Adolescent positive self, negative self: associated but dissociable?

Adolescence is a period of significant identity development and particular vulnerability to depression associated with negative self-evaluation. We investigated if increased depressive symptom severity was also associated with positive self-evaluation. We also considered pubertal developmental differences in positive and negative self-evaluation, and if these could reflect dissociated facets of the self. This cross-sectional sample consisted of healthy male and female adolescents (N = 109) aged 12-17 from the United States. Participants completed a self-referential encoding task, which required them to indicate if a single-word adjective was self-descriptive. We administered the Children's Depression Inventory, the Pubertal Development Scale, and the Child Narcissism Scale. Negative-word endorsement was significantly predicted by pubertal maturation level and depressive symptoms, but not by narcissism. Positive-word endorsement was significantly predicted by narcissism and negatively predicted by depressive symptoms, but not by pubertal maturation. In this typically developing sample, positive self-judgment does not vary across the pubertal range and is positively associated with narcissistic traits, and negatively associated with depressive symptom severity. Negative self-judgements are positively correlated with puberty and are associated with depressive symptom severity only. Our findings suggest that negative and positive aspects of the self are partially dissociable.

The association between peer-victimisation and structural and functional brain outcomes: A systematic review.

Background: Peer adversity and aggression are common experiences in childhood and adolescence which lead to poor mental health outcomes. To date, there has been no review conducted on the neurobiological changes associated with relational peer-victimisation, bullying and cyberbullying. Methods: This systematic review assessed structural and functional brain changes associated with peer-victimisation, bullying, and cyberbullying from 1 January 2000 to April 2021. A systematic search of Psychoinfo, Pubmed, and Scopus was performed independently by two reviewers using predefined criteria. Twenty-six studies met the selection criteria and were considered for review. Results: The data collected shows altered brain activation of regions implicated in processing reward, social pain, and affect; and heightened sensitivity and more widespread activation of brain regions during acute social exclusion, most notably in the amygdala, left parahippocampal gyrus, and fusiform gyrus, associated with victimisation exposure. In addition, victimised youths also demonstrated greater risk-taking behaviours following acute social exclusion showing greater ventral striatum-inferior frontal gyrus coupling, activation in the bilateral amygdala, orbital frontal cortex (OFC), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial posterior parietal cortex (MPPC) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), suggesting greater social monitoring, seeking of inclusion, and more effortful cognitive control. The studies included participants from a very broad developmental age range, mostly using cross-sectional measure of peer-victimisation exposure, at varying developmental stages. Conclusions: This review highlights the need for more neuroimaging studies in cyberbullying, as well as longitudinal studies across more diverse samples for investigating gender, age, and developmental interactions with peer-victimising. This also brings to attention the importance of addressing bullying victimisation particularly in adolescence, given the evidence for social stress in heightening developmentally sensitive processes which are associated with depression, anxiety, and externalising symptoms.

Thinking about feeling: Using trait emotional intelligence in understanding the associations between early maladaptive schemas and coping styles.

OBJECTIVES: Maladaptive interpersonal schemas can trigger distressing emotions and drive dysfunctional behaviour that leads to difficulties in interpersonal relationships and perpetuates the original maladaptive schemas. This study sought to identify patterns of association between trait emotional intelligence (TEI), early maladaptive schemas (EMS), and coping styles in a non-clinical sample. Emotionality profiles were hypothesized to be associated with EMS severity and poorer coping, as early experiences can shape an individual's self-perceptions through reinforcement by maladaptive responses. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study with 142 undergraduate students. METHODS: We obtained self-reports of TEI, coping styles, and EMS. RESULTS: Disengagement coping was strongly correlated with EMS severity (r = .565, p < .01). TEI was negatively correlated with EMS (r = -.660, p < .01) and Disengagement (r = -.405, p < .01). Emotionality, Impaired Autonomy, and Overvigilance partially mediated the relationship between Disconnection and Emotion-Focused Disengagement. Self-Control fully mediated the relationship between Impaired Limits and Problem-Focused Disengagement. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that lower TEI is associated with the likelihood for maladaptive coping in response to EMS. The preference for certain coping styles associated with a particular domain of EMS may be explained by an individual's perceived metacognitive ability to regulate their stress and emotions. When individuals' needs for love, safety, and acceptance from others are not met, there might be poorer perceived self-efficacies in Emotionality and the tendency to cope through emotional avoidance. Individuals with difficulties establishing internal limits are more likely to respond with problem avoidance, possibly due to deficient distress tolerance. Longitudinal studies with a clinical population are warranted to replicate these findings. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Clinicians will likely find it helpful to consider their clients' TEI to facilitate more individualized formulation and treatment planning, by considering whether related emotional regulation problems might be innate or a deficit in skills Implies the need to do more basic emotional regulation work to supplement and strengthen the established imagery work in schema therapy (ST).

The glass is half empty: Negative self-appraisal bias and attenuated neural response to positive self-judgment in adolescence.

Substantial changes in cognitive-affective self-referential processing occur during adolescence. We studied the behavioral and ERP correlates of self-evaluation in healthy male and female adolescents aged 12-17 (N = 109). Participants completed assessments of depression symptoms and puberty as well as a self-referential encoding task while 128-channel high-density EEG data were collected. Depression symptom severity was associated with increased endorsement of negative words and longer reaction times. In an extreme group analysis, a negative appraisal-bias subsample (n = 28) displayed decreased frontal P2 amplitudes to both positive and negative word stimuli, reflecting reduced early attentional processing and emotional salience. Compared to the positive appraisal-bias subsample (n = 27), the negative appraisal-bias subsample showed reduced LPP to positive words but not negative words, suggesting attenuated sustained processing of positive self-relevant stimuli. Findings are discussed in terms of neural processes associated with ERPs during negative versus positive self-appraisal bias, and developmental implications.