Identifying Neurobiological Mechanisms of the Link between Parenting and Adolescent Substance Use and Psychopathology

• In Event: 2-182 - Gender Differences in Psychophysiological Measures of Emotion Reactivity and Self-Regulated Behaviors

Integrative Statement

One of the most well-established risk factors for adolescent substance use and psychopathology is maladaptive parenting. However, the neurobiological mechanisms of effects of parenting on psychopathology are unknown. Researchers have hypothesized that maladaptive parenting affects the developing brain, leading to psychopathology risk (Belsky & de Haan, 2010). Consistent with this, research has shown that child abuse is associated with altered brain structure/function, including in emotion processing systems. However, little research has examined associations between normative variations in parenting and adolescent brain function, particularly as it relates to substance use and psychopathology. Initial studies have found associations between low maternal warmth and altered brain activation to negative emotional stimuli in adolescents (Guyer et al., 2015), but more work is needed.
The present study examined associations between observed parenting behaviors and early adolescents’ brain responses to negative emotional stimuli and associations between brain responses and substance use/psychopathology. Given sex differences in emotion (Chaplin & Aldao, 2013), we also examined sex differences in these associations. We focused on emotion-related brain function because emotion processing systems are rapidly developing during early adolescence, are sensitive to caregiving, and have been implicated in the development of substance use and psychopathology.
66 12-14 year olds (34 boys) and their mothers were recruited from a larger study. Adolescents were mostly White (71%). Adolescents reported on lifetime substance use (on YRBS) and depressive and anxiety symptoms (on CDI and RCMAS) and completed urine and breath screens for substance use. Mothers reported on externalizing symptoms on the CSI. In a laboratory session, adolescents and mothers discussed a family conflict topic and the topic of drug use for 20 minutes. Discussions were coded for parenting behaviors- maternal warmth (e.g., praise), structure (e.g., stating rules), and negative parenting (e.g., harsh tone). In a MRI session, adolescents viewed negative emotional and neutral pictures in an event-related task. fMRI responses in a-priori regions of interest involved in emotion processing (bilateral amygdala, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]) to negative and neutral pictures were extracted. Analyses examined negative – neutral contrasts and used FDR correction.
Significant negative parenting X sex interactions were found predicting brain activation to negative emotional pictures (Figure 1). For girls, negative parenting predicted heightened activation in R ACC (β = 0.51, p < .01). For boys, negative parenting predicted lower activation in L&R anterior insula and L ACC (β’s = -0.39 to -0.47, p’s < .05). Brain activation X sex interactions were found predicting substance use and depressive symptoms (Figure 2). For girls, heightened L insula and L ACC activation predicted substance use (Exp[B]’s = 1.11, 1.13, p’s < .05) and heightened L&R ACC predicted depressive symptoms (β’s = 0.43, 0.45, p’s < .01). Moderated mediation was found for the indirect effect of negative parenting on depressive symptoms through R ACC activation, by sex (Index = 0.55, SE = 0.32).
Findings suggest possible sex-differentiated brain pathways from family environment to substance use and depressive symptoms, with girls taking a high reactivity pathway and at-risk boys showing blunted reactivity to negative emotion.

Authors

• Tara Chaplin, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer (Jenny) Ann Poon, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• James Thompson, George Mason University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rajita Sinha, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laurie Chassin, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily B. Ansell, Syracuse University
  Non-Presenting Author