Associations Between Children's Telomere Length, Parental Intrusiveness, and the Development of Early Externalizing Behaviors.

Shorter telomeres mark cellular aging and are linked to chronic stress exposure as well as negative physical and psychological outcomes. However, it is unclear whether telomere length mediates associations between early stress exposure and later externalizing problems, or whether boys and girls differ in pathways to these concerns. We therefore examined associations between telomere length, early stress via negative caregiving, and children's externalizing symptom development over time in 409 three-year-old children and their parents. Telomere length mediated the association between early parental intrusiveness and later rule-breaking behavior; however, this association was moderated by children's biological sex such that parent intrusiveness was related only to boys' rule-breaking. Findings support the notion that children's telomere length may mark individual differences in responses to negative early caregiving, and highlight a potential mechanism contributing to the development of rule-breaking problems in boys.

Children's neural reactivity to maternal praise and criticism: Associations with early depressive symptoms and maternal depression.

Caregiving experiences are implicated in children's depression risk; however, children's neural reactivity to positive and negative feedback from mothers, a potential mediator of depression risk, is poorly understood. In a sample of 81 children (Mage = 11.12 years, SDage = 0.63), some of whom were recruited based on a maternal history of depression (n = 29), we used fMRI to characterize children's neural responses to maternal praise and criticism. Maternal history of depression was unrelated to children's brain activity during both the praise and criticism conditions; however, ROI analyses showed that children's self-reported depressive symptoms were negatively associated with functional activity in the left anterior insula and right putamen while hearing maternal criticism. Whole-brain analyses showed that children's depressive symptoms were positively associated with left inferior frontal gyrus activity while listening to maternal praise. These findings complement past work implicating these brain regions in the processing of emotionally salient stimuli, reward processing, and internal speech. Given associations between early depressive symptoms and later disorder, findings suggest that maladaptive neural processing of maternal feedback may contribute to children's early emerging risk for depression.

Child sex moderates the relationship between cortisol stress reactivity and symptoms over time.

BACKGROUND: Past work suggests that individual differences in stress reactivity have implications for the development of psychopathology; in particular, females' stress reactivity appears more closely tied to internalizing symptoms than males' reactivity. Conversely, males who are under-reactive to threat may be at risk for externalizing problems. However, little is known about when such differences may emerge, although this knowledge could have implications for early prevention. METHODS: Cortisol reactivity to a laboratory stressor was assessed in 409 three-year-old children (201 boys), along with parent-reported children's internalizing (anxiety and depression) and externalizing (oppositional-defiant and attention problems and hyperactivity) symptoms. Parent-reported symptoms were re-collected at child ages 5 (N = 379) and 8 (N = 364). Multilevel modelling was used to investigate whether the relationship between cortisol reactivity and symptoms differed between boys and girls over time. RESULTS: Girls with lower cortisol reactivity showed a negative association between depressive symptoms and time, while girls with higher reactivity showed no such association. No interaction between sex and cortisol reactivity was found for anxious symptoms. Boys with higher cortisol reactivity showed a negative association between symptoms and time, while boys with lower cortisol reactivity showed no such association. Time and ADHD symptoms were unrelated for boys, regardless of their cortisol reactivity. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that the implications of stress reactivity indexed via cortisol vary for boys and girls, as well as for different symptom manifestations.

Total cortisol output during an acute stressor predicts youths' internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individual differences in cortisol output may influence adolescents' adjustment to the COVID-19 pandemic; however, boys and girls may differ in terms of associations between cortisol output and internalizing symptoms in the context of COVID-19-related stress. We examined whether pre-pandemic cortisol output during an acute stressor, assessed approximately three years prior to the pandemic, predicted change in adolescents' internalizing symptoms early during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consistent with previous work on other life stressors, girls' cortisol output was positively associated with anxious and somatic symptoms early in the pandemic. Conversely, cortisol output and depressive symptoms were negatively associated for boys; boys with higher cortisol had depressive symptoms which significantly decreased over time. Findings suggest that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis stress functioning plays a role in shaping differences between adolescent boys' and girls' adjustment during the experience of a ubiquitous chronic stressor.

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Pandemic Avoidance and Concern Scales (PACS).

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to radical disruptions to the routines of individuals and families, but there are few psychometrically assessed measures for indexing behavioural responses associated with a modern pandemic. Given the likelihood of future pandemics, valid tools for assessing pandemic-related behavioral responses relevant to mental health are needed. This need may be especially salient for studies involving families, as they may experience higher levels of stress and maladjustment related to school and business closures. We therefore created the Pandemic Avoidance and Concern Scales (PACS) to assess caregivers' and youths' adjustment to COVID-19 and future pandemics. Concern and Avoidance factors derived from exploratory factor analyses were associated with measures of internalizing symptoms, as well as other indices of pandemic-related disruption. Findings suggest that the PACS is a valid tool for assessing pandemic-related beliefs and behaviors in adults and adolescents. Preliminary findings related to differential adjustment between caregivers and youths are discussed.

Orbitofrontal cortex grey matter volume is related to children's depressive symptoms.

Adults with a history of depression show distinct patterns of grey matter volume (GMV) in frontal cortical (e.g., prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex) and limbic (e.g., anterior cingulate, amygdala, hippocampus, dorsal striatum) structures, regions relevant to the processing and regulation of reward, which is impaired in the context of depression. However, it is unclear whether these GMV associations with depression precede depressive disorder onset or whether GMV is related to early emerging symptoms or familial depression. To address these questions, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine GMV in 85 community-dwelling children (M = 11.12 years, SD = 0.63 years) screened for current and lifetime depression. Associations between children's depressive symptoms (self- and mother-report of children's symptoms), children's maternal depression history, and GMV were examined. Although maternal depression history was unrelated to children's GMV, child GMV in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) was negatively related to children's self-reported depressive symptoms, using both a priori ROI and whole-brain analyses. Moderated regression analyses indicated that girls' GMV was negatively related to girls' depressive symptoms (as indexed by both self- and mother-report of girls' symptoms), whereas boys' symptoms were positively related to GMV. Our findings suggest that brain morphology in the OFC, a region with functional roles in processes relevant to depressive symptoms (i.e., reward-based learning and reward processing), is associated with early depressive symptoms prior to the development of clinically significant depression.

Development and validation of a battery of emotionally evocative film clips for use with young children.

Investigating normative and maladaptive emotional development requires the ability to elicit children's reactivity to a range of affective stimuli. However, the field lacks a validated battery of stimuli tapping a broad range of childhood emotions. We therefore sought to validate a developmentally appropriate battery of emotionally evocative film stimuli, covering a range of affective responses, for use with children. During pilot work, clips were verified as age appropriate by parents of young children. Next, during a laboratory visit, 39 children (22 girls; Mage = 7.19 years, SD = .76) viewed 20 film clips thought likely to elicit either positive affect, dysphoria (i.e., sadness/anger), or fear, and provided self-reported emotional responses to clips. Children's facial expressions during clips were also rated by trained coders blind to the intended purpose of the clips. We identified clips that successfully elicited the target emotion more so than nontarget emotions according to both coder ratings and child self-report. Implications for the use of these film clips in future research on child emotion are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).