White matter connectivity and social functioning in survivors of pediatric brain tumor.

OBJECTIVE: Survivors of pediatric brain tumors (SPBT) are at risk for social deficits, fewer friendships, and poor peer relations. SPBT also experience reduced brain connectivity via microstructural disruptions to white matter from neurological insults. Research with other populations implicates white matter connectivity as a key contributor to poor social functioning. This case-controlled diffusion-weighted imaging study evaluated structural connectivity in SPBT and typically developing controls (TDC) and associations between metrics of connectivity and social functioning. METHODS: Diffusion weighted-imaging results from 19 SPBT and 19 TDC were analyzed using probabilistic white matter tractography. Survivors were at least 5 years post-diagnosis and 2 years off treatment. Graph theory statistics measured group differences across several connectivity metrics, including average strength, global efficiency, assortativity, clustering coefficient, modularity, and betweenness centrality. Analyses also evaluated the effects of neurological risk on connectivity among SPBT. Correlational analyses evaluated associations between connectivity and indices of social behavior. RESULTS: SPBT demonstrated reduced global connectivity compared to TDC. Several medical factors (e.g., chemotherapy, recurrence, multimodal therapy) were related to decreased connectivity across metrics of integration (e.g., average strength, global efficiency) in SPBT. Connectivity metrics were related to peer relationship quality and social challenges in the SPBT group and to social challenges in the total sample. CONCLUSIONS: Microstructural white matter connectivity is diminished in SPBT and related to neurological risk and peer relationship quality. Additional neuroimaging research is needed to evaluate associations between brain connectivity metrics and social functioning in SPBT.

The ability to inhibit impulses is related to social behavior in long-tailed macaques.

Performance in cognitive tasks has been linked to differences in species' social organization, yet to understand its function its relationship to within-species variation in behavior should also be explored. One important cognitive capacity, the ability to inhibit impulses, is typically better in egalitarian than despotic primate species and in primate species with strong fission-fusion dynamics. A different line of research indicates that a high ability to inhibit impulses is related to less aggressive behavior and more socio-positive behavior. However, within species the relationship between performance on cognitive inhibition tasks and variation in social behavior remains to be explored. Here we investigate how performance in a typical inhibition task in cognitive research is related to aggressive and socio-positive behavior in despotic long-tailed macaques. Twenty individuals living in two naturalistic mixed-sex groups were tested with the Plexiglass Hole Task. Aggressive behavior and three types of socio-positive behavior (neutral/friendly approaches, socio-positive signaling, and grooming others) among group members were measured. Individuals differed in their ability to inhibit impulses. Individuals that were not good at inhibiting impulses showed higher rates of aggressive behavior, but also more socio-positive signals, whereas inhibition was not related to neutral/friendly approaches and grooming. These results confirm the positive link between impulsiveness and aggression. In addition, the results indicate that some social-positive behavior may be enhanced when inhibition is limited. In this species, benefits potentially derived from aggression and socio-positive signals match a low ability to inhibit impulses, suggesting that a low ability to inhibit impulses may actually be advantageous. To understand differences between species in cognitive skills, understanding the benefits of variation in a cognitive capacity within a species is crucial.

The role of social cognition in mental health trajectories from childhood to adolescence.

We investigated the association between an aspect of Theory of Mind in childhood, false-belief understanding, and trajectories of internalising (emotional and peer) and externalising (conduct and hyperactivity) problems in childhood and adolescence. The sample was 8408 children from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, followed at ages 5, 7, 11, 14, and 17 years. Social cognitive abilities were measured at 5 and 7 years through a vignette version of the Sally-Anne task administered by an unfamiliar assessor in a socially demanding dyadic interaction. Internalising and externalising problems were measured via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at 7-17 years. Using latent growth modelling, and after controlling for sex, ethnicity, maternal education, verbal ability, and time-varying family income, we found that superior social cognitive abilities predicted a decrease in emotional problems over time. In sex-stratified analyses, they predicted decreasing conduct problem trajectories in females and lower levels of conduct problems at baseline in males.

Scrutinizing parental minimization reactions to adolescents' negative emotions through the lens of Chinese culture.

This research examined in China two types of parental minimization reactions to adolescents' negative emotions: Devaluing/invalidating that degrades the significance of adolescents' emotions (thereby invalidating adolescents' feelings) versus discounting/mitigating that downplays the seriousness of the situations (thereby mitigating adolescents' emotional arousals). Study 1 had 777 adolescents (389 females; mean age = 12.79 years) complete a survey; Study 2 had 233 adolescents (111 females; mean age = 12.19 years) complete a survey twice spanning around 6 months. Study 1 showed adolescents' perceived maternal devaluing/invalidating and discounting/mitigating reactions as two distinct factors, with different patterns of associations with other supportive versus nonsupportive parenting practices. Study 2 showed that over time, adolescents' perceived maternal devaluing/invalidating reactions predicted their dampened socioemotional functioning; discounting/mitigating reactions predicted their enhanced functioning.

Combatting risk with resilience: How bicultural socialization experiences of Black immigrant-origin youth relates to well-being.

INTRODUCTION: Black immigrant-origin (I-O) youth's well-being is at risk as the systemic mistreatment of Black people within the United States can be intensified by migration-related experiences (e.g., isolationism, xenophobia). These experiences were heightened by the sociopolitical events of 2020 that increased the salience of racism and xenophobia. The current study centered how Black I-O youth's negotiation of their bicultural socialization experiences impacted the ways in which they processed various social situations/contexts. METHODS: Grounded theory was used to conduct secondary analysis of a sub-sample (n = 26) from qualitative interviews completed between 2020 and 2021 through The 2020 Study. Participants lived in the United States, identified as Black and I-O as part of the global African Black Diaspora (Mage = 16.73, SD = 1.08), and as 80.77% female, 7.69% gender diverse, and 11.54% male. RESULTS: The increased salience of racial injustice throughout 2020 uniquely positioned youth's meaning-making of their ethnic/racial identity. How youth reflected on their identity and related socialization experiences informed how they focused their attention and perceptions of socialization experiences. This connected to how youth demonstrated positive adaption (e.g., cultural pride) as forms of resilience against hyper-visible anti-Blackness throughout 2020. Youth's agentic participation aligned with indicators for positive youth development and well-being. CONCLUSION: By critically exploring the relationship between social competence, youth well-being, and bicultural socialization among Black I-O youth, the current study addressed a gap in the extant research regarding how affirming youth identity complexities can lead to building resilience to potential instances of risk (e.g., race-based trauma, acculturative stress).

Examining the effectiveness of education based on social learning theory in fostering self-care and social skills in school children: A randomized controlled trial.

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a training program prepared on the basis of the Social Learning Theory for teaching self-care and social competence behaviors in preschool children. DESIGN AND METHOD: The sample of the study consisted of 41 in the intervention, 41 in the control group. Data were collected with Demographic Assessment Form, the Self-Care Skills Assessment Scale and the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation-30 Scale. Using five animated films created on the basis of the Social Learning Theory for fostering children self-care and social competence behaviors. RESULTS: The scores of the children in the intervention group on the three sub-dimensions of the self-care scale and the total score of the scale were found to be significantly higher than the control group (p < 0.05). The intervention group scored significantly higher on the self-care scale and social competence and behavior scales than the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: As a result of the research, it was seen that the applied training significantly affected the self-care and social competence behaviors in the intervention group. It was seen that using Social Learning Theory in teaching health behaviors has been effective in the learning process of preschool children. IMPLICATIONS TO PRACTICE: In preschool period, children learn by observing and imitating their adopted role models. Since, we suggest that health training program should be based on the stages of Social Learning Theory. Animated films that focus on the target health behaviors can be used as training tools.

Mother-Infant Interaction and Maternal Postnatal Psychological Distress Associate with Child's Social-Emotional Development During Early Childhood: A FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.

We studied the effects of mother-infant interaction and maternal pre- and postnatal psychological distress on children's social-emotional problems and competences, as well as whether interaction quality moderates the association between distress and children's outcomes. Maternal pre- and postnatal psychological distress were measured using the SCL and EPDS questionnaires, whereas mother-infant interaction was measured when the child was 8 months old using the EA Scales. Children's social-emotional development was measured using the BITSEA questionnaire at 2 years old and using the SDQ questionnaire at 4 years old, where higher maternal structuring was associated with fewer social-emotional problems in children and higher maternal sensitivity was associated with greater social-emotional competence in children at 2 years old. Further, higher postnatal distress was found associated with greater social-emotional problems at 2 years old, though neither these effects nor moderating effects at 4 years old were observed after multiple-comparison corrections. Our findings support direct associations of both mother-infant interaction and maternal postnatal psychological distress with children's social-emotional development during toddlerhood.

More to the story than executive function: Effortful control soon after injury predicts long-term functional and social outcomes following pediatric traumatic brain injury in young children.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of early traumatic brain injury (TBI) on effortful control (EC) over time and the relationship of EC and executive functioning (EF) to long-term functional and social outcomes. METHOD: Parents of children (N = 206, ages 3-7) with moderate-to-severe TBI or orthopedic injuries (OIs) rated EC using the Child Behavior Questionnaire at 1 (pre-injury), 6, 12, and 18 months post-injury. Child functioning and social competence were assessed at 7 years post-injury. Mixed models examined the effects of injury, time since injury, and their interaction on EC. General linear models examined the associations of pre-injury EC and EC at 18 months with long-term functional and social outcomes. Models controlled for EF to assess the unique contribution of EC to outcomes. RESULTS: Children with severe TBI had significantly lower EC than both the OI and moderate TBI groups at each post-injury time point. Both pre-injury and 18-month EC were associated with long-term outcomes. Among those with low EC at baseline, children with moderate and severe TBI had more functional impairment than those with OI; however, no group differences were noted at high levels of EC. EC had main effects on parent-reported social competence that did not vary by injury type. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that EC is sensitive to TBI effects and is a unique predictor of functional outcomes, independent of EF. High EC could serve as a protective factor, and as such measures of EC could be used to identify children for more intensive intervention.

Social competence as a predictor of adult outcomes in autism spectrum disorder.

There is a wealth of literature characterizing social difficulties in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little work has replicated longitudinal findings from typical development that adolescent social competence predicts positive adult outcomes in ASD. The current study examined social competence trajectories from 2 to 26 and the utility of three social competence measures collected in adolescence in predicting work, residential status, friendship, and romantic outcomes in a longitudinal cohort (n = 253) of ASD. Using group-based trajectory modeling, we identified two patterns of social competence development: a low trajectory characterized by slow linear gains throughout childhood and plateauing in adulthood, and a high trajectory characterized by steeper linear gains in childhood followed by decline in adulthood. Regression models indicated one social competence measure, Vineland Social-AE scores, significantly predicted employment, residential status, and friendships in adulthood. One other social competence measure, SSQ total scores, also significantly predicted friendship in adulthood. Only nonverbal IQ at 9 predicted the likelihood of having ever had a romantic relationship. These findings highlight the role of social competence in both atypical and typical development and suggest the social impairments associated with ASD do not necessarily impact all realms of social functioning equally.

Does body mass index distinguish motor proficiency, social and emotional maturity among adolescent girls?

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate whether different body mass index (BMI) groups could serve as a distinguishing factor for assessing motor proficiency and social and emotional maturity in adolescent girls. METHODS: 140 girls ranging from 12 to 14.5 years old were selected from the schools of Tabriz city, Iran. After their height and weight were measured to calculate body mass index, they completed the following questionnaires: Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of motor proficiency, Second Edition,Vineland Social Maturity Scale, and Emotional Maturity scale. RESULTS: normal-weight girls had a meaningful advantage against overweight and underweight participants in the gross motor factor of motor proficiency (p = 0.004), but there wasn't a meaningful difference in the fine motor p = 0.196) and coordination factors (p = 0.417). Also, social maturity showed an advantage of normal and underweight adolescent girls in the self-help dressing factor (p = 0.018), while the locomotion skills (p = 0.010) factor revealed a better performance of normal weight and overweight groups over underweight adolescents. No significant differences were observed in the emotional maturity subscales (p = 0.63) between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that BMI has a direct influence on adolescents' gross motor proficiency and social maturity.

Is reduced social competence a mechanism linking elevated autism spectrum symptoms with increased risk for social anxiety?

OBJECTIVES: Approximately 50% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop comorbid social anxiety disorder, and this comorbidity predicts poorer treatment outcomes than either syndrome alone. ASD and social anxiety are both associated with reduced social competence as evidenced by difficulties implementing fundamental social skills for successful social interactions, but it remains unclear whether reduced social competence reflects a mechanism that explains the increased risk for social anxiety associated with elevated autism spectrum symptoms. DESIGN/METHODS: To address this gap in the literature, the current study combined multi-informant measures (child, parent and teacher report) with a sample of 194 children with and without psychiatric disorders (ages 8-13; 68 girls; 69% White/Non-Hispanic). Autism spectrum traits, social competence and social anxiety symptoms were measured continuously. RESULTS: Bias-corrected, bootstrapped conditional effects modelling indicated that elevated parent-reported autism spectrum symptoms predicted reduced teacher-perceived social competence (ß = -.21) and elevated child self-reported social anxiety (ß = .17); reduced social competence accounted for 20% of the autism/social anxiety link (indirect pathway ß = .04, ER = .20), and reduced social competence also predicted higher social anxiety independent of autism symptoms (ß = -.16; all 95% CIs exclude 0.0, indicating significant effects). Exploratory analyses suggested that these findings were driven primarily by autism spectrum social communication difficulties rather than restricted/repetitive behaviours/interests. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings are consistent with prior work implicating reduced social competence as a risk factor for the development of social anxiety among children with ASD, and extend prior work by demonstrating that this link is robust to control for mono-informant/mono-measure bias, age, sex, SES, majority/minoritized race/ethnicity status, clinical comorbidities, and item overlap across measures.

Longitudinal Associations from Maternal and Paternal Internalizing Symptoms to Preschooler's Problem Behavior and Social Competence in China: The Mediating Role of Executive Function.

By using a two-year longitudinal design, the current study recruited 199 preschoolers and their parents in Beijing to examine the effects of parental internalizing symptoms (T1) on children's internalizing and externalizing problem behavior and social competence (T3), and further explore whether executive function (EF, T2) may act as the mediator. The results showed that maternal internalizing symptoms and paternal internalizing symptoms at T1 separately had significant direct predictive effect on children's internalizing and externalizing problem behavior but not on social competence at T3 after controlling family socioeconomic status. Further analysis indicated that children's inhibitory self-control at T2 mediated the association between maternal and paternal internalizing symptoms at T1 and children's externalizing problem behavior at T3, and metacognition at T2 could mediate the influence of maternal internalizing symptoms at T1 on children's internalizing problem behavior, externalizing problem behavior and social competence at T3. These findings to some extent highlight the importance of including both parents and exploring mother-father differences in effective interventions aiming to promoting child development. Metacognition and self-control skill training would be helpful to reduce children's problem behavior or to improve their social competence.

Social difficulties in adolescent attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Social motivation, social anxiety and symptom severity as contributing factors.

BACKGROUND: Many interventions have been developed to address the social difficulties commonly experienced by adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yet they are largely ineffective. OBJECTIVE: This study examined social impairment among adolescents with and without ADHD, determining whether gender, social anxiety, age, and ADHD symptom type (inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity) and severity are associated with social impairment. METHOD: Parents and primary caregivers of adolescents (aged 13-17) with (n = 76) and without ADHD (n = 36) completed the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD and Normal Behavior, Social Responsiveness Scale 2nd Edition, and Spence Children's Anxiety Scale. RESULTS: Adolescents with ADHD scored significantly higher than TD adolescents across social impairment domains. ADHD symptoms were associated with severity of impairment in all domains excluding Social Motivation. Hyperactivity/impulsivity and social anxiety predicted social impairment, whereas gender did not. CONCLUSION: Adolescents with ADHD are more likely to experience social impairment than TD adolescents, and interventions targeting symptom reduction and social anxiety may improve these social impairments.

Preparing the Next Generation for STEM: Adolescent Profiles Encompassing Math and Science Motivation and Interpersonal Skills and Their Associations With Identity and Belonging.

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers need both motivation and interpersonal skills in STEM disciplines. The aims of the study were to identify clusters of adolescents who vary in math and science motivation and interpersonal skills and to explore what factors are related to membership in a high math and science motivation and interpersonal skills cluster. Participants included 467 adolescents (312 female; Mage = 15.12 to SD = 1.71 year) recruited from out-of-school STEM programs in the US and UK. Findings from latent class analyses revealed four clusters, including a "High Math and Science Motivation and Interpersonal Skills" group, as well as groups that exhibited lower levels of either motivation or interpersonal skills. STEM program belonging, and STEM identity are related to membership in the high motivation and skills cluster. Findings provide insight into factors that may encourage motivation and interpersonal skills in adolescents, preparing them for STEM workforce entry.

Stress axis programming generates long-term effects on cognitive abilities in a cooperative breeder.

The ability to flexibly adjust behaviour to social and non-social challenges is important for successfully navigating variable environments. Social competence, i.e. adaptive behavioural flexibility in the social domain, allows individuals to optimize their expression of social behaviour. Behavioural flexibility outside the social domain aids in coping with ecological challenges. However, it is unknown if social and non-social behavioural flexibility share common underlying cognitive mechanisms. Support for such shared mechanism would be provided if the same neural mechanisms in the brain affected social and non-social behavioural flexibility similarly. We used individuals of the cooperatively breeding fish Neolamprologus pulcher that had undergone early-life programming of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis by exposure to (i) cortisol, (ii) the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone, or (iii) control treatments, and where effects of stress-axis programming on social flexibility occurred. One year after the treatments, adults learned a colour discrimination task and subsequently, a reversal-learning task testing for behavioural flexibility. Early-life mifepristone treatment marginally enhanced learning performance, whereas cortisol treatment significantly reduced behavioural flexibility. Thus, early-life cortisol treatment reduced both social and non-social behavioural flexibility, suggesting a shared cognitive basis of behavioural flexibility. Further our findings imply that early-life stress programming affects the ability of organisms to flexibly cope with environmental stressors.

Developmental trajectories of empathic concern in infancy and their links to social competence in early childhood.

BACKGROUND: Empathic concern is an important component of children's social competence. Yet, little is known about the role of the development of concern for others during infancy as a predictor of social competence in early childhood. METHODS: Israeli infants (N = 165, 50% girls) were observed five times, from 3 to 36 months. Empathic concern was assessed at ages 3-18 months using observations, and four components of social competence were assessed at 36 months using observations and teacher reports. RESULTS: Four groups with distinct developmental trajectories of empathic concern from 3 to 18 months were identified: early-onset (starting high and increasing), low-empathy (starting low with minimal increase), rising (starting low and increasing considerably), and a very small group with a negative slope (decreasing). The first three trajectories differed on aspects of social competence at 36 months. Early-onset children continued to exhibit the highest empathic concern. Both the early-onset and rising groups had greater affective knowledge than the low-empathy group. Moreover, the rising group had better peer relations compared with low-empathy trajectory children. CONCLUSIONS: Children who exhibit high levels of empathy early in infancy are likely to show high social competence later on. However, even when initial empathy levels are low, subsequent growth in empathy from 3 to 18 months can occur, with positive consequences for children's social competence at 36 months. Only children with low initial empathic concern and minimal growth across infancy are at increased risk of having poorer socioemotional capabilities in early childhood.

Willing and able? Theory of mind, social motivation, and social competence in middle childhood and early adolescence.

This study investigated the links between theory of mind, social motivation, and children's social competence in middle childhood and early adolescence. Two hundred and sixty four children (136 girls, 128 boys) aged between 8 and 13 years (M Age = 10.88 years, SD = 1.45) completed theory-of-mind tests and self-report questionnaires measuring social motivation. Teachers rated children's social competence at school. Teacher-rated social competence was associated with individual differences in both theory of mind and children's motivation to develop and maintain social relationships. Results suggest that while individual differences in social motivation and theory of mind are partially overlapping, both theory of mind ability and social motivation contribute to successful social interaction at school.

Longitudinal study of the cascading effects of racial discrimination on parenting and adjustment among African American youth.

Attachment theory posits that parenting plays akey role in children's attachment and subsequent development. Given the normativity of racial discrimination on everyday life experiences of African American families, there is a need to integrate historical and socio-environmental processes in studies to understand how minoritized parents raise secure and stable children. Results from the current study revealed direct associations between mothers' reports of discrimination and heightened depression and anxiety. Maternal discriminatory experiences were indirectly associated with more negative parenting and compromised parent-child relationship quality, through mothers' psychological functioning. Elevated emotional and behavioral management problems among youth were directly associated with exposure to racial discrimination. Exposure to discrimination during middle childhood facilitated adapted or learned strategies to manage similar situations as youth transitioned into adolescence, with reduced patterns of depressive symptomology. No significant gender effects emerged. Implications for theoretical advancement and future research are provided.

Developing and Validating a Korean Version of the Assessment of Children's Emotional Skills.

In this study, a Korean Assessment of Children's Emotional Skills (ACES) was developed by modifying the original ACES which was initially introduced in the United States. Specifically, the original ACES was translated into Korean and revised to better fit the Korean cultural context. The content validity of the revised Korean ACES was established via expert reviews. To test its reliability, the revised Korean ACES was conducted on 286 six-year-old children. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that our newly developed Korean ACES can be used as an appropriate tool to measure Korean children's emotional skills. The Korean ACES can stimulate further studies on these emotional skills and contribute to various international collaborative studies that seek to compare the emotional skills of children from diverse cultural backgrounds.

A feasibility study on social competence intervention for Chinese adolescents and adults with comorbid autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: Social competence training for individuals with comorbid autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability was scarce and had methodological limitations in sample sizes and outcome measures. AIMS: The current study addressed the limitations and reported a social competence intervention for adolescents and adults with ASD and intellectual disability in Hong Kong, the CBT-CSCA (Mild Intellectual Disability). MATERIALS & METHODS: Thirty-three participants (aged 14-44 years, with an FSIQ 55-70) completed the 15-session intervention in a community centre. A pre-post intervention design was employed. Outcome measures included proxy-ratings on participants' social competence, autistic symptoms and behavioural problem, and participants' weekly self-evaluation on knowledge acquisition and confidence in applying skills. RESULTS: Significant improvements were shown in proxy-reported negative social behaviours, autistic symptoms and overall behavioural problems. Participants also reported satisfactory knowledge gain and confidence in applying content learnt after each session. DISCUSSION: The CBT-CSCA (Mild Intellectual Disability) is based on an established model and validated studies on ASD population. It demonstrated its applicability and emerging effectiveness in individuals with ASD and mild intellectual disability. CONCLUSION: The study supports that social competence training remains a centrality intervention approach for individuals with ASD and intellectual disability.