Social Media Use as a Predictor of Positive and Negative Affect: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Adolescents with and without Clinical Depression.

Social media use is common in adolescents, with implications for psychosocial development and the emergence of depression. Yet, little is known about the time-linked connections between social media use and adolescents' affective experiences and how they may differ between depressed and non-depressed youth. We leveraged ecological momentary assessment in adolescents oversampled for current depression to examine (1) associations between social media use and concurrent and later positive and negative affect and (2) sex and presence of a depressive disorder as moderators of these associations. Adolescents aged 14-17 with (n = 48) and without (n = 97) clinical depression, as indicated via clinical interview, reported momentary social media use and positive and negative affect seven times per day for one week. Multilevel modeling indicated that social media use was associated with reduced positive affect both concurrently and at the next assessment. Further, among clinically depressed youth only, social media use was associated with reduced negative affect at the next assessment. Results suggest that social media use may reduce both positive and negative affect, highlighting the nuanced relation between adolescent social media use and emotional health and laying the groundwork for future research to address several open questions.

Behavioral and psychiatric correlates of brain responses to social feedback.

Maladaptive responses to peer acceptance and rejection arise in numerous psychiatric disorders in adolescence; yet, homogeneity and heterogeneity across disorders suggest common and unique mechanisms of impaired social function. We tested the hypothesis that social feedback is processed similarly to other forms of feedback (e.g., monetary) by examining the correspondence between the brain's response to social acceptance and rejection and behavioral performance on a separate reward and loss task. We also examined the relationship between these brain responses and depression and social anxiety severity. The sample consisted of one hundred and thirteen 16-21-year olds who received virtual peer acceptance/rejection feedback in an event-related potential (ERP) task. We used temporospatial principal component analysis and identified a component consistent with the reward positivity (RewP) or feedback negativity (FN). RewP to social acceptance was not significantly related to reward bias or the FN to social rejection related to loss avoidance. The relationship between RewP and depression severity, while nonsignificant, was of a similar magnitude to prior studies. Exploratory analyses yielded a significant relationship between lower socioeconomic status (SES) and blunted RewP and between lower SES and heightened loss avoidance and blunted reward bias. These findings build on prior work to improve our understanding of the function of the brain's response to social feedback, while also suggesting a pathway for further study, whereby poverty leads to depression via social and reward learning mechanisms.

Zoom or In-Person: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study of Time with Friends and Depressive Symptoms on Affect in Emerging Adults.

INTRODUCTION: Depression is associated with increased negative affect (NA) and low positive affect (PA), as well as interpersonal difficulties. Although most studies examine symptoms and affect at only one time point, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) captures data on affect and activity in real time and across contexts. The present study used EMA to explore the links between in-person and virtual social interactions, depressive symptoms, and momentary affect. METHODS: Emerging adults (N=86) completed a self-report measure of both general depression and dysphoria symptoms, followed by EMA surveys 8 times daily for one week, reporting momentary affect (PA and NA) and social context (in-person and virtual interactions with friends). RESULTS: In-person, but not virtual, presence of friends was associated with increased PA overall. Depressive symptoms were linked to less time with in-person friends and elevated NA. There was also a significant interaction between in-person presence of friends and dysphoria in predicting NA, such that presence of in-person friends was associated with lower NA only for those low in dysphoria. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that time with in-person friends is associated with increased PA overall and decreased NA only for those lower in depressive symptoms, but these effects do not generalize to virtual interactions. Those with greater depressive symptoms may be less responsive to positive stimuli and experience less of an effect of friends' presence on affect. Alternatively, maladaptive social behaviors characteristic of depression may influence the effect of social interactions on affect.

Advancing the RDoC initiative through the assessment of caregiver social processes.

The relationships infants and young children have with their caregivers are fundamental to their survival and well-being. Theorists and researchers across disciplines have attempted to describe and assess the variation in these relationships, leading to a general acceptance that caregiving is critical to understanding child functioning, including developmental psychopathology. At the same time, we lack consensus on how to assess these fundamental relationships. In the present paper, we first review research documenting the importance of the caregiver-child relationship in understanding environmental risk for psychopathology. Second, we propose that the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative provides a useful framework for extending the study of children's risk for psychopathology by assessing their caregivers' social processes. Third, we describe the units of analysis for caregiver social processes, documenting how the specific subconstructs in the domain of social processes are relevant to the goal of enhancing knowledge of developmental psychopathology. Lastly, we highlight how past research can inform new directions in the study of caregiving and the parent-child relationship through this innovative extension of the RDoC initiative.