Spring 2025 Research Roundup
In this Research Roundup, we provide an overview of recent research about adolescent development that highlights the role of family relationships, sleep, adverse childhood experiences, and neighborhood characteristics in brain development and mental health.
In this Research Roundup, we provide an overview of recent research about adolescent development that highlights the role of family relationships, sleep, adverse childhood experiences, and neighborhood characteristics in brain development and mental health.
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In this Roundup
Family relationships as protective factors
- Prosocial Behavior Toward Family Can Protect Against Mental Health Challenges in Adolescence (February 2025)
- Warm Parenting Relationships Throughout Adolescence Are Important for Emotional Regulation (January 2025)
The Importance of Sleep
- Sleep as a Protective Factor Against Substance Use for Youth Experiencing Discrimination (February 2025)
Environments and experiences
- Early Neglect or Abuse Changes the Way Adolescent Girls’ Brains Mature (November 2024)
- More Enriched Neighborhood Resources in Early Adolescence Can Support Mental Health (February 2025)
Research
Family relationships as protective factors
Prosocial Behavior Toward Family Can Protect Against Mental Health Challenges in Adolescence
(Padilla-Walker et al., Journal of Adolescent Health, February 2025)
In this study, Laura Padilla-Walker and colleagues investigated the psychological benefits of prosocial behavior (voluntary behavior intended to help others) in a large sample of older adolescents. At the first time point (when participants were around 18 years old), participants rated their own prosocial behavior toward their family (“I really enjoy doing small favors for my family”), friends (“I voluntarily help my friends”), and strangers (“I help people I don’t know, even if it is not easy for me”). Approximately five years later (when participants were around 23 years old), the same participants completed surveys that assessed their self-esteem, depression, and suicide risk. They found that adolescents who reported greater prosocial behavior toward their family also demonstrated higher self-esteem five years later, which in turn predicted fewer depressive symptoms and lower suicide risk. These results highlight how prosocial behaviors, particularly toward family, can protect against mental health challenges, potentially by raising self-esteem during the transition from adolescence into adulthood.
Why this is important: This work underscores the importance of familial relationships, even as adolescents transition into adulthood. Opportunities to contribute to their families may benefit adolescents’ self-esteem and, in doing so, improve their overall mental health.
Warm Parenting Relationships Throughout Adolescence Are Important for Emotional Regulation
(Her et al., Developmental Psychobiology, January 2025)
In this study, Helena Her and colleagues examined how parenting relates to heart rate variability, an indicator of nervous system functioning that connects to our ability to regulate our emotional responses, in a sample of adolescents in the U.S. from Mexican families. The researchers focused on parental warmth, defined as loving, affectionate, supportive, and consistent parenting that is responsive to an adolescent’s needs. Adolescent participants reported on their parents’ warmth every two years from ages 10 to 16. When the participants were 17, researchers measured their heart rate variability, an index of activity in the parasympathetic nervous system, which supports the ability to respond and adapt our emotions to the environment appropriately. The researchers found that, on average, youth reported that their parents’ warmth declined over time (between the ages of 10 and 16). However, young people who reported either increases or only slight decreases in their mothers’ warmth over time had higher heart rate variability at age 17, which may indicate an increased ability to respond to stress and regulate emotions. Together, these findings suggest that maintaining warm and supportive mother-adolescent relationships throughout adolescence may support youths’ abilities to regulate their emotions in positive ways.
Why this is important: This study suggests that maintaining affectionate, supportive, and consistent mother-adolescent relationships throughout adolescence may benefit nervous system functioning and emotional adjustment, even as youth may be becoming more independent and spending less time with their caregivers.
The Importance of Sleep
Sleep as a Protective Factor Against Substance Use for Youth Experiencing Discrimination
(Wang et al., Journal of Adolescent Health, February 2025)
Previous research has linked experiences of discrimination to heightened risk for substance use in adolescents. Drawing from prior work showcasing the psychological and social benefits of sleep, Yijie Wang and colleagues examined whether this risk might be lowered in adolescents who get more sleep. Using longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study*, they measured experiences of discrimination related to racial and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and weight in early adolescents (average age around 11 years old) from racially and ethnically diverse youth (including Black, Latine, multiracial, Asian American, and Native American youth). They also collected survey data on typical sleep patterns, Fitbit sleep data over three weeks, and participant self-reports on their intention to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana in the future. Researchers found that more exposure to multiple forms of discrimination predicted higher intention of substance use, but only in adolescents who got less sleep on weekdays (less than 9 ½ hours when measured via self-report and less than 7 ½ hours when measured via Fitbit data). For adolescents who got more sleep on weekdays, discrimination did not significantly predict their intention to use alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana in the future. This suggests that sleep may curb the negative effects of discrimination and lower risk for substance use in adolescents.
Why this is important: This study suggests that interventions aimed at increasing sleep duration may protect against starting substance use in adolescents who experience discrimination. Importantly, this study showcases these associations in younger adolescents without a history of substance use, suggesting that prevention efforts could be effective earlier in adolescence, before substance use behaviors become prevalent.
Environments and experiences
Early Neglect or Abuse Changes the Way Adolescent Girls’ Brains Mature
(Garrisi et al., Child Maltreatment, November 2024)
In this study, Kathryn Garrisi and colleagues examined the effects of different forms of childhood adversity on brain development in a sample of 9- to 17-year-old adolescent girls. The researchers measured participants’ history of adversity, including experiences of neglect (lack of emotional and material care by parents) and sexual, emotional, and physical abuse. In adolescents without a history of childhood adversity, the surface area in the brain decreased as they got older, in line with prior studies of how the brain typically matures during adolescence. However, in adolescents who experienced childhood neglect or abuse, these decreases in surface area were smaller, specifically within the frontoparietal regions of the brain that are associated with executive functioning and cognitive control. In adolescents who had experienced abuse, the surface area in their brain increased as they got older—the opposite of the pattern observed in adolescents without a history of abuse—specifically within temporal and parietal regions involved in perception and sensory processing. These findings suggest that childhood neglect and abuse both affect brain development during adolescence, but that the specific effects may differ depending on the type of adversity experienced.
Why this is important: Although decreasing surface area in the brain is typically observed during adolescence, these findings suggest that childhood abuse and neglect both alter this developmental process, which may mean that these young people need additional support and access to resources as they navigate their path toward adulthood. Given the rapid brain development that occurs during this developmental stage, these findings point to adolescence as a window when interventions to support youth who have experienced adversity may have an amplified impact.
More Enriched Neighborhood Resources in Early Adolescence Can Support Mental Health
(Harris et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, February 2025)
In this study, Julia Harris and colleagues examined how neighborhood characteristics relate to mental health during adolescence. Using data from 9- to 10-year-olds from the ABCD study*, the researchers found that greater neighborhood enrichment, characterized by aspects that promote healthy development such as proximity to high-quality child education centers, access to green space, and walkability, was associated with less impulsive behavior. Additionally, greater neighborhood enrichment was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms, including sadness, depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Neighborhood enrichment was also related to greater reward-seeking behaviors, or the pursuit of new or thrilling experiences, specifically those related to the pursuit of desired goals. Although these reward-seeking behaviors have previously been linked to greater maladaptive risk-taking, the researchers speculated that this pattern may indicate that enriched neighborhoods, which have more green spaces and community centers, offer more opportunities for high-energy and goal-oriented activities, such as playing outside and spending time with peers, rather than specifically risky behaviors. Together, these findings point to the role of the neighborhood environment in mental health during adolescence.
Why this is important: This research highlights the importance of the neighborhood environment in adolescent development by showcasing a relationship between more enriching neighborhood resources and mental health. The patterns observed in this study suggest that access to built environmental factors including high-quality child education centers, green space, and walkability may promote healthy development during adolescence.
