Reward motivations associated with bullying trajectories

欺凌是全世界最常见的青少年虐待形式，与对心理、社会、学术和健康功能产生深远、持久的有害影响有关。欺凌行为的连锁效应每年给美国造成数十亿美元的损失，目前的干预措施只能带来适度的改善。最近针对改变奖励过程的欺凌干预，特别是对相对奖励(例如，以牺牲他人为代价获得的奖励)的偏好显示了希望。然而，欺凌的轨迹如何与改变的奖励过程相关，以及作恶者如何处理相对奖励与绝对奖励(例如，赚到的钱或点数)，目前尚不清楚。解释导致欺负行为的生物行为奖励机制可能会允许设计和实施更多生物信息、经验支持的干预措施，从而更大程度地减少欺凌行为。这个R00独立之路奖的目标是探索欺凌如何与改变的奖励过程相关，特别关注欺凌如何与对绝对奖励和相对奖励的偏好相关。R00奖的主要重点将是通过与参与青少年暴力和虐待服务的学生、当地学校和社区合作伙伴合作，开展可转化为干预方案的欺凌研究。在K99期间，我接受了以下方面的指导：对青少年行为进行分层建模，为青少年设计分析特定机制的功能磁共振任务，并利用研究结果，对具有广泛交叉层面(青少年、家长、学校、机构)的可行干预措施进行认可。K99阐明了欺负行为的特定风险因素的作用，欺负行为与绝对奖赏反应的关系，并包括成功试行行为和神经成像任务，区分绝对奖赏和相对奖赏的偏好和处理。K99的培训和结果现在可以成功完成R00提案，该提案测试了在更大、表型良好的样本中，儿童和青春期的欺凌行为与相对奖赏和绝对奖赏的偏好之间的关系。我将测试欺凌行为是否预示着相对回报与绝对回报的行为偏好和神经反应的增强，同时评估其特异性。研究结果将阐明与欺凌行为相关的奖赏加工变化，检验这些关联相对于其他表型的特异性，并检验相对奖赏偏好作为欺凌行为的解释因素与其他理论风险因素的关系。在R00提案期间收集的数据将澄清欺凌行为背后的奖励机制，并为未来的R01奠定基础，重点是相对奖励偏好的神经发展，不同奖励偏好的稳定性，以及它们对干预的延展性。这项提案解决了对欺凌问题的重要关切，这是NICHD任务的核心，并提供了继续推进申请者的学术生涯和申请未来补助金所需的基础数据。

Bullying is the most common form of youth abuse world-wide and is linked to profound, lasting, deleterious effects to psychological, social, academic and health functioning. The cascading effects of bullying costs the US billions of dollars annually, and current interventions produce only modest improvements. A recent bullying intervention targeting altered reward processes, specifically a preference for relative rewards (e.g. those earned at the expense of others) shows promise. However, how trajectories of bullying relate to altered reward processing, and how perpetrators process relative rewards in comparison to absolute rewards (e.g. money or points earned) is currently unknown. Explicating the biobehavioral reward mechanisms contributing to bully perpetration may allow for the design and implementation of more biologically-informed, empirically-supported interventions that can provide greater reductions in bullying. The goal of this R00 Pathway to Independence Award is to explore how bullying relates to altered reward processes, with a specific focus on how bully perpetration relates to preferences for absolute versus relative rewards. A primary focus of the R00 award will be focused on conducting bullying research translatable to intervention programming, by working with students, local schools, and community partners involved in youth violence and maltreatment services. During the K99, I received mentorship in hierarchical modelling youth behaviors, designing fMRI tasks for youth that assay specific mechanisms, and leveraging findings from research into feasible interventions with broad crosslevel (youth, parent, school, agency) buy-in. The K99 clarified the role of specific risk factors for bully perpetration, how bully perpetration related to absolute reward responses, and included the successful piloting of both a behavioral and neuroimaging task which differentiated the preference and processing of absolute versus relative rewards. The training and results from the K99 now allow for the successful completion of the R00 proposal, which tests how bullying behaviors during childhood and adolescence relate to the preference for relative vs. absolute rewards in a larger, well-phenotyped sample. I will test whether bullying predicts increased behavioral preference and neural response to relative vs. absolute rewards, while assessing for specificity. Results will clarify reward processing alterations related to bullying, examine the specificity of these associations compared to other phenotypes, and examine relative reward preference as an explanatory factor of bullying in relation to other theoretical risk factors. The data collected during the R00 proposal will clarify reward mechanisms underlying bully perpetration and set the stage for a future R01 focused on the neurodevelopment of relative reward preferences, the stability of different reward preferences, and their malleability to intervention. This proposal addresses important concerns about bullying, a mission core to the NICHD mission, and provides foundational data needed to continue advancing the applicant’s academic career and apply for future grants.