Like me Back: Neural Correlates of Low Perceived Relational Value in Peer Victimized Youth.

ABSTRACT

Perceived relational value describes the extent to which individuals consider themselves to be liked and valued. Given the salience of peer opinions in adolescence, perceived relational value is an important part of adolescents' developing self-concept. Here, we examined the neural correlates of youth's perceptions of their relational value in two independent samples (N = 33, Mage  = 13.71, SD = 2.71; N = 26, Mage  = 15.43, SD = 0.33). In both studies, peer victimization was associated with lower perceived relational value behaviorally and with altered frontostriatal connectivity when perceiving low relational value during fMRI. Our results suggest that peer victimization may lead youth to become biased about how they will be perceived socially and may disrupt connectivity between brain regions involved in responding to appetitive social stimuli.