Poster #117 - Social Connectedness During Adolescence: Implications for Immune Health and Psychological Wellbeing

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

BACKGROUND The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a dynamic period of development in which experiences of social disconnectedness may have consequences for both mental and physical wellbeing. During adolescence, youth increasingly value social relationships and are thought to experience heightened sensitivity to social rejection (Somerville, 2013). Social connectedness has consistently been linked with psychological adjustment in youth (Lamblin et al., 2017) and threats to feelings of connectedness, such as interpersonal discrimination, have been linked with poor mental health (Benner, 2017). Increasing literature also suggests that social behavior plays a role in regulating the immune system (Eisenberger et al. 2017). Feelings of social disconnectedness and experiences of interpersonal discrimination have been linked with a pro-inflammatory profile in adults (Smith et al., 2020; Cuevas, 2020), increasing risk for chronic inflammatory-related disease. However, these links have been less well-studied in adolescent populations, despite the increasing importance and sensitivity to the social environment during adolescence. Furthermore, adolescence is a period when the first onset of many psychiatric disorders, such as depression, occurs. Depression and inflammation demonstrate consistent bidirectional associations (Messay et al.,2012) suggesting that experiences of social disconnectedness during adolescence could have a cascading effect on mental and physiological health. The transition from adolescence to adulthood may be a particularly opportune period to assess links between social connection and physical and mental wellbeing, given normative changes in social relationships and inflammation that occur during this period. The goal of this study was to assess the association of social connectedness and discrimination with psychological wellbeing and inflammatory activity across the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

METHOD Participants were N=117 healthy adolescents (mean agewave1=16.4) who participated in a larger three-wave longitudinal study of adolescent health. At each study wave, youth provided dried blood spot (DBS) samples and completed questionnaires on depressive symptoms, social connections, and experiences of interpersonal discrimination. DBS samples were assayed for markers of inflammatory activity, including circulating levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and heightened expression of pro-inflammatory genes. Data collection and assay are complete and data analyses are underway.

HYPOTHESES It is hypothesized that greater feelings of social disconnection and higher self-reported experiences of discrimination will be associated with depressive symptomology. Additionally, it is hypothesized that social disconnection and discrimination will be associated with inflammatory activity. Furthermore, these associations with inflammation are expected to be observed both in circulating levels of CRP and genomic markers of pro-inflammatory processes.

ANALYSIS Linear mixed models will be used to assess the relationship between adverse social experiences, i.e., social disconnection and interpersonal discrimination and 1) depressive symptomology and 2) markers of inflammatory activity. An interaction term between adverse social experiences and age will be added to the model to explore whether the impact of social disconnection and discrimination on depressive symptoms and inflammation differs in magnitude as youth transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Authors

• Sarah Elizabeth Rocha, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Andrew J Fuligni, University of California - Los Angeles