Effects of peer victimization on physiological markers of threat sensitivity in adolescents

欺凌，或同伴受害，是影响美国500多万青少年的一个特别突出的压力源 每年，不分种族、性别或社会经济地位。在青春期，当担心 融入和获得同伴认可的程度更高，虐待同伴的经历会引发情绪困扰和 对持续骚扰的恐惧。事实上，MPI Schacter和其他人的研究表明，同伴受害是一种 青春期焦虑的独特预期风险因素，并表明慢性受害者为2至3岁 患焦虑症的可能性比没有受害的同龄人高出一倍。此外，鉴于公开的(即， 身体或语言)受害随着儿童年龄的增长而变得不那么频繁，关系受害(即， 对社会关系的损害)仍然很常见，并在 青春期。尽管在关系同伴受害和发展之间存在着强烈和普遍的联系 关于青春期焦虑，人们对其潜在的心理生物学机制知之甚少 支持和维护这样的联系。鉴于与压力相关的生物变化可能先于心理健康 焦虑的问题和目前的治疗是昂贵和密集的，关键是确定可塑性 治疗目标，可以减轻同龄人创伤的情感损失。建议的R21将评估威胁 将敏感性作为预防和治疗同伴受害青少年焦虑的潜在目标。该项目 将第一个研究同伴受害对威胁的生理反应的独特影响 并评估异常威胁敏感度对青少年焦虑的预期影响。在……里面 具体地说，我们预测1)与受害较少的青少年相比，更频繁受害的青少年将 在两个经过验证的任务中对潜在威胁表现出夸张的生理反应；2)增强 生理威胁反应将预测青春期焦虑。MPI Marusak和co-I Jovanovic 在之前和正在进行的研究中，在其他儿科人群中使用了这些方法，并已经 证明威胁偏见(即对潜在威胁的高度唤醒)部分源于童年 逆境，例如成为家庭虐待或忽视的目标。然而，这项拟议的研究将是第一次 研究同伴受害、威胁敏感性的生理标记物和 青少年的焦虑。这一新颖的工作将直接为未来审查威胁的调查提供信息 将敏感度作为一种机制，并将威胁敏感度作为重要的诊断工具提供初步支持 确定受同伴伤害的青少年患焦虑症的风险最大，并可能从认知能力中受益 偏差修正或其他降低威胁敏感度的方法，以及2)为设计和修改 发展敏感的认知行为干预方法。拟议的研究提供了一个 为未来的研究奠定基础，纳入更大的样本和纵向的神经成像措施 研究同伴受害是增加焦虑风险的神经生物学变化的动力。

Bullying, or peer victimization, is a particularly salient stressor that affects over 5 million adolescents in the US every year, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. During adolescence, when concerns with fitting in and gaining peer approval are heightened, experiences of peer abuse can elicit emotional distress and fear of continued harassment. Indeed, work by MPI Schacter and others implicates peer victimization as a unique prospective risk factor for anxiety during adolescence and indicates that chronic victims are two to three times more likely to develop an anxiety disorder than their nonvictimized peers. Moreover, whereas overt (i.e., physical or verbal) victimization becomes less frequent as children get older, relational victimization (i.e., damage to social relationships) remains common and becomes increasingly emotionally taxing during adolescence. Despite the strong and pervasive link between relational peer victimization and the development of anxiety during adolescence, little is known about the underlying psychobiological mechanisms that account for and maintain such associations. Given that stress-related biological alterations can predate mental health problems and current treatments for anxiety are costly and intensive, it is crucial to identify malleable therapeutic targets that can mitigate the emotional toll of peer trauma. The proposed R21 will evaluate threat sensitivity as a potential target for the prevention and treatment of anxiety in peer victimized youth. The project will be the first to examine the unique effects of peer victimization on physiological responses to threat during adolescence and evaluate the prospective effect of aberrant threat sensitivity on adolescent anxiety. In particular, we predict 1) compared to less victimized adolescents, more frequently victimized adolescents will exhibit an exaggerated physiological response to potential threat during two validated tasks; 2) heightened physiological threat responses will prospectively predict adolescent anxiety. MPI Marusak and co-I Jovanovic have used these approaches in other pediatric populations in previous and ongoing studies, and have demonstrated that threat biases (i.e., heightened arousal to potential threat) partially stem from childhood adversities, such as being the target of familial abuse or neglect. However, the proposed study will be the first to examine prospective associations among peer victimization, physiological markers of threat sensitivity, and anxiety in adolescents. This novel line of work will directly inform future investigations examining threat sensitivity as a mechanism and provide initial support for threat sensitivity as an important diagnostic tool to 1) identify peer victimized youth who are at the greatest risk for developing anxiety and may benefit from cognitive bias modification or other threat sensitivity reduction approaches, and 2) inform the design and modification of developmentally sensitive cognitive behavioral intervention approaches. The proposed study provides a foundation for future research incorporating a larger sample and neuroimaging measures to longitudinally examine peer victimization as an impetus for neurobiological changes that increase anxiety risk.