Problems in adolescence

Today, I’m looking at four articles addressing problems in adolescence. First, Kaiser et al. (2023) published “Neurocognitive Risk Phenotyping to Predict Mood Symptoms in Adolescence” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here are the edited abstract and impact statement:

Predicting mood disorders in adolescence is a challenge that motivates research to identify neurocognitive predictors of symptom expression and clinical profiles. This study used machine learning to test whether neurocognitive variables predicted future manic or anhedonic symptoms in two adolescent samples risk-enriched for lifetime mood disorders (Sample 1, n = 73, ages = 13–25, M [SD] = 19.22 [2.49] years, 68% lifetime mood disorder) or familial mood disorders (Sample 2, n = 154, ages = 13–21, M [SD] = 16.46 [1.95] years, 62% first-degree family history of mood disorder). Participants completed cognitive testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging at baseline, for behavioral and neural measures of reward processing and executive functioning. Next, participants completed a daily diary procedure for 8–16 weeks. Penalized mixed-effects models identified neurocognitive predictors of future mood symptoms and stress-reactive changes in mood symptoms. Results included the following. In both samples, adolescents showing ventral corticostriatal reward hyposensitivity and lower reward performance reported more severe stress-reactive anhedonia. Poorer executive functioning behavior was associated with heightened anhedonia overall in Sample 1, but lower stress-reactive anhedonia in both samples. In Sample 1, adolescents showing ventral corticostriatal reward hypersensitivity and poorer executive functioning reported more severe stress-reactive manic symptoms. Clustering analyses identified, and replicated, five neurocognitive subgroups. Adolescents characterized by neural or behavioral reward hyposensitivities together with average-to-poor executive functioning reported unipolar symptom profiles. Adolescents showing neural reward hypersensitivity together with poor behavioral executive functioning reported a bipolar symptom profile (Sample 1 only). Together, neurocognitive phenotypes may hold value for predicting symptom expression and profiles of mood pathology. 

Discovery of reliable cognitive and brain markers of risk may help to predict mood problems in adolescence. This study identified neurocognitive risk markers in two independent groups of adolescents, showing that combined abnormalities in brain and behavioral reward responses, and in executive functioning abilities, characterized subgroups who reported distinctive profiles of mood symptoms over the next 2–4 months.

I started with this one because it suggests that links between behavioral reward and executive functions may explain five kinds of mood pathology in teens. Neural or behavioral hyposensitivities are related to depression and substance abuse. The next study turns to conformity. Field, Choukas-Bradley, Giletta, Telzer, Cohen & Pronstein (2023) published “Why adolescents conform to high-status peers: Associations among conformity, identity alignment, and self-esteem” in Child Development. Here’s the edited abstract:

This study examined whether conformity to high- but not low-status e-confederates was associated with increases in identification with popular peers and subsequent increases in self-esteem. A sample of 250 adolescents (55.1% male; Mage = 12.70 years; 40.3% White, 28.2% Black, 23.4% Hispanic/Latino, and 7.7% multiracial/other) participated in a well-established experimental chat room paradigm where they were exposed to norms communicated by high- and low-status e-confederates. Results revealed that for boys in the high-status condition only, but not girls, the positive relation between conformity and self-esteem was mediated by greater response alignment with popular peers. These findings bolster prior research by suggesting that conformity to popular peers may be partly motivated by drives for self-esteem and alignment with a valued reference group.

This is a fairly large sample and quite diverse. I found it particularly interesting that it was boys for whom conformity and self-esteem were mediated by alignment with highly popular peers. The next study looks at friendship. Faur, Leggett-James, Kaniušonytė, Žukauskienė & Laursen (2023) published “Perceptions of Relationship Quality that Predict Friendship Dissolution during Childhood and Adolescence: Social support matters more than negativity” in Developmental Psychology. The edited abstract and impact statement follow:

The present study examines perceptions of relationship quality as antecedents of best friendship dissolution. Participants included 230 students in Florida (United States; 54.3% girls; ages = 8–13; 39.6% European American, 27.0% Hispanic American, 21.7% African American, and 2.6% Asian American) and 496 students in Lithuania (49.0% girls; ages = 8–14; 358 boys; nearly all ethnic Lithuanian) attending public schools in Florida (United States) and Lithuania. Reciprocated best friends were identified from friend nominations midway through the school year, at which time each partner described perceptions of social support and negativity in the relationship. Of the 363 reciprocated friend dyads, 26.2% (n = 95) were no longer friends 1–3 months later. Dyadic analyses were conducted with initial perceived friend negativity and initial perceived friend social support as predictors of subsequent friendship stability. When considered separately, perceived social support predicted self- and partner reports of friendship stability and perceived negativity predicted self- (but not partner) reports of friendship stability. In each case, lower initial social support and higher initial negativity predicted a greater incidence of friendship dissolution. When considered together, initial perceptions of social support predicted self- and partner reports of friendship dissolution, but perceptions of negativity predicted neither. The findings are consistent with those from married couples, which indicate that the absence of positive interactions is a stronger predictor of relationship instability than the presence of negative interactions. 

The detrimental consequences of friend loss are well documented, but the characteristics that forecast it are not clear. Results from this study indicate that the absence of social support is more of a threat to friendship continuity than the presence of negativity. 

What I found most interesting here is that teens who don’t experience social support early on are more likely to experience friendship dissolution than those whose friendships include negativity. While the Field et al. study looked at students who identify with high status peers, the next study looks at mental illness identity. de Moor et al. (2024) published “Mental Illness and Identity in Adolescents with Internalizing Problems: A qualitative exploration of identity-relevant narratives” in Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science. Here’s the edited information:

Mental illness and identity are related, with issues in identity contributing to the development of psychopathology and vice versa. However, little work has examined how mental illness and identity can become interwoven (i.e., mental illness identity). Mental illness identity may be particularly important during adolescence, as this life phase is marked by the salience of identity and an increase in psychopathology. In the present study, we conducted a qualitative examination of the high point, low point, turning point, and psychopathology-related narratives of 69 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 16.5, 75.4% female, 15.9% male, 8.7% other). The participants were diagnosed with a mood, anxiety, and/or eating disorder, and the majority of them (82.6%) were in treatment at the time of the study. We found that adolescents’ mental illness identity could take different forms and that these forms may be more adaptive or maladaptive depending on the context of each adolescent’s life. Furthermore, mental illness identity was related to several factors within adolescents (e.g., sense of agency) and their environment (e.g., stigma). These findings contribute to our understanding of adolescent mental illness identity and may be used to improve the treatment of their internalizing problems. 

When adolescents experience psychological problems, this has the potential to become part of their identity. In the present study, we found various forms of so-called mental illness identities, which can manifest in adaptive or maladaptive ways. Furthermore, other processes within adolescents as well as their social environments seem intertwined with their mental illness identity. 

I thought it was interesting to consider the extent to which teens can adopt a mental illness identity. While identity can change, we also know that teens can foreclose on a particular facet of identity, whether it’s being a high or low-status teen, a lonely and friendless teen, a depressed a bipolar teen, or any of a variety of other dysfunctional identities.