Neural Correlates of Pathological Gamblers Preference for Immediate Rewards During the Iowa Gambling Task: An fMRI Study

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) involves exploratory learning via rewards and penalties, where most advantageous task performance requires subjects to forego potential large immediate rewards for small longer-term rewards to avoid larger punishments. Pathological gambling (PG) subjects perform worse on the IGT compared to controls, relating to their persistence at high risk decisions involving the continued choice of potential large immediate rewards despite experiencing larger punishments. We wished to determine if neural processing of risk and reward within striatal and frontal cortex is associated with this behaviour observed in PG. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess brain activity in response to a computerized version of the IGT. Thirteen male PG subjects with no active comorbidities were compared to 13 demographically matched control subjects. In agreement with previous behavioural studies, PG subjects performed worse on the IGT and made more high-risk choices compared to controls, particularly after experiencing wins and losses. During high-risk gambling decisions, fMRI demonstrated that PG subjects exhibited relatively increased frontal lobe and basal ganglia activation, particularly involving the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), caudate and amygdala. Increased activation of regions encompassing the extended reward pathway in PG subjects during high risk choices suggests that the persistence of PG may be due to the increased salience of immediate and greater potential monetary rewards relative to lower monetary rewards or potential future losses. Whether this over activation of the reward pathway is associated with the development of PG warrants further investigation.     

Maternal Neurobiological Processing of Negative Adolescent Stimuli: Relations With Positive Parenting and Relationship Quality

We examined associations between maternal affective neurobiology and positive parenting in a study of 20 mothers of adolescents. Mothers underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during an emotion image task, rated parent‐adolescent relationship quality, and completed an adolescent interaction task in which positive parenting behaviors were observed. Maternal structure was associated with lower responsivity in emotional processing regions in the general negative image contrast and was related to greater dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activation to negative adolescent images. Parent‐adolescent relationship quality was associated with lower precuneus activation to negative adolescent images. Findings are among the first to connect functional brain processing with observed parenting behaviors for parents of adolescent children, and underscore the relative importance of affective processing in parenting older children.     

Roles of Response Inhibition and Gene–Environment Interplay in Pathways to Adolescents' Externalizing Problems

This study used two waves of data to investigate pathways through which adolescents' response inhibition related to later externalizing problems. A polygenic risk score indexed genetic risk for poor response inhibition. Adolescents' performance on a response inhibition task mediated the relation between adolescents' polygenic risk scores and mother's inconsistent parenting (i.e., evocative rGE), even after controlling for mothers' genetic risk (i.e., passive rGE). Mothers' inconsistent parenting subsequently prospectively predicted adolescents' externalizing problems. Adolescents' response inhibition also prospectively predicted later externalizing behaviors. These findings were subgroup‐specific, with greater risk for non‐Hispanic Caucasian boys with substance‐disordered parents. Results suggest that poor response inhibition may increase risk for adolescents' externalizing problems both directly and by evoking certain environmental conditions.     

The Role of Emotion Processing in the Association between Parental Discipline and Adolescent Socio‐Emotional Development

This research investigated whether biases in processing threatening emotional cues operate as an indirect pathway through which parental harsh discipline is associated with adolescent socio‐emotional functioning. Participants were 192 adolescents (M age = 12.4), and their parents assessed over two years. Findings revealed two significant indirect pathways involving fear processing. Greater parental harsh discipline was linked to more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, which was linked to more depressive symptoms in the following year. Greater parental harsh discipline was also associated with more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, and thereby, more peer problems later. Findings suggest that adolescent emotional processing operated as an indirect pathway linking parental harsh discipline and adolescent socio‐emotional functioning within the broader social context.     

Caregiver qualities,family closeness,and the well-being of adolescents engaged in the child welfare system

Children who come into contact with the child welfare system are at greater risk of experiencing internalizing and externalizing behaviors. This secondary analysis of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being explored how caregiver characteristics and behaviors, and caregiver–child closeness influence these outcomes over time. The final sample was 877 caregiver and adolescent (11–17 years old) dyads. Weighted multivariate regression analyses were performed. Caregiver characteristics associated with depressive symptoms included age and education; caregiver health was not associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors. For adolescents, being female, older, or Hispanic was associated with internalizing behaviors. Although not significant for externalizing behaviors, caregiver–adolescent closeness was protective against internalizing behaviors. Understanding factors that contribute to the mental health of child-welfare-exposed adolescents has far-reaching implications for family-based interventions with child-welfare-involved youth.     

Family Structure,Family Processes,and Adolescent Smoking and Drinking

This study examined whether family structure was associated with adolescent risk behaviors, including smoking and drinking. Family living arrangements have become increasingly diverse, yet research on adolescent risk behaviors has typically relied on measures of family structure that do not adequately capture this diversity. Data from the 1994–1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used to conduct logistic regression analyses that revealed adolescents in two biological married parent families were least likely to smoke or drink, whereas adolescents in cohabiting stepfamilies were most likely. Those in single‐mother families and married stepfamilies were in between. Maternal socialization was related to reduced odds of smoking and drinking. Maternal modeling was positively associated with smoking and drinking. Family structure is indicative of distinct family processes that are linked to risky behaviors among adolescents.     

Reward Seeking and Cognitive Control: Using the Dual Systems Model to Predict Adolescent Sexual Behavior

Research has provided support for the dual systems model of adolescent risk taking, but the model has rarely been applied to sexual behavior. Using data from the NICHD SECCYD (N = 958; Mage = 15.07, SD = 0.18), this study examined the effects of cognitive control, reward seeking, and their interaction on sexual behavior. Results of structural equation models revealed that performance on behavioral tasks assessing reward seeking and cognitive control uniquely predicted sexual intercourse, but the interaction between them was not significant. For oral sex, only cognitive control was a significant predictor. The findings provide additional support for the dual systems model, and suggest that reward seeking and cognitive control make unique contributions to adolescent sexual behavior.     

Positive Attentional Bias,Attachment Style,and Susceptibility to Peer Influence

Susceptibility to peer influence may be related to activation in reward‐related brain regions. The current study extends research on the role of reward sensitivity in peer influence by examining whether preferential attention to positive emotional stimuli predicts behavior in peer interactions, and whether this association is moderated by attachment style in a sample of 36 same‐sex peer dyads. Positive attentional bias was associated with lower autonomy and greater avoidance with peers. This association was attenuated among individuals with secure attachment style. Attention to negative stimuli was associated with less avoidant and more hostile behavior during peer interactions. Results suggest that preferential attention to positive emotional stimuli is associated with greater susceptibility to peer influence, particularly in individuals low in secure attachment.     

Socioeconomic Risk for Adolescent Cognitive Control and Emerging Risk‐Taking Behaviors

This study examined whether cognitive control mediated the association between socioeconomic status (SES; composite of income‐to‐needs ratio and parent education) and changes in risk‐taking behaviors. The sample included 167 dyads of adolescents (53% male; M_age = 14.07 years at Time 1) and their parents, assessed annually across 4 years. Parents reported socioeconomic variables at Time 1. Adolescents reported risk‐taking behaviors at Times 1 and 4, and completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging cognitive control task at Times 2 and 3. Lower SES was associated with lower behavioral (but not neural) cognitive control, which was associated with increases in risk‐taking behaviors. The findings suggest that elevated socioeconomic risk may compromise cognitive control which can cascade into maladaptive behaviors in adolescence.     

Anabolic steroid use: indications of habituation among adolescents

The use of anabolic steroids (AS) by adolescent males is argued to be more widespread than currently acknowledged. Although the long-term physiological and psychological ramifications of use are not well established, current research and anecdotal information suggest that there is reason for concern. In addition, very little is known about the attitudes and behaviors of these adolescent AS users. While the debate concerning the physiological versus the psychological dependence liability of various drugs continues to evolve, there seems to be a consensus that drug dependence is not a per se phenomenon and that the characteristics of dependence differ in accordance with the drug being used. The following article attempts to identify characteristics of the adolescent male AS user and suggests that AS use does have a dependence potential. The AS user population was found to be significantly different from nonusers in several areas such as self-perceptions of health and strength, interest in controlling AS use, and perceptions of peer AS use. The AS user group was also found to contain several subgroups (heavy users [greater than or equal to 5 cycles] versus other users, and those who initiated use prior to age sixteen who reported significantly different attitudes and/or behaviors. These differences suggest that prevention efforts will have to focus on different motivations for AS use.     

Welfare Reform and Teenage Pregnancy,Childbirth, and School Dropout

This study estimates the effect of welfare reform on adolescent behaviors using a difference‐in‐differences approach. After defining the prereform and reform cohorts and considering the life course development of adolescent behavior by following each cohort from age 14 to age 16, we compare the welfare‐target and nontarget populations in the two cohorts. The difference‐in‐differences estimates are obtained using an event history model. Our analysis suggests that welfare reform has not reduced teenage fertility and school dropout. We find modest evidence that welfare reform is associated with higher risk of teenage births for girls in welfare families and higher risk of school dropout for girls in poor families. A combination of a difference‐in‐differences approach and a life course perspective can be a useful way to delineate the effect of societal‐level change on family phenomena.     

The Association Between Infants’ Attention Control and Social Inhibition is Moderated by Genetic and Environmental Risk for Anxiety

Infant social inhibition is associated with increased risk for anxiety later in life. Although both genetic and environmental factors are associated with anxiety, little empirical work has addressed how developing regulatory abilities work with genetic and environmental risk to exacerbate or mitigate problem behaviors. The current study was aimed at addressing this gap in research by investigating an early emerging regulatory behavior, attention control, in association with genetic and environmental risk for anxiety. Participants included 9‐month‐old adopted infants, their birth mothers, and adoptive parents (N = 361). Lifetime diagnosis of birth mother social phobia was obtained using structured interviews. Adoptive parents completed self‐report measures of anxiety symptoms. Infant social inhibition and attention control were coded during a stranger interaction and a barrier task, respectively. Neither adoptive nor birth parent anxiety was directly associated with social inhibition. The association of attention control with social inhibition in infants was moderated by birth and adoptive parent anxiety symptoms. When infants of birth mothers with social phobia were raised by adoptive parents with high self‐reported anxiety symptoms, greater attention control was associated with greater social inhibition. However, when raised by adoptive parents with low self‐reported anxiety, greater attention control was associated with less social inhibition.     

Antisocial Propensity,Adolescent School Outcomes,and the Risk of Criminal Conviction

Data from the 1986 Northern Finland Birth Cohort Study (n = 4,645) were used to examine the influence of mid‐adolescent (age 15) school outcomes on late‐adolescent (ages 17–19) risk of criminal conviction. Consistent with social‐developmental theories of offending, we found that poor academic performance and reduced school attachment increase the risk of criminal conviction independently of pre‐existing differences in antisocial propensity and other confounding factors identified in prior research. Moreover, in support of an integrated model, our research suggests that academic performance and school attachment mediate the effects of childhood antisociality and learning difficulties on late‐adolescent risk of criminal conviction. The implications of findings for policy and future research are discussed.     

Automatic processes and the appraisal of sexual stimuli: Toward an information processing model of sexual arousal

A model of sexual arousal is presented that highlights the interaction between automatic and controlled cognitive processes and proposes that different levels of cognitive processing can differentially affect subjective and physiological sexual arousal. In addition, two studies are presented in which the role of automatic processes was explored using a priming paradigm. Subjects were sexually functional men. In the first study an effect of priming was found on penile erection. Unexpectedly, responses were lower in sexual than in neutral trials. In the second study support was found, using a behavioral measure (decision time), for the notion that the meaning of sexual stimuli can be perceived in a fast, automatic manner. Priming was most successful at lower levels of stimulus accessibility. The model and experimental approach presented in this article render starting points for new research on response discordance, gender differences in the processing of sexual stimuli, and inhibition of sexual response.     

Social skills, competence, and drug refusal efficacy as predictors of adolescent alcohol use

Numerous alcohol and drug abuse prevention trials have included social resistance training as a strategy for reducing early-stage adolescent alcohol use. Evaluations of these trials has shown them to be moderately effective, although the precise impact of the resistance training in comparison to other programmatic features has not been clearly identified. The current study examined the extent to which assertiveness and related social skills, personal competence (perceived cognitive mastery), and refusal efficacy predict alcohol involvement. Males were at greater risk for poor refusal skills and reported higher alcohol involvement. Cross-sectionally, youth characterized by poor social skill development reported lower refusal efficacy, lower grades, poor competence, and more alcohol use. Poor refusal efficacy was associated with more risk-taking, lower grades, less competence, and more alcohol use. Longitudinally, both poor refusal skills and risk-taking were associated with higher alcohol use. High personal competence was associated with lower alcohol use in both the eighth and tenth grades, but had no long-term effects on alcohol use. Findings highlight the close interplay between perceived competence and refusal skill efficacy, both of which should be included as essential components of school-based prevention strategies.     

Life Course Heterogeneity in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood Among Adolescent Mothers

Longitudinal data were used to examine pathways taken by 227 adolescent mothers during the transition from adolescence into adulthood. Latent profile analysis identified three sub‐groups of adolescent mothers from 6 months to 6 years postpartum: a problem‐prone profile (15%), a psychologically vulnerable profile (42%), and a normative profile (43%). Group membership was related to long‐term adult outcomes (adult status markers, health‐risk and deviant behaviors, substance use, mental health, and intimate relationships) when respondents were nearing age 30. The psychologically vulnerable group reported greater health and mental health problems, relational problems, and substance use than the normative profile group. Only the problem‐prone profile group, taken together, reported serious problems in all domains of adult outcomes examined including financial, relational, behavioral, and health and mental health problems. Results confirm the existence of different pathways through adolescent parenthood that are associated with adult functioning 12 years postpartum.     

Asperger’s Syndrome and the Decoding of Boredom,Interest, and Disagreement from Body Posture

Twenty Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) participants were compared with 20 matched neurotypical controls in their decoding of postural cues of boredom, interest, and disagreement. On a nonverbal matching task, the AS group performed as accurately as the controls, whereas on a verbal labeling task, AS participants made significantly more mistakes in labeling bored postures. Response times of the AS group were significantly slower than controls in their judgments of all three attitudes on both tasks, with the exception only of disagreeing postures on the verbal labeling task. It was hypothesized that these slower response times may reflect a feature-based cognitive processing style by AS participants. Proposed practical recommendations are to train AS individuals in the recognition of boredom, and to improve the speed with which they can recognize different attitudes.     

Maternal Monitoring,Adolescent Disclosure,and Adolescent Adjustment Among Palestinian Refugee Youth in Jordan

The role of parenting (adolescent‐perceived maternal solicitation of information and control), and child‐driven processes (adolescent disclosure and secrecy) in parental knowledge of adolescents' activities, norm‐breaking, and anxiety were examined among 498 poor Palestinian youth (M = 15 years) living in refugee camps in Jordan. With family relationships and demographic background controlled, greater adolescent disclosure and less secrecy about activities, but also more maternal control and solicitation, were associated with greater maternal knowledge. Greater dispositional secrecy was associated with greater norm‐breaking and generalized anxiety, but parental control and parental solicitation were not. In addition, both gender and maternal control moderated the effects of disclosure on norm‐breaking. Differences between these findings and research with Western samples are discussed.     

Family Processes and Problem Behaviors in Middle‐Class African American Adolescents

This study examined the joint association between mothers’ and adolescents’ ratings of parental behavioral control and adolescents’ and observers’ ratings of mother – adolescent communication with adolescent problem behaviors in a sample of 86 middle‐class African American early adolescent boys and girls (age: M= 13.08 years, SD= 1.32) and their mothers. Consistent with hypotheses, greater adolescent‐rated parental behavioral control and better observer‐rated mother – adolescent communication were associated with lower levels of adolescent problem behavior, as examined using structural equation modeling. Furthermore, interrelationships between age and adolescent problem behavior were partially mediated by adolescents’ reports of parental behavioral control and observers’ ratings of positive mother – adolescent communication, which both decreased with adolescents’ age. Although the sample was primarily middle class, higher socioeconomic status was associated with more positive mother – adolescent communication, as rated by observers. Problem behavior was greater among boys than girls, but the hypothesized indirect effect of gender on problem behavior through associations with parenting was not observed. The findings demonstrate the utility of conceptually distinguishing between parenting and parent – adolescent relationships, and suggest that both have unique influences on middle‐class African American adolescents’ problem behavior.     

Parenting Style and Adolescent Externalizing Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

This longitudinal study was conducted with 262 adolescents (M age = 15.3) and their parents to examine adolescent respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; baseline and reactivity) as a moderator of the relationship between parenting style and adolescent externalizing behaviors. This was conceptualized within the differential susceptibility to the environment framework, which proposes that children with greater sensitivity to environmental influences benefit more from supportive environments but are at greater risk in averse environments. In this study, low RSA baseline was associated with greater susceptibility. In confirmation of hypotheses, males with low RSA baseline had the most externalizing behaviors when mother or father authoritative parenting was low or when mother authoritarian parenting was high. Contrary to hypotheses, females with greater RSA reactivity (high susceptibility) did more poorly when authoritarian parenting was low or authoritative parenting was high. Differential gender socialization and the task used to elicit RSA reactivity are suggested reasons for gender differences.