Neural activation to peer acceptance and rejection in relation to concurrent and prospective depression risk in adolescent and pre-adolescent girls

Relations between peer bullying and adolescent depression: the mediating effect of cellphone usage

Introduction

Adolescent depression is a growing concern worldwide. This study explores the relationship between peer bullying, cellphone usage, and adolescent depression, aiming to investigate a mediation effect model based on Erikson's stages of psychological development.

Methods

Using a cluster sampling method and a cross-sectional survey, a total of 2343 adolescents aged 12 to 18 were recruited from 12 national medical institutions. Cluster sampling was used to select participants who were confirmed to have depression. The survey employed the Multidimensional Peer Victimization Scale (MPVS), the Mobile Phone Addiction Index (MPAI), and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for paper-and pencil evaluations. The three variables were analyzed using SPSS 26 software, applying correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.

Results

The results showed that peer bullying has significant positive correlation with depression (r=0.330, p<0.001) and with cellphone use (r=0.287, p<0.001). Furthermore, cellphone usage was positively correlated with depression (r=0.333, p<0.001). Additionally, cellphone usage had a partial mediating effect between peer bullying and depression (r=0.414, p<0.001, b=0.234). The results underscore the crucial role of peer relationships in adolescent psychological development. Cellphone addiction mediates the link between adolescent depression and peer bullying, highlighting its significant impact.

Conclusion

These findings contribute to understanding the interplay between social influence and depression, offering practical guidelines for fostering a supportive school environment and regulating adolescents' phone use.

The Role of Neural Sensitivity to Social Evaluation in Understanding "for Whom" Social Media Use May Impact Emotional Health During Adolescence

There is much interest in the role of social media (SM) in the current mental health crisis among teens. In this review, we focus on the question of "for whom" SM experiences have the strongest impact on emotional health, considering neural sensitivity to social evaluation as a potential vulnerability factor that makes youth more susceptible to the effects of SM. We first present behavioral evidence showing that sensitivity to social evaluation moderates the link between SM use and emotional health in youth. Next, we show that the brain's affective salience network responds to simulated online social threats in ways that predict emotional health. Finally, we show evidence that neural sensitivity to online social evaluation moderates the effects of peer social experiences on emotional health, with implications for social media experiences. We end with recommendations for fully testing the model.

Female adolescents' early life stress and body mass index: Differential effects of anger and anxiety in response to rejection

INTRODUCTION

Early life stress is linked to childhood obesity. As children enter adolescence, early life stress may be associated with increased rejection sensitivity, resulting in activation of behavioral and physiological changes that contribute to higher body mass index (BMI). Understanding the potential influence of rejection sensitivity on the association between early life stress and BMI is important to examine in female adolescents. For this secondary data analysis, we hypothesized that female adolescents with greater early life stress and greater rejection sensitivity would exhibit higher BMI-for-age 12 months later.

METHODS

Seventy-eight adolescents (Mage = 13.1 years; 100% female sex; MBMI = 23.2 kg/m2) in the United States completed study procedures from 2012 to 2016. Among these procedures, the Psychosocial Schedule was used to assess cumulative early life stress and the Children's Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire was used to assess anger and anxiety in response to rejection. Twelve months later, height and weight were measured to derive BMI-for-age.

RESULTS

Higher early life stress was associated with higher BMI-for-age among female adolescents with low rejection-provoked anger (1 SD below the mean). However, this association was not observed among female adolescents with high rejection-provoked anger (1 SD above the mean). Finally, there was no significant interaction between early life stress and rejection-provoked anxiety in predicting BMI-for-age.

CONCLUSIONS

Experiencing early life stress may interact with rejection-provoked anger, but not anxiety, to predict BMI-for-age. Findings inform a developmental perspective of how rejection sensitivity may influence the association between early life stress and early cardiometabolic risk.