Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemEarly life stress alters pituitary growth during adolescence-A longitudinal study(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2015-03)The pituitary gland is integral in mediating the stress-response via its role in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function. Pituitary gland volume (PGV) is altered in stress-related psychopathology, and one study to date has shown stress to be associated with age-related PGV change during adolescence. The current study investigated the effects of a number of different types of early life (i.e., childhood and adolescent) stress (including childhood maltreatment, stressful life events, and maternal affective behavior) on PGV development from mid- to late adolescence using a longitudinal design. The influence of PGV development on depressive and anxiety symptoms was also investigated. Ninety one (49 male) adolescents took part in mother-child dyadic interaction tasks when they were approximately 12 years old, reported on childhood maltreatment and stressful life events when they were approximately 15 years old, and underwent two waves of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, when they were approximately 16 and 19 years old. Results revealed that childhood maltreatment predicted accelerated PGV development in females, and maternal dysphoric behavior predicted accelerated PGV development in the whole sample. PGV development was not associated with depressive or anxiety symptoms. These results suggest an effect of early life stress on altered HPA axis function across mid- to late adolescence. Further research is required to assess functional implications and whether these changes might be associated with risk for subsequent psychopathology.
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ItemDevelopment of morning-eveningness in adolescence: implications for brain development and psychopathology(WILEY, 2023-03)BACKGROUND: Morning-evening preference is defined as an individual's preference for a morning- or evening-oriented rhythm. Across adolescence, a preference for eveningness becomes more predominant. Although eveningness is cross-sectionally associated with internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, few studies have examined developmental changes in eveningness and its potential biological substrates. Here, we investigated the longitudinal relationships among the trajectory of eveningness preference, internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and white matter development, across adolescence. METHODS: Two-hundred and nine adolescents (49% male) were assessed longitudinally at four separate time points between 12 and 19 years of age. Morning-evening preference and internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed at each time point. Diffusion-weighted images were acquired on a subset of participants at the final two time points to estimate changes in global mean fractional anisotropy (FA). Linear mixed models were performed to estimate the change in eveningness over time. A series of linear regression models assessed the influence of change in eveningness on psychopathology and white matter development at age 19. RESULTS: Across the sample, a preference for eveningness became more predominant by 19 years of age. Greater individual-level change towards eveningness significantly predicted greater severity in externalizing, but not internalizing, symptoms at 19 years of age. In contrast, change in psychopathology from 12 to 19 years of age was not associated with morning-eveningness at age 19. A change towards eveningness predicted an attenuated increase in FA between 17 and 19 years of age. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that developmental changes in morning-evening preference may predict both neurodevelopmental and psychological outcomes in adolescents.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHarsh and Inconsistent Parental Discipline Is Associated With Altered Cortical Development in Children(ELSEVIER, 2022-10)BACKGROUND: A growing body of evidence suggests that parenting behaviors may affect child mental health via altering brain development. There is a scarcity of research, however, that has investigated associations between parenting behavior and brain structure using longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging. This study aimed to investigate associations between parenting behaviors and structural brain development across the transition from childhood to adolescence. METHODS: Participants were 246 children who provided 436 magnetic resonance imaging datasets covering the age range from 8 to 13 years. Parents (94% mothers) completed self-report measures of parenting behavior, and both children and parents reported on child mental health. Factor analysis was used to identify dimensions of parental behavior. Linear mixed-effects models investigated associations between parenting behaviors and age-related change in cortical thickness and surface area and subcortical volume. Mediation models tested whether brain changes mediated associations between parenting behaviors and changes in internalizing/externalizing symptoms. RESULTS: Hypothesized associations between parenting and amygdala, hippocampal, and frontal trajectories were not supported. Rather, higher levels of parent harsh/inconsistent discipline were associated with decreases in surface area in medial parietal and temporal pole regions and reduced cortical thinning in medial parietal regions. Some effects were present in female but not male children. There were no associations between these neurodevelopmental alterations and symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insight into the links between parenting behavior and child neurodevelopment. Given the functions of implicated regions, findings may suggest that parental harsh/inconsistent discipline affects the development of neural circuits subserving sensorimotor and social functioning in children.
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ItemAdolescent temperament dimensions as stable prospective risk and protective factors for salivary C-reactive protein(WILEY, 2018-02)OBJECTIVE: Temperament has associations with later physical health outcomes, yet there is a dearth of research exploring the connection between temperament and mechanisms that have known associations with these health outcomes. Recent research has delineated a connection between personality and inflammation during adulthood, but this association has not yet been studied in adolescent samples. DESIGN: We investigated whether stable adolescent temperament (averaged over two years), specifically effortful control and negative emotionality, provided a more robust prediction of inflammation as measured by salivary C-reactive protein (sCRP), than depressive symptoms. METHODS: Temperament and depressive symptoms were measured in a sample of sixty-three adolescents (37 males) when they were approximately 12 years old (mean age = 12.30, SD = 0.69) and again when they were approximately 14 years old (mean age = 14.84, SD = 0.49). Levels of sCRP were determined approximately 7 months later (mean = 6.77, SD = 2.99) when participants were approximately 15 years old (mean age = 15.49, SD = 0.49). RESULTS: Regression analyses revealed that effortful control (EC) was significantly associated with lower sCRP levels, while higher negative emotionality (NE) was significantly associated with higher sCRP levels. Furthermore, these associations were larger than those for depressive symptoms and were differentially impacted by the addition of covariates. Implications for the role of stable risk and protective factors in inflammatory processes are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are the first to show associations between adolescent temperament and inflammation. Furthermore, these findings extend previous personality research to temperamental research in a younger sample of adolescents. Statement of contribution What is already known? There is a large extant literature on the association between depressive symptoms and inflammation. There is a smaller extant literature on the association between personality and inflammation. No studies have examined how adolescent temperament traits may relate to inflammation. What does this study add? Longitudinal data collection over the course of 3 years in an adolescent sample. Addresses the question of whether temperament factors relate to inflammation. Temperament provides a more robust predictor of later inflammation than depressive symptoms.
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ItemAffective Parenting Behaviors, Adolescent Depression, and Brain Development: A Review of Findings From the Orygen Adolescent Development Study(WILEY, 2017-06)Abstract Parenting plays a multifaceted role in adolescent development. In this article, we review studies based on an observational assessment of affective parenting behaviors collected as part of the longitudinal Orygen Adolescent Development Study and explore three ways that parenting may predict adolescent‐onset depression. Specifically, we review findings that observed affective parental behaviors prospectively predict depressive symptoms and the onset of depressive disorder, predict adolescent depression indirectly via emotion regulation, and interact with brain development to predict adolescent depression. Parents who express higher frequencies of aggression or lower frequencies of positivity, or who are more likely to respond negatively to their adolescents’ positive and aggressive behaviors, tend to have adolescents at greater risk for depression and suboptimal brain development. Accounting for the direct, indirect, and moderating effects of parenting may enable us to characterize more accurately the trajectories of adolescent development, which can inform prevention and early intervention efforts.
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ItemFamily meta-emotion and the onset of major depressive disorder in adolescence: A prospective longitudinal study(WILEY, 2018-08)Abstract Meta‐emotion philosophy refers to an organized set of thoughts, reactions, and feelings about one's emotions and the emotions of others (Gottman, Katz, & Hooven, 1997). This study investigated the prospective relationship between family meta‐emotion processes and adolescent‐onset major depressive disorder (MDD). Adolescents (N = 198, mean age 12.5 years) and one of their parents each completed the Meta‐Emotion Interview (Katz & Gottman, 1986), and adolescents were followed‐up at ages 15, 16.5, and 19 years to assess for MDD onset. In the Meta‐Emotion Interviews, parents and adolescents were asked about both their own, and the others', anger and sadness. Results showed that parent‐report of their own meta‐emotion philosophy of sadness prospectively predicted MDD onset in adolescence, as did adolescent‐report of low parental emotion coaching in relation to sadness, and adolescent self‐perceived emotional competence in relation to sadness. Adolescents' perceptions of family emotional environments characterized by high levels of parental anger expression and family conflict also prospectively predicted MDD onset. These findings highlight the continued importance of family emotional processes in adolescence, and provide insight into how parents' and adolescents' perceptions of emotional processes within the family, particularly in relation to sadness, may be prospectively associated with risk for adolescent onset MDD.
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ItemDispositional mindfulness is predicted by structural development of the insula during late adolescence(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2015-08)Adolescence is a critical period of development, in which the increasing social and cognitive demands of independence need to be met by enhanced self-regulatory abilities. The cultivation of mindfulness has been associated with improved self-regulation in adult populations, and it is theorized that one neurodevelopmental mechanism that supports this capacity is the development of the prefrontal cortex. The current study examined the neurodevelopmental mechanisms associated with dispositional mindfulness in adolescence. Using a longitudinal within-persons design, 82 participants underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessments at approximately ages 16 and 19, and also completed self-reported measurements of mindfulness at age 19. It was hypothesized that adolescents who demonstrated greater thinning of frontal cortical regions between the age of 16 and 19 would exhibit higher dispositional mindfulness levels at age 19. Results indicated that, contrary to predictions, adolescents with higher levels of mindfulness demonstrated less thinning in the left anterior insula. By contrast, higher IQ was associated with greater thinning of the right caudal middle frontal and right superior frontal regions. The involvement of insula development in mindfulness is consistent with a direct role for this structure in managing self-regulation, and in doing so concords with recent models of self-referential interoceptive awareness.
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ItemObserved Measures of Negative Parenting Predict Brain Development during Adolescence(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2016-01-29)Limited attention has been directed toward the influence of non-abusive parenting behaviour on brain structure in adolescents. It has been suggested that environmental influences during this period are likely to impact the way that the brain develops over time. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between aggressive and positive parenting behaviors on brain development from early to late adolescence, and in turn, psychological and academic functioning during late adolescence, using a multi-wave longitudinal design. Three hundred and sixty seven magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained over three time points from 166 adolescents (11-20 years). At the first time point, observed measures of maternal aggressive and positive behaviors were obtained. At the final time point, measures of psychological and academic functioning were obtained. Results indicated that a higher frequency of maternal aggressive behavior was associated with alterations in the development of right superior frontal and lateral parietal cortical thickness, and of nucleus accumbens volume, in males. Development of the superior frontal cortex in males mediated the relationship between maternal aggressive behaviour and measures of late adolescent functioning. We suggest that our results support an association between negative parenting and adolescent functioning, which may be mediated by immature or delayed brain maturation.
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ItemLongitudinal Trajectories of Depression Symptoms in Adolescence: Psychosocial Risk Factors and Outcomes(SPRINGER, 2017-08)Variations in symptom trajectories within a population may represent distinct groups with different etiologies and outcomes. This study aimed to identify subgroups of depression symptom trajectories in a sample of adolescents, and to describe psychosocial attributes of the different groups. In a longitudinal study, 243 adolescents (121 males and 122 females), were assessed using a battery of measures of temperament, psychopathology, and psychological and behavioral functioning. Four phases of data collection over 7 years spanned average ages of the participants from 12 to 18 years old. Depressive symptoms from each phase were used to model latent class growth trajectories. A 4-group solution was selected as the best-fitting model: (1) ongoing stable low levels of depression; (2) very high depressive symptoms initially, but a steep decrease in symptoms over time; (3) moderately high depressive symptoms initially, but symptoms decreased over time; and (4) initially low levels of symptoms that increased over time. Trajectory group membership was associated with a range of psychosocial variables including temperament, childhood maltreatment, and young adult quality of life. Characterising these subgroups allows for a better understanding of how the interaction of risk factors increases the likelihood of depression and other poor outcomes, and highlights the importance of early interventions to prevent and treat adolescent depression.
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ItemAssociations Between Observed Parenting Behavior and Adolescent Inflammation Two and a Half Years Later in a Community Sample(AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC, 2017-07)OBJECTIVE: Family environments have an effect on physical health during adolescence, and a possible underlying mechanism is inflammation. However, little is known about the association between observed parenting behaviors and immune system functioning. The current study examined whether positive and negative emotional parental behaviors observed during family interactions were associated with inflammation in adolescents. METHOD: Sixty-one parent-adolescent dyads (37 male adolescents, 60.6%; 15 male parents, 24.6%) were observed during 2 laboratory-based interaction tasks designed to elicit positive and conflictual emotional behaviors, respectively. Frequency of aggressive and positive parental behavior was coded. Adolescents were followed up approximately 2.5 years later and salivary concentrations of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive protein (sCRP) were measured. RESULTS: Controlling for BMI and depressive symptoms, lower sCRP was associated both with greater frequency of positive parental behaviors, t = -3.087, p = .003 and less frequency of aggressive parental behavior (t = 2.087, p = .041) in the conflictual task. Trend associations between positive behavior during the positive task and lower sCRP were also found. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to show that observed positive parenting is associated with lower levels of inflammation in adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record