This dissertation focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying adolescent learning and mental health in the context of peers and friends. The neuroimaging findings revealed that... Show moreThis dissertation focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms underlying adolescent learning and mental health in the context of peers and friends. The neuroimaging findings revealed that reward processing for self and peers rely on common reward-related brain regions, whereas a social brain region (TPJ) showed social specificity to observed outcomes for unfamiliar peers compared to friends. Moreover, typically developing adolescents and adolescents with ADHD show neural sensitivity in reward and salience brain regions towards rewards for themselves, friends and peers compared to losses. There were no group differences in neural processing of (vicarious) outcomes between adolescents with and without ADHD, yet a symptom-level approach showed more neural sensitivity for own compared to friends’ losses in individuals with more inattention symptoms. The behavioral findings indicated that adolescents’ learning performance benefitted from observing the choices and outcomes of peers irrespective of the relationship with this peer. The results did not show effects of friendship (quality) and social status on observational and academic learning, but there was a protective effect of friendship quality on internalizing problems. Taken together, these findings highlight adolescence as a period of observational learning opportunities from different types of peers. Adolescence can also serve as a window of opportunity to improve mental health by fostering high-quality friendships. Show less
To thrive as an individual and within society, children need to master the ability to control their behavior and adapt it to social rules and standards. They also need to acquire the social... Show moreTo thrive as an individual and within society, children need to master the ability to control their behavior and adapt it to social rules and standards. They also need to acquire the social competence to interact and communicate with others. Studies showing the relevance of behavioral control and social competence for children’s future development give rise to the search for factors that are associated with these competencies. These factors can be characteristics of the child, factors within the child’s social environment, and factors within the physical and socioeconomic environment. In the current thesis we aimed to identify some of these factors associated with the development of behavioral control in early childhood, and with prosocial behavior in early to mid-adolescence. We assessed four types of behavioral control: parent-reported effortful control, observed cheating behavior, delay of gratification, and response inhibition. For prosocial behavior, one type was assessed: observed compensating behavior towards an excluded peer. The results show that there is quite some variation in children’s level of behavioral control as well as in adolescents’ level of prosocial behavior and that these levels can be related to child characteristics, factors in their social environment, physical, and socioeconomic environment in a meaningful way. Show less
