School Climate Questionnaire: A New Tool for Assessing the School Environment

Childhood adversities characterize the heterogeneity in the brain pattern of individuals during neurodevelopment

BACKGROUND

Several factors shape the neurodevelopmental trajectory. A key area of focus in neurodevelopmental research is to estimate the factors that have maximal influence on the brain and can tip the balance from typical to atypical development.

METHODS

Utilizing a dissimilarity maximization algorithm on the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) of the resting state functional MRI data, we classified subjects from the cVEDA neurodevelopmental cohort (n = 987, aged 6-23 years) into homogeneously patterned DMD (representing typical development in 809 subjects) and heterogeneously patterned DMD (indicative of atypical development in 178 subjects).

RESULTS

Significant DMD differences were primarily identified in the default mode network (DMN) regions across these groups (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). While the groups were comparable in cognitive performance, the atypical group had more frequent exposure to adversities and faced higher abuses (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected). Upon evaluating brain-behavior correlations, we found that correlation patterns between adversity and DMN dynamic modes exhibited age-dependent variations for atypical subjects, hinting at differential utilization of the DMN due to chronic adversities.

CONCLUSION

Adversities (particularly abuse) maximally influence the DMN during neurodevelopment and lead to the failure in the development of a coherent DMN system. While DMN's integrity is preserved in typical development, the age-dependent variability in atypically developing individuals is contrasting. The flexibility of DMN might be a compensatory mechanism to protect an individual in an abusive environment. However, such adaptability might deprive the neural system of the faculties of normal functioning and may incur long-term effects on the psyche.

Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Perceived Stress Scale in Russian adolescents

This study involved a psychometric analysis of the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10). To investigate the Russian version of the PSS-10 for adolescents, 3530 adolescents aged 13-17 years were recruited. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the data corresponded to the expected two-factor configuration. Psychometric properties and factor structure were evaluated. As expected, the PSS-10 included two factors: perceived helplessness and perceived self-efficacy. Internal consistency demonstrated acceptable values (Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 for perceived helplessness, 0.77 for perceived self-efficacy, and 0.80 for the overall PSS score). Measurement invariance across sexes was assessed, and configural and metric invariance were confirmed. The developed diagnostic tool can be used both in the school system to alleviate the negative consequences of academic stress in adolescents and, in the future, in other areas, particularly in clinical practice.