Poster #142 - Parent-Child Relationship Quality Moderates the Association Between Inflammation and Threat Bias in Adolescents

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

There is growing evidence for a relation between inflammation and social information processing. C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of systemic inflammation thought to be indicative of stress exposure, is associated with evaluating the social intentions of others. Adolescence is characterized by significant and, often stressful, psychosocial changes (Goede et al., 2009), but little is known about CRP during this developmental phase. Elucidating associations between inflammation and adolescent social behavior is especially important as adolescents explore their social environment (Crone & Dahl, 2012). The current study addresses these gaps in understanding by investigating the relation between CRP and adolescents’ social judgments. We probed parent-adolescent relationship quality as a potential moderator, given parent-child relationships can be an important source of stability for adolescents during a time of social uncertainty (Tsai et al., 2013).

Data was collected from 45 adolescents (26 female; MAge=16.00, 14-18 years). During the study, participants submitted to a blood draw, from which CRP levels were measured. Participants provided self-report ratings of their relationship with their parents (1=not good to 7=very good). Participants also completed a threat discrimination task during which they made binary social judgments (threatening/not threatening) about computerized face stimuli that morphed along a predetermined gradient from not threatening to increasingly threatening (Oosterhof & Todorov, 2008). Behavioral discrimination index scores were calculated for each participant, representing participants’ tendency to classify faces as threatening during the task (threat bias). Participants demonstrated a linear increase in threat bias as faces morphed along the threat continuum, p<.001.

CRP and threat bias were not directly related. We tested relationship quality as a moderator. The association between CRP and threat bias was moderated by parent-child relationship quality, B=-0.16, SE=0.07, t=-2.42, p=0.02, 95% BC CI [-0.3004, -0.367], controlling for body mass index, which is known to be associated with inflammation in children and adolescents (Siervo et al., 2012). Parent-adolescent relationship quality buffered the CRP-threat bias link, such that the association between CRP and threat bias was positive for those with low or average relationship quality, whereas the association was negative for those with high relationship quality.

These findings demonstrate a relation between CRP and threat bias for adolescents with low relationship quality with their parents. Thus, high quality parent-child relationships may be a significant factor in promoting positive outcomes for adolescents as they navigate a changing social landscape and are tasked with increasingly consequential social judgments. Further research is needed to determine precisely how parent-child relationship quality impacts adolescents’ processing of social information.

Authors

• Jordan L. Mullins, Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Marie Tashjian, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Adriana Galván, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author