Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.

Adolescent mental health is impacted by a myriad of factors, including the developing brain, socioeconomic conditions and changing social relationships. Studies to date have neglected investigating those factors simultaneously, despite evidence of their interacting effects and distinct profiles for...

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Main Authors: Jessica Stepanous, Luke Munford, Pamela Qualter, Tobias Banaschewski, Frauke Nees, Rebecca Elliott, IMAGEN Consortium
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2023-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280062&type=printable
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author Jessica Stepanous
Luke Munford
Pamela Qualter
Tobias Banaschewski
Frauke Nees
Rebecca Elliott
IMAGEN Consortium
author_facet Jessica Stepanous
Luke Munford
Pamela Qualter
Tobias Banaschewski
Frauke Nees
Rebecca Elliott
IMAGEN Consortium
author_sort Jessica Stepanous
collection DOAJ
description Adolescent mental health is impacted by a myriad of factors, including the developing brain, socioeconomic conditions and changing social relationships. Studies to date have neglected investigating those factors simultaneously, despite evidence of their interacting effects and distinct profiles for males and females. The current study addressed that gap by applying structural equation modelling to IMAGEN data from adolescents aged 14 years (n = 1950). A multi-group model split by sex was tested with the variables of socioeconomic stress, family support, peer problems, and brain structure as predictors, and emotional symptoms as the main outcome. Findings indicated that, for both sexes, peer problems were positively associated with emotional symptoms, and socioeconomic stress was negatively associated with family support. Additionally, there were sex-specific findings within the full models: ventromedial prefrontal cortex grey matter volume was negatively associated with emotional symptoms for males when corrected for whole brain volume, and socioeconomic stress was negatively associated with whole brain volume for females. This study underscores the importance of the peer environment for early adolescent emotional symptoms in both boys and girls, but goes further to suggest distinct gender associations with socioeconomic factors and brain structure which provides a multi-level view of risk and resilience. Future research could exploit existing IMAGEN longitudinal data to strengthen causal claims and to determine the potential longstanding impact of social environment and brain development on adolescent mental health.
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spelling doaj-art-29d1c5fbb9bd4ea39c87975cba8dd34f2025-08-20T02:33:44ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032023-01-01181e028006210.1371/journal.pone.0280062Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.Jessica StepanousLuke MunfordPamela QualterTobias BanaschewskiFrauke NeesRebecca ElliottIMAGEN ConsortiumAdolescent mental health is impacted by a myriad of factors, including the developing brain, socioeconomic conditions and changing social relationships. Studies to date have neglected investigating those factors simultaneously, despite evidence of their interacting effects and distinct profiles for males and females. The current study addressed that gap by applying structural equation modelling to IMAGEN data from adolescents aged 14 years (n = 1950). A multi-group model split by sex was tested with the variables of socioeconomic stress, family support, peer problems, and brain structure as predictors, and emotional symptoms as the main outcome. Findings indicated that, for both sexes, peer problems were positively associated with emotional symptoms, and socioeconomic stress was negatively associated with family support. Additionally, there were sex-specific findings within the full models: ventromedial prefrontal cortex grey matter volume was negatively associated with emotional symptoms for males when corrected for whole brain volume, and socioeconomic stress was negatively associated with whole brain volume for females. This study underscores the importance of the peer environment for early adolescent emotional symptoms in both boys and girls, but goes further to suggest distinct gender associations with socioeconomic factors and brain structure which provides a multi-level view of risk and resilience. Future research could exploit existing IMAGEN longitudinal data to strengthen causal claims and to determine the potential longstanding impact of social environment and brain development on adolescent mental health.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280062&type=printable
spellingShingle Jessica Stepanous
Luke Munford
Pamela Qualter
Tobias Banaschewski
Frauke Nees
Rebecca Elliott
IMAGEN Consortium
Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
PLoS ONE
title Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
title_full Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
title_fullStr Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
title_full_unstemmed Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
title_short Social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health: A cross-sectional structural equation modelling study using IMAGEN data.
title_sort social environment and brain structure in adolescent mental health a cross sectional structural equation modelling study using imagen data
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280062&type=printable
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