample evidence on the importance of experiencing autonomy and belonging for positive adolescent development and the supporting role of parents in this regard, most knowledge stems from intact families. As many youth grow up with divorced parents, this study tested longitudinal links between warm and autonomy supportive parenting and coparental cooperation and conflict on the one hand, and adolescents' post-divorce autonomy and belonging on the other. Data consisted of three-wave self-report data of 191 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 14.36, 61.3% girls) and 227 divorced parents (Mage = 46.08, 74% mothers). Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models showed stable between-family differences, with autonomy relating positively to coparenting and parental autonomy support, and belongingness associating positively solely with parenting. No significant effects were found within families, meaning that changes in (co)parental behaviors did not predict adolescents' experiences of autonomy and belonging or vice versa.

Targeting ethnic-racial identity development and academic engagement in tandem through curriculum.

Schools play an integral role in adolescents' learning and understanding of their ethnic-racial identity (ERI); however, the extant research offers a limited understanding of how specific educator practices can inform adolescents' ERI development, and in turn, their academic adjustment. Accordingly, the present study utilized 30 interviews with Latinx, White, Asian American, and Multiracial eighth grade students (N = 16; Mage = 13.25 years, SD = 0.45; 75% girls, 25% boys) and their English teacher to illustrate the processes by which an ERI-focused unit informed students' ERI developmental processes and their academic engagement (i.e., behavioral, cognitive, and emotional). Results from iterative causation coding indicated that (a) the unit promoted ERI development by facilitating conversations with family, offering dedicated time for ERI exploration, and facilitating personal and literary ERI exploration in tandem; (b) the unit's focus on ERI development encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement; and (c) the unit also encouraged students' emotional, cognitive, and behavioral academic engagement by leveraging book selections centering ethnoracially minoritized youth, critical consciousness raising, and class community building. Our findings offer implications for future research and school-based efforts looking to positively support adolescents' ERI development. Our findings also provide insights regarding the role of the predominately White school context in students' experiences with the unit, namely, the role of the context in some students' occasional disengagement with the material.

The spillover effect of school suspensions on adolescents' classroom climate perceptions and academic achievement.

Proponents of exclusionary discipline claim that removing disruptive peers from the classroom benefits well-behaved students. Given educators' increasingly widespread use of suspensions in response to adolescents' minor behavioral infractions (e.g., dress code violations, backtalk), it is critical that we examine whether this theory translates into practice. Using two independent samples (Study 1: N = 1305 adolescents enrolled in 64 math classrooms; Mage = 13.00 years, range = 10-16; 53% White, 41% Black, 6% Other race; 50% girls; 64% economically disadvantaged. Study 2: N = 563 adolescents enrolled in 40 science classrooms; Mage = 12.83 years, range = 10-16; 55% White, 40% Black, 5% Other race; 51% girls; 62% economically disadvantaged), we adopted a two-study approach to examine the mediational role of classroom climate perceptions in the link between classroom-level suspension rates for minor infractions and adolescents' math and science achievement. Results indicated that high classroom-level rates of suspensions for minor infractions were associated with poor academic outcomes among suspended students as well as their non-suspended classmates. Students' classroom climate perceptions mediated the links between classroom suspension rates and non-suspended students' academic outcomes. Shifting away from strict and punitive disciplinary schedules may grant school-based adults the ability to create classroom climates more attuned to adolescents' developmental and learning needs.

Early adolescent development in the face of violence: A systematic review running.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to violence has severe and lasting effects on development. Despite the body of research examining childhood exposures to violence and victimization, developmental outcomes during early adolescence are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To synthesize existing research on the effects of violence exposure on early adolescent development (youth 9-14 years old) and highlight areas for future research. METHOD: We conducted a systematic search of PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and EMBASE for articles published between 2012 and 2023. Included articles focused on violence exposure related to experiencing or observing community violence, witnessing domestic violence and/or being the victim of chronic physical abuse. RESULTS: Twenty-eight articles spanning four developmental domains were included: behavioral, biological, neurological, and social development. Behaviorally, violence exposure posed significant effects on both internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Biologically, violence exposure was strongly associated with advanced epigenetic age, accelerated puberty, and insomnia. Neurologically, violence exposure had significant associations with both structural and functional differences in the developing brain. Socially, violence exposure was related to poor school engagement, peer aggression, and low social support. CONCLUSION: This systematic review highlights varying effects of violence exposure on early adolescent development. The gaps presented should be addressed and implemented into clinical practice via evidence-based policies and procedures to ensure successful transition to adulthood.

Harmonized diffusion MRI data and white matter measures from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® has collected data from over 10,000 children across 21 sites, providing insights into adolescent brain development. However, site-specific scanner variability has made it challenging to use diffusion MRI (dMRI) data from this study. To address this, a dataset of harmonized and processed ABCD dMRI data (from release 3) has been created, comprising quality-controlled imaging data from 9,345 subjects, focusing exclusively on the baseline session, i.e., the first time point of the study. This resource required substantial computational time (approx. 50,000 CPU hours) for harmonization, whole-brain tractography, and white matter parcellation. The dataset includes harmonized dMRI data, 800 white matter clusters, 73 anatomically labeled white matter tracts in full and low resolution, and 804 different dMRI-derived measures per subject (72.3 TB total size). Accessible via the NIMH Data Archive, it offers a large-scale dMRI dataset for studying structural connectivity in child and adolescent neurodevelopment. Additionally, several post-harmonization experiments were conducted to demonstrate the success of the harmonization process on the ABCD dataset.

Adolescent to young adult longitudinal development of subcortical volumes in two European sites with four waves.

Adolescent subcortical structural brain development might underlie psychopathological symptoms, which often emerge in adolescence. At the same time, sex differences exist in psychopathology, which might be mirrored in underlying sex differences in structural development. However, previous studies showed inconsistencies in subcortical trajectories and potential sex differences. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the subcortical structural trajectories and their sex differences across adolescence using for the first time a single cohort design, the same quality control procedure, software, and a general additive mixed modeling approach. We investigated two large European sites from ages 14 to 24 with 503 participants and 1408 total scans from France and Germany as part of the IMAGEN project including four waves of data acquisition. We found significantly larger volumes in males versus females in both sites and across all seven subcortical regions. Sex differences in age-related trajectories were observed across all regions in both sites. Our findings provide further evidence of sex differences in longitudinal adolescent brain development of subcortical regions and thus might eventually support the relationship of underlying brain development and different adolescent psychopathology in boys and girls.

Estimating Maturity Status in Elite Youth Soccer Players: Evaluation of Methods.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the concordance of predicted maturity status classifications (pre-, circa-, or post-peak height velocity (PHV)) relative to observed age at PHV in youth soccer players. METHODS: Longitudinal height records for 124 male soccer players were extracted from academy records spanning the 2000 to 2022 seasons. Age at PHV for each player was estimated with the Superimposition by Translation and Rotation model. Players were classified as pre-, circa-, or post-PHV using both ±1- and ±0.5-yr criteria to define the circa-PHV interval. Maturity status was estimated with several prediction protocols: maturity offset (Mirwald, Moore-1, Moore-2), maturity ratio (Fransen), and percentage of predicted adult height (PAH%) using the Khamis-Roche and Tanner-Whitehouse 2 equations using several bands: 85% to 96%, 88% to 96%, 88% to 93%, and 90% to 93% for the circa-PHV interval, and visual evaluation of individual growth curves alone or with PAH% based on Khamis-Roche and Tanner-Whitehouse 2. Concordance of maturity status classifications based on complete growth curves and predicted estimates of maturity status was addressed with percentage agreement and Cohen's kappa. RESULTS: Visual evaluation of the growth curves had the highest concordance (≈80%) with maturity status classifications (pre-, circa-, post-PHV) based on longitudinal data for individual players. Predicted maturity offset with the Mirwald, Moore-1, and Fransen equations misclassified about one-third to one-half of the players, whereas concordance based on PAH% varied with the band used, but not with the method of height prediction. CONCLUSIONS: Visual assessment of the individual growth curves by an experienced assessor provides an accurate estimate of maturity status relative to PHV. Maturity offset prediction equations misclassify the majority of players, whereas PAH% provides a reasonably valid alternative.

Maternal Tobacco Use During Pregnancy and Child Neurocognitive Development.

Importance: Maternal tobacco use during pregnancy (MTDP) persists across the globe. Longitudinal assessment of the association of MTDP with neurocognitive development of offspring at late childhood is limited. Objectives: To examine whether MTDP is associated with child neurocognitive development at ages 9 to 12 years. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study included children aged 9 and 10 years at wave 1 (October 2016 to October 2018) and aged 11 to 12 years at a 2-year follow-up (wave 2, August 2018 to January 2021) across 21 US sites in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Data were analyzed from June 2022 to December 2023. Exposure: MTDP. Main Outcomes and Measures: Outcomes of interest were neurocognition, measured by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox Cognition Battery, and morphometric brain measures through the region of interest (ROI) analysis from structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI). Results: Among 11 448 children at wave 1 (mean [SD] age, 9.9 [0.6] years; 5990 [52.3%] male), 1607 children were identified with MTDP. In the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery, children with MTDP (vs no MTDP) exhibited lower scores on the oral reading recognition (mean [SE] B = -1.2 [0.2]; P < .001), picture sequence memory (mean [SE] B = -2.3 [0.6]; P < .001), and picture vocabulary (mean [SE] B = -1.2 [0.3]; P < .001) tests and the crystallized cognition composite score (mean [SE] B = -1.3 [0.3]; P < .001) at wave 1. These differential patterns persisted at wave 2. In sMRI, children with MTDP (vs no MTDP) had smaller cortical areas in precentral (mean [SE] B = -104.2 [30.4] mm2; P = .001), inferior parietal (mean [SE] B = -153.9 [43.4] mm2; P < .001), and entorhinal (mean [SE] B = -25.1 [5.8] mm2; P < .001) regions and lower cortical volumes in precentral (mean [SE] B = -474.4 [98.2] mm3; P < .001), inferior parietal (mean [SE] B = -523.7 [136.7] mm3; P < .001), entorhinal (mean [SE] B = -94.1 [24.5] mm3; P < .001), and parahippocampal (mean [SE] B = -82.6 [18.7] mm3; P < .001) regions at wave 1. Distinct cortical volume patterns continued to be significant at wave 2. Frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes exhibited differential ROI, while there were no notable distinctions in the occipital lobe and insula cortex. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, MTDP was associated with enduring deficits in childhood neurocognition. Continued research on the association of MTDP with cognitive performance and brain structure related to language processing skills and episodic memory is needed.

Neuroendocrine mechanisms in the links between early life stress, affect, and youth substance use: A conceptual model for the study of sex and gender differences.

Early life stress (ELS) is defined as an acute or chronic stressor that negatively impacts a child's development. ELS is associated with substance use and mental health problems. This narrative literature review focuses on sex and gender differences in the effects of ELS on 1) adolescent neuroendocrine development; 2) pubertal brain maturation; and 3) development of internalizing symptoms and subsequent substance use. We posit that ELS may generate larger hormonal dysregulation in females than males during puberty, increasing internalizing symptoms and substance use. Future research should consider sex and gender differences in neuroendocrine developmental processes when studying the link between ELS and negative health outcomes.