Spring 2023 Research Roundup

Teens walking through neighborhood and laughing

We are excited to introduce our first quarterly Research Roundup–an overview of some of the recent research that highlights the important learning and growth of our adolescent years, and how adults can support positive development.

You can suggest research articles for future roundups by emailing CDA@psych.ucla.edu or sign up to receive the quarterly research roundup in your inbox.

In This Roundup

Real-world exploration increases throughout adolescence and is related to positive affect, risk-taking, and social connectedness.
The school environment is associated with brain connectivity and mental health in adolescents.
Neighborhood safety is associated with adolescent cognitive and brain function.
Changes in brain activity related to rewards for others is associated with increased charitable giving in older adolescents compared to younger adolescents.
The presence of a peer leads to more prosocial behavior in adolescents by enhancing sensitivity to others’ outcomes.

Research

Exploration & Risk Taking

Oh, the places you’ll go! Real-world exploration is beneficial for adolescent well-being.

Natalie Saragosa-Harris and co-authors examined adolescent risk taking by using geolocation tracking to record the amount of exploration–visiting new places or taking new routes–in daily movement patterns of about 60 adolescents and adults (ages 13 to 27) over a three-month period in New York City. Older adolescents, ages 18 to 21, were most likely to explore, meaning that their movements around the city varied the most over the course of the day. Both adolescents and adults felt better on days when they explored more, and more exploration was linked to larger social networks. Interestingly, adolescents also showed a link between real-world exploration and self-reported risk-taking behaviors. (Psychological Science, September 2022)

Why this is important
This is the first study to link real-world exploration to positive well-being and risk-taking in adolescents, highlighting how important it is for teenagers to have opportunities to explore and try new things.

Environments & Brain Development

Got school on the brain: Favorable school environments associated with brain functioning in early adolescence.

Divyangana Rakesh and colleagues explored associations between how adolescents rated their school environment—based on factors such as availability of extracurricular activities, how supported and safe they feel, and their relationships with teachers—and brain development in more than 10,000 early adolescents, ages 9 to 10. School environment ratings were related to connectivity in higher-brain networks that are important for cognition and attention. The patterns of connectivity within these networks were associated with adolescent mental health. Factors including extracurricular activities and support of teachers showed the strongest associations with brain connectivity and positive mental health. (Biological Psychiatry, January 2023)

Why this is important
This study highlights the importance of positive school environments (including having supportive teachers and available extracurricular programs) in adolescence by showing how a supportive school climate affects connectivity of brain networks, which in turn can contribute to positive mental health in young adolescents.

The importance of neighborhood safety for brain and cognitive function in adolescents

May Conley and colleagues examined the link between neighborhood threats, cognitive performance, and brain activity in more than 10,000 9- and 10-year-olds across the United States. Results showed that youth who reported high neighborhood threat or who reported high threat across the contexts of their neighborhood, family, and school performed worse on an emotional-cognitive task. (The task involved quickly indicating whether a neutral, happy, or fearful face matched a previously viewed image.)

In youth who reported high neighborhood threat, their low performance on the task was linked to lower activity in regions of the brain’s “executive network” that are important for cognition and self-control. This may be because in unsafe environments, the brain is working to assess potential threats, which makes it harder to perform well on cognitive tasks or engage in self-control. Results also suggested that the combination of neighborhood threats and less activity in the brain’s executive network contributes to risk for externalizing problems (negative feelings directed outward, such as aggression and delinquent behavior) in adolescence. (Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, January 2023)

Why this is important
This study highlights the importance of ensuring safe neighborhoods to support healthy cognitive development and positive behaviors.

Contribution

Choosing charity: Reward-related neural response and age-related increase in charitable donations in adolescence

Jochem Spaans and colleagues examined changes by age in donations to charity and in brain activity related to getting rewards for oneself or for a charity in a group of 10- to 22-year-olds. Participants played a digital game in which they saw gains for themselves or for a charity, and also decided whether to give to the charity or gain rewards for themselves. Older adolescents chose to donate to charity more often than younger adolescents and reported less enjoyment when receiving rewards overall. Across all participants, activity in the brain regions involved in processing rewards was higher when receiving rewards for self than for charity. However, this difference decreased with age–older participants’ brain activity was similar when receiving rewards for themselves as for charity, and was linked to their increase in charitable donations. (Journal of Research on Adolescence, November 2022)

Why this is important
This study highlights the increase in charitable behavior as adolescents get older.

Putting the “pro” back in “prosocial”: The presence of a peer increases prosocial behavior in adolescents

In this study, Nicolette Sullivan and colleagues examined how 58 high school juniors and seniors responded to a digital game involving rewards that could benefit themselves, their friend, or both equally. When the adolescents were alone, they tended to allocate more money to themselves in the decision-making game. However, when their peer, a close friend, was present, adolescents were more likely to provide more rewards for that peer. Adolescents also responded more quickly to outcomes that benefited their friend when that friend was with them. This suggests that adolescents are sensitive to outcomes that benefit others in the presence of a peer, and this effect is linked to more prosocial behavior. (Scientific Reports, August 2022)

Why this is important
This study suggests that during adolescence, the presence of a peer can promote positive, helping behaviors.

Additional Resources

The Connecting Adolescent Brain

Fact Sheet

This fact sheet gives an overview of adolescent brain development and explains how access to resources, opportunities, and meaningful relationships during adolescence can build connections within our brains and with the world around us that support us into adulthood.

Brain development during adolescence is fundamentally a story of connections.

Around age 9 or 10, hormonal changes kick off a period of intense learning and development, when brain cells form, strengthen, and streamline connections in response to our experiences more rapidly than in any period of life after early childhood.

Activity increases especially in the brain networks that propel us to explore the world, learn from our mistakes, and connect with others in new ways. In turn, these new experiences prompt our brain cells to connect with other neurons in ways that help us adapt to new events and new information. These neural connections become stronger the more we use them, while unused connections are pruned away, helping the brain become more efficient at acquiring and mastering new skills and new ways of thinking.

This brain-building learning happens through direct experiences in our environments and interactive, responsive relationships—with our families and peers, in our classrooms and neighborhoods, in community activities, and even online. The resources, opportunities, and experiences we as adults provide in and out of school can help young people’s brains build the extensive networks of connections that will manage the complex knowledge and behaviors needed to navigate adulthood.

Learning by Exploring the World Around Us

One of the networks that changes significantly with the increase in hormones and dopamine at the beginning of puberty is the “reward system” in our brain. Heightened activity in this system increases the feeling of reward we get from exploring the world, taking risks, and learning from the results.

Meanwhile, the network of brain regions that make up the “social brain” also changes during adolescence. These changes help us tune into social and emotional cues, like facial expressions or social rejection and approval, and increase our desire to earn respect and contribute to others. It also enables us to learn the nuances of changing social contexts in ways that help prepare us for adult relationships.

The prefrontal cortex (the region of the brain that orchestrates critical thinking and behavioral control) undergoes its most rapid period of development during adolescence. It builds on many other systems within the brain to manage our responses to the flood of new information and intensifying emotions. Engaging with other people and our environment and learning from our successes and our mistakes, known as “action-based learning,” helps shape the prefrontal cortex by strengthening the connections within it and between it and other brain networks. We learn through repeated practice—which includes trying and sometimes failing—what is adaptive and appropriate in different situations and how to guide our behavior accordingly, in ways that equip us to pursue new forward-looking goals.

When adults provide youth with opportunities to try new things, to practice navigating emotions, and to learn from failures along the way, it helps build the brain connections that we all need to grow into healthy, thriving adults.

Policies, Experiences, and Mindsets Shape the Connecting Brain

Although we can continue to learn new skills and behaviors as adults, the adaptability of the brain during adolescence means that these connections are much more likely to form quickly in response to experiences. The extent of these changes make the adolescent years a critical window when investments in the right policies and programs for youth can shape long-term positive development.

Likewise, this makes the adolescent years a time when negative experiences including racism, other forms of discrimination, poverty, or abuse can create steeper hills for young people to climb toward a healthy adulthood. When adults ensure that all young people, especially those who have experienced earlier adversity, have what they need along their journey, they can build the skills and capacities they need to thrive as adults. This includes opportunities to explore and take healthy risks, to connect with and contribute to those around us, to make decisions and learn from the outcomes, to develop a healthy sense of identity, and to rely on support from parents or other caring adults.

Understanding how and why the brain develops during adolescence lets us provide the support young people need to build healthy connections—in their world and within their brains—that will help our youth and our communities thrive.

Thumbnail Image for December 2023 Research Roundup

Winter 2023 Research Roundup

Research Roundup | Mental Health | Adversity, Bias, & Discrimination

This issue provides an overview of research showcasing the effects of neighborhood environments on adolescent development, the benefits of culturally tailored interventions, the trajectory of executive function development, and links between rumination and neural response to social rejection.

In this issue of our quarterly Research Roundup, we provide an overview of some recent research showcasing the effects of neighborhood environments on adolescent development, the benefits of culturally tailored interventions, the trajectory of executive function development, and links between rumination and neural response to social rejection.

You can suggest research articles for future roundups by emailing CDAinfo@mednet.ucla.edu or sign up to receive the quarterly research roundup in your inbox.

Exposure to urban greenspace in childhood can benefit attentional abilities in adolescence (October 2023)
Large-scale datasets highlight mid-adolescence as a key period for the development of executive functions (October 2023)
Culturally tailored interventions can help improve sexual health in American Indian adolescents (November 2023)
Exposure to neighborhood poverty in childhood may impact brain network organization in adolescence (December 2023)
Rumination is linked to altered neural responding and slowed reaction time to social rejection in adolescent girls (December 2023)

Exposure to urban greenspace in childhood can benefit attentional abilities in adolescence

In this study, Despina Bolanis and colleagues explored whether exposure to residential greenspace (such as a tree-filled city park) in childhood relates to mental health outcomes in adolescence. Using longitudinal data from 742 participants, the authors found that youth who reported living in urban areas with more greenspace at age 10 had fewer inattention problems as reported by teachers in adolescence (ages 15 to 17 years). This association remained even when controlling for factors such as family and neighborhood socioeconomic status and prior mental health problems. (Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, October 2023).

Why this is important: These findings point to the impact of physical environments on development, suggesting that increasing greenspace in cities and urban areas may support the development of attentional capacities in adolescence.

A canonical trajectory of executive function maturation from adolescence to adulthood

Adolescence is a key period for the development of goal-directed cognitive abilities—commonly known as executive functions—that are crucial for healthy development and can be impacted in mental health disorders. Understanding the standard pattern of executive function development in adolescence can highlight critical periods for executive function development, which in turn can help identify shifts from these normative patterns that could indicate future difficulties and disorders. In this study, Brandon Tervo-Clemmens and colleagues combined data from multiple large datasets and across various cognitive assessments and tasks to explore the developmental trajectory of executive functions in a group of 10,766 individuals ages 8 to 35 years. The authors found rapid and significant development in executive function from late childhood to mid-adolescence (ages 10 to 15 years), with these complex cognitive abilities reaching their full potential in late adolescence (ages 18 to 20 years). (Nature Communications, October 2023)

Why this is important: This study maps how executive function develops over adolescence, suggesting that ages 10 to 15 are crucial years for executive function development–an understanding that can help inform developmentally appropriate interventions and policies for youth.

Parenting in 2 Worlds: Testing improved parent–adolescent communication about sexuality in Urban American Indian families

In this study, Stephen Kulis and colleagues tested the efficacy of a culturally tailored intervention designed to increase and improve parent-adolescent communication about sexual health in American Indian families. The intervention, called Parenting in 2 Worlds (P2W), combined core components of a traditional parenting program with cultural elements unique to American Indian families. Participants included 575 parents/guardians of American Indian adolescents between the ages of 10 to 17 years living in urban areas of Arizona. The program consisted of 10 lessons covering topics such as building supportive parenting communities, identifying cultural traditions, understanding adolescent development, and fostering communication skills. Importantly, the curriculum emphasized Indigenous cultural heritage as a foundation for raising healthy and resilient adolescents, incorporating values shared by diverse American Indian communities such as notions of kinship and the importance of ritual and traditional language. Compared to interventions not culturally tailored to Indigenous families, P2W produced greater increases in parent-adolescent communication about general sexual health and sexual decision-making. Increases in sexual health communication were strongest for cross-gender dyads (mother and son or father and daughter), while increases in communication about sexual decision-making were strongest for adolescent sons (regardless of parent’s gender). (Journal of Research on Adolescence, November 2023)

Why this is important: This study demonstrates the efficacy of the P2W program for improving sexual health amongst American Indian adolescents, emphasizing the benefits of culturally informed interventions designed specifically for the communities they aim to serve.

Neighborhood poverty during childhood prospectively predicts adolescent functional brain network architecture

In this study, Cleanthis Michael and colleagues examined how exposure to neighborhood poverty in childhood might impact the organization of brain networks in adolescence in a group of 538 twins over the ages of 6 to 19 years. The authors assessed two main aspects of functional brain network organization: network segregation (the degree to which the brain organizes into distinct, functionally specialized networks) and the balance between network segregation and integration (efficiency of information flow between brain networks). Both network segregation and balance increased during adolescence; however, these age-related associations were influenced by exposure to neighborhood poverty in childhood. Children who experienced greater neighborhood disadvantage showed reduced network segregation in adolescence. These effects were observed across various functional networks, emphasizing that neighborhood conditions in childhood may have enduring effects on the organization and development of the adolescent brain. (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, December 2023)

Why this is important: This study suggests that exposure to neighborhood poverty in childhood can impact functional brain development in adolescence, highlighting the importance of policies and programs aimed at increasing available resources within neighborhoods to support positive development for young people.

Hooked on a thought: Associations between rumination and neural responses to social rejection in adolescent girls

In this study, Leehyun Yoon and colleagues investigated the association between self-reported rumination—persistent negative thought patterns—and neural responding to social rejection in a group of 116 adolescent girls. Participants completed a social evaluation task during which they received (fabricated) feedback in the form of acceptance or rejection from peers they liked or disliked. When rejected by peers they liked, girls with higher rumination levels showed more neural activity in areas of the default mode network, a key brain network for self-related processing. They also showed reduced connectivity between the default mode network and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a region implicated in rumination. Higher rumination was linked to slower response times on the task following rejection, and this effect was explained by neural activity during rejection. (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, December 2023)

Why this is important: These findings link rumination to neural and behavioral response during social rejection, indicating the importance of developing more effective interventions to support the mental health of adolescent girls with high rumination levels.

Healthy Sleep During Adolescence Is Essential for Mental and Physical Well-Being

Science Spotlight | Education | Digital Tech | Foster Care | Juvenile Justice

This spotlight summarizes research about the importance of sleep for young people and describes how policies and programs can support this critical adolescent need.

Adolescence is a period of remarkable growth and opportunity. The cognitive, physical, and psychological changes that take place during these years both help and motivate us to learn from the environments, experiences, and relationships that surround us in ways that can profoundly shape our trajectories and prepare us to succeed in adulthood. Extensive research shows that healthy development, learning, and positive mental health during adolescence all require healthy, restful sleep. Most adolescents do not get the sleep they need, yet sleep is often overlooked in conversations about adolescent well-being.

Following is a summary of research about the importance of sleep for young people and how policies and programs can support this critical adolescent need.

Amount

The National Sleep Foundation’s recommendations decrease with age throughout adolescence:

9 to 11 hours for 6- to 13-year-olds

8 to 10 hours for 14- to 17-year-olds

7 to 9 hours for 18- to 25-year-olds

Quality

It’s not just time in bed that matters, but the quality of sleep—the number and duration of nighttime awakenings—an adolescent is getting. Using a comfortable pillow and bedding, minimizing light in the room, and reducing noise-emitting distractions like text messages and social media alerts can all improve sleep quality.

Consistency

Although it may seem logical to pack in as many hours of sleep as possible on the weekends, “catching up” on Saturdays and Sundays by sleeping until noon creates its own problems. No one is expected to go to bed at exactly the same time, but wild swings from night to night make it difficult for the body to set its circadian rhythm in a predictable fashion. Such severe schedule changes result in a “chronically jet-lagged state” that adolescents’ circadian system cannot adjust to.

Mental Health

The most significant evidence on the importance of sleep for adolescents relates to mental health. Quality sleep can reduce depressive symptoms, even for adolescents facing family-related stressful events such as job loss or the death of a family member. Insufficient sleep is associated with depression and anxiety and increases emotional reactivity and impulsivity.

Most alarming is the relationship between lack of sleep and suicide. Compared to high school students who reported sleeping eight hours per night, those who slept less than six hours were three times as likely to consider or attempt suicide, and four times as likely to attempt suicide resulting in treatment.

Physical Health

Insufficient or inconsistent amounts of sleep across the week during adolescence are associated with short- and long-term effects on health. Sleep deprivation has also been linked to obesity and diabetes as well as impaired immune function.

Brain Function

The amount of sleep an adolescent gets, the quality of that sleep, and the consistency of nightly sleep all appear to directly affect brain functioning in regions crucial for self-control, learning, emotional reactivity, and reward processing.

Biological Changes

Changes in the adolescent brain associated with puberty and maturation push adolescents’ circadian rhythm toward more of a “night owl” preference, and slow the buildup of sleep pressure (a biological response that makes us feel sleepy and helps us fall asleep) that makes us more and more tired as the day progresses.

Meanwhile, just as adolescent brains are shifting to a later natural bedtime anyway, they are also becoming more sensitive to external factors, such as blue lights from digital screens, that can further shift them toward later nights.

The effect of these changes is that the late night/early morning schedule many adolescents maintain during the school year becomes increasingly unhealthy.

Families

Even as adolescents become more independent, their families still impact their sleep habits. In general, more positive family relationships are associated with longer and better quality sleep.

Parents should know that adolescents are not too old for a bedtime. Research has shown that adolescents with parent-set bedtimes went to bed earlier (an average of 23 minutes) and got about 20 minutes more sleep per night than their peers without bedtimes. This 20-minute difference in sleep resulted in less fatigue and less trouble staying awake. The timing of the parent-set bedtime also matters. Adolescents with parent-set bedtimes of midnight or later were 24 percent more likely to suffer from depression and 20 percent more likely to have suicidal ideation than adolescents whose parents set bedtimes at 10:00 p.m. or earlier.

Technology

The effect on sleep is the most well-established negative effect of digital technology on adolescents. Electronic devices emit blue light that “tricks” the already light-sensitive adolescent brain into thinking it should be awake, alert, and ready for daylight.

In addition, the dynamic social exchanges and judgments required from social media lead to longer times to fall asleep.Other energizing interactions such as bullying, sexting, and arguments are also more likely to happen late at night. Adolescents who spend the most time on social media have twice the risk of disturbed sleep than those who spent less time on social media.

School demands

Many middle and high schools start earlier than elementary schools. Extended travel times to school require even earlier wake-up times, which mean even less sleep.

Early school start times are a major issue, given adolescents’ natural shift toward later sleep and wake times. Shifting school start times later has been proven to make a difference. After the Seattle School District delayed the start of their public high schools by nearly an hour, from 7:50 a.m. to 8:45 a.m., students’ daily median sleep time increased by 34 minutes a day, and grades increased 4.5 percent.

As school and other activities begin to start earlier in middle and high school, homework and extracurricular activities also increase, pushing bedtimes later. This can create more challenges because staying up later to study actually has a negative effect on learning. Sleep is not simply rest, but an active process where learning is internalized within the brain. In fact, when a high school student sacrifices sleep to study more hours than usual, that student can end up increasing academic problems—such as struggling on an assignment or a test—the next day.

There is no doubt that sleep is a public health issue for all adolescents. But the burden of insufficient sleep appears to weigh heavier on adolescents from racial minority groups and families of low socio-economic status. One study of 250 high school students from low- to middle-income communities showed that while insufficient sleep was a problem for most students, Black male students slept less than any other group. Ethnic and racial discrimination is also associated with shorter sleep duration and worse sleep quality, largely due to loneliness and stress.

Students from families experiencing economic hardship may face additional obstacles to sleep, such as longer commute times to school (requiring earlier wake-up times), less “optimal” sleep contexts, and after-school jobs.

Given the grave importance of sleep to mental and physical health and learning, the sleep deficits faced by youth who have been impacted by the effects of racial discrimination or economic hardship represent another impediment to equal opportunities for success. Sleep inequality may be a pathway through which social disparities impact health and well-being across the lifespan.

➢ Given that sleep is habitual, establishing healthy sleep routines and providing interventions when necessary during the early years of adolescence could be particularly impactful across the lifespan.

➢ Settings that are entrusted with adolescents’ residential environments–such as foster homes, juvenile justice facilities, and independent living placements for youth transitioning from systems of care into adulthood–should prioritize providing young people with conditions that promote quality sleep. Because some factors that influence sleep quality are unique to each individual–such as preferences in bedding and pillows–young people themselves should provide input on what works best for them whenever possible.

➢ Schools, employers, and youth-serving programs should structure schedules to help adolescents prioritize healthy sleep. This could include delaying school start times, limiting the hours that adolescents can work or drive on school nights, or avoiding early-morning or late-evening meetings or practice times.

➢ Technology companies should be partners in promoting healthy sleep habits in adolescence. For example, social media platforms and apps could include settings that promote better sleep such as automatic “do-not-disturb” periods or minimization of blue light at certain times of day.

➢ What happens at home is crucial. Fund programs that support parents’ and caregivers’ ability to identify and promote healthy sleep habits in the home, such as quiet times before bed or limitations on technology use at night.

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Spring 2023 Research Roundup