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Interpersonal trust shows developmental changes during adolescence. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the development of trust behavior, the presence of gender differences in these developmental trajectories, and the association between individual differences in these developmental trajectories and perspective-taking abilities. The participants played a trust game with a hypothetical trustworthy partner and a trust game with a hypothetical untrustworthy partner in 3 consecutive years (Mage = 12.55 years, Mage = 13.54 years, and Mage = 14.54 years). Concerning the development of trust behavior, the results showed an age-related increase in initial trust behavior and indicated increasingly adaptive trust behavior with age during untrustworthy interactions, whereas no evidence was found for age-related changes in the adaptation of trust during trustworthy interactions. Gender differences were found for the development of initial trust behavior (with boys showing a stronger increase with age than girls), whereas no support was found for the presence of gender differences in the developmental trajectories of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. Furthermore, no evidence was found for perspective-taking abilities to explain individual differences in the development of initial trust behavior or in the development of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. The results provide evidence that, during adolescence initial trust behavior increased with age, more for boys than for girls, and that both boys and girls showed a stronger adaptive response to the untrustworthy partner but not to the trustworthy partner.

Interpersonal connection is a fundamental human motivation, and the extent to which it is fulfilled is a strong predictor of symptoms of internalizing disorders such as social anxiety and depression, perhaps especially during the “social reorienting” period of adolescence. However, little is known about the contribution to this effect of the individual’s social motivations, which are intensified during adolescence. Furthermore, social goal orientation – an individual’s priorities and intentions in social interactions – is an important predictor of vulnerability to internalizing symptoms. Adolescents spend most of their waking lives in classrooms, bounded social networks with a limited pool of candidates for befriending. This study investigated whether friendships within one’s class protects against internalizing symptoms in part by reducing the desire for more classmate friendships, which may tend to promote maladaptive social goals. Participants were 423 young adolescents (M age = 13.2, sd = 0.52 years; 49.4% girls). As predicted, adolescents’ number of reciprocated classroom friendships had a protective effect on internalizing symptoms which was serially mediated by desire for more such friendships, and social goal orientation. However, only demonstration-avoidance goals significantly predicted internalizing symptoms. Unreciprocated friendship nominations were unexpectedly associated with stronger desire and more social anxiety symptoms. The results suggest that the effect of number of friends is mediated by the individual’s thoughts and feelings about their number of friendships, such that a strong desire for more friendships promotes maladaptive goals, oriented toward social status and consequently less oriented toward the cultivation of interpersonal intimacy with the friends they already have.

Growth mindset, the belief that personal attributes such as intelligence are malleable, has previously been related to more effort investment. Here, we investigated how undergraduates' mindset (N = 114) relates to the choice to invest effort during an arithmetic task, indexed by whether they make low vs. high effort-related choices. Social cognitive theory suggests that past performance experiences (mastery vs. failure) and physiological state are important sources for competence self-evaluations. Therefore, in addition to mindset, we also investigated how effort-related choices are influenced more dynamically, by failures and physiological responses during the task. Growth mindset and physiological effort mobilization did not predict effort-related choices but making mistakes did predict lower effort choices in the subsequent round. This study further supports the importance of mastery experiences for effort investment and provides a novel approach for integrating different levels of influence on effort-related choices during an educationally-relevant task.

Our social interactions take place within numerous social networks, in which our relationships with others define our position within these networks. In this study, we examined how the centrality of positions within social networks was associated with trust behavior and neural activity in 49 adolescents (Mage = 12.8 years, SDage = 0.4 years). The participants played a trust game with a cartoon animation as a partner, which showed adaptive behavior in response to the participant and was generally untrustworthy. Social network positions were obtained in secondary school classrooms where the participants and their classmates reported on who their friends were. Using social network analysis, a score was calculated that indicated the centrality of everyone's position within the friendship network. The results showed that more central social network positions were associated with higher levels of initial trust behavior, although no evidence was found for a relationship between network position and the adaptation of trust behavior. The results of the functional MRI analyses showed that the centrality of the network positions was positively associated with caudate activity when making trust decisions. Furthermore, the adolescents with more central network positions also showed stronger increases of caudate activity when the partner's return was processed compared to the adolescents with less central network positions. The current study provides initial evidence that social network positions in friendship networks relate to socio-cognitive behavior and neural activity in adolescents.

Adolescence is an important developmental period for both trust behavior and personality maturation, and individual differences in trust decisions may be related to different personality traits. In the current study, a group of adolescents (n = 483, Mage = 13.5, SDage = 0.4) played two counterbalanced conditions of a multi-round trust game. In one condition, the partner displayed trustworthy behavior (the trustworthy condition), while the partner in the other condition played untrustworthy behavior (the untrustworthy condition). Three types of trust behavior were examined: initial trust behavior, the adaptation of trust behavior (trustworthy condition), and the adaptation of trust behavior (untrustworthy condition). Personality was measured using the Brief HEXACO Inventory. We expected the HEXACO personality dimensions of honesty–humility and agreeableness to be positively associated with initial trust behavior, but conscientiousness to be negatively related to initial trust behavior. The examination of the relationship between these dimensions and the adaptation of trust behavior were conducted on an exploratory basis. The investigation of the relationship between the remaining dimensions (emotionality, extraversion, and openness to experience) and the three types of trust behavior were also carried out on an exploratory basis. For each type of trust behavior, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was undertaken to examine whether the HEXACO personality dimensions were related to trust behavior. Using frequentist analyses, no evidence was found that supported the HEXACO dimensions as significant predictors of the three types of trust behavior. Moreover, additional Bayesian analyses showed evidence that the hypothesized HEXACO dimensions (honesty–humility, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) did not outperform the non-hypothesized HEXACO dimensions (emotionality, extraversion, and openness to experience). The association between personality traits and trust might be less pronounced during adolescence as personality maturates across an individual’s lifespan. Additionally, due to a heightened sensitivity to the environment, contextual cues may affect adolescent decision-making processes, leaving less room for personality-driven behaviors.

During adolescence, social cognition and the brain undergo major developments. Social interactions become more important, and adolescents must learn that not everyone can be trusted equally. Prior knowledge about the trustworthiness of an interaction partner may affect adolescents' expectations about the partner. However, the expectations based on prior knowledge can turn out to be incorrect, causing the need to respond adaptively during the interaction. In the current fMRI study, we investigated the effect of incorrect prior knowledge on adolescent trust behavior and on the neural processes of trust. Thirty-three adolescents (Mage = 17.2 years, SDage = 0.5 years) played two trust games with partners whose behavior was preprogrammed using an algorithm that modeled trustworthy behavior. Prior to the start of both games, participants received information suggesting that the partner in one game was untrustworthy (raising incorrect expectations) and the partner in the other game trustworthy (raising correct expectations). Results indicated that participants adapted their trust behavior following incorrect prior expectations. No evidence for a change in trust behavior was shown when prior expectations were correct. fMRI analyses revealed that when receiving the partner's response, activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and in the superior parietal gyrus were increased when participants had incorrect expectations about the partner compared to when participants had correct expectations. When making trust decisions, no significant differences in neural activity were found when comparing the two games. This study provides insight into how adolescent trust behavior and neural mechanisms are affected by expectations and provides an increased understanding of the factors that influence adolescent social interactions.

The BRIEF-2 (Gioia et al., 2015) is a widely used questionnaire to measure daily behavior related to executive function behaviors in thehome and school environment of children between 5 and 18 years old. The current study was conducted to investigate the psychometricproperties of the Dutch version of the BRIEF-2 in a representative Dutch-speaking norm sample. Using methods from classical test theory andnetwork theory, we examined the reliability and validity of the BRIEF-2. The results indicated that the BRIEF-2 can be considered as a valid andreliable questionnaire that provides information on the role of executive function in the child’s and adolescent’s functioning in the home andschool environment.

Adolescence is a time of major psychological development in the cognitive, affective, and social domains. Development in these domains can also show interactions with each other. One way in which these interactions between these domains become apparent is in the form of risk-taking behavior in adolescence. Compared to children and adults, adolescents show increased risky decision-making. An example of risk-taking behavior is substance use, including smoking and the use of e-cigarettes (Huizink). A leading explanation for risk-taking behavior has been an increase in reward sensitivity in adolescence. However, adolescents also show differential processing of risk compared to children and adults. A focus on risk processing could broaden the perspective on adolescent risk-taking behavior (van Duijvenvoorde).

In cognitive neurosciences, fundamental principles of mental processes and functional brain organization have been established with highly controlled tasks and testing environments. Recent technical advances allowed the investigation of these functions and their brain mechanisms in naturalistic settings. The diversity in those approaches have been recently (Matusz, P. J., Dikker, S., Huth, A. G., & Perrodin, C. (2019). Are we ready for real-world neuroscience? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31(3), 327–338. doi:10.1162/jocn_e_01276) classified via a three-category cycle, including controlled laboratory, partially naturalistic laboratory, and naturalistic real-world research. Based on this model, we developed the Multidimensional Assessment of Research in Context (MARC) tool to easily delineate the approach researchers have taken in their study. MARC provides means to describe the degree of ecological validity for each component of a study (e.g., sample, stimuli, measures, etc.), and the study's location on the cycle. The tool comprises seven questions concerning a study's characteristics. It outputs a summary of those and a compass plot, which can be used for presentations, preregistration, grant proposals, and papers. It aims to improve drawing conclusions across studies and raise awareness about the generalizability of research findings.

Neuroscience research has increased our understanding of brain development, but little is known about how parents of adolescents engage with this neuroscientific information. Dutch parents completed a digital survey on neuromyths, neuroscience literacy and views of the adolescent brain and behaviour. These parents believed 44.7% of neuromyths and showed reasonable neuroscience literacy (79.8%). Stronger neuromyth belief predicted a more negative view on adolescent brain development. About 68% of the parents reported that they had changed their parenting behaviour based on their understanding of neuroscientific findings. These self-reported changes most often reflected changes to parents' own behaviour. The results of this study underline the importance for scientists and parents to engage in scientific activities to promote respectful and trusting relationships between them. These relationships have the potential to make communication about adolescent brain development between scientists and parents more effective and will empower parents to use correct information as a basis for their decisions around raising their adolescents.

Children who like to read and write tend to be better at it. This association is typically interpreted as enjoyment impacting engagement in literacy activities, which boosts literacy skills. We fitted direction-of-causation models to partial data of 3690 Finnish twins aged 12. Literacy skills were rated by the twins' teachers and literacy enjoyment by the twins themselves. A bivariate twin model showed substantial genetic influences on literacy skills (70%) and literacy enjoyment (35%). In both skills and enjoyment, shared-environmental influences explained about 20% in each. The best-fitting direction-of-causation model showed that skills impacted enjoyment, while the influence in the other direction was zero. The genetic influences on skills influenced enjoyment, likely via the skills -> enjoyment path. This indicates an active gene-environment correlation: children with an aptitude for good literacy skills are more likely to enjoy reading and seek out literacy activities. To a lesser extent, it was also the shared-environmental influences on children's skills that propagated to influence children's literacy enjoyment. Environmental influences that foster children's literacy skills (e.g., families and schools), also foster children's love for reading and writing. These findings underline the importance of nurturing children's literacy skills. Highlights It's known that how much children enjoy reading and writing and how good they are at it correlates similar to 0.30, but causality remains unknown. We tested the direction of causation in 3690 twins aged 12. Literacy skills impacted literacy enjoyment, but not the other way around. Genetics influence children's literacy skills and how much they like and choose to read and write, indicating genetic niche picking.

Adolescence is an important developmental period for learning who can and cannot be trusted, and how to adapt one’s trust behavior in response to others’ reciprocal behavior. The main objective of this thesis was to create more insight into the development of adolescent trust behavior and to explain individual differences in trust behavior and the related neural activity. The development of initial trust behavior and the development of adaptive trust behavior were investigated. Furthermore, in the chapters described in this thesis, factors within the individual, e.g., gender, personality traits, symptoms of psychopathology, and perspective-taking abilities, and factors from one’s social environment, e.g., social embeddedness within social networks, were used to predict individual differences in trust behavior. Collectively, the results presented in this thesis indicate that adolescence is an important developmental period for trust behavior. First, increased levels of initial trust behavior were found throughout adolescence. Second, adolescents showed stronger adaptive trust behavior with age when interacting with untrustworthy others, and they showed age-related increases in average trust behavior when the partner behaved in a trustworthy manner. This suggests that learning who can be trusted and responding adaptively to the partner develops throughout adolescence. Adaptive trust behavior was also elicited by contextual factors, as adolescents showed they were able to overcome incorrect prior expectations about the partner and adjust their trust behavior in response to the partner’s actual behavior. The increased dlPFC and superior parietal gyrus activity that was found when interacting with this partner might tentatively suggest that cognitive control processes underlie these adaptive trust behavior processes. Furthermore, the results of this thesis indicated no support for a relationship between trust behavior and personality traits, symptoms of psychopathology, and perspective-taking abilities. The results did show that individual differences in adolescent trust behavior and the related neural activity can be explained by gender and the position within a social network. Boys showed a stronger developmental increase in initial trust behavior throughout adolescence compared to girls. Furthermore, the centrality of one´s social network position was positively related to levels of initial trust and to caudate activity, tentatively indicating increased expectancy violation when interacting with untrustworthy others.

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted adolescent mental health on a global scale. However, many students were resilient during this crisis, despite exposure to COVID-related stressors. We aimed to study the protective effects of growth mindset on school-related resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the mediating effects of coping styles. The two-year follow-up of an ongoing Randomized Controlled Trial, involving a growth mindset and control intervention, took place during the pandemic. We measured growth mindset, school burnout symptoms, COVID-19-specific stressor exposure, coping styles, and calculated a resilience score (corrected for pre-pandemic school burnout symptoms). Mediation analyses were performed in the total sample (N = 261), and exploratory in the intervention subsamples, to test whether the associations between mindset and resilience were mediated by coping styles. Growth-mindset students were more resilient during the pandemic and used less maladaptive and more adaptive (acceptance) coping styles. Coping mediated the relation between mindset and resilience in the total sample (both coping styles), and growth mindset intervention subsample (maladaptive coping). We found unique evidence for the beneficial effects of growth mindset on school-related resilience during the pandemic, and the mediating effect of coping styles as explanatory mechanism. This work contributes to a growing literature that shows positive effects of growth mindset on mental health.

BackgroundHaving twin and non-twin siblings might influence autistic traits both prenatally and postnatally. The twin testosterone transfer hypothesis suggests that girls with a twin brother are exposed to higher levels of prenatal testosterone than girls with a twin sister, and that increased testosterone exposure masculinizes neural development and increases autistic traits. Postnatally, siblings may provide example behaviour, which could reduce autistic traits.MethodsWe studied pre- and postnatal influences of twin and non-twin siblings on mother and teacher-reported autistic traits in 7714 dizygotic twins. We examined the effect of sex of the proband child and of the siblings. We fitted regression models (for boys and girls separately) with sex of co-twin and having older and/or younger siblings of each sex as predictors.ResultsGirls' mother-reported autistic traits were slightly lower for those with a twin brother than those with a twin sister (β = −.08, p = .001, Cohen's d = −.13). This difference was not replicated in teacher-reported autistic traits (β = .01, p = .734). Boys' (mother and teacher-reported) autistic traits were not related to the sex of their co-twin (ps > 0.50). Teacher-reported autistic traits were slightly higher if girls had an older brother (β = .07, p = .013, Cohen's d = .12). Other than this small effect, we found no effect of non-twin siblings on autistic traits in either girls or boys (ps > .18).ConclusionsWe did not find increased autistic traits in girls with a twin brother compared to girls with a twin sister. This finding contributes to a body of literature that rejects the twin testosterone transfer hypothesis. In addition, we found little evidence for pre- and postnatal sibling influences. Our findings align with high heritability and absence of shared-environmental influences in ASD.

Although good quality housing and a socially cohesive neighborhood are associated with a higher well-being in the general population, housing is a rarely studied topic in autism research. In the present study, we describe the housing situation of a large sample of adults with autism and mostly (above) average intellectual abilities (n = 1429; 17 to 84 years), and examine predictors of independent living, accommodation satisfaction, neighborhood satisfaction, and satisfaction with life based on an online survey. The outcomes of independently living adults were compared with those from a Dutch community sample (n = 929). Nearly 80% of the autistic adults lived independently. Older participants, women, and those with higher self-reported IQ's were more likely to live independently. Autistic adults living independently were equally satisfied with their accommodation and neighborhood as the comparison group, but were less satisfied with their life in general. In both groups, higher satisfaction with accommodation and neighborhood was associated with higher life satisfaction. We advocate further research to better understand and anticipate the housing needs of the growing group of adults with autism. LAY SUMMARY: The living situation of autistic adults has rarely been studied. We found that 79% of autistic adults with mostly (above) average intellectual abilities lived independently. Women, older adults, and those with higher IQ's were more likely to live independently. They were equally pleased with their house and neighborhood as adults from a Dutch community sample, but autistic adults were less satisfied with their life in general.

Research has shown that interactive book reading in early childhood classrooms contributes to children’s language development. High quality interaction during book reading has been shown to be even more beneficial for children’s language development, but more research is needed on which interaction practices really work, as there is great variability. The present study investigated the effects of three different interactive book reading approaches in an 8-week intervention: (1) interactive book reading (comparison condition), (2) book reading with focused attention, and (3) book reading using mind maps. A total of 551 children aged 4–6 years from 23 early childhood classrooms participated in the current randomized quasi-experimental study. Multilevel models were used to examine differences between conditions and/or gains in children’s language competence. Research Findings: Results showed no significant differences between the three interactive book reading conditions, and no added effect of using mind maps during interactive book reading. However, our study does show that engaging young children in three different and relatively short interactive book reading interventions results in improved language competence. Practice and Policy: Findings confirm the importance of interactive book reading in education and indicate that teachers can alternate on traditional interactive reading, for example, by using mind maps.

Adults often act considerately toward others, for example, by leaving the last cookie on a plate or stepping aside on a busy sidewalk. What do young children infer from observing considerate behavior? In three preregistered studies, we assess how young children evaluate considerate and inconsiderate behavior by showing them animated videos in which targets make decisions that either leave or limit choice options for others. Study 1 (N = 372 6 to 12-year-old children, 170 girls, 187 boys [15 not reported], 84.4% native Dutch) showed that older children, but not younger children (i.e., 6 years), evaluated considerate others (i.e., who leave a choice for others) as nicer than inconsiderate others, and they were also more willing to lend their toys to them. Moreover, children’s evaluations were specific to the social domain, as children of all ages evaluated both targets as equally smart. Focusing on younger children (5–7 years), study 2 (N = 99; 57 boys, 42 girls, 78.8% native Dutch) showed that when the consequences of considerate or inconsiderate behavior were made explicit and videos showed one target at a time, children as young as 5 years old evaluated considerate targets as nicer. Study 3 (N = 43; 20 boys, 23 girls, 92.5% native Dutch) showed that young children also evaluated considerate behavior as nicer when the consequences of considerate behavior were not made explicit.

Objective: Recent findings suggest that diminished processing of positive contextual information about others during interactions may contribute to social impairment in the schizophrenia spectrum. This could be due to general social context processing deficits or specific biases against positive information. We studied the impact of positive and negative social contextual information during social interactions using functional neuroimaging and probed whether these neural mechanisms were associated with real-life social functioning in schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Methods: Patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder ( N = 23) and controls disorder ( N = 25) played three multi-round trust games during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, with no, positive and negative information about the counterpart’s trustworthiness, while all counterparts were programmed to behave trustworthy. The main outcome variable was the height of the shared amount in the trust game, i.e. investment, representing an indication of trust. The first investment in the game was considered to be basic trust, since no behavioural feedback was given yet. We performed region-of-interest analyses and examined the association with real-life social functioning using the experience sampling method. Results: Social contextual information had no effect on patients’ first investments, whereas controls made the lowest investment after negative and the highest investments after positive contextual information was provided. Over trials, patients decreased investments, suggesting reduced social reward learning, whereas controls increased investments in response to behavioural feedback in the negative context. Patients engaged the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex less than controls during context presentation and showed reduced activity within the caudate during repayments. In patients, lower investments were associated with more time spent alone and social exclusion and lower caudate activation was marginally significantly associated with higher perceived social exclusion. Conclusion: The failure to adapt trust to positive and negative social contexts suggests that patients have a general insensitivity to prior social information, indicating top-down processing impairments. In addition, patients show reduced sensitivity to social reward, i.e. bottom-up processing deficits. Moreover, lower trust and lower neural activation were related to lower real-life social functioning. Together, these findings indicate that improving trust and social interactions in schizophrenia spectrum needs a multi-faceted approach that targets both mechanisms.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and restrictive and repetitive interests. Although progress has been made in understanding its phenomenology, underlying mechanisms for core and co-occurring difficulties remain elusive. Emerging evidence suggests that emotion processing and regulation play a critical role in the challenges experienced by autistic individuals. This special issue provides current thinking related to methods, research, and practice in the field of emotion processing and regulation in ASD, and to integrate study findings to elucidate underlying mechanisms. With a global perspective, article coverage includes (1) explorations of the neurological underpinnings of emotion processing differences in individuals with and without autism, (2) emotion recognition and related issues (i.e., theory of mind, temperament) in siblings of autistic children, (3) examinations of the interplay between emotion, anxiety, sensory sensitivities and internalizing and externalizing challenges, and (4) emotion processing in real-world applications, including driving and adjustment to college.

During school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, less support from peers and teachers may have required more autonomous motivation from adolescents. Little is known about factors that could shield against these negative effects. Driven by two influential motivational theories, we examined how mindset, feelings of school burnout and the three basic psychological needs of the self-determination theory, could predict changes in autonomous motivation when controlling for pre-pandemic levels of motivation. The results from a sample of Dutch adolescents (Mage = 14.63 years) and their parents (Mage = 48.65 years) showed that endorsing a growth mindset was positively associated with autonomous motivation during the school closures, while feelings of school burnout were negatively associated with autonomous motivation. Additionally, perceived parental autonomy support (i.e. a measure of the basic psychological need of autonomy) related to more autonomous motivation during home-based learning. Our findings highlight the personal and family factors that influence how adolescents respond to home-based learning and suggest ways to keep adolescents motivated and diminish possible negative consequences during future home-based learning situations.

Sensitivity for rewarding cues and distress signals from children is fundamental to human caregiving and modulated by the neuropeptide oxytocin. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated whether oxytocin regulates neural responses to reward or distress cues form children. In a placebo-controlled, within-subject design, we measured neural responses to positive, negative, and neutral cues from children in 22 healthy female subjects who received oxytocin (24 IU) versus placebo. Further, based on current literature, we hypothesized that oxytocin effects are modulated by experiences of childhood trauma. The task elicited valence-specific effects—positive images activated the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate cortex, and right putamen, and images of children in distress activated the bilateral amygdala, hippocampus, and right medial superior frontal cortex. The effects of oxytocin depended on subjective reports of childhood emotional neglect. Self-reported neglect interacted with oxytocin administration in the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal areas. In individuals with higher scores of emotional neglect, oxytocin increased neural reactivity of limbic structures to positive and neutral images. Our findings need replication in larger samples and can therefore be considered preliminary but are in line with the recent literature on the modulating effect of childhood adversity on the sensitivity to oxytocin administration.

This chapter provides an overview of population-based epidemiological studies on the incidence and prevalence of early-onset psychosis (EOP; onset of illness before age 18 years) and psychotic-like experiences (PLE) in adolescence. The incidence of EOP increases between 13 and 18 years of age, and peaks in young adulthood. Moreover, most studies suggest an increased incidence of EOP in boys compared to girls, but findings vary depending on contextual factors including diagnostic criteria. Compared to the relatively rare occurrence of EOP, PLE are common in adolescence. Contrary to EOP, the prevalence of PLE declines from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Methodological considerations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Developmental changes during adolescence may make youth susceptible to violent media effects. Two studies with male adolescents (N1 = 241; N2 = 161; aged 12–17) examined how habitual and short-term violent video gaming may affect emotion recognition and inhibitory control. We found that not habitual exposure to violent video games, but to antisocial media content predicted worse emotion recognition. Furthermore, higher habitual exposure to violent games predicted better inhibitory control over emotional stimuli in a stop signal task. However, short-term causal effects of violent gameplay on adolescents were not found. While these results do not indicate a negative impact of violent video games on young players, future research may further investigate possible effects of antisocial media content on adolescents.

Children's learning capabilities change while growing up. One framework that describes the cognitive and neural development of children's growing learning abilities is the two‐component model. It distinguishes processes that integrate separate features into a coherent memory representation (associative component) and executive abilities, such as elaboration, evaluation, and monitoring, that support memory processing (strategic component). In an fMRI study using an object‐location association paradigm, we investigated how the two components influence memory performance across development. We tested children (10–12 years, n = 31), late adolescents (18 years, n = 29), and adults (25+ years, n = 30). For studying the associative component, we also probed how the utilisation of prior knowledge (schemas) facilitates memory across age groups. Children had overall lower retrieval performance, while adolescents and adults did not differ from each other. All groups benefitted from schemas, but this effect did not differ between groups. Performance differences between groups were associated with deactivation of the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), which in turn was linked to executive functioning. These patterns were stronger in adolescents and adults and seemed absent in children. Thus, the children's executive system, the strategic component, is not as mature and thus cannot facilitate memory performance in the same way as in adolescents/adults. In contrast, we did not find age‐related differences in the associative component; with activity in the angular gyrus predicting memory performance systematically across groups. Overall, our results suggest that differences of executive rather than associative abilities explain memory differences between children, adolescents, and adults., In an fMRI study, we investigated whether memory differences between children, adolescents, and adults stem from developmental changes in executive abilities, the strategic component, or rather from differences in mechanisms related to binding different features together into a memory representation, the associative component. Overall, our results suggest that differences of executive rather than associative abilities explain memory differences between children, adolescents and adults.

Background. Although past research demonstrated growth mindset interventions to improve school outcomes, effects were small. This may be due to the theoretical nature of psychosocial techniques (e.g., reading about brain plasticity), which may not be optimally convincing for students. Aims. To address this issue and improve effectiveness, we developed a growth mindset intervention, which combined psychosocial and psychophysiological components. The latter adds a convincing experience of influencing one’s own brain activity, using mobile electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback, emphasizing the controllable and malleable nature of one’s brain. Sample. In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), twenty high school classes (N=439) were randomized to either the active control condition (no mindset messaging) or our newly developed growth mindset intervention condition (4x50 minutes). Methods. School outcomes (pre, post, 1-year follow-up) were analyzed with Linear Mixed Models (LMM: variable-oriented) and Latent Transition Analysis (LTA: person-oriented). Results. LMM: students in the growth mindset intervention reported increased growth mindset directly after the intervention (post, d = 0.38) and at 1-year follow-up (d = 0.25), and demonstrated a protective effect against deterioration of math grades at 1-year follow-up (d = 0.36), compared to controls. LTA: we identified three mindset profiles (Fixed, Growth competitive, Growth non-competitive), with more frequent transitions from fixed to one of the growth mindset profiles at 1-year follow-up for students in the growth mindset intervention compared to controls (OR 2.58-2.68). Conclusions. Compared to previous studies, we found relatively large effects of our intervention on growth mindset and math grades, which may be attributable to synergetic effects of psychosocial and psychophysiological (neurofeedback) components. The person-oriented approach demonstrated more holistic effects, involving multiple motivational constructs.

Nature is considered to have restorative qualities that can potentially improve psychotherapy success. However, little is known about how clients experience nature during psychotherapy. The research aim of this phenomenological qualitative study was to study how clients experience nature during individual outpatient psychotherapy that took place while walking in nature. More specifically we were interested in clients’ inner world experiences. All participants (N = 12) received treatment through licensed therapists for a DSM-5 classified disorder. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. To uncover true lived experiences during these interviews, participants were asked to close their eyes and envision themselves during a psychotherapy session in nature. The verbatim transcripts were coded by means of inductive thematic analysis and the results were member checked. Results showed that nature brings clients closer to their inner worlds. How nature brings this about is unfolded in a conceptual model of lived experience. We argue that psychotherapy can be enriched by considering nature as a supportive environment because bringing clients closer to their inner worlds is of essential value in facilitating successful treatment interventions.

In order to think and talk about time, people often use the ego- or time-moving representation. In the ego-moving representation, the self travels through a temporal landscape, leaving past events behind and approaching future events; in the time-moving representation, the self is stationary and temporal events pass by. Several studies contest to the psychological ramifications of these two representations by, inter alia, demonstrating a link between them and event valence. These studies have, however, been limited to English speakers, even though language has been found to affect time representation. The present study therefore replicated Margolies and Crawford’s (2008) experiment on event valence and time representation amongst speakers of Dutch. Unlike Margolies and Crawford (2008), we do not find that positive valence leads to the endorsement of an ego-moving statement. Future studies will need to determine the ways through which language might moderate the relation between event valence and time representation.

OBJECTIVES: Psychosis is characterized by paranoid delusions, social withdrawal, and distrust towards others. Trust is essential for successful social interactions. It remains unknown which aspects of social functioning are associated with reduced trust in psychosis. Therefore, we investigated the association between social behaviour, trust, and its neural correlates in a group of individuals with psychotic symptoms (PS-group), consisting of first episode psychosis patients combined with individuals at clinical high risk.METHODS: We compared 24 PS individuals and 25 healthy controls. Affect and social withdrawal were assessed using the Experience Sampling Method. Trust was measured during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning, using a trust game with a cooperative and unfair counterpart.RESULTS: The PS-group showed lower baseline trust compared to controls and reported less positive and more negative general affect. Social withdrawal did not differ between the groups. Social withdrawal and social reactivity in affect (i.e., changes in affect when with others compared to when alone) were not associated with trust. On the neural level, in controls but not in the PS-group, social withdrawal was associated with caudate activation during interactions with an unfair partner. An increase in positive social reactivity, was associated with reduced insula activation in the whole sample.CONCLUSIONS: Social withdrawal and social reactivity were not associated with reduced initial trust in the PS-group. Like controls, the PS-group showed a positive response in affect when with others, suggesting a decrease in emotional distress. Supporting patients to keep engaging in social interactions, may alleviate their emotional distress.PRACTITIONER POINTS: Individuals with psychotic symptoms show reduced initial trust towards unknown others. Trust in others is not associated with social withdrawal and reported affect when with others, nor when alone. Like controls, individuals with psychotic symptoms showed reduced negative affect and increased positive affect when with others compared to when alone. We emphasize to support individuals with psychotic symptoms to keep engaging in social interactions, given it may reduce social withdrawal and alleviate their emotional distress.

School closures during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 severely disrupted adolescents’ lives. We used a daily diary method for 20 days, including online and physical school days, assessing daily mood, social support and conflict, and academic motivation in 102 adolescents aged 12–16 years. We found that adolescents’ academic motivation was lower on online compared with physical school days. In general, positive mood was positively associated with academic motivation, and friend conflict related negatively to academic motivation. Moreover, lower levels of parental support were related to lower academic motivation on online versus physical school days. Overall, these findings identified some critical changes in adolescents’ daily experiences during the COVID-19 school closure and social-emotional factors that may buffer decreases in adolescents’ academic motivation.

Reading Disability (RD) is often characterized by difficulties in the phonology of the language. While the molecular mechanisms underlying it are largely undetermined, loci are being revealed by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). In a previous GWAS for word reading (Price, 2020), we observed that top single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were located near to or in genes involved in neuronal migration/axon guidance (NM/AG) or loci implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A prominent theory of RD etiology posits that it involves disturbed neuronal migration, while potential links between RD-ASD have not been extensively investigated. To improve power to identify associated loci, we up-weighted variants involved in NM/AG or ASD, separately, and performed a new Hypothesis-Driven (HD)–GWAS. The approach was applied to a Toronto RD sample and a meta-analysis of the GenLang Consortium. For the Toronto sample (n = 624), no SNPs reached significance; however, by gene-set analysis, the joint contribution of ASD-related genes passed the threshold (p~1.45 × 10–2, threshold = 2.5 × 10–2). For the GenLang Cohort (n = 26,558), SNPs in DOCK7 and CDH4 showed significant association for the NM/AG hypothesis (sFDR q = 1.02 × 10–2). To make the GenLang dataset more similar to Toronto, we repeated the analysis restricting to samples selected for reading/language deficits (n = 4152). In this GenLang selected subset, we found significant association for a locus intergenic between BTG3-C21orf91 for both hypotheses (sFDR q < 9.00 × 10–4). This study contributes candidate loci to the genetics of word reading. Data also suggest that, although different variants may be involved, alleles implicated in ASD risk may be found in the same genes as those implicated in word reading. This finding is limited to the Toronto sample suggesting that ascertainment influences genetic associations., Translational Psychiatry, 12 (1), ISSN:2158-3188

It has been suggested that parental mathematics anxiety may influence their children’s mathematics anxiety, attitudes, and performance. It remains an open question whether these parentchild associations differ by parental sex or parental involvement. We tested 249 Dutch-speaking Belgian participants, forming 83 (biological) mother–father–child trios. The 83 children (age: M = 5.74; SD = 0.30) attended Kindergarten. We tested their nonsymbolic comparison, symbolic numerical magnitude processing, numeral recognition, arithmetic, and matrix reasoning. We assessed both parents’ arithmetic skills, math anxiety, educational level, and division of care. More mathanxious parents tended to be less highly educated (r~0.42) and poorer at math (r~0.30). Compared to fathers, mothers had lower arithmetic, higher math anxiety, and higher educational level. Assortative mating (i.e., a significant spousal correlation) was found for educational level and arithmetic. Mothers’ (but not fathers’) educational level predicted children’s arithmetic scores (r = 0.31). Other parent-offspring correlations were non-significant. Most of the children’s test scores are intercorrelated. The parental characteristic that best predicted five- and six-year-olds’ arithmetic performance was maternal educational level rather than mathematical anxiety or performance. We discuss these findings in relation to the used measures, parental gender and involvement, children’s age, statistical power, and genetic and environmental transmission. The field is just starting to understand whether and how mathematics anxiety and the skills of parents influence those of their offspring. ispartof: Education Sciences vol:12 issue:11 pages:1-13 status: published

Background: Most of the literature on the relation between mindset and effort depends on subjective self-reports, which may not reliably capture the actual investment of effort. In the current study we (1) operationalized mental effort as the chosen and executed difficulty level in a self-adapted arithmetic task, and (2) combined variable-oriented and person-oriented analytic approaches, with the latter allowing us to explore qualitatively different profiles of effort investment. Methods: First-year Dutch high-school students (n = 299; aged 11–14 yrs) chose difficulty levels of arithmetic problems in 20 rounds. Linear Mixed Modeling (variable-oriented approach) and Latent-Profile Analysis (person-oriented approach) were used and associations with mindset, errors, gender, and school achievement (standardized arithmetic test, and math grades) were explored. Results: For male students, mindset affected their choices independently of errors, while for female students, mindset only played a role when they experienced the setback of errors. Only for males, effort mediated the relation between mindset and standardized arithmetic scores. Additionally, we identified five effort profiles: (1) Avoiders, (2) Exploring challengers, (3) Challengers, (4) Explorers and (5) Steady. Two profiles were more growth-oriented (2 and 3), and two more fixed-oriented (1 and 5). Conclusion: This study adds to the literature by demonstrating a gender-moderated relation between mindset and an objective measure of effort, but also important nuances as indicated by individual differences in effort strategies.

Funding: EE, GA, BM, BSP, CF and SEF are supported by the Max Planck Society (Germany). The Chinese Reading Study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project (Grant No. 61807023), the Youth Fund for Humanities and Social Sciences Research of the Ministry of Education (Grant No. 19YJC190023 and 17XJC190010), and the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Grant No. 2021JQ-309). SP is funded by the Royal Society. Reading and writing are crucial life skills but roughly one in ten children are affected by dyslexia, which can persist into adulthood. Family studies of dyslexia suggest heritability up to 70%, yet few convincing genetic markers have been found. Here we performed a genome-wide association study of 51,800 adults self-reporting a dyslexia diagnosis and 1,087,070 controls and identified 42 independent genome-wide significant loci: 15 in genes linked to cognitive ability/educational attainment, and 27 new and potentially more specific to dyslexia. We validated 23 loci (13 new) in independent cohorts of Chinese and European ancestry. Genetic etiology of dyslexia was similar between sexes, and genetic covariance with many traits was found, including ambidexterity, but not neuroanatomical measures of language-related circuitry. Dyslexia polygenic scores explained up to 6% of variance in reading traits, and might in future contribute to earlier identification and remediation of dyslexia. Publisher PDF

Understanding how parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills influence offspring education is essential for educational, family and economic policy. We use genetics (GWAS-by-subtraction) to assess a latent, broad non-cognitive skills dimension. To index parental effects controlling for genetic transmission, we estimate indirect parental genetic effects of polygenic scores on childhood and adulthood educational outcomes, using siblings (N = 47,459), adoptees (N = 6407), and parent-offspring trios (N = 2534) in three UK and Dutch cohorts. We find that parental cognitive and non-cognitive skills affect offspring education through their environment: on average across cohorts and designs, indirect genetic effects explain 36–40% of population polygenic score associations. However, indirect genetic effects are lower for achievement in the Dutch cohort, and for the adoption design. We identify potential causes of higher sibling- and trio-based estimates: prenatal indirect genetic effects, population stratification, and assortative mating. Our phenotype-agnostic, genetically sensitive approach has established overall environmental effects of parents’ skills, facilitating future mechanistic work.

Published August 23, 2022 The use of spoken and written language is a fundamental human capacity. Individual differences in reading- and language-related skills are influenced by genetic variation, with twin-based heritability estimates of 30 to 80% depending on the trait. The genetic architecture is complex, heterogeneous, and multifactorial, but investigations of contributions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were thus far underpowered. We present a multicohort genome-wide association study (GWAS) of five traits assessed individually using psychometric measures (word reading, nonword reading, spelling, phoneme awareness, and nonword repetition) in samples of 13,633 to 33,959 participants aged 5 to 26 y. We identified genome-wide significant association with word reading (rs11208009, P = 1.098 × 1028) at a locus that has not been associated with intelligence or educational attainment. All five reading-/language-related traits showed robust SNP heritability, accounting for 13 to 26% of trait variability. Genomic structural equation modeling revealed a shared genetic factor explaining most of the variation in word/nonword reading, spelling, and phoneme awareness, which only partially overlapped with genetic variation contributing to nonword repetition, intelligence, and educational attainment. A multivariate GWAS of word/nonword reading, spelling, and phoneme awareness maximized power for follow-up investigation. Genetic correlation analysis with neuroimaging traits identified an association with the surface area of the banks of the left superior temporal sulcus, a brain region linked to the processing of spoken and written language. Heritability was enriched for genomic elements regulating gene expression in the fetal brain and in chromosomal regions that are depleted of Neanderthal variants. Together, these results provide avenues for deciphering the biological underpinnings of uniquely human traits. We thank all the children, twins, families, and participants who took part and are taking part in the 22 cohorts whose data contributed to these GWAS meta-analyses; the staff working on the different cohorts, including volunteers, study coordinators, interviewers, teachers, nurses, research scientists, general practitioners, midwives, psychologists, psychometrists, computer and laboratory technicians, and colleagues who assisted in the quality control and preparation of the imputed GWAS data; and the pharmacies and hospitals that were involved. B.M., B.M.-M., B.S.P., C.F., E.E., E.V., G.A., M.v.D., and S.E.F. are supported by the Max Planck Society. A.G. and T.F.M.A. were supported by the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), and A.G. was supported by Fondazione Umberto Veronesi. A.T.M. is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Grants 1105008 and 1195955 and Centre of Research Excellence Grant 1116976. A.J.O.W. is supported by NHMRC Grant 1173896. B.S.P. is supported by Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative Grant 514787. C.Y.S. works in the Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_00011/3). D.I.B. acknowledges Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Professor Award PAH/6635. E.E. is supported by NIH Grant R01DC016977. E.G.W. and J.R.G. are supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Grant P50 HD 27802. F.R. is supported by Agence Nationale de la Recherche Grants ANR-06-NEURO-019-01, ANR-17-EURE-0017 IEC, ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL, and ANR-11-BSV4-014-01 and European Commission Grant LSHM-CT-2005-018696. H.T. is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMW) Grant VICI 016.VICI.170.200. J.C.D. was supported by NICHD Grant P50 HD 27802. J.J.M., J.B.To., and T.K. were supported by NIH Grant R01 DC014489. K.M.P. was supported by the Hospital for Sick Children Research Training Program (Restracomp). K.R. is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (213514/Z/18/Z). M.J.S. is supported by Wellcome Trust Grant WT082032MA. S.P. and F.A. are supported by Royal Society Grants UF150663 and RGF\EA\180141. T.B. is supported by Institut Pasteur, the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation, and Université de Paris. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study is supported by the NIH and additional federal partners (NIH Grants U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, and U24DA041147). The Aston Cohort was supported by funding from European Union (EU) Horizon 2020 Programme 641652 and Waterloo Foundation Grant 797/17290. The St. Andrews Bioinformatics Unit is funded by Wellcome Trust Grants 105621/Z/14/Z and 204821/Z/16/Z. ALSPAC is supported by UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome Grant 217065/Z/19/Z and the University of Bristol. A comprehensive list of grant funding is available on the ALSPAC website (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf). The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) cohort was supported by the Basque Government through the Basic Excellence Research Centre program and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación through BCBL Severo Ochoa excellence accreditation. The Brisbane Adolescent Twin Sample was supported by Australian Research Council Grants A7960034, A79906588, A79801419, DP0212016, and DP0343921, with genotyping funded by the NHMRC Grant 389891. The Colorado Learning Disabilities Research Center cohort was supported by NICHD Grant P50 HD 27802. The Early Language in Victoria Study was supported by NHMRC Grant 436958. The Familial Influences on Literacy Abilities cohort is supported by the University of Amsterdam, the Max Planck Institue Nijmegen, and NWO Grants Rubicon 446-12-005 and VENI 451-15-017. The GRaD study was funded by the Manton Foundation, NIH Grants P50-HD027802 and K99-HD094902, and the Lambert Family. NeuroDys was funded by an EU Sixth Framework Program grant to the NeuroDys Consortium, Swiss National Science Foundation Grant 32-108130, and Austrian Science Fund Grant 18351-B02. The Netherlands Twin Register is funded by NWO Grants 480-04-004, 481-08-011, 056-32-010, 024.001.003, 480-15-001/674, 184.021.007, 184.033.111, and 56-464-14192; ZonMW Grants 911-09-032 and 912-10-020; the Amsterdam Public Health and Amsterdam Reproduction and Development Research Institutes; European Science Council Grant ERC Advanced 230374; EU Seventh Framework Program (FP7) Grant FP7/2007-2013: 602768; National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grants U24 MH068457-06, R01 MH58799-03, and 1RC2 MH089995; and the Avera Institute for Human Genetics. The Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics cohort is funded by NIH Grant RC2DA029475, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD. The Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort is funded by NIH Grants RC2MH089983 and RC2MH089924, an institutional development award to the Center for Applied Genomics from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and a donation from Adele and Daniel Kubert and thanks the NIH data repository. The Raine study was supported by long-term funding from NHMRC Grants 572613, 403981, and 1059711 and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Grant MOP-82893. Funding was also provided by the University of Western Australia, Curtin University, the Women and Infants Research Foundation, the Telethon Kids Institute, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University, the University of Notre Dame Australia, and the Raine Medical Research Foundation. The Raine study analyses were supported by the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. The Saguenay Youth Study is supported by the CIHR, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Quebec, and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. The SLI Consortium was funded by Wellcome Trust Grant 076566 and UK Medical Research Council Grant G1000569. The Twins Early Development Study is supported by UK Medical Research Council Grants MR/V012878/1 and MR/M021475/1, NIH Grant AG046938, and the EU FP7 grant FP7/2007-2013/: 602768. Toronto was supported by CIHR Grant MOP-133440. UK Dyslexia was supported by Wellcome Trust Grants 076566/Z/05/Z and 075491/Z/04, Waterloo Foundation Grant 797–1720, EU Grant 018696, and Royal Society Grant UF100463. The York cohort was funded by Wellcome Trust Grant 082036/B/07/Z. We acknowledge iPSYCH for sharing their summary statistics. The iPSYCH team was supported by Lundbeck Foundation Grants R102-A9118, R155-2014-1724, and R248-2017-2003; NIMH Grant 1U01MH109514-01; and the Universities and University Hospitals of Aarhus and Copenhagen. The Danish National Biobank resource was supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. High-performance computer capacity was provided by the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine and the Centre for Integrative Sequencing, Aarhus University, Denmark.

The classical twin model can be reparametrized as an equivalent multilevel model. The multilevel parameterization has underexplored advantages, such as the possibility to include higher-level clustering variables in which lower levels are nested. When this higher-level clustering is not modeled, its variance is captured by the common environmental variance component. In this paper we illustrate the application of a 3-level multilevel model to twin data by analyzing the regional clustering of 7-year-old children’s height in the Netherlands. Our findings show that 1.8%, of the phenotypic variance in children’s height is attributable to regional clustering, which is 7% of the variance explained by between-family or common environmental components. Since regional clustering may represent ancestry, we also investigate the effect of region after correcting for genetic principal components, in a subsample of participants with genome-wide SNP data. After correction, region did no longer explain variation in height. Our results suggest that the phenotypic variance explained by region actually represent ancestry effects on height.

Funder: European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Funder: Jacobs Foundation; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003986, As the field of educational neuroscience continues to grow, questions have emerged regarding the ecological validity and applicability of this research to educational practice. Recent advances in mobile neuroimaging technologies have made it possible to conduct neuroscientific studies directly in naturalistic learning environments. We propose that embedding mobile neuroimaging research in a cycle (Matusz, Dikker, Huth, & Perrodin, 2019), involving lab-based, seminaturalistic, and fully naturalistic experiments, is well suited for addressing educational questions. With this review, we take a cautious approach, by discussing the valuable insights that can be gained from mobile neuroimaging technology, including electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy, as well as the challenges posed by bringing neuroscientific methods into the classroom. Research paradigms used alongside mobile neuroimaging technology vary considerably. To illustrate this point, studies are discussed with increasingly naturalistic designs. We conclude with several ethical considerations that should be taken into account in this unique area of research.

There is abundant evidence suggesting that attention and interpretation biases are powerful precursors of aggression. However, little is known how these biases may interact with one another in the development and maintenance of aggression. Using cognitive bias modification of interpretation (CBM-I), the present study examined whether training more pro-social or hostile intent attributions would affect attention bias, interpretation bias of facial expressions, aggression and mood. University students (17–48 years) were assigned to either a positive training (n = 40), negative training (n = 40), or control training (n = 40). Results showed that the positive training successfully changed measures of intent attributions in a pro-social direction compared to the control training. The negative training changed measures of intent attributions in a hostile direction but not more so than the control training. We found no generalization of the training effects to relevant other outcomes. Possible explanations underlying these findings are discussed.

Little is known about the genetic architecture of traits affecting educational attainment other than cognitive ability. We used Genomic Structural Equation Modeling and prior genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of educational attainment (n = 1,131,881) and cognitive test performance (n = 257,841) to estimate SNP associations with educational attainment variation that is independent of cognitive ability.We identified 157 genome-wide significant loci and a polygenic architecture accounting for 57% of genetic variance in educational attainment. Non-cognitive genetics were enriched in the same brain tissues and cell types as cognitive performance but showed different associations with gray-matter brain volumes. Non-cognitive genetics were further distinguished by associations with personality traits, less risky behavior,and increased risk for certain psychiatric disorders.For socioeconomic success and longevity, non-cognitive and cognitive-performance genetics demonstrated similar-magnitude associations. By conducting a GWAS of a phenotype that was not directly measured, we offer a first view of genetic architecture of non-cognitive skills influencing educational success.

Across a wide range of studies, researchers often conclude that the home environment and children’s outcomes are causally linked. In contrast, behavioral genetic studies show that parents influence their children by providing them with both environment and genes, meaning the environment that parents provide should not be considered in the absence of genetic influences, because that can lead to erroneous conclusions on causation. This article seeks to provide behavioral scientists with a synopsis of numerous methods to estimate the direct effect of the environment, controlling for the potential of genetic confounding. Ideally, using genetically sensitive designs can fully disentangle this genetic confound, but these require specialized samples. In the near future, researchers will likely have access to measured DNA variants (summarized in a polygenic scores), which could serve as a partial genetic control, but that is currently not an option that is ideal or widely available. We also propose a work around for when genetically sensitive data are not readily available: the Familial Control Method. In this method, one measures the same trait in the parents as the child, and the parents’ trait is then used as a covariate (e.g., a genetic proxy). When these options are all not possible, we plead with our colleagues to clearly mention genetic confound as a limitation, and to be cautious with any environmental causal statements which could lead to unnecessary parent blaming.

Background: Autistic individuals’ enrollment in universities is increasing, but we know little about their study progress over time. Many of them have poor degree completion in comparison to students with other disabilities. However, longitudinal studies on study progression over time of autistic students (AS) in comparison to their peers are absent. It is essential to study AS outcomes during the first year, controlling against the results of students without disabilities. Methods: This preregistered population study examined first-year progression and retention within the same area of study of autistic bachelor students (n = 96; age M = 20.0 years, 95% confidence interval [CI] 18.0–21.0) in comparison to students without disabilities (n = 25,001; age M = 19.0 years, 95% CI 18.0–20.0), enrolled in the same area of study at a major Dutch university. To control for substantial differences in sample sizes and differences in demographics or prior education, we applied propensity score weighting to balance outcomes. We analyzed progression and retention, examining the average grades, the number of examinations, resits, no shows, the credit accumulation in each period, and the average retention after the first year.Results: Over the course of the first bachelor year, AS received grades similar to students with no disabilities. We found no statistical differences in the number of examinations, resits, and no shows. Credit accumulation was generally similar during the academic year except for one of seven periods, and retention within the same area of study revealed no differences.Conclusions: This study shows that AS have similar success rates compared with students with no disabilities but could benefit from additional support on test-taking. Improved insights can enable universities to develop appro- priate and timely support for often-talented students, improve first-year retention, and advance degree completion.

Background Individual differences in educational attainment (EA) and physical health, as indexed by body mass index (BMI), are correlated within persons and across generations. The present aim was to assess these associations while controlling for parental transmission. Methods We analyzed BMI and EA obtained for 8,866 families from the Netherlands. Data were available for 19,132 persons, including 6,901 parents (mean age 54) and 12,234 of their adult offspring (mean age 32). We employed structural equation modeling to simultaneously model the direct and indirect transmission of BMI and EA from parents to offspring, spousal correlations, and the residual within-person BMI-EA association and tested for gender differences in the transmission parameters. Results We found moderate intergeneration transmission for BMI (standardized beta ~ .20) and EA (~ .22), and substantial spousal correlations for BMI (.23) and EA (.51). Cross-trait parent to offspring transmission was weak. The strength of transmission was largely independent of parent or offspring gender. Negative within person EA-BMI correlations were observed for all family members (fathers, -0.102; mothers, -0.147; sons, -0.154; daughters, -0.173). About 60% of the EA-BMI correlation in offspring persisted after taking into account the intergeneration transmission. Conclusions The intergenerational transmission for BMI and EA is mainly predictive within traits. Significant spousal and within person correlations in the parental generation are responsible for the effect of parental EA on offspring BMI. Offspring EA and BMI are further correlated beyond parental influences.

Interdisciplinarity has recently been lavished with considerable hype in academia. A large proportion of calls for funding, new shiny projects and educational endeavours mention the concept. In Amsterdam, many research and education initiatives – academic and non-academic alike – seem to incorporate interdisciplinarity in some way. But what is interdisciplinarity? What is it good for? And how can a researcher best conduct interdisciplinary research? Very little hands-on guidance is currently available, particularly for those who are just starting out with interdisciplinary research or teaching. The Amsterdam Young Academy (AYA), founded by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, is an independent platform where talented researchers from different disciplines meet to develop views on research and science policy. Within AYA’s Interdisciplinarity Working Group, we aim to advance interdisciplinary research and teaching in Amsterdam, to provide a community particularly for early career interdisciplinary research and to learn from one another. In many of our discussions we noted the lack of guidance and of the sharing of best practices within the different interdisciplinary communities across Amsterdam’s academic institutions. Through our interdisciplinary lunch events, we learned that many researchers want to team up with colleagues working in other fields but often do not know where to start. Obviously, discipline-specific information is widely available for each institute and department. But cross-domain and cross-institute initiatives and opportunities are difficult to discover via Google without knowing what exactly to enter in the search box. Moreover, every interdisciplinary collaboration is different, so it is impossible to create a canonical guide to interdisciplinarity. However, academics working interdisciplinarily can share similar attitudes and interests, and they do stumble upon similar organizational and infrastructural hiccups. That is why we interviewed 20 people with various backgrounds, roles and experiences on the topic of interdisciplinarity. You will find the biographies of these players in the interdisciplinary field listed in the concluding section of this guide. Discussing our various insights, we discovered common threads in our interviewees’ interdisciplinary practices. We grouped these threads into our five main themes here: goal, person, community, education, and system. By sharing the diverse insights of these interviewees as well as our own, we hope to inspire those interested in (beginning) interdisciplinary research and teaching.

Important adolescents’ career-related decisions might be influenced by their beliefs about malleability of intelligence and learning (mindset). We combined quantitative and qualitative data to provide in-depth insights in the beliefs that 13- and 14-year olds hold about learning and intelligence, the factors influencing these beliefs, and the consequences of these beliefs in relation to classroom behavior and study choices. To establish students’ mindsets quantitatively, we categorized theory of intelligence (TOI) questionnaire averaged scores into three levels: entity, intermediate, or incremental mindsets, to provide insight into the distribution of the different mindset types in our sample ( N = 492). The results of this quantitative study show that more than half of the students believed intelligence is “fixed” (entity mindset), these data showed no effect of gender. To gain more in-depth insight in the views of these students, focus groups about mindset and its influences and consequences were held in a subsample ( n = 176). The qualitative data provide more nuanced insights, for example, they reveal subtle gender differences regarding effort beliefs and motivation. Integrated discussion of the quantitative and qualitative results demonstrates that this multimethod approach reflects the complexity of the concept mindset better than only the widely used TOI questionnaire.

The policing of boundaries of acceptable sexual identities and behaviour is a recurring theme in numerous marginalities. Gender (especially womanhood) is often instantiated socially through the harms to which members of that gender are subjected. For transgender people, the assumption that genitals define gender translates the ubiquitous misapprehension that genitals and sex are binary into an assumption that gender must also be binary. This circumscribes the potentiality of cultural intelligibility for trans gender identities, and may interfere with the ability of transgender people to select the most appropriate medical and social means of expressing their authentic identities, even altering what is possible or appropriate, thereby curtailing trans people’s authenticity and freedom. We therefore distinguish social from bodily aspects of gender dysphoria, proposing a model of their distinct, intersecting origins. We explore ways in which transgender medicine reflects aspects of other gendered surgeries, proposing a biopsychosocial understanding of embodiment, including influences of culture on the neurological representation of the body in the somatosensory cortex. This framework proposes that cultural cissexism1, causes trans people to experience (neuro)physiological damage, creating or exacerbating the need for medical transition within a framework of individual autonomy. Our social-constructionist feminist neuroscientific account of gendered embodiment highlights the medical necessity of bodily autonomy for trans people seeking surgery or other biomedical interventions, and the ethical burden therein. Keywords: Cultural Neuroscience, Somatosensation, Feminism, Neuroplasticity, Surgery ------ Bibliography: Walsh, Reubs/Einstein, Gillian: Transgender embodiment: a feminist, situated neuroscience perspective., INSEP – Journal of the International Network for Sexual Ethics & Politics, Vol. 8, Special Issue 2020, pp. 56-70. https://doi.org/10.3224/insep.si2020.04

Addressing aggression in youth requires understanding of the range of social problem situations that may lead to biased social information processing (SIP). The present study investigated situation-specificity of SIP and analyzed whether SIP deficits and biases are found in ambiguous as well as clearly accidental situations in adolescents with clinical levels of externalizing behavior or with low intellectual level, congruent with mild intellectual disability. Adolescents (N = 220, Mage = 15.21) completed a SIP test on a mobile app with six videos with ambiguous, hostile, and accidental social problems. Caretakers, teachers, and adolescents themselves reported on youth externalizing behavior problems. In accidental situations specifically, adolescents with low IQ scores more often attributed purposeful intent to perpetrators than peers with borderline or average IQ scores. In accidental situations, adolescents with clinical levels of externalizing behavior generated and selected more aggressive responses than nonclinical adolescents, regardless of their cognitive level. In line with previous literature, the ambiguous situations also brought out SIP differences between IQ groups. These results suggest that not only ambiguous situations should be considered informative for understanding SIP biases, but situations in which adolescents are clearly accidentally disadvantaged bring out SIP biases as well, that may lead to conflicts with others.

It remains a challenge to determine whether children resemble their parents due to nature, nurture, or a mixture of both. Here we used a design that exploits the distinction between transmitted and non-transmitted alleles in genetic transmission from parent to offspring. Two separate polygenic scores (PGS) were calculated on the basis of the transmitted and non-transmitted alleles. The effect of the non-transmitted PGS is necessarily mediated by parental phenotypes, insofar as they contribute to the rearing environment of the offspring (genetic nurturing). We calculated transmitted and non-transmitted PGSs associated with adult educational attainment (EA) and PGSs associated with childhood ADHD in a general population sample of trios, i.e. child or adult offspring and their parents (N = 1120-2518). We tested if the EA and ADHD (non-)transmitted PGSs were associated with childhood academic achievement and ADHD in offspring. Based on the earlier findings for shared environment, we hypothesized to find genetic nurturing for academic achievement, but not for ADHD. In adults, both transmitted (R2 = 7.6%) and non-transmitted (R2 = 1.7%) EA PGSs were associated with offspring EA, evidencing genetic nurturing. In children around age 12, academic achievement was associated with the transmitted EA PGSs (R2 = 5.7%), but we found no support for genetic nurturing (R2 ~ 0.1%). The ADHD PGSs were not significantly associated with academic achievement (R2 ~ 0.6%). ADHD symptoms in children were only associated with transmitted EA PGSs and ADHD PGSs (R2 = 1-2%). Based on these results, we conclude that the associations between parent characteristics and offspring outcomes in childhood are mainly to be attributable to the effects of genes that are shared by parents and children.