Feeling anxious and being engaged in a warming world: climate anxiety and adolescents' pro-environmental behavior.

BACKGROUND: Climate anxiety is increasingly prevalent among adolescents worldwide. Are climate-anxious adolescents prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior? Or might the association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental be curvilinear, such that high levels of climate anxiety become 'paralyzing'? And do these associations depend on whether adolescents believe that, with effort, the worst impacts of climate change can still be prevented? METHODS: We addressed these questions in three studies (two preregistered; combined N = 2,211), conducted across two countries. We used cross-sectional and longitudinal methods, and various measures of climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. We performed Bayesian regression analyses comparing two models that tested competing hypotheses. The first model included a linear effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior, and the second model included both a linear and a curvilinear (i.e. inverted U-shaped) effect of climate anxiety on pro-environmental behavior. Next, we added environmental efficacy to the best fitting model and explored its moderating effects. RESULTS: Adolescents reported low-to-moderate levels of climate anxiety. Across the board, we found evidence for a small, positive, and mostly linear (rather than curvilinear) association between climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior. While Study 1 supported a curvilinear association (Bayes Factor (BF) = 18.87), Studies 2 and 3 mostly supported a linear model (BFs range 6.86-12.71), except for weak support (BF = 1.62) for a curvilinear association between climate anxiety symptoms and public sphere pro-environmental behavior. Adolescents' environmental efficacy moderated this link for public sphere (e.g. activism), but not private sphere (e.g. recycling), pro-environmental behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Climate-anxious adolescents are prone to engage in pro-environmental behavior. We found limited evidence for 'eco-paralysis' (i.e. a passive state of pro-environmental behavioral stasis) at high levels of climate anxiety. Our results are consistent with the possibility that supporting adolescents' environmental efficacy will help climate-anxious adolescents engage in public sphere pro-environmental behavior.

Longitudinal neural and behavioral trajectories of charity contributions across adolescence.

This study examined the development of prosocial charity donations and neural activity in the ventral striatum when gaining rewards for self and for charity. Participants 10-22 years (95% European heritage) participated in three annual behavioral-fMRI waves (T1: n = 160, T2: n = 167, T3: n = 175). Behaviorally, donations to charity as measured with an economic Dictator Game increased with age. Perspective taking also increased with age. In contrast, self-gain and charity-gain enjoyment decreased with age. Ventral striatum activity was higher for rewards for self than for charity, but this difference decreased during adolescence. Latent growth curve models revealed that higher donations were associated with a smaller difference between ventral striatum activation for self and charity. These findings show longitudinal brain-donations associations in adolescence.

Daily Identity Processes and Emotions in Young Adulthood: a Five-Day Daily-Diary Method.

The process of exploring and committing to one's identity for the sake of a future-oriented goal is important for young adults' psychosocial functioning. Whereas the relationship between identity process and psychosocial functioning has been examined in long-term longitudinal studies, the short-term relationship between the two at the daily level has not been clarified. This study developed a measure of daily-level identity process and examined their relationship with daily positive and negative emotions, using a five-day daily-diary method. The participants included 721 Japanese young adults aged 18-30 years (54.4% female, Mage = 26.05 years). Results indicated the measure's three-factor structure, including commitment, active exploration, and ruminative exploration. Commitment related positively to life satisfaction and happiness, and negatively related to depression. Active exploration and ruminative exploration indicated negative associations with life satisfaction and happiness, and positive association depression. Latent profile analysis extracted five theoretically meaningful identity profiles at the daily level: foreclosure, moratorium, troubled diffusion, searching moratorium, and carefree diffusion. Logistic regression analyses indicated that troubled diffusion and moratorium, and foreclosure profiles showed lower and higher levels of life satisfaction and happiness, respectively. These results provided evidence of a strong link between young adult's identity processes, profiles, and positive and negative emotions at the everyday level. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Dynamics of Identity Development in Adolescence: A Decade in Review.

One of the key developmental tasks in adolescence is to develop a coherent identity. The current review addresses progress in the field of identity research between the years 2010 and 2020. Synthesizing research on the development of identity, we show that identity development during adolescence and early adulthood is characterized by both systematic maturation and substantial stability. This review discusses the role of life events and transitions for identity and the role of micro-processes and narrative processes as a potential mechanisms of personal identity development change. It provides an overview of the linkages between identity development and developmental outcomes, specifically paying attention to within-person processes. It additionally discusses how identity development takes place in the context of close relationships.

"Wild Years": Rock Music, Problem Behaviors and Mental Well-being in Adolescence and Young Adulthood.

Adolescent preferences for non-mainstream types of rock music can be markers of adolescent problem behaviors, but no study has ever investigated whether this relationship continues into adulthood. In a six-wave study, 900 Dutch adolescents were followed from ages 12 to 21 (Mage T1 12.4, 51.1% girls), while reporting on depressive symptoms, mental well-being, aggression and drug use. A latent class growth analysis on their preferences for specific types of rock music revealed four fan groups. When these fan groups were compared to one another, in adolescence, the all-out rock fans displayed the highest peak in depressive symptoms and the lowest dip in well-being and the rock/metal fans reported the most aggression. And for both these groups, drug use increased at the onset of adulthood. Pop fans displayed a profile characterized by low depressive symptoms and aggression, and high in mental well-being. Finally, the popular rock fans held an in-between position between pop fans, on one side, and the all-out rock fans and rock/metal fans, on the other side. Thus, music preferences can be markers of problems, not only in adolescence but also in young adulthood. Still, music can enhance mood, helps to cope with problems, and peers in fan groups can provide support. This research focuses on the relationship between music and problem behaviors, specifically among members of the all-out rock fans and rock/metal fans, but many of these young people might have had more personal problems if they had not had their music and their fan-group peers.

Daily Identity Dynamics in Adolescence Shaping Identity in Emerging Adulthood: An 11-Year Longitudinal Study on Continuity in Development.

According to identity theory, short-term day-to-day identity exploration and commitment processes are the building blocks for long-term development of stable commitments in emerging adulthood. This key assumption was tested in a longitudinal study including 494 individuals (43% girls, Mage T1 = 13.31 years, range 11.01-14.86 years) who were followed from adolescence into emerging adulthood, covering ages 13 to 24 years. In the first five years, adolescents reported on their daily identity processes (i.e., commitment, reconsideration and in-depth exploration) across 75 assessment days. Subsequently, they reported on their identity across four (bi-) annual waves in emerging adulthood. Findings confirmed the existence of a dual-cycle process model of identity formation and identity maintenance that operated at the within-person level across days during adolescence. Moreover, individual differences in these short-term identity processes in adolescence predicted individual differences in identity development in emerging adulthood. Specifically, those adolescents with low daily commitment levels, and high levels of identity reconsideration were more likely to maintain weak identity commitments and high identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. Also, those adolescents characterized by stronger daily changes in identity commitments and continuing day-to-day identity uncertainty maintained the highest identity uncertainty in emerging adulthood. These results support the view of continuity in identity development from short-term daily identity dynamics in adolescence to long-term identity development in emerging adulthood.

On Imbalance of Impulse Control and Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Risk: An Intra-individual Developmental Test of the Dual Systems and Maturational Imbalance Models.

Heterogeneity in development of imbalance between impulse control and sensation seeking has not been studied until now. The present study scrutinized this heterogeneity and the link between imbalance and adolescent risk. Seven-wave data of 7,558 youth (50.71% males; age range from 12/13 until 24/25) were used. Three developmental trajectories were identified. The first trajectory, "sensation seeking to balanced sensation seeking", included participants with a higher level of sensation seeking than impulse control across all ages. The second trajectory, "moderate dominant control", included participants showing moderate and increasing impulse control relative to sensation seeking across all ages. The third trajectory, "strong late dominant control", included participants showing the highest level of impulse control which was about as strong as sensation seeking from early to middle adolescence and became substantially stronger from late adolescence to early adulthood. Although the systematic increase of impulse control in all subgroups is in line with both models, neither of these combined trajectories of control and sensation seeking was predicted by the Dual Systems Model or the Maturational Imbalance Model. Consistent with both models the "sensation seeking to balanced sensation seeking" trajectory showed the highest level of substance use. It can be concluded that, even though both theories adequately predict the link between imbalance and risk, neither the Dual Systems Model nor the Maturational Imbalance Model correctly predict the heterogeneity in development of imbalance between impulse control and sensation seeking.

Identity Structure and Processes in Adolescence: Examining the Directionality of Between- and Within-Person Associations.

Developing a stable and coherent identity structure (i.e., a synthesized sense of self that can support self-directed decision making) represents a lifelong task. A person's identity structure is continually revised through ongoing processes of identity exploration and commitment. However, longitudinal studies linking identity structure to identity processes are largely lacking. The present three-wave longitudinal study among 530 Flemish high school students [50.6% female; Mage = 15; SD = 1.85; age range = 11-19 years] examined the directionality of both between- and within-person associations linking identity synthesis and confusion to identity exploration and commitment processes. Between-person cross-lagged models indicated that adolescents who scored high on identity synthesis relative to their peers also scored high on proactive exploration and commitment processes, and low on ruminative exploration one year later, again relative to their peers. Adolescents who scored high on identity confusion relative to their peers also scored high on ruminative exploration one year later, again relative to their peers. With respect to effects of identity processes on identity structure, adolescents who scored high on identification with commitment relative to their peers also scored low on identity confusion one year later. Within-person cross-lagged models indicated that, when adolescents scored high on identity synthesis relative to their own average score, they reported increased proactive exploration processes one year later. In general, reaching a degree of identity synthesis appears to represent a prerequisite for proactive identity exploration at both the between- and within-person levels.

Goal-Directed Correlates and Neurobiological Underpinnings of Adolescent Identity: A Multimethod Multisample Longitudinal Approach.

This multimethod multisample longitudinal study examined how neurological substrates associated with goal directedness and information seeking are related to adolescents' identity. Self-reported data on goal-directedness were collected across three biannual waves in Study 1. Identity was measured one wave later. Study 1 design and measurements were repeated in Study 2 and extended with structural brain data (nucleus accumbens [NAcc] and prefrontal cortex gray matter volume [PFC]), collected across three biannual waves. Study 1 included 497 adolescents (Mage T1  = 13.03 years) and Study 2 included 131 adolescents (Mage T1  = 14.69 years). Using latent growth curve models, goal directedness, NAcc, and PFC volume predicted a stronger identity one wave later. These findings provide crucial new insights in the underlying neurobiological architecture of identity.

Clear Self, Better Relationships: Adolescents' Self-Concept Clarity and Relationship Quality With Parents and Peers Across 5 Years.

This study examined reciprocal associations between adolescents' self-concept clarity (SCC) and their relationship quality with parents and best friends in a five-wave longitudinal study from age 13 to 18 years. In all, 497 adolescents (57% boys) reported on their SCC and all informants (i.e., adolescents, both parents, and adolescents' best friends) reported on support and negative interaction. Within-person cross-lagged analyses provided systematic evidence for both parent effects and child effects, with the direction of effects being strongly dependent on the relational context. For example, higher maternal support predicted higher adolescent SCC, supporting a parent effects perspective, whereas higher SCC predicted lower paternal negative interaction, supporting a child effects perspective. Peer effects on adolescent SCC were not consistently found across adolescent and best friend reports.

Child personality facets and overreactive parenting as predictors of aggression and rule-breaking trajectories from childhood to adolescence.

This study examined trajectories of aggression and rule breaking during the transition from childhood to adolescence (ages 9-15), and determined whether these trajectories were predicted by lower order personality facets, overreactive parenting, and their interaction. At three time points separated by 2-year intervals, mothers and fathers reported on their children's aggression and rule breaking (N = 290, M age = 8.8 years at Time 1). At Time 1, parents reported on their children's personality traits and their own overreactivity. Growth mixture modeling identified three aggression trajectories (low decreasing, high decreasing, and high increasing) and two rule-breaking trajectories (low and high). Lower optimism and compliance and higher energy predicted trajectories for both aggression and rule breaking, whereas higher expressiveness and irritability and lower orderliness and perseverance were unique risk factors for increasing aggression into adolescence. Lower concentration was a unique risk factor for increasing rule breaking. Parental overreactivity predicted higher trajectories of aggression but not rule breaking. Only two Trait × Overreactivity interactions were found. Our results indicate that personality facets could differentiate children at risk for different developmental trajectories of aggression and rule breaking.

"Snooping" as a Distinct Parental Monitoring Strategy: Comparisons With Overt Solicitation and Control.

Parents can use solicitation (asking questions) and control (disclosure rules) to obtain information about adolescents, but only if youths comply. Snooping might uncover additional information, but also strongly violates privacy expectations. Three studies of parents and adolescents examined distinctions between snooping, solicitation, and control. Differences existed in terms of factor structure and frequency (Studies 1-2), links to perceived invasion (Study 1), correlations with problematic communication, behavior, and relationships (Study 2), and parent-adolescent (dis)agreement about acceptability (Study 3). Snooping is a relatively infrequent monitoring behavior, compared to solicitation and control, but appears to be a stronger indicator of problems in adolescent and family functioning. We discuss implications regarding the necessity and appropriateness of particular parental monitoring behaviors.

Parental psychological control and children's self-esteem: A longitudinal investigation in children with and without oppositional defiant problems.

Oppositional defiant problems are among the most prevalent psychological problems among children and adolescents from China and across the world. Still little is understood about how self-esteem, in conjunction with parenting experiences, develops in children with oppositional defiant problems. We addressed this gap of knowledge in a two-year longitudinal study. Specifically, we explored how parental psychological control predicts children's self-esteem levels over time, and in turn, how children's self-esteem levels predict parental psychological control. We collected data in Chinese children (ages 8 to 13 at T1) with (N = 224) and without (N = 217) oppositional defiant problems, and tested three-wave cross-lagged panel models. Multigroup analyses showed that the associations between parental psychological control and children's self-esteem were the same for children with and without oppositional defiant problems. Results for the total sample revealed bi-directional associations between maternal psychological control and children's self-esteem. Children who perceived more psychological control from their mothers were likely to exhibit lower self-esteem over time, and vice versa, children with lower self-esteem were likely to perceive more maternal psychological control over time. Conversely, a unidirectional paternal effect was observed in father-child dyads. Our findings help understand the parent-child dynamics that shape the psychological development of children with oppositional defiant problems.

Longitudinal associations between social media use, mental well-being and structural brain development across adolescence.

Youth of today grow up in a digital social world but the effects on well-being and brain development remain debated. This study tracked longitudinal associations between structural brain development, social media use and mental well-being. The study demonstrated two pathways of heterogeneity in brain development. First, adolescents who used social media more than their peers showed higher baseline cortical thickness in lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and medial PFC; and stronger decreases in the lateral PFC and temporal parietal junction. In contrast, adolescents with lower mental well-being showed lower baseline levels of surface area in the medial PFC and posterior superior temporal sulcus relative to their peers. Whereas the associations between structural brain development and well-being remained significant after correction for multiple testing, the results for social media use did not survive FDR correction. These findings demonstrate that although social media use and mental well-being were both associated with differential trajectories of brain development, the associations we report are distinct. These results show a nuanced perspective on the presumed relations between social media use and well-being and provide a starting point to further examine neural mechanisms that could explain which adolescents thrive by social media and which might be harmed.

Beyond the average brain: individual differences in social brain development are associated with friendship quality.

We tested whether adolescents differ from each other in the structural development of the social brain and whether individual differences in social brain development predicted variability in friendship quality development. Adolescents (N = 299, Mage T1 = 13.98 years) were followed across three biannual waves. We analysed self-reported friendship quality with the best friend at T1 and T3, and bilateral measures of surface area and cortical thickness of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and precuneus across all waves. At the group level, growth curve models confirmed non-linear decreases of surface area and cortical thickness in social brain regions. We identified substantial individual differences in levels and change rates of social brain regions, especially for surface area of the mPFC, pSTS and TPJ. Change rates of cortical thickness varied less between persons. Higher levels of mPFC surface area and cortical thickness predicted stronger increases in friendship quality over time. Moreover, faster cortical thinning of mPFC surface area predicted a stronger increase in friendship quality. Higher levels of TPJ cortical thickness predicted lower friendship quality. Together, our results indicate heterogeneity in social brain development and how this variability uniquely predicts friendship quality development.

Mood and emotional reactivity of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic: short-term and long-term effects and the impact of social and socioeconomic stressors.

Adolescence is a formative period for socio-emotional development which is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current longitudinal study examined two aims: (1) the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic on young people's mood (i.e. vigor, tension, and depression levels) and emotional reactivity (i.e. fluctuations in daily mood), and (2) the impact of stressors on mood, emotional reactivity, self-oriented (i.e. maladaptive behavior towards COVID-19 rules) and other-benefitting behaviors (i.e. behavior aimed at helping and comforting others). We conducted an online two-week daily diary study among 462 Dutch adolescents (Mage = 15.27 years, 64% females) and 371 young adults (Mage = 21.49 years, 81% females) in May 2020, with a follow-up in November 2020 (N = 238 and 231, respectively adolescents and young adults). In May 2020, young adults and older relative to younger adolescents showed higher levels and more fluctuations in tension and depression and lower levels of vigor. Vigor levels decreased and tension and depression levels increased between May 2020 and November 2020, especially for younger adolescents. There were positive associations between instability of negative emotions (i.e. tension and depression fluctuations) and the exposure to stressors (i.e. family stress and inequality of online homeschooling) in the adolescent sample. Together, this study demonstrates vulnerability regarding young people's mood and emotional reactivity during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for adolescents who experience more stressors.

Modeling Individual Differences in Brain Development.

Within the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience, there is an increasing interest in studying individual differences in human brain development in order to predict mental health outcomes. So far, however, most longitudinal neuroimaging studies focus on group-level estimates. In this review, we highlight longitudinal neuroimaging studies that have moved beyond group-level estimates to illustrate the heterogeneity in patterns of brain development. We provide practical methodological recommendations on how longitudinal neuroimaging datasets can be used to understand heterogeneity in human brain development. Finally, we address how taking an individual-differences approach in developmental neuroimaging studies could advance our understanding of why some individuals develop mental health disorders.

Longitudinal associations between structural prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens development and daily identity formation processes across adolescence.

We tested whether adolescents with daily high identity uncertainty showed differential structural brain development across adolescence and young adulthood. Participants (N = 150, MageT1 15.92 years) were followed across three waves, covering 4 years. Self-reported daily educational identity and structural brain data of lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC)/anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), medial PFC, and nucleus accumbens (NAcc) was collected across three waves. All hypotheses were pre-registered. Latent class growth analyses confirmed 2 identity subgroups: an identity synthesis class (characterized by strong commitments, and low uncertainty), and an identity moratorium class (high daily identity uncertainty). Latent growth curve models revealed, on average, delayed maturation of the lateral PFC/ACC and medial PFC and stable NAcc. Yet, adolescents in identity moratorium showed lower levels and less decline in NAcc gray matter volume. Lateral PFC/ACC and medial PFC trajectories did not differ between identity subgroups. Exploratory analyses revealed that adolescents with higher baseline levels and delayed maturation of lateral PFC/ACC and medial PFC gray matter volume, surface area, and cortical thickness reported higher baseline levels and stronger increases of in-depth exploration. These results provide insight into how individual differences in brain development relate to fluctuations in educational identity development across adolescence and young adulthood.

Linking identity and depressive symptoms across adolescence: A multisample longitudinal study testing within-person effects.

This multisample longitudinal study examined the directionality of effects between identity exploration and commitment processes and depressive symptoms across adolescence. We compared two theoretical perspectives. According to the vulnerability model, identity uncertainty predicts depressive symptoms, whereas the scar model holds that depressive symptoms play into identity uncertainty. In investigating both models, we examined reciprocal within-person associations in Study 1 (N = 497, Mage Time 1 [T1] = 14.03 years, comprising five annual waves) and Study 2 (N = 1,022, Mage T1 = 15.80 years, comprising four annual waves). To this end, we applied the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) in both studies. Results supported the vulnerability model across Studies 1 and 2. Specifically, within-person increasing reconsideration of commitment (Study 1) and ruminative exploration (Study 2) predicted a within-person increase in depressive symptoms 1 year later, but not vice versa. Commitment processes did not predict depressive symptoms at the within-person level. Our findings indicate that maladaptive exploration processes of identity formation play a particularly important role in the development of depressive symptoms at the within-person level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Identity uncertainty and commitment making across adolescence: Five-year within-person associations using daily identity reports.

A central assumption of identity theory is that adolescents reconsider current identity commitments and explore identity alternatives before they make new commitments in various identity domains (Erikson, 1968; Marcia, 1966). Yet, little empirical evidence is available on how commitment and exploration dynamics of identity formation affect each other across adolescence at the within-person level. Therefore, the current study (N = 494, Mage Time 1 = 13.3 years) examined reciprocal within-person longitudinal linkages between adolescents' identity exploration and identity commitment making in the interpersonal and educational identity domains. For this purpose, we constructed a multilevel type cross-lagged panel model from early to late adolescence (i.e., across 5 successive years). Results supported Erikson's (1968) hypothesis that adolescents reconsider current identity commitments and explore alternatives before they make strong commitments within the interpersonal identity domain across early to late adolescence. Within the educational identity domain, increasing identity commitment level and commitment fluctuations predicted less identity reconsideration over time. Our findings support identity theory, but indicate that the processes of identity formation might differ depending on the identity domain. (PsycINFO Database Record