The effects of stress on reward responsiveness: a systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis of the event-related potential literature.

Exposure to stressful events is associated with a range of negative physical and mental health outcomes, including depression. It is critical to understand the mechanisms through which stress impacts mental health to identify promising targets for prevention and intervention efforts. Low-reward responsiveness is thought to be a mechanism of effects of stress on negative health outcomes and can be reliably measured at the neurophysiological level by using event-related potentials (ERPs), such as the reward positivity (RewP) component. The goal of this systematic review and preliminary meta-analysis was to examine evidence of associations between stress and alterations in reward responsiveness measured using ERPs. Through a systematic review of the literature, 23 studies examining the effects of laboratory-induced stressors and naturalistic stressors or perceived stress on reward responsiveness met study criteria, 13 of which were included in the meta-analysis. Most studies were conducted in undergraduate and community samples, with three selected for specific conditions, and primarily in adults. The systematic review supported evidence of associations between laboratory-induced stressors and blunted reward responsiveness as measured by the RewP but there were more mixed results when considering direct associations between naturalistic stressors/perceived stress and reward-related ERPs. Given that all studies examined the RewP, the meta-analysis focused on this component and indicated that there was a weak, nonsignificant negative association between stress and RewP. Results emphasize the complex nature of relations between stress and reward-related ERPs and the need to consider alternative models in future research. We also provide reporting recommendations for ERP researchers to facilitate future meta-analyses.

Reduced reward responsiveness and depression vulnerability: Consideration of social contexts and implications for intervention.

Depression is a prevalent, heterogeneous, and debilitating disorder that often emerges in adolescence, and there is a need to better understand vulnerability processes to inform more targeted intervention efforts. Psychophysiological methods, like event-related potentials (ERPs), can offer unique insights into the cognitive and emotional processes underlying depression vulnerability. I review my and others' research examining ERP measures of reward responsiveness in youth depression and present a conceptual model of the development of low reward responsiveness, its role in depression vulnerability, and potential windows for targeted intervention. There is evidence that a blunted reward positivity (RewP) is observable in children at risk for depression, appears to be shaped in part by early social experiences, and predicts later depressive symptoms in combination with other risk factors like stress exposure. Further, a component consistent with RewP is reliably elicited in response to social acceptance feedback in computerized peer interaction tasks and demonstrates unique associations with social contextual factors and depressive symptoms, supporting the utility of developing psychophysiological tasks that may better capture youths' real-world experiences and social risk processes. In addition, I address the translational implications of clinical psychophysiological research and describe a series of studies showing that a reduced RewP predicts greater reductions in depressive symptoms with treatment but is not modifiable by current treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy. Finally, I describe our preliminary efforts to develop a positive emotion-focused intervention for the offspring of depressed mothers, informed by the RewP literature, and describe future directions for translating psychophysiological research to intervention and prevention.

The impact of electrode selection for ocular correction on the reward positivity and late positive potential components in adolescents.

Electroencephalography (EEG) data processing to derive event-related potentials (ERPs) follows a standard set of procedures to maximize signal-to-noise ratio. This often includes ocular correction, which corrects for artifacts introduced by eye movements, typically measured by electrooculogram (EOG) using facial electrodes near the eyes. Yet, attaching electrodes to the face may be uncomfortable for some populations, best to avoid in some situations, and contribute to data loss. Eye movements can also be measured using electrodes in a standard 10-20 EEG cap. An examination of the impact of electrode selection on ERPs is needed to inform best practices. The present study examined data quality when using different electrodes to measure eye movements for ocular correction (i.e., facial electrodes, cap electrodes, and no ocular correction) for two well-established and widely studied ERP components (i.e., reward positivity, RewP; and late positive potential, LPP) elicited in adolescents (N = 34). Results revealed comparable split-half reliability and standardized measurement error (SME) between facial and cap electrode approaches, with lower SME for the RewP with facial or cap electrodes compared to no ocular correction. Few significant differences in mean amplitude of ERPs were observed, but the LPP to positive images differed when using facial compared to cap electrodes. Findings provide preliminary evidence of the ability to collect high-quality ERP data without facial electrodes. However, when using cap electrodes for EOG measurement and ocular correction, it is recommended to use consistent procedures across the sample or statistically examine the impact of ocular correction procedures on results.

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.

Annual Research Review: Emotion processing in offspring of mothers with depression diagnoses - a systematic review of neural and physiological research.

BACKGROUND: Theories of the intergenerational transmission of depression emphasize alterations in emotion processing among offspring of depressed mothers as a key risk mechanism, raising questions about biological processes contributing to these alterations. The objective of this systematic annual research review was to examine and integrate studies of the associations between maternal depression diagnoses and offspring's emotion processing from birth through adolescence across biological measures including autonomic psychophysiology, electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), event-related potentials (ERP), and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: The review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 standards. A systematic search was conducted in PsycInfo and PubMed in 2022 for studies that included, 1) mothers with and without DSM-defined depressive disorders assessed via a clinical or diagnostic interview, and 2) measures of offspring emotion processing assessed at the psychophysiological or neural level between birth and 18 years of age. RESULTS: Findings from 64 studies indicated that young offspring of mothers with depression histories exhibit heightened corticolimbic activation to negative emotional stimuli, reduced left frontal brain activation, and reduced ERP and mesocorticolimbic responses to reward cues compared to offspring of never-depressed mothers. Further, activation of resting-state networks involved in affective processing differentiate offspring of depressed relative to nondepressed mothers. Some of these alterations were only apparent among youth of depressed mothers exposed to negative environmental contexts or exhibiting current emotional problems. Further, some of these patterns were observable in infancy, reflecting very early emerging vulnerabilities. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review provides evidence that maternal depression is associated with alterations in emotion processing across several biological units of analysis in offspring. We present a preliminary conceptual model of the role of deficient emotion processing in pathways from maternal depression to offspring psychopathology and discuss future research avenues addressing limitations of the existing research and clinical implications.

Caregivers' positive emotion socialization tendencies are associated with positive affect in preschool age children.

Longstanding theories of emotion socialization postulate that caregiver emotional and behavioral reactions to a child's emotions together shape the child's emotion displays over time. Despite the notable importance of positive valence system function, the majority of research on caregiver emotion socialization focuses on negative valence system emotions. In the current project, we leveraged a relatively large cross-sectional study of caregivers (N = 234; 93.59% White) of preschool aged children to investigate whether and to what degree, caregiver (1) emotional experiences, or (2) external behaviors, in the context of preschoolers' positive emotion displays in caregiver-child interactions, are associated with children's general positive affect tendencies. Results indicated that, in the context of everyday caregiver-child interactions, caregiver-reported positively valenced emotions but not approach behaviors were positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. However, when examining specific caregiver behaviors in response to everyday child positive emotion displays, caregiver report of narrating the child's emotion and joining in the emotion with their child was positively associated with child general positive affect tendencies. Together, these results suggest that in everyday caregiver-child interactions, caregivers' emotional experiences and attunement with the child play a role in shaping preschoolers' overall tendencies toward positive affect.

Las teorías de socialización de la emoción que han existido por mucho tiempo postulan que las reacciones emocionales y de comportamiento de quien presta el cuidado ante las emociones del niño juntas le dan forma a la emoción que el niño muestra a través del tiempo. A pesar de la notable importancia de la función del sistema positivo de valores, la gran mayoría de la investigación acerca de la socialización de la emoción de quien presta cuidado se enfoca en emociones del sistema negativo de valores. En el presente proyecto, aprovechamos un estudio transversal relativamente grande de quienes prestan cuidado (N = 234; 93.59% blancos) a niños de edad prescolar para investigar si y hasta qué punto (1) las experiencias emocionales de quien presta el cuidado, o (2) los comportamientos externos dentro del contexto de la emoción positiva mostrada por los prescolares en las interacciones cuidador-niño, se asocian con las generales tendencias afectivas positivas de los niños. Los resultados indicaron que, dentro del contexto de las interacciones cuidador-niño diarias, las emociones de valores positivamente reportadas por el cuidador, pero no así las conductas de acercamiento, fueron positivamente asociadas con las generales tendencias afectivas positivas del niño. Sin embargo, cuando se examinaron los específicos comportamientos del cuidador como respuesta a las muestras diarias de emociones positivas del niño, el reporte del cuidador al narrar la emoción del niño y el unirse en la emoción con el niño, fueron positivamente asociados con las generales tendencias afectivas positivas del niño. Juntos, estos resultados sugieren que, en las interacciones diarias entre cuidador y niño, las experiencias emocionales del cuidador y la compenetración con el niño juegan un papel en el proceso de darle forma a las generales tendencias de los prescolares hacia el afecto positivo.

Les théories de la socialisation de l'émotion qui existent de longue date postulant que les réactions émotionnelles et comportementales aux émotions d'un enfant des modes de soin forment la manière dont l'émotion de l'enfant s'affiche au fil du temps. En dépit de l'importance notable d'un système de fonction de valence positive, la plus grande partie des recherches sur la socialisation de l'émotion de la personne prenant soin d'un enfant se concentrent sur le système d'émotions de valence négative. Dans ce projet nous avons tiré parti une assez grande étude de coupe transversale de personnes prenant soin d'un enfant (N = 234; 93,59% blanches) d'enfant d'âge préscolaire afin de découvrir si et à quel degré (1) les expériences émotionnelles ou (2) les comportements externes de la personne prenant soin de l'enfant dans le contexte de l'affichage de l'émotion positive des enfants d'âge préscolaire dans les interactions personne prenant soin de l'enfant-enfant sont liées aux tendances générales de l'affect positif des enfants. Les résultats ont indiqué que, dans le contexte de la journée typique de la personne prenant soin de l'enfant, les interactions de l'enfant, les émotions avec une valence positive rapportées par la personne prenant soin de l'enfant mais non les comportements d'approche étaient liés de manière positive avec tendances générales de l'affect positif de l'enfant. Cependant, en examinant les comportements spécifiques des personnes prenant soin de l'enfant en réponse aux affichages de l'émotion positive de l'enfant chaque jour, le compte rendu de l'émotion de l'enfant fait par la personne en prenant soin et de sa participation à l'émotion avec leur enfant était liée de manière positive aux tendances générales de l'affect positif de l'enfant. Tous ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que dans les interactions de chaque jour de la personne prenant soin de l'enfant et l'enfance, les expériences émotionnelles des personnes prenant soin de l'enfant et l'harmonisation avec l'enfant jouent un rôle dans la construction des tendances générales des enfants d'âge préscolaire vers un affect positif.

Age-related differences in social media use, online social support, and depressive symptoms in adolescents and emerging adults.

BACKGROUND: Despite growing concerns about the impact of social media use on the developing brain and associated mental health impacts, whether susceptibility to the benefits and harms of social media use changes across adolescence and young adulthood has yet to be empirically tested. METHOD: Using a cross-sectional sample of participants aged 14-22 years (N = 254), we examined (a) linear and non-linear age-related changes in social media use and online social support and (b) age-related differences in the effects of social media use and online social support on depressive symptoms. RESULTS: We found age differences in social media use, but not online social support, such that social media use increased across adolescence and peaked around age 20, followed by stable use into young adulthood. Age moderated the effect of online social support, but not overall social media use, on depressive symptoms, such that online social support was negatively associated with depressive symptoms for adolescents (age < 16.98), but the opposite pattern emerged for young adults (age > 19.04). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest overall developmental changes in social media use and that adolescents may be more susceptible than emerging adults to the beneficial effects of positive online interactions on mental health.

COVID-19 stressors and symptoms of anxiety and depression in a community sample of children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 public health crisis has created abrupt and unparalleled disruptions to the daily lives of children and adolescents across the world, placing them at significant risk for developing symptoms of anxiety and depression. METHOD: The current study used two data collection periods to determine which types of COVID-19-related stressors were associated with the greatest risk of anxiety and depression symptoms in a community sample of children and adolescents in the United States (U.S.) from May-August 2020 (T1) to February-April 2021 (T2). Seventy-nine youth (ages 10-17; M = 13.41, SD = 2.10; 54.4% female) completed a battery of online standardized questionnaires about COVID-19 stress and psychiatric symptoms at T1 and 56 of these also participated at T2. RESULTS: The majority of children and adolescents reported experiencing the COVID-19-related stressors in multiple domains including daily routines, interpersonal relationships, education, finances, and health. A substantial proportion of the sample reported clinical levels of depression and anxiety symptoms at both T1 and T2. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that, controlling for T1 anxiety and depression symptoms, T2 interpersonal stressors were significantly associated with elevated depression and anxiety scores at T2. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the salience of social connection for children and adolescents, and may also underscore the risk associated with lockdown restrictions, social distancing, and school closures during the pandemic.

Neural markers of emotion regulation difficulties moderate effects of COVID-19 stressors on adolescent depression.

BACKGROUND: Stressful events, such as those imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, are associated with depression risk, raising questions about processes that make some people more susceptible to the effects of stress on mental health than others. Emotion regulation may be a key process, but methods for objectively measuring emotion regulation abilities in youth are limited. We leveraged event-related potential (ERP) measures and a longitudinal study of adolescents oversampled for depression and depression risk to examine emotion regulation difficulties as prospective predictors of depressive symptoms in response to pandemic-related stress. METHODS: Before the pandemic, adolescents with (n = 28) and without (n = 34) clinical depression (N = 62 total) completed an explicit emotion regulation task while ERP data were recorded and measures of depressive symptoms. Adolescents were re-contacted during the pandemic to report on COVID-19 related stressful events and depressive symptoms (n = 48). RESULTS: Adolescents who had never experienced a depressive episode showed an increase in depressive symptoms during the pandemic, but adolescents who were clinically depressed before the pandemic did not exhibit significant changes in symptoms. Neural markers of emotion regulation abilities interacted with pandemic-related stressful events to predict depressive symptoms during the pandemic, such that stressors predicted increases in depressive symptoms only for adolescents with greater difficulty modulating responses to negative images before the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide insight into adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight the role of emotion regulatory brain function in risk and resilience for depression.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders in Youth: Efficacy, Moderators, and New Advances in Predicting Outcomes.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review integrates recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses on the efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. To inform personalized approaches to intervention, we also review recent research on moderators and predictors of outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: Meta-analyses provide strong support for the efficacy of CBT for youth anxiety disorders, including with preschool-aged children using appropriate modifications. Furthermore, there is evidence that CBT is an effective adjunct treatment to psychopharmacological interventions, and the combination of treatments may be most effective for some youth. There is limited evidence of consistent demographic and clinical moderators of outcomes. Recent work in neuroscience has highlighted novel predictors of treatment outcomes that, with replication, may aid in more personalized approaches to youth anxiety treatment. CBT is efficacious for treating anxiety disorders in youth and lowering recurrence rates. CBT can also be an efficacious adjunct treatment for psychopharmacological interventions. Neuroimaging and psychophysiological measures of threat and motivational processing have shown initial promise in predicting symptom change with CBT, with potential implications for precision medicine.

Examination of developmental pathways from preschool temperament to early adolescent ADHD symptoms through initial responsiveness to reward.

To identify sources of phenotypic heterogeneity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) accounting for diversity in developmental/ pathogenic pathways, we examined, in a large sample of youth (N = 354), (a) associations between observed temperamental emotionality at age 3, an electrocortical index (i.e., reward positivity [RewP]) of initial responsiveness to reward at age 9, and ADHD symptoms at age 12, and (b) whether the association between emotionality and ADHD symptoms is mediated by initial responsiveness to reward. Bivariate analyses indicated greater positive emotionality (PE) was associated with enhanced RewP, lower age-9ADHD and lower age-12 inattention (IA). Negative emotionality (NE) was not associated with RewP or ADHD. Mediation analyses revealed the association between PE and hyperactivity/impulsivity (H/I) was mediated by RewP; enhanced RewP was associated with greater H/I. Greater PE was associated with enhanced RewP at a trend level. These effects held accounting for age-9 ADHD, age-12 IA and age-12 oppositional defiant and conduct disorder symptoms. As such, preschool emotionality is associated with adolescent ADHD-H/I symptoms through late childhood initial responsiveness to reward. These relations indicate that individual differences in emotionality and reward responsiveness may be informative for personalizing ADHD interventions.

Associations between peer stress in early adolescence and multiple event-related potentials elicited during social feedback processing.

Interpersonal stress in adolescence has been associated with alterations in neural responses to peer feedback, and increased vulnerability to psychopathology. However, it is unclear whether the associations of interpersonal problems with neural responses are global across event-related potentials (ERPs) or might result in alterations only in specific ERPs. We examined associations between multiple informants of peer stress (self-reported, parent-reported, and peer-reported) and multiple ERPs (N1, P2, RewP, and LPP) to social feedback in a sample of 46 early adolescents (aged 12-13 years). Reports of peer stress were only moderately correlated with one another, indicating different informants capture different aspects of peer stress. Regressions using informant reports to predict ERPs revealed greater parent-reported peer stress was associated with a smaller RewP, whereas self-reported stress was associated with a smaller P2, to acceptance. In contrast, greater peer-reported stress was associated with larger P2, RewP, and LPP to acceptance. Findings suggest that different sources of stress measurement are differentially associated with ERPs. Future research using social feedback-related ERPs should consider multiple sources of information as well as multiple ERP components across the time-course of feedback processing, to gain a clearer understanding of the effects of peer stress on neural responses to feedback.

#socialdistancing: Social Media Use and Online Social Support Moderate the Effect of Pandemic-Related Stress on Internalizing Symptoms in Emerging Adults.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major stressors, increases in internalizing symptomatology, and greater reliance on online interactions. We examined associations between social media use, online social support, pandemic-related stress, and internalizing symptoms, and tested the moderating role of social media use on the relation between stress and symptom change across time. Methods: Emerging adults aged 18-25 (N=200) self-reported pandemic-related stress, internalizing symptoms, social media use, and online social support in May 2020, then repeated measures of internalizing symptoms in August 2020. Results: Greater social media use was cross-sectionally associated with greater stress and anxiety symptoms. High social media use in conjunction with high interpersonal stress was predictive of increases in depression, whereas low online social support and high total stress was predictive of increases in anxiety. Discussion: Findings suggest that general social media usage and online social support are differentially related to internalizing symptom change among emerging adults.

Neurophysiological Responses to Interpersonal Emotional Images: Associations with Symptoms of Depression and Social Anxiety.

Affective neuroscience research using electrocortical event-related potentials has provided valuable insights on alterations in emotion processing in internalizing disorders. However, internalizing disorders are accompanied by additional impairments in social cognition and functioning, and most extant research examines neural responses to broad categories of emotional scenes or faces presented irrespective of context. Examining neural reactivity specifically to interpersonal emotional scenes may more precisely capture and disentangle processes involved in depression and social anxiety, two highly comorbid forms of psychopathology. The current study validated a novel set of positive and threatening interpersonal emotional stimuli in a sample of emerging adults (N = 114) who completed a modified emotional interrupt paradigm while electroencephalogram and behavioral data were recorded. Participant ratings of valence and arousal supported the validity of the emotional images. Consistent with prior research, sustained neurophysiological processing indexed by the late positive potential (LPP) was observed for interpersonal emotional images, especially positive, compared with neutral images. Elevated LPP reactivity to both positive and threatening interpersonal images moderated the effects of chronic interpersonal stress on social anxiety symptoms, such that enhanced LPP reactivity in conjunction with higher levels of chronic interpersonal stress was associated with elevated social anxiety symptoms. These results were unique to social anxiety symptoms and not symptoms of depression, suggesting sustained neural processing of interpersonal stimuli may differentiate social anxiety from depression. Future research on emotional reactivity specifically within the interpersonal domain is needed to inform our understanding of developmental pathways to internalizing psychopathology.

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.

A Preliminary Investigation of ERP Components of Attentional Bias in Anxious Adults using Temporospatial Principal Component Analysis.

Threat-related attention bias is thought to contribute to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Dot-probe studies using event-related potentials (ERPs) have indicated that several early ERP components are modulated by threatening and emotional stimuli in anxious populations, suggesting enhanced allocation of attention to threat and emotion at earlier stages of processing. However, ERP components selected for examination and analysis in these studies vary widely and remain inconsistent. The present study used temporospatial principal component analysis (PCA) to systematically identify ERP components elicited to face pair cues and probes in a dot-probe task in anxious adults. Cue-locked components sensitive to emotion included an early occipital C1 component enhanced for happy versus angry face pair cues and an early parieto-occipital P1 component enhanced for happy versus angry face pair cues. Probe-locked components sensitive to congruency included a parieto-occipital P2 component enhanced for incongruent probes (probes replacing neutral faces) versus congruent probes (probes replacing emotional faces). Split-half correlations indicated that the mean value around the PCA-derived peaks were reliably measured in the ERP waveforms. These results highlight promising neurophysiological markers for attentional bias research that can be extended to designs comparing anxious and healthy comparison groups. Results from a secondary exploratory PCA analysis investigating the effects of emotional face position and analyses on behavioral reaction time data are also presented.

The moderating role of externalizing problems on the association between anxiety and the error-related negativity in youth.

The error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential that reflects error monitoring. Enhanced ERN indicates sensitivity to performance errors and is a correlate of anxiety disorders. In contrast, youth with externalizing problems exhibit a reduced ERN, suggesting decreased error monitoring. Anxiety and externalizing problems commonly co-occur in youth, but no studies have tested how comorbidity might modulate the ERN. In a sample of youth (N = 46, ages 7-19) with and without anxiety disorders, this preliminary study examined the interactive effect of anxiety and externalizing problems on ERN. Results suggest that externalizing problems moderate the relation between anxiety symptoms and ERN in youth. Anxious youth with less externalizing problems exhibited enhanced ERN response to errors. Conversely, anxious youth with greater externalizing problems demonstrated diminished ERN in response to errors. The regions of significance and proportion affected tests indicated that the moderating the effect of externalizing problems was only significant for youth with anxiety disorders. Findings suggest that enhanced neural error sensitivity could be a specific neurophysiological marker for anxiety disorders, whereas anxious individuals with comorbid externalizing problems demonstrate reduced error monitoring, similar to those with primary externalizing pathology. Results underscore the utility of examining neural correlates of pediatric anxiety comorbidity subtypes.

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.

Stressful life events moderate the effect of neural reward responsiveness in childhood on depressive symptoms in adolescence.

BACKGROUND: Reward processing deficits have been implicated in the etiology of depression. A blunted reward positivity (RewP), an event-related potential elicited by feedback to monetary gain relative to loss, predicts new onsets and increases in depression symptoms. Etiological models of depression also highlight stressful life events. However, no studies have examined whether stressful life events moderate the effect of the RewP on subsequent depression symptoms. We examined this question during the key developmental transition from childhood to adolescence. METHODS: A community sample of 369 children (mean age of 9) completed a self-report measure of depression symptoms. The RewP to winning v. losing was elicited using a monetary reward task. Three years later, we assessed stressful life events occurring in the year prior to the follow-up. Youth depressive symptoms were rated by the children and their parents at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS: Stressful life events moderated the effect of the RewP on depression symptoms at follow-up such that a blunted RewP predicted higher depression symptoms in individuals with higher levels of stressful life events. This effect was also evident when events that were independent of the youth's behavior were examined separately. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the RewP reflects a vulnerability for depression that is activated by stress.

Exposure to COVID-19 pandemic stress: Associations with depression and anxiety in emerging adults in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Stressful events due to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are likely to have profound effects on mental health, and validated methods for assessing these experiences and associations with psychopathology are needed. We developed the Pandemic Stress Questionnaire (PSQ) and tested its psychometric properties, characterized experiences in emerging adults, and examined associations with internalizing symptoms. METHODS: Emerging adults (N = 450) completed the PSQ and measures of internalizing symptoms and perceived stress through an online platform in May 2020. One month later, 288 participants completed a follow-up questionnaire to assess reliability of the PSQ and longitudinal associations between stress and internalizing symptoms. RESULTS: Results supported the validity/reliability of PSQ total scores and indicated that stressful events were highly prevalent in May, particularly among younger, female, and Black emerging adults. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were high overall, but decreased at the follow-up assessment. Pandemic-related stress was moderately associated with both depression and anxiety at each assessment, but baseline stress did not predict change in symptoms when controlling for baseline symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide empirical evidence that emerging adults are at high risk for depression and anxiety related to the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlight specific types of experiences associated with greatest risk. Further, this study provides support for a questionnaire measure of experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic that can be applied in future work to advance understanding of risk and resilience in response to stressful events.