Adolescent Behavior

The correct functioning of the chemosensory pathway is pivotal for the attitude towards feeding. In some neuropsychiatric disorders, abnormalities of the sensory processing dramatically affect feeding behavior; however, evidences for an olfactory involvement in Anorexia Nervosa (AN) are still controversial. We administered a complete olfactory testing battery, the Sniffin' Sticks Extended Test, to a cohort of 19 girls with Restrictive Anorexia Nervosa (AN-R) and 19 healthy controls. A battery of questionnaires aiming to evaluate eating attitude, psychopathologic disorders and autistic traits was also administered...

The central goal of this study was to examine the associations of school bullying and peer rejection with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), as well as their interactive role in a sample of non-clinical adolescents. Six hundred and forty adolescents (253 Males, Mage  = 15.60, SD = 1.65) self-reported measures of school bullying and NSSI and provided sociometric ratings of peer rejection. The results showed that being involved in bullying (as bullies, victims, or bully-victims) increases the likelihood to engage in NSSI; being rejected by peers amplifies the probability, for victims and bully-victims, of using NSSI at least once...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic, complex and multifactorial neurodevelopmental disorder associated with high rates of concurrent psychiatric disorders, along with problems and complications on different areas of individual functioning. ADHD is not exclusively a childhood disorder, 40-60% persisting into adulthood with an estimated prevalence of 2.5-5%. Adolescence is a stage where great and continuous changes occur, associated with a lower adherence to treatment, a greater vulnerability to the emergence of academic problems, more risk-behaviors, the onset of substance use and higher rates of other comorbid disorders...

Estradiol is known to play an important role in the developing human brain, but little is known on the entire network of potential regions which might be affected and on how these effects may vary from childhood to early adulthood, which in turn can explain sexually differentiated behaviors. Here we examined the relationship between estradiol, cortico-amygdalar structural covariance, and cognitive or behavioral measures typically showing sex differences (verbal/spatial skills, anxious-depressed symptomatology) in 152 children and adolescents (6-22 years old)...

Researchers have advocated for a greater focus on measuring neurobiological underpinnings of serious psychological conditions such as psychopathy. This has become particularly important to investigate early in the life span, when intervention efforts for psychopathy-related behavior like conduct disorder (CD) are more successful. Given that psychopathy is a complex syndrome, it is also important to investigate physiological processes at a dimensional level. Using a sample of 56 adolescent male offenders (Mage = 15...

The struggle to cast a net around the numerous ways prosocial behavior is expressed lends itself to the absence of widely accepted methods of measurement. Additionally, research intent on evaluating the psychometric properties of current approaches has been somewhat limited. Weaving together seminal as well as contemporary research, the current review focuses on how these conceptual and measurement issues pertain to adolescent studies (in an intentional effort to offset the somewhat disproportionate focus directed toward prosocial development in infants, children, and adults)...

Background: The worldwide prevalence of overweight and obesity is at alarming levels. Nearly one in three children in Europe is overweight or obese. Disordered eating and body image concerns are equally widespread and increase risk for more chronic and severe weight-related problems. Research has shown that online interventions that address both healthy weight regulation and body image can reduce risk for eating disorders and obesity simultaneously and are feasible to implement in school settings...

A large proportion of the public health costs of alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be accounted for by a small percentage of severe cases with a chronic course starting in adolescence and persisting into adulthood. However, chronicity may be a less effective marker of AUD severity in women than men due to a gender risk-severity paradox wherein comparable levels of risk exposure yield more co-occurring problems for women than men with AUD. To model this paradox, we compared trajectories of alcohol and drug use problems, depression symptoms, and antisocial behavior from ages 17 to 29 in men and women with a persistent, desistent, or no history of AUD...

Adolescents are more likely to take risks than children or adults. This propensity can be directed toward negative (illegal and dangerous) or positive (socially acceptable and constructive) risk behaviors. Adolescents who take positive risks include teenagers winning Olympic medals for landing snowboard tricks and students protesting gun violence on a national platform. Yet little is known about the nature of positive risk taking because much of the research on adolescent risk taking has focused on negative risks, such as substance use or delinquency...

AIM: To identify factors other than active disease and anemia that contribute to fatigue in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS: We performed an electronic search in Medline and EMBASE from their inception to May 2017 using the search term "fatigue" or the related keywords "physical impairment" and "inflammatory bowel disease" with the filter "child" (age 0-18 years). Cross-sectional and case-control studies were included...

INTRODUCTION: Time spent in sedentary behaviors is a newer risk factor for poor cardiometabolic health. This study examined longitudinal correlates of sedentary time among a cohort of females from about age 17 to age 23 years. METHODS: The cohort included females originally participating in the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls Maryland site who had assessments in 2009 and 2015 (n=431). Percentage daily time in sedentary behaviors was determined from accelerometers...

CONTEXT: Despite current recommendations, human papillomavirus vaccine uptake remains low. A systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the effectiveness of interventions targeting human papillomavirus vaccine initiation and completion among children, adolescents, and young adults aged 9-26 years. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Three electronic databases (CINAHL, OVID, and Web of Science) were searched for articles published in English peer-reviewed journals between January 2006 and January 2017 of U...

The parent-child relationship undergoes substantial reorganization over the transition to adolescence. Navigating this change is a challenge for parents because teens desire more behavioral autonomy as well as input in decision-making processes. Although it has been demonstrated that changes in parental socialization approaches facilitates adolescent adjustment, very little work has been devoted to understanding the underlying mechanisms supporting parents' abilities to adjust caregiving during this period...

AIMS: The current study aims to examine whether energy drink consumption is associated with intentions to try marijuana among adolescents who have never tried marijuana, and whether the effects of energy drink consumption on the intention to try marijuana vary between adolescents who have previously tried alcohol or cigarettes and those who have not. METHODS: This study employs a pooled cross-sectional design and uses a nationally representative sample of 8th (ages 13-14) and 10th (ages 15-16) grade adolescents from seven recent cohorts (2010-2016) of the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study...

Many young people experience sexual debut before they are able to manage risk in order to avoid adverse consequences. Gender norms, social position, and power can undermine an adolescent's ability to exercise agency in their first sexual encounters and negotiate safer sexual behavior. This study examines the intersection of psychosocial and interpersonal factors with the social and physical environment to form an ecological understanding of how the determinants that shape sexual activity differ between boys and girls in two urban slums in Monrovia, Liberia...

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a severe neuropsychiatric disease associated with dysfunction of brain regions and networks. Recent, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have determined that the global signal (GS) is an important source of the local neuronal activity. However, the dynamics of this effect in SCZ remains unknown. To address this issue, 39 drug-naive patients with early-onset schizophrenia (EOS) and 31 age-, gender- and education-matched healthy controls underwent resting-state fMRI scans...

INTRODUCTION: In South Africa, one in three men have reported perpetrating rape. Adolescence presents a unique developmental period for primary prevention of violence. However, few studies characterize the epidemiology of sexual violence among adolescents in South Africa. METHOD: We evaluated rates of sexual violence behaviors using a baseline survey of N = 200 South African adolescents, age 13-15, recruited for participation in an intervention trial. The intervention focused on preventing onset of depression and sexual risk behavior among adolescents...

Marijuana is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs worldwide. In addition, use of synthetic cannabinoids is increasing, especially among adolescents and young adults. Although human studies have shown that the use of marijuana during pregnancy leads to adverse behavioral effects, such as deficiencies in attention and executive function in affected offspring, the rate of marijuana use among pregnant women is steadily increasing. Various aspects of human behavior including emotion, learning, and memory are dependent on complex interactions between multiple neurotransmitter systems that are especially vulnerable to alterations during the developmental period...

Age is a consistent predictor of outcome following traumatic brain injury (TBI). Although children and adolescents have the highest rate of hospitalizations and long-term disabilities, few preclinical studies have attempted to model and treat TBI in this population. Studies using nicotinamide (NAM), a soluble B-group vitamin, in older animals (3-6 months) have shown improved functional recovery in experimental models of TBI. The purpose of this study was two-fold: to examine the preclinical efficacy of NAM at different doses on behavioral outcomes in juvenile rats and examine the microglial response over time...

Perinatal complications such as birth asphyxia were associated with a higher risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in humans. Data from a rat model of neonatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) have revealed inattention, impulsive behavior and dopamine (DA) disturbances in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), confirming the face validity and construct validity for ADHD study. However, the predictive validity (similar therapeutic efficacy of the pharmacological treatment available in the clinic) should be considered...