2019

Social withdrawal during adolescence and early adulthood is particularly problematic due to the increasing importance of social interactions during these ages. Yet little is known about the changes, trajectories, or correlates of being withdrawn during this transition to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to examine the normative change and distinct trajectories of withdrawal in order to identify adolescents and early adults at greatest risk for maladjustment. Participants were from a Dutch population-based cohort study (Tracking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey), including 1917 adolescents who were assessed at four waves from the age of 16 to 25 years. Five items from the Youth Self Report and Adult Self Report were found to be measurement invariant and used to assess longitudinal changes in social withdrawal. Overall, participants followed a U-shaped trajectory of social withdrawal, where withdrawal decreased from ages 16 to 19 years, remained stable from 19 to 22 years, and increased from 22 to 25 years. Furthermore, three distinct trajectory classes of withdrawal emerged: a low-stable group (71.8%), a high-decreasing group (12.0%), and a low-curvilinear group (16.2%). The three classes differed on: shyness, social affiliation, reduced social contact, anxiety, and antisocial behaviors. The high-decreasing group endorsed the highest social maladjustment, followed by the low-curvilinear group, and the low-stable group was highly adjusted. We discuss the potential contribution of the changing social network in influencing withdrawal levels, the distinct characteristics of each trajectory group, and future directions in the study of social withdrawal in adolescence and early adulthood.

This study investigated whether lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents were at higher risk for persistent victimization of bullying compared to heterosexual adolescents, and how victimization trajectories were associated with internalizing symptom development across LGB and heterosexual adolescents. Data came from a five‐wave study (MageT1 = 11.1 to MageT5 = 22.3; n = 151 LGB; n = 1,275 heterosexual) and informants were adolescents and their parents. Adolescents were classified in three victimization trajectories: persistent (5.6%), decreasing (28.1%) or low (66.3%) victimization. LGB adolescents reported more persistent victimization, relative to no (OR = 6.79, 95% CI [3.52, 13.13]) or decreasing victimization (OR = 3.09, 95% CI [1.53, 6.24]), compared to heterosexual peers. Further, persistent victimization was more strongly associated with anxiety among LGB than among heterosexual adolescents.

To examine the contributions of maternal and paternal age on offspring externalizing and internalizing problems, this study analyzed problem behaviors at age 10–12 years from four Dutch population‐based cohorts (N = 32,892) by a multiple informant design. Bayesian evidence synthesis was used to combine results across cohorts with 50% of the data analyzed for discovery and 50% for confirmation. There was evidence of a robust negative linear relation between parental age and externalizing problems as reported by parents. In teacher‐reports, this relation was largely explained by parental socio‐economic status. Parental age had limited to no association with internalizing problems. Thus, in this large population‐based study, either a beneficial or no effect of advanced parenthood on child problem behavior was observed.

What we knew about this subject

• Cortisol reactivity is a frequently studied biomarker of substance use, although not often studied in adolescence.
• Previous research shows that other developmental influences, including genetic and prenatal and postnatal environmental factors, contribute to cortisol reactivity and to the use of drugs for adolescents
• The relative contribution of these factors is unknown

What this study adds
The present study tested a comprehensive developmental model that included the combined influence of many genes, prenatal stress, parenting, and emotional/behavioral problems on both cortisol reactivity and substance use outcomes in adolescence. Although we expected stress hormone reactivity to be a key factor leading to adolescent substance use, we found little evidence of this. Instead, we found that influences that occur earlier in development – prenatal stress and colder parenting – are important for understanding how emotional and behavioral problems independently relate to both cortisol reactivity and substance use. We found a strong pathway of development to drinking, smoking, and marijuana use was from prenatal stress and colder parenting through externalizing problems. We further found was some evidence of protective effects of internalizing problems (for example, anxiety and depressive symptoms) leading to less marijuana and alcohol use. Our findings thus confirm the key role that externalizing problems play in the development of substance use, but also suggest a need to take into account a broader developmental context for understanding the relationship of internalizing problems with adolescent substance use.