Adolescent psychopathology Flashcards
What is adolescence?
Adolescence is a period of physical, hormonal, psychological and social transition between childhood and adulthood; this is not exclusive to western societies but is also present in cultures that feature early marriage or work -although it may be sped up
Adolescence is a period of non linear change in behaviours and emotional control. However the changes which we undergo allow us to make an appropriate and adequate transition from child to adult.
Discuss adolescence as a period of social upheaval
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that adolescence is a period of social upheaval:
• In both males and females, offenders as percentage of population by age peaks at 16-17 years (Maughan et al, 2005);
• Self-harm rates are much higher in adolescents, especially in girls (10% last year occurrence as compared to 4-5% in the adult population);
What factors constrain changes in emotional processing over adolescence into adulthood?
Social factors
Neural and genetic factors
What does Buhrmester describe with regard to changes in a social context?
emphasizes changing relationships changes from family as the primary interactions, to peers and intimate friends
What changes with regard to peer interactions?
Both peer importance and peer resistance increase
Benesone and Schinazi (2004)
Benenson and Schinazi (2004) investigated the outcomes in adolescent individuals to reveal the extent of peer interactions -
The current studies were designed to examine whether female adolescents have more negative reactions than male adolescents to achieving more than their same-sex friends.
In Study 1, 51 females and 48 males from grades 8 and 10 were administered questions assessing their reactions to performing better than their closest same-sex friends in four domains.
Across domains, females reported more negative reactions than males. Further, compared with males, female participants believed that their same-sex friends would have more negative reactions if they performed better than their friends.
In Study 2, 48 females and 49 males age 18 years were asked how they felt about performing better than and equal to their closest same-sex friends in the domains of romance and academics in both hypothetical and actual situations.
Females reported feeling more positive when they received the same outcomes as opposed to better outcomes than their friends. Males did not differ in the valence of their responses to the two outcomes - limitations of this is that questions are entirely subjective and can mean different things to different individuals. Also other factors are known to influence ‘competitivness’ in a peer environment, such as parental pressures and history of performance. Individuality isnt really considered either.
Sebastian et al (2010)
Sebastian et al, 2010:
19 adolescent girls (14-16 y/o) and 16 adult women (23-29 y/o)
In this study the subject had to throw the ball and is either included (thrown back to) or excluded (the other 2 players just throw it between them)
The self-reported feedings of exclusion were larger in everyone during the ‘exclusion trial’
Adolescents reported feeling more included than adults in the inclusion condition, and felt more excluded in the exclusion condition
Therefore adolescents are more sensitive to peer conditions
This represents increasing peer importance
Gardner and Steinberg (2007)
There is increased importance on peer opinions which subsequently influences risk taking, risk preference and decision making - Gardner and Steinberg (2007) 306 individuals were split into three age groups; adolescents (13-16), youths (18-22), and adults (24 and older), who completed 2 questionnaires assessing risk behaviour, either alone or with 2 peers of the same age. Analysis indicated that risk taking decreased with age, and that participants took more risks, focused more on the benefits than the costs of behaviour - found increased risk taking behaviour in peer groups c.f. alone. Finally the effects of peers on risk taking behaviour were more pronounced among adolescents c.f. youths and adults
sensitivity to peer influence was assessed by asking adolescents and young adults to play a driving computer game in a room, either alone or with peers (lots of variation in the experimental design, massively replicated data); in 24+yo there is little risk taking, and there is no significant difference between alone or with peers; conversely, adolescents take no risks alone, but take more risks in group; this increases with younger age -i.e. more risks at 13-16yo c.f. 18-22yo- (Gardener and Steinberg, 2005); [other experiments have shown that it is enough to have a friend in the next room reading a book to get the peer pressure effect]
Describe peer resistance with Steinberg and Monahan
There is however a similtaneous increase in peer resistance to influence in adolescents. Steinberg and Monahan showed using data from four ethnically and socioeconomically diverse samples comprising more than 3,600 males and females between the ages of 10 and 30 were pooled from one longitudinal and two cross-sectional studies. Results show that across all demographic groups, resistance to peer influences increases linearly between ages 14 and 18. In contrast, there is little evidence for growth in this capacity between ages 10 and 14 or between 18 and 30
How does brain development change throughout adolescence?
- White matter changes are consistent with increasing myelination;
- Grey matter changes are consistent with synaptic proliferation followed by pruning
There is heterogeneity in the rate of these neurodevelopmental changes: subcortical regions develop earlier and more rapidly that prefrontal areas. The functional effects of this structural immaturity may be heightened sensitivity to emotional responses
Describe differerences in emotional processing
The processing of emotions is not adult-like in later childhood and adolescence. There are differences in the way that adults and adolescents and children attend to facial emotion, non-emotion and passive viewing. Adolescents - higher activation of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and amygdala than adults when passively viewing fearful faces (relative to neutral faces) and higher activity in the ACC when attending to emotion was not needed (Monk et al, 2003).
Discuss different responses of amygdala to threat cues
adolescent amygdalae respond to threat cues more than adults, but do not respond to safety cues
Stronger correlation for adults than for adolescents between DLPFC activity and response to safety cue
Describe Hare et al 2008
These changes in emotion processing are not linear from childhood to adolescence to adulthood: highest responses in adolescence
Children, adolescents, adults performing an emotional go-nogo task (Hare et al, 2008) – greatest activation in adolescent amygdala.
What may differences in emotional processing relate to?
Differences in emotional processing may relate to the emergence of psychopathology such as anxiety and depression in children and adolescents.
E.g. Thomas et al showed that amygdala plays a role in depression and anxiety - left amygdala activation is slow in healthy children and higher in depressed and anxiety/ left amygdala is low in healthy children and higher in anxious and lower in depressed
With facts, discuss how adolescence is a critical period of the onset of many psychiatric problems
- In late adolescence, a steep increase in depression diagnoses occurs (Hankin et al, 1998): from about 2.5% prevalence at 15 to about 17% prevalence at 18;
- A high proportion of first anxiety diagnoses occur in adolescence (Gregory et al, 2007
