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Background Adolescence is characterized by developmental changes in social relationships, which may contribute to, or protect against, psychopathology and risky behaviors. Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is one type of risky behavior that typically begins during adolescence and is associated with problems in relationships with family members and peers. Prior research on social factors in adolescent NSSI has been limited, however, by a narrow focus on specific interpersonal domains, cross-sectional methods, retrospective self-report of childhood experiences, and a failure to predict NSSI onset among as-yet-unaffected youth. Methods We investigated these relationships in 2127 urban-living adolescent girls with no NSSI history at age 13, who were participating in a longitudinal cohort study (Pittsburgh Girls Study). We used discrete-time survival analyses to examine the contribution of time-varying interpersonal risk factors, assessed yearly at ages 13–16, to NSSI onset assessed in the following year (ages 14–17), controlling for relevant covariates, such as depression and race. We considered both behavioral indicators (parental discipline, positive parenting, parental monitoring, peer victimization), and cognitive/affective indicators (quality of attachment to parent, perceptions of peers, and perceptions of one’s own social competence and worth in relation to peers) of interpersonal difficulties. Results Parental harsh punishment, low parental monitoring, and poor quality of attachment to parent predicted increased odds of subsequent adolescent NSSI onset, whereas positive parenting behaviors reduced the odds of next year NSSI onset. Youth who reported more frequent peer victimization, poorer social self-worth and self-competence, and more negative perceptions of peers were also at increased risk of NSSI onset in the following year. When tested simultaneously, no single parenting variable showed a unique association with later NSSI onset; in contrast, peer victimization and poor social self-worth each predicted increased odds of later NSSI onset in an omnibus model of peer and parent relationship characteristics. Conclusions In this urban sample of adolescent girls, both peer and parent factors predicted new onset NSSI, although only peer factors were associated with subsequent NSSI in combined multivariate models. Results further suggest that both behavioral and cognitive/affective indicators of interpersonal problems predict NSSI onset. These findings highlight the relevance of family and peer relationships to NSSI onset, with implications for prevention of NSSI onset among at-risk youth.

Considerable attention has been directed towards studying co-occurring psychopathology through the lens of a general factor ( p -factor). However, the developmental trajectory and stability of the p -factor have yet to be fully understood. The present study examined the explanatory power of dynamic mutualism theory – an alternative framework that suggests the p -factor is a product of lower-level symptom interactions that strengthen throughout development. Data were drawn from a population-based sample of girls ( N = 2450) who reported on the severity of internalizing and externalizing problems each year from age 14 to age 21. Predictions of dynamic mutualism were tested using three distinct complementary statistical approaches including: longitudinal bifactor models, random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs), and network models. Across methods, study results document preliminary support for mutualistic processes in the development of co-occurring psychopathology (that is captured in p ). Findings emphasize the importance of exploring alternative frameworks and methods for better understanding the p -factor and its development.

Childhood exposure to stress can induce prolonged negative effects on health, which in turn confer risks for the next generation, but greater specificity is needed to inform intervention. A first step is to measure individual differences in emotional reactivity to stress early in life in ways that can account for heterogeneity in child exposure. The present study tested the hypothesis that mothers’ childhood exposure to stress would be differentially associated with patterns of positive and negative emotional reactivity in their offspring, suggesting transmission of stress response across generations. Participants were 268 young mothers (age 14–23 years) followed longitudinally since childhood, and their infants aged 3–9 months. Latent class analysis of infant emotions expressed before and during the still-face paradigm yielded five subgroups that varied in valence, intensity, and reactivity. After accounting for sociodemographic factors, infant temperament, and postpartum depression, multinomial regression models showed that, relative to an emotionally regulated still-face response, infants showing low negative reactivity were more likely to have mothers exposed to childhood emotional abuse, and infants showing high and increasing negative reactivity were more likely to have mothers exposed to childhood emotional neglect. Mechanisms by which early maternal stress exposure influences emotional reactivity in offspring are discussed.

Low levels of vitamin D during pregnancy are associated with offspring behavioral problems but little is known about pre-pregnancy influences. Additionally, Black American individuals are underrepresented in studies, limiting translational impact. We tested independent and interactive effects of preconception and prenatal vitamin D in Black women in relation to positive behavioral and emotional outcomes in early childhood. Black-identifying participants ( = 156) enrolled in the longitudinal Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS) provided venous blood samples before and during pregnancy to measure 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels. Participants completed questionnaires assessing sociodemographic factors, depression severity and life stress, and later reported on child behavioral and emotional problems and prosocial behavior between 2 and 4 years. Mean serum 25(OH)D concentrations were 15.5 ng/ml (s.d. = 7.7) before pregnancy and 18.0 ng/ml (s.d. = 9.2) during pregnancy; below the sufficiency threshold according to commonly used dietary guidelines. After adjusting for covariates, prenatal 25(OH)D was negatively related to behavior problems and positively related to prosocial behavior in children, although the association attenuated for behavior problems after accounting for preconception 25(OH)D, which may reflect patterns of stability. Maternal 25(OH)D was unrelated to child emotional problems, and no synergistic effects of 25(OH)D timing were observed for any child outcome. Findings have relevance for Black women living in the northeast U.S. Results suggest specific associations between maternal vitamin D and positive behaviors in early childhood, regardless of sufficiency levels and suggest potential opportunities for early interventions to support healthy child development.

Psychological well-being (life satisfaction and flourishing) during the perinatal period has implications for both maternal and child health. However, few studies have investigated the extent to which psychological well-being changes from preconception to postpartum periods, particularly among diverse samples of women. Using prospectively collected data from an ongoing longitudinal study, we investigated changes in two dimensions of psychological well-being from preconception to postpartum among 173 Black and White American women. Results showed that changes in life satisfaction (i.e., global quality of life) and flourishing (e.g., self-acceptance, sense of purpose) over the perinatal period were moderated by race. For life satisfaction, White women reported an increase from preconception to pregnancy with increased life satisfaction levels remaining stable from pregnancy to postpartum. However, Black women reported no changes in life satisfaction across these timepoints. In contrast, both Black and White women reported an increase in flourishing levels across the perinatal period, although the timing of these changes differed. Findings highlight a need for greater clinical and empirical attention to the way in which psychological well-being changes during the perinatal period to optimize health and inform strengths-based intervention targets.

Although both suicide ideation (SI) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are known risk factors for suicidal behavior, few longitudinal studies have examined whether having a history of one or both of these factors prospectively predicts increased risk for suicide attempts. According to the theory of acquired capability for suicide, engagement in NSSI may reduce inhibitions around self-inflicted violence, imparting greater risk for suicide attempts among those with SI than would be observed in those with SI who do not have a history of NSSI. We used prospective data from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a large community sample, to compare groups of girls reporting no SI or NSSI, SI only, or both NSSI and SI between early to late adolescence on any lifetime or recent suicide attempts in late adolescence and early adulthood. As compared to girls with no SI or NSSI history and those with only an SI history, girls with a history of both NSSI and SI were significantly more likely to subsequently report both lifetime and recent suicide attempts. Results are consistent with the acquired capability theory for suicide and suggest that adolescent girls who have engaged in NSSI and also report SI represent a particularly high-risk group in need of prevention and intervention efforts.

Emotional distress during pregnancy is likely influenced by both maternal history of adversity and concurrent prenatal stressors, but prospective longitudinal studies are lacking. Guided by a life span model of pregnancy health and stress sensitization theories, this study investigated the influence of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy on the association between childhood adversity and prenatal emotional distress. Participants included an urban, community-based sample of 200 pregnant women (aged 18–24) assessed annually from ages 8 to 17 for a range of adversity domains, including traumatic violence, harsh parenting, caregiver loss, and compromised parenting. Models tested both linear and nonlinear effects of adversity as well as their interactions with IPV on prenatal anxiety and depression symptoms, controlling for potential confounds such as poverty and childhood anxiety and depression. Results showed that the associations between childhood adversity and pregnancy emotional distress were moderated by prenatal IPV, supporting a life span conceptualization of pregnancy health. Patterns of interactions were nonlinear, consistent with theories conceptualizing stress sensitization through an “adaptive calibration” lens. Furthermore, results diverged based on adversity subdomain and type of prenatal IPV (physical vs. emotional abuse). Findings are discussed in the context of existing stress sensitization theories and highlight important avenues for future research and practice.

The use of functional neuroimaging has been an extremely fruitful avenue for investigating the neural basis of human reward function. This approach has included identification of potential neurobiological mechanisms of psychiatric disease and examination of environmental, experiential, and biological factors that may contribute to disease risk via effects on the reward system. However, a central and largely unexamined assumption of much of this research is that neural reward function is an individual difference characteristic that is relatively stable and trait-like over time. In two independent samples of adolescents and young adults studied longitudinally (Ns = 145 & 139, 100% female and 100% male, ages 15–21 and 20–22, 2–4 scans and 2 scans respectively), we tested within-person stability of reward-task BOLD activation, with a median of 1 and 2 years between scans. We examined multiple commonly used contrasts of active states and baseline in both the anticipation and feedback phases of a card-guessing reward task. We examined the effects of cortical parcellation resolution, contrast, network (reward regions and resting-state networks), region-size, and activation strength and variability on the stability of reward-related activation. In both samples, contrasts of an active state relative to a baseline were more stable (ICC: intra-class correlation; e.g., Win>Baseline; mean ICC = 0.13 – 0.33) than contrasts of two active states (e.g., Win>Loss; mean ICC = 0.048 – 0.05). Additionally, activation in reward regions was less stable than in many non-task networks (e.g., dorsal attention), and activation in regions with greater between-subject variability showed higher stability in both samples. These results show that some contrasts from functional neuroimaging activation during a card guessing reward task have partially trait-like properties in adolescent and young adult samples over 1–2 years. Notably, results suggest that contrasts intended to map cognitive function and show robust group-level effects (i.e. Win > Loss) may be less effective in studies of individual differences and disease risk. The robustness of group-level activation should be weighed against other factors when selecting regions of interest in individual difference fMRI studies.

To determine whether childhood body mass index (BMI), assessed in childhood, differs between lesbian/gay and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual late adolescents, and whether childhood social stressors impact the association between sexual orientation and childhood BMI. Participants included 2,070 late adolescents from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, of whom 233 (11.2%) identified as lesbian or bisexual and 1,837 (88.8%) as heterosexual at ages 17-20 years. Weight and height were used to calculate body mass index (BMI) at ages 10 through 14 years. Data were collected on child reported loneliness at ages 8 to 10 and peer victimization from 10 to 14 years. LGB females had higher BMIs and greater increases in BMI from ages 10-14 years compared to heterosexual females and reported higher levels of loneliness and peer victimization in childhood. Loneliness moderated the association between sexual identity and changes in BMI; for participants with loneliness scores in the upper quartile, the increase in BMI over time was approximately 30% higher for LGB females compared to heterosexual females. Child report of peer victimization mediated the association between sexual identity and changes in BMI, with nearly 18% of the total effect of sexual identity on BMI over time accounted for by peer victimization. Lesbian and bisexual adolescents report greater loneliness and peer victimization as children than heterosexual adolescents; these stressors confer risk for higher BMI among LGB females. These data underscore the importance of research on the social determinants of health. The hypothesis that the social stressors may partially account for differences in BMI and other cardiometabolic risk factors between LGB and heterosexual females should be addressed in future research.

Adolescent mothers are reportedly at risk for depression and problem behaviors in the postpartum period, but studies have rarely considered developmental context and have yet to disentangle the effects of childbearing on adolescent functioning from selection effects that are associated with early pregnancy. The current study examined changes in adolescent depression, conduct problems and substance use (alcohol, tobacco and marijuana) across the peripartum period using risk-set propensity scores derived from a population-based, prospective study that began in childhood (the Pittsburgh Girls Study, PGS). Each of 147 childbearing adolescents (ages 12-19) was matched with two same-age, non-childbearing adolescents (n = 294) on pregnancy propensity using 15 time-varying risk variables derived from sociodemographic, psychopathology, substance use, family, peer and neighborhood domains assessed in the PGS wave prior to each pregnancy (T1). Postpartum depression and problem behaviors were assessed within the first 6 months following delivery (T2); data gathered from the non-childbearing adolescent controls spanned the same interval. Within the childbearing group, conduct problems and marijuana use reduced from T1 to T2, but depression severity and frequency of alcohol or tobacco use showed no change. When change was compared across the matched groups, conduct problems showed a greater reduction among childbearing adolescents. Relative to non-childbearing adolescents who reported more frequent substance use with time, childbearing adolescents reported no change in alcohol use and less frequent use of marijuana across the peripartum period. There were no group differences in patterns of change for depression severity and tobacco use. The results do not support the notion that adolescent childbearing represents a period of heightened risk for depression or problem behaviors.