1-038 - Neural Underpinnings of Childhood and Adolescent Adverse Social Experiences With Peers

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Adverse social experiences with peers, such as peer rejection and victimization, are highly salient and stressful events during childhood and adolescence which have been associated with behavioral and psychiatric problems later in life (McDougall & Vaillancourt, 2015). Although substantial work has explored the behavioral correlates of adverse peer social experiences, less research has been devoted to the neurobiological correlates (Bukowski, Laursen, & Rubin, 2018). The current symposium explores the neural underpinnings of children’s and adolescents’ adverse social experiences with peers using both functional and structural neuroimaging techniques. We begin this symposium by presenting a study that examined the neural responses to social exclusion in elementary school children with a history of low versus high social preference amongst their peers. We subsequently present a study that explores the complex interplay of peer victimization and functional brain activation during risky decision making while considering the role of approach/avoidance processes on risky decisions. We conclude this symposium by presenting a study on the morphological brain correlates of bullying involvement, both for victims and bullies, during childhood in the general population. Together, these studies demonstrate differences in brain function and structure in children and adolescents with adverse peer social experiences, and suggest that these adverse peer social experiences could become biologically embedded during development. Understanding social influence on brain development may help in unraveling the complex dynamics between adverse peer social experiences and later developmental outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Social Relationships

Chair

• Pol van Lier, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Discussant

• Kirby Deater-Deckard, University Massachusetts

Individual Presentations

• Heightened Neural Sensitivity to Social Exclusion in Low Peer Preferred Boys During Elementary School - Presenting Author: Susanne Asscheman, Department of Clinical, Neuro and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Susanne Koot, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Ili Ma, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior, Radboud University Nijmegen, Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Non-Presenting Author: Joanne Marieke Buil, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Lydia Krabbendam, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Toon Cillessen, Radboud University; Non-Presenting Author: Pol van Lier, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

• Peer Victimization, Risky Decision Making, and Approach/Avoidance in Mid-Adolescence - Presenting Author: Mengjiao Li, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Shereen El Mallah, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Kirby Deater-Deckard, University Massachusetts; Non-Presenting Author: Brooks King-Casas, Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech; Non-Presenting Author: Jungmeen Kim-Spoon, Virginia Tech

• Frequent Bullying Involvement and Brain Morphology in Children - Presenting Author: Ryan Muetzel, University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Non-Presenting Author: Rosa Mulder, Leiden University; Non-Presenting Author: Tonya White, University Medical Center Rotterdam; Non-Presenting Author: Pauline Jansen, Erasmus MC-University Medical Center Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Non-Presenting Author: Henning Tiemeier, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston