Love on the developing brain: Maternal sensitivity and infants' neural responses to emotion in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Infancy is a sensitive period of development, during which experiences of parental care are particularly important for shaping the developing brain. In a longitudinal study of N = 95 mothers and infants, we examined links between caregiving behavior (maternal sensitivity observed during a mother-infant free-play) and infants' neural response to emotion (happy, angry, and fearful faces) at 5 and 7 months of age. Neural activity was assessed using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), a region involved in cognitive control and emotion regulation. Maternal sensitivity was positively correlated with infants' neural responses to happy faces in the bilateral dlPFC and was associated with relative increases in such responses from 5 to 7 months. Multilevel analyses revealed caregiving-related individual differences in infants' neural responses to happy compared to fearful faces in the bilateral dlPFC, as well as other brain regions. We suggest that variability in dlPFC responses to emotion in the developing brain may be one correlate of early experiences of caregiving, with implications for social-emotional functioning and self-regulation.

Empathy across three generations: From maternal and peer support in adolescence to adult parenting and child outcomes.

This study examined the development of empathic care across three generations in a sample of 184 adolescents in the United States (99 female, 85 male; 58% White, 29% African American, 8% mixed race/ethnicity, 5% other groups), followed from their family of origin at age 13 into their parenting years (through their mid-30s). Mothers' empathic support toward adolescents at age 13 predicted teens' empathy for close friends across adolescence (13-19 years). Participants' empathic support for friends in late adolescence predicted more supportive parenting behavior in adulthood, which in turn was associated with their children's empathy at age 3-8 years. Results suggest that individuals "pay forward" the empathic care they receive from parents, and that skills developed in adolescent friendships may inform later parenting.

Developmental trajectories of adolescent internalizing symptoms and parental responses to distress.

Parents' responses to their children's negative emotions are a central aspect of emotion socialization that have well-established associations with the development of psychopathology. Yet research is lacking on potential bidirectional associations between parental responses and youth symptoms that may unfold over time. Further, additional research is needed on sociocultural factors that may be related to the trajectories of these constructs. In this study, we examined associations between trajectories of parental responses to negative emotions and adolescent internalizing symptoms and the potential role of youth sex and racial identity. Adolescents and caregivers (N = 256) completed six assessments that spanned adolescent ages 13-18 years. Multivariate growth models revealed that adolescents with higher internalizing symptoms at baseline experienced increasingly non-supportive parental responses over time (punitive and distress responses). By contrast, parental responses did not predict initial levels of or changes in internalizing symptoms. Parents of Black youth reported higher minimization and emotion-focused responses and lower distress responses compared to parents of White youth. We found minimal evidence for sex differences in parental responses. Internalizing symptoms in early adolescence had enduring effects on parental responses to distress, suggesting that adolescents may play an active role in shaping their emotion socialization developmental context.

Unique roles of adolescents' friends and fathers in predicting verbal aggression in future adult romantic relationships.

This 20-year prospective study examined verbal aggression and intense conflict within the family of origin and between adolescents and their close friends as predictors of future verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships. A diverse community sample of 154 individuals was assessed repeatedly from age 13 to 34 years using self-, parent, peer, and romantic partner reports. As hypothesized, verbal aggression in adult romantic relationships was best predicted by both paternal verbal aggression toward mothers and by intense conflict within adolescent close friendships, with each factor contributing unique variance to explaining adult romantic verbal aggression. These factors also interacted, such that paternal verbal aggression was predictive of future romantic verbal aggression only in the context of co-occurring intense conflict between an adolescent and their closest friend. Predictions remained robust even after accounting for levels of parental abusive behavior toward the adolescent, levels of physical violence between parents, and the overall quality of the adolescent's close friendship. Results indicate the critical importance of exposure to aggression and conflict within key horizontal relationships in adolescence. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

Pathways from adolescent close friendship struggles to adult negative affectivity.

This 19-year prospective study applied a social development lens to the challenge of identifying long-term predictors of adult negative affectivity. A diverse community sample of 169 individuals was repeatedly assessed from age 13 to age 32 using self-, parent-, and peer-reports. As hypothesized, lack of competence establishing and maintaining close friendships in adolescence had a substantial long-term predictive relation to negative affectivity at ages 27-32, even after accounting for prior depressive, anxious, and externalizing symptoms. Predictions also remained robust after accounting for concurrent levels of depressive symptoms, indicating that findings were not simply an artifact of previously established links between relationship quality and depressive symptoms. Predictions also emerged from poor peer relationships within young adulthood to future relative increases in negative affectivity by ages 27-32. Implications for early identification of risk as well as for potential preventive interventions are discussed.

Adolescent responses to paternal verbal aggression: Assessing spillover and compensatory processes using random intercept cross-lagged panel models.

INTRODUCTION: Prior research suggests several pathways through which verbal aggression manifests across adolescent relationship contexts, including spillover (continuity of aggression across different relationships) and compensation (offsetting an aggressive relationship with less aggression in other relationships). These pathways vary across timescales in ways that between-person analytic approaches are unlikely to adequately capture. The current study used random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) to examine adolescents' spillover and compensatory responses to paternal verbal aggression. METHODS: Participants were 184 adolescents (53.2% female) from a United States community sample participating in a longitudinal study. Annually from ages 13-17, participants reported on their experiences of verbal aggression in their paternal and maternal relationships and participated in observed interactions with a close peer that were coded for aggressive behavior. RESULTS: Spillover was observed from father-adolescent to mother-adolescent and adolescent-peer contexts in analyses at the between-person level, likely capturing long-term, cumulative effects of paternal aggression. Conversely, compensation was observed in analyses at the within-person level, likely capturing medium-term (i.e., year-to-year) adaptations to paternal aggression: Adolescents who experienced more aggression from their father than expected at a specific time point were less likely to both perpetrate and experience aggression in maternal and peer relationships the following year. Several findings differed across teen gender, with compensation more likely to occur in males than females. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the multiple pathways by which father-adolescent aggression may be linked to behavior in other relationships in the medium- and long-term. They also support the value of RI-CLPM in decomposing these effects.

Fathers' contributions to attachment in adolescence and adulthood: the moderating role of race, gender, income, and residential status.

Fathers play a critical yet underappreciated role in adolescent development. To examine contributions of fathers' parenting to attachment in adolescence and adulthood, this longitudinal study followed 184 adolescents from ages 13-24. At age 13, adolescents reported on their fathers' parenting behavior and were observed in a father-teen conflict task; at ages 14 and 24, they completed the Adult Attachment Interview. Adolescents who lived with their father showed higher attachment security at age 14 (Cohen's d = .72), compared to those with non-residential fathers. Fathers' positive relatedness and support for teens' psychological autonomy predicted attachment security at age 14. Fathers' physical aggression predicted attachment insecurity in adolescence, whereas fathers' verbal aggression predicted insecurity in adulthood, illuminating developmental shifts. Pathways to security were moderated by father residential status, adolescent gender, and race. Findings underscore the importance of fathers' presence, autonomy support, and non-aggression in predicting adolescents' state of mind in close relationships.

Does attachment in adolescence predict neural responses to handholding in adulthood? A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Objective: Early life experiences, including attachment-related experiences, inform internal working models that guide adult relationship behaviors. Few studies have examined the association between adolescent attachment and adult relationship behavior on a neural level. The current study examined attachment in adolescence and its associations with neural correlates of relationship behaviors in adulthood. Method: 85 participants completed the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) at age 14. Ten years later, at age 24, participants underwent functional brain image when participants were under the threat of electric shock alone, holding the hand of a stranger, or their partner. Results: We found that adolescents who were securely attached at age 14 showed increased activation in regions commonly associated with cognitive, affective, and reward processing when they held the hand of their partner and stranger compared to being alone. Adolescents with higher preoccupied attachment scores showed decreased activation in similar regions only during the stranger handholding condition compared to being alone. Conclusions: These findings suggest that adolescent attachment predicts adult social relationship behaviors on a neural level, in regions largely consistent with previous literature. Broadly, this study has implications for understanding long-term links between attachment and adult relationship behaviors and has potential for informing intervention.