Adolescent Relationships as Predictors of Neural Measures of Early Adulthood Emotional Reactivity Rachel K. Narr, Lauren Cannavo, Elenda T. Hessel, Lane Beckes, James Coan,

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Adolescent Relationships as Predictors of Neural
Measures of Early Adulthood Emotional Reactivity
Rachel K. Narr, Lauren Cannavo, Elenda T. Hessel,
Lane Beckes, James Coan, Joseph P.
AllenUniversity of Virginia.We would like to
thank the National Institute of Child Health
Human Development for funding awarded to Joseph
P. Allen, Principal Investigator, (R01 HD058305
R01-MH58066), and the National Institute of
Mental Health for funding awarded to James A.
Coan, Principal Investigator, (R01MH080725) for
funding to conduct this study as well as for the
write-up of this study.
Introduction
Measures . Social Support Coding
System Adolescents and key social partners were
observed at age 13 (parents), 15 (friends), and
18 (romantic partners) during a support seeking
task, wherein the teen asked their partner for
support on a topic of their choosing. The
Supportive Behavior Coding System (Allen et. al.,
2001) was used to code the partners behaviors,
which include warmth/valuing, engagement,
emotional support, and negativity (reverse
coded). Emotional Reactivity (Treat of Shock
fMRI paradigm) Emotional reactivity was assessed
at age 25 using a threat of shock paradigm,
wherein while in a functional magnetic resonance
imaging device, participants were exposed to
threat of shock while holding the hand of a
partner, a stranger, or while alone. Regions of
interest (ROIs) were determined functionally
using the threat minus safe contrast during the
alone condition and then parsed structurally
using the Harvard-Oxford cortical and subcortical
structure atlases. Subsequent analyses were done
using mean percent signal change from each ROI.

• Premises
• Emotional reactivity may increase risk for
  psychopathology.
• Emotional reactivity may be moderated by the
  support of close social partners however,
  longitudinal research on the effects of social
  interaction on reactivity is limited.
• Adolescence functions as a key period of
  development both in terms of social skills and in
  terms of emotional responses and mental health.
• The social interactions and expectations
  developed during middle to late adolescence may
  provide a backdrop for better understanding
  threat-related brain activation during times of
  stress in adulthood
• Social support during times of stress may be
  experienced and understood differently, and lead
  to different outcomes, for adults with histories
  of more or less supportive adolescent social
  experiences.
• Influential adolescent relationships may include
  parents, close peers, or romantic partners.
• Hypotheses
• During a support-seeking task with their romantic
  partner at age 18, adolescents whose romantic
  partners show higher levels of warmth, valuing,
  emotional support, and engagement, and lower
  negativity, will show lower levels of emotional
  reactivity to shock at age 25.
• Similar patterns will be shown when looking at
  support tasks with parents at age 13 and close
  peers at age 15.

Handholding Conditions
To minimize overstating the results due to
multiple comparisons, a whole brain analysis was
done. Preliminary results suggest that the
pattern described by the correlations remains
true. Specifically, in all significant clusters,
a negative correlation has been found between
romantic partner support and threat-related
activity in the hand-holding condition.
Partner
Stranger
Alone
Results
Conclusions
Analyses reveal that individuals whose romantic
partners (age 18) were observed as showing more
warmth/valuing, engagement, and emotional
support, and less negativity in late adolescence
show, 7 years later, significantly reduced
threat-related activation in areas of the brain
associated with emotional reactivity, as a
function of received social support
(hand-holding). Parental support at age 13 and
close peer support at age 15 showed minimal
correlations with emotional reactivity at age 25.
Given the length of time between tasks and the
real possibility that these were spurious
findings due to multiple comparisons, they are
not included here. Areas showing reduced
activation during hand-holding with a known
partner included the ACC (p lt .05), left anterior
insula (p lt .05), bilateral posterior insula (ps
lt .05), bilateral orbital frontal cortices (ps lt
.05), bilateral interior frontal gyrus, (ps lt
.05), among others. See Table 1.
Method

• These results indicate that individuals who
  experienced high-quality, supportive romantic
  relationships during adolescence wereseven years
  laterless emotionally reactive to the threat of
  shock when holding a partners hand.
• Adolescents with poor interpersonal relationships
  in adolescence may be at greater risk of
  heightened emotional reactivityand perhaps by
  extension, psychopathologyat later development.
• Future Directions
• Explore other social interaction mediators and
  moderators for emotional reactivity.
• Investigate whether adolescents who experience
  lower levels of social support and have higher
  levels of emotional reactivity as young adults
  are at greater risk for psychopathology later in
  development.

• Participants
• Multi-method longitudinal data were obtained from
  184 teenagers (86 male, 98 female) along with
  their romantic partners, parents, and best
  friends.
• 58 Caucasian, 29 African American, and 13
  Mixed or Other ethnicity.
• Mean household income was 43,471 (range 2,500
  to 70,000).
• Target teen age was 18 years at Time 1 and 25
  years at Time 2
• Procedures
• Time 1 (Age 18) - Target teen and their partners
  engaged in a 6 minute interaction, during which
  the target teen asked their partner for support
  on a topic of their choosing. The romantic
  partners behaviors during this support task were
  observed. Analogous data were collected at age 13
  with the teens parents and at age 15 with the
  teens closest peers.
• Time 2 (Age 25) - Target teen was exposed to
  threat of shock in an fMRI machine, while
  holding the hand of their romantic partner, a
  stranger, or no one.

Thoughts? Questions? Ideas? E-mail Elie Hessel
at eth4bh_at_virginia.edu