Alcohol use is commonly initiated during adolescence, with earlier onset known to increase the risk for alcohol use disorder (AUD). Altered function in neural reward circuitry is thought to increase ...the risk for AUD. To test the hypothesis that adolescent alcohol misuse primes the brain for alcohol-related psychopathology in early adulthood, we examined whether adolescent alcohol consumption rates predicted reward responsivity in the ventral striatum (VS), and in turn, AUD symptoms in adulthood.
A total of 139 low income, racially diverse urban males reported on their alcohol use at ages 11, 12, 15, and 17; completed self-reports of personality, psychiatric interviews, and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan at age 20; and completed a psychiatric interview at age 22. We measured adolescent alcohol use trajectories using latent growth curve modeling and measured neural responses to monetary reward using a VS region of interest. We tested indirect effects of adolescent alcohol use on AUD symptoms at age 22 via VS reward-related reactivity at age 20.
Greater acceleration in adolescent alcohol use predicted increased VS response during reward anticipation at age 20. VS reactivity to reward anticipation at age 20 predicted AUD symptoms at age 22, over and above concurrent symptoms. Accelerated adolescent alcohol use predicted AUD symptoms in early adulthood via greater VS reactivity to reward anticipation.
Prospective findings support a pathway through which adolescent alcohol use increases the risk for AUD in early adulthood by impacting reward-related neural functioning. These results highlight increased VS reward-related reactivity as a biomarker for AUD vulnerability.
Several lines of research have illustrated that negative environments can precipitate psychopathology, particularly in the context of relatively increased biological risk, while social resources can ...buffer the effects of these environments. However, little research has examined how social resources might buffer proximal biological risk for psychopathology or the neurobiological pathways through which such buffering may be mediated. Here we report that the expression of trait anxiety as a function of threat-related amygdala reactivity is moderated by perceived social support, a resource for coping with adversity. A significant positive correlation between amygdala reactivity and trait anxiety was evident in individuals reporting below average levels of support but not in those reporting average or above average levels. These results were consistent across multiple measures of trait anxiety and were specific to anxiety in that they did not extend to measures of broad negative or positive affect. Our findings illuminate a biological pathway, namely moderation of amygdala-related anxiety, through which social support may confer resilience to psychopathology. Moreover, our results indicate that links between neural reactivity and behavior are not static but rather may be contingent on social resources.
A growing literature suggests that adversity is associated with later altered brain function, particularly within the corticolimbic system that supports emotion processing and salience detection ...(e.g., amygdala, prefrontal cortex PFC). Although neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage has been shown to predict maladaptive behavioral outcomes, particularly for boys, most of the research linking adversity to corticolimbic function has focused on family‐level adversities. Moreover, although animal models and studies of normative brain development suggest that there may be sensitive periods during which adversity exerts stronger effects on corticolimbic development, little prospective evidence exists in humans. Using two low‐income samples of boys (n = 167; n = 77), Census‐derived neighborhood disadvantage during early childhood, but not adolescence, was uniquely associated with greater amygdala, but not PFC, reactivity to ambiguous neutral faces in adolescence and young adulthood. These associations remained after accounting for several family‐level adversities (e.g., low family income, harsh parenting), highlighting the independent and developmentally specific neural effects of the neighborhood context. Furthermore, in both samples, indicators measuring income and poverty status of neighbors were predictive of amygdala function, suggesting that neighborhood economic resources may be critical to brain development.
Across two prospective longitudinal studies, Census‐derived neighborhood disadvantage in early childhood was associated with greater amygdala reactivity to ambiguous facial expressions in adolescent and young adult men. These associations remained statistically‐significant after accounting for a host of family‐level adversities (i.e., low family income and maternal education, maternal depression, harsh parenting, inter‐parental conflict) during early childhood and neighborhood disadvantage during adolescence.
Structural models of psychopathology consistently identify internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) specific factors as well as a superordinate factor that captures their shared variance, the
...factor. Questions remain, however, about the meaning of these data-driven dimensions and the interpretability and distinguishability of the larger nomological networks in which they are embedded.
The sample consisted of 10 645 youth aged 9-10 years participating in the multisite Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.
, INT, and EXT were modeled using the parent-rated Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Patterns of associations were examined with variables drawn from diverse domains including demographics, psychopathology, temperament, family history of substance use and psychopathology, school and family environment, and cognitive ability, using instruments based on youth-, parent-, and teacher-report, and behavioral task performance.
exhibited a broad pattern of statistically significant associations with risk variables across all domains assessed, including temperament, neurocognition, and social adversity. The specific factors exhibited more domain-specific patterns of associations, with INT exhibiting greater fear/distress and EXT exhibiting greater impulsivity.
In this largest study of hierarchical models of psychopathology to date, we found that
, INT, and EXT exhibit well-differentiated nomological networks that are interpretable in terms of neurocognition, impulsivity, fear/distress, and social adversity. These networks were, in contrast, obscured when relying on the a priori Internalizing and Externalizing dimensions of the CBCL scales. Our findings add to the evidence for the validity of
, INT, and EXT as theoretically and empirically meaningful broad psychopathology liabilities.
Background
Callous‐unemotional (CU) traits are associated with chronic and escalating trajectories of antisocial behavior. Extant etiologic studies suggest that heritability estimates for CU traits ...vary substantially, while also pointing to an environmental association between parenting and CU traits.
Methods
We used twin modeling to estimate additive genetic (A), shared environmental (C), and nonshared environmental (E) influences on CU traits, measured with the Inventory of Callous‐Unemotional Traits (ICU) and its subscales. Our sample included 600 twin pairs (age 6–11, 230 monozygotic) from neighborhoods with above‐average levels of family poverty, a risk factor for antisocial behavior. We examined the extent to which correlations between parenting, measured via parent and child report on the Parental Environment Questionnaire, and CU traits reflected genetic versus environmental factors. Then, we tested whether parenting moderated the heritability of CU traits.
Results
In the context of lower‐income neighborhoods, CU traits were moderately to highly heritable (A = 54%) with similar moderate‐to‐high nonshared environmental influences (E = 46%). Bivariate models revealed that associations between CU traits and warm parenting were genetic (rA = .22) and environmental (rE = .19) in origin, whereas associations between CU traits and harsh parenting were largely genetic in origin (rA = .70). The heritability of CU traits decreased with increasing parental warmth and decreasing harshness.
Conclusions
Callous‐unemotional traits are both genetic and environmental in origin during middle childhood, but genetic influences are moderated by parenting quality. Parenting may be an important target for interventions, particularly among youth with greater genetic risk.
Population-based neuroimaging studies that feature complex sampling designs enable researchers to generalize their results more widely. However, several theoretical and analytical questions pose ...challenges to researchers interested in these data. The following is a resource for researchers interested in using population-based neuroimaging data. We provide an overview of sampling designs and describe the differences between traditional model-based analyses and survey-oriented design-based analyses. To elucidate key concepts, we leverage data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study (ABCD Study®), a population-based sample of 11,878 9–10-year-olds in the United States. Analyses revealed modest sociodemographic discrepancies between the target population of 9–10-year-olds in the U.S. and both the recruited ABCD sample and the analytic sample with usable structural and functional imaging data. In evaluating the associations between socioeconomic resources (i.e., constructs that are tightly linked to recruitment biases) and several metrics of brain development, we show that model-based approaches over-estimated the associations of household income and under-estimated the associations of caregiver education with total cortical volume and surface area. Comparable results were found in models predicting neural function during two fMRI task paradigms. We conclude with recommendations for ABCD Study® users and users of population-based neuroimaging cohorts more broadly.
•Sample vs. population sociodemographic differences impact generalizability.•Analyses using complex probability samples can be model-based or design-based.•Descriptive inferences to the target population must rely on design-based analyses.•Multivariable analyses should be compared in design- and model-based frameworks.
In the current study, we leveraged differences within twin pairs to examine whether harsh parenting is associated with children’s antisocial behavior via environmental (vs. genetic) transmission. We ...examined two independent samples from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Our primary sample contained 1,030 families (2,060 twin children; 49% female; 6–10 years old) oversampled for exposure to disadvantage. Our replication sample included 240 families (480 twin children; 50% female; 6–15 years old). Co-twin control analyses were conducted using a specification-curve framework, an exhaustive modeling approach in which all reasonable analytic specifications of the data are interrogated. Results revealed that, regardless of zygosity, the twin experiencing harsher parenting exhibited more antisocial behavior. These effects were robust across multiple operationalizations and informant reports of both harsh parenting and antisocial behavior with only a few exceptions. Results indicate that the association between harsh parenting and children’s antisocial behavior is, to a large degree, environmental in origin.
Callous-unemotional (CU) behavior has been linked to behavior problems in children and adolescents. However, few studies have examined whether CU behavior in early childhood predicts behavior ...problems or CU behavior in late childhood. This study examined whether indicators of CU behavior at ages 2-4 predicted aggression, rule-breaking, and CU behavior across informants at age 9.5. To test the unique predictive and convergent validity of CU behavior in early childhood, we accounted for stability in behavior problems and method effects to rule out the possibility that rater biases inflated the magnitude of any associations found. Cross-informant data were collected from a multiethnic, high-risk sample (N = 731; female = 49%) at ages 2-4 and again at age 9.5. From age 3, CU behavior uniquely predicted aggression and rule-breaking across informants. There were also unique associations between CU behavior assessed at ages 3 and 4 and CU behavior assessed at age 9.5. Findings demonstrate that early childhood indicators of CU behavior account for unique variance in later childhood behavior problems and CU behavior, taking into account stability in behavior problems over time and method effects. Convergence with a traditional measure of CU behavior in late childhood provides support for the construct validity of a brief early childhood measure of CU behavior.
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This study examined dimensions of callous behaviors in early childhood and the role of these behaviors in the development of conduct problems, as well as responsiveness to a family-centered ...preventative intervention. Caregiver reports of callous behaviors were examined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Problem behavior was examined using within- and cross-informant reports of these behaviors. Parenting was measured using observational methods within the context of a randomized control trial of the Family Check-Up with a sample of 731 ethnically diverse boys and girls (followed from ages 2 to 4) at high risk for later conduct problems. Results demonstrated that a measure of deceitful-callous (DC) behaviors had acceptable factor loadings and internal consistency at ages 3 and 4. DC behaviors at age 3 predicted problem behavior concurrently and longitudinally within and across informant. However, DC behaviors did not reduce the effectiveness of the family preventative intervention. These findings have implications for our understanding of behaviors that may precede later callous-unemotional traits and for our understanding of the development and prevention of early starting conduct problems.
Emerging literature links neighborhood disadvantage to altered neural function in regions supporting socioemotional and threat processing. Few studies, however, have examined the proximal mechanisms ...through which neighborhood disadvantage is associated with neural functioning. In a sample of 7- to 19-year-old twins recruited from disadvantaged neighborhoods (354 families, 708 twins; 54.5% boys; 78.5% White, 13.0% Black, 8.5% other racial/ethnic group membership), we found that exposure to community violence was related to increased amygdala reactivity during socioemotional processing and may be one mechanism linking neighborhood disadvantage to amygdala functioning. Importantly, parenting behavior appeared to modulate these effects, such that high parental nurturance buffered the effect of exposure to community violence on amygdala reactivity. These findings elucidate the potential impact of exposure to community violence on brain function and highlight the role parents can play in protecting youth from the neural effects of exposure to adversity.
Public Significance StatementAlthough prior studies have primarily focused on family-level adversities, developmental researchers are now paying increased attention to the effect of neighborhood-level adversity on youth brain development. We find that increased exposure to community violence is related to heightened amygdala reactivity to threat and may be a mechanism explaining the link between neighborhood disadvantage and brain function in youth. Further, the study highlights that nurturing parenting can protect children from the risks posed by living in a disadvantaged and dangerous neighborhood.
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