Susceptibility to Family Context in Predicting Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors: Moderation by Social Motivational Neural Sensitivity

• In Event: Neural Processes of Parent-Child Bonding: Individual Differences and Parent-Child Concordance.

Abstract

The family environment represents a robust predictor of adolescents’ externalizing behavior, including rule-breaking and aggression; however, not all youth are susceptible to such influence. Individual differences in adolescents’ neural sensitivity to social information may represent a marker of susceptibility to adverse family contexts, particularly given that adolescence is a period of increasing social motivation. While a small body of evidence has identified patterns of neurobiological susceptibility for internalizing phenomenon in adolescence, this study sought to identify the moderating role of adolescent neural sensitivity to social reward and punishment in predicting externalizing behavior. 164 adolescents reported on family conflict (Parent-Adolescent Conflict Scale; Ruiz et al., 1998) and externalizing behavior (CBCL-YSR; Achenbach et al., 2001), and completed an fMRI scan during a social incentive delay task. Ventral striatum (VS) sensitivity when anticipating social rewards and punishments moderated the association between family conflict and externalizing behavior, such that for adolescents with heightened VS response, higher family conflict was associated with higher externalizing behavior (Reward: B=5.33, SE=1.33, p<.001, 95% CI [2.69, 7.97]; Punishment: B=5.76, SE=1.63, p<.001, 95% CI [2.54, 8.98]). Moreover, heightened amygdala sensitivity when anticipating social rewards (but not punishments) moderated the effect of family conflict, such that for adolescents with heightened amygdala response, greater family conflict was associated with higher externalizing behavior (B=3.13, SE=1.43, p<.03, 95% CI [.30, 5.96]). Results suggest that sensitivity in neural regions involved in encoding the motivational salience of social stimuli, both social rewards and punishments, may represent a pattern of susceptibility to maladaptive family contexts. Findings extend evidence of neurobiological susceptibility to social context to externalizing phenomenon, highlighting individual differences in social motivational sensitivity.

Authors

• Caitlin Turpyn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Nathan Jorgensen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mitchell J Prinstein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristen A Lindquist, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eva H Telzer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author