Windows of vulnerability: Sensitive periods for social adversity in adolescence
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Psychology
Abstract
A large body of research has shown that adverse experiences during early childhood can affect children's development and have a lasting impact on their mental and cognitive health. This evidence suggests that the first few years of life form a window of vulnerability, or sensitive period, for adversity. This research has contributed to effective policy interventions designed to protect young children from adversity and improve their well-being. Inadvertently, the focus on early childhood has also led to a neglect of another formative period of our lives - adolescence.
Adolescence is characterized by protracted changes in brain structure and cognition. At the same time, young people experience profound changes in social roles. They become increasingly independent from their parents, and more focussed on peers. Emerging theories of adolescent development suggest that these social, cognitive and neural changes in adolescence may give rise to a second sensitive period after early childhood - particularly for adverse social experiences such as being bullied or excluded.
We are now at a unique point in time where recent advances in statistical methodology, combined with emerging data following large cohorts of young people over time, allow us to test these theories systematically. This provides unprecedented opportunities to foster well-being in young people by informing adversity prevention, detection and intervention efforts.
The three main objectives of our research are:
1. Identifying different types of social adversity
To capture the multifaceted nature of social adversity, we have established a partnership with the Children's Charity Barnardo's. We will be able to use their data on social, educational and mental health practitioners' views of what types of social adversity matter most to young people. Guided by these insights, we will analyse data from large UK cohorts to understand how different types of social adversity affect mental health and cognition in young people. We will feed our insights back to practitioners to help guide their practice and support young people who experience social adversity.
2. Characterizing windows of vulnerability in adolescence
Leveraging data from large UK cohorts, we will analyse how social adversity affects children, young people and adults. This will help us understand at what point in life what type of adversity affects us most. It will also tell us whether there are sensitive or vulnerable periods in adolescence. This work will help inform policy, charity and government work, by highlighting at what point in life prevention and intervention efforts may be most important.
3. Investigating developmental sequences
For this objective we will analyse data on young people's experience of adversity, as well as information on their cognitive and brain development. This will allow us to understand the sequence of developmental events leading from adversity to cognitive changes. This will generate new theories about sensitive periods in adolescence and inspire future research into adversity.
Our work will lead to a new understanding of vulnerabilities in young people. It will pinpoint what types of social adversity need to be targeted, and at which point in life, in order to ameliorate cognitive and mental health problems later on.
To ensure that our findings reach young people and those caring for them, we will write an accessible policy brief in partnership with Barnardo's, and host a collaborative workshop for practitioners, policy makers and charities. In this workshop, we will discuss our findings and seek input from stakeholders on how our findings synergize with policy and practice. We will then take our findings to the public through online, print and social media, as well as presenting our work in schools. All of this ensures that our work has a lasting and positive impact on young people's well-being.
Adolescence is characterized by protracted changes in brain structure and cognition. At the same time, young people experience profound changes in social roles. They become increasingly independent from their parents, and more focussed on peers. Emerging theories of adolescent development suggest that these social, cognitive and neural changes in adolescence may give rise to a second sensitive period after early childhood - particularly for adverse social experiences such as being bullied or excluded.
We are now at a unique point in time where recent advances in statistical methodology, combined with emerging data following large cohorts of young people over time, allow us to test these theories systematically. This provides unprecedented opportunities to foster well-being in young people by informing adversity prevention, detection and intervention efforts.
The three main objectives of our research are:
1. Identifying different types of social adversity
To capture the multifaceted nature of social adversity, we have established a partnership with the Children's Charity Barnardo's. We will be able to use their data on social, educational and mental health practitioners' views of what types of social adversity matter most to young people. Guided by these insights, we will analyse data from large UK cohorts to understand how different types of social adversity affect mental health and cognition in young people. We will feed our insights back to practitioners to help guide their practice and support young people who experience social adversity.
2. Characterizing windows of vulnerability in adolescence
Leveraging data from large UK cohorts, we will analyse how social adversity affects children, young people and adults. This will help us understand at what point in life what type of adversity affects us most. It will also tell us whether there are sensitive or vulnerable periods in adolescence. This work will help inform policy, charity and government work, by highlighting at what point in life prevention and intervention efforts may be most important.
3. Investigating developmental sequences
For this objective we will analyse data on young people's experience of adversity, as well as information on their cognitive and brain development. This will allow us to understand the sequence of developmental events leading from adversity to cognitive changes. This will generate new theories about sensitive periods in adolescence and inspire future research into adversity.
Our work will lead to a new understanding of vulnerabilities in young people. It will pinpoint what types of social adversity need to be targeted, and at which point in life, in order to ameliorate cognitive and mental health problems later on.
To ensure that our findings reach young people and those caring for them, we will write an accessible policy brief in partnership with Barnardo's, and host a collaborative workshop for practitioners, policy makers and charities. In this workshop, we will discuss our findings and seek input from stakeholders on how our findings synergize with policy and practice. We will then take our findings to the public through online, print and social media, as well as presenting our work in schools. All of this ensures that our work has a lasting and positive impact on young people's well-being.
Planned Impact
We propose to investigate vulnerabilities to social adversity in adolescence through a unique combination of user-guided qualitative research, and cutting-edge quantitative analyses using data from large cohorts of young people. The proposed research has implications that will influence a number of groups in wider society. Below we highlight the most relevant stakeholders and detail how they might benefit from this research. Please see the Pathways to Impact statement for a detailed discussion of how we propose to optimize user involvement and benefit to the wider society.
Young people
Most research on adversity to-date has focussed on young children. This research has contributed to improvements in wellbeing of children[15,17]. It has also inadvertently left later periods of development comparatively neglected[15,16]. Most of us have an intuitive sense that the teenage years were a formative period of our lives, during which social influences and adversity had a big impact on us. However, there is little formal research investigating how social adversity impacts young people. Our research will highlight the fact that society needs to engage with the difficulties and vulnerabilities young people face. This will be achieved through engaging practitioners and policy makers (see below). We will also take the science of adversity directly into schools and highlight sources of support to young people.
Educational, clinical and social practitioners
Through our partnership with Barnardo's, we will access data on practitioners' views of what types of adversity matter most. This data is not currently used systematically. We will analyse the surveys and feed our results back to Barnardo's through an accessible policy brief describing what types of adversity matter most, according to practitioners. The policy brief will also highlight how adversity relates to mental health and cognitive outcomes in UK cohorts and what types of adversity co-occur. In collaboration with Barnardo's we will identify and communicate how this evidence can be used to guide day-to-day practice.
Policy-makers and government
UNICEF and the Lancet commission "Our Future" (2016) argued that "Although evidence is building in some domains of adolescent's lives, greater understanding of the transition to adulthood and how different underlying factors interact is needed in order to inform the basis for effective programming and policy."[15]. To develop effective and evidence-based policies and interventions for social adversity in adolescence, we first need to determine A) What type of adversity impacts young people most and B) At what point in life these adversities have the largest impact. The proposed research will achieve this through a combination of participatory research and rigorous, quantitative analyses of large, representative cohorts. Findings will be shared with relevant stakeholders in a workshop so as to provide opportunities for dissemination and interactive discussion.
Young people
Most research on adversity to-date has focussed on young children. This research has contributed to improvements in wellbeing of children[15,17]. It has also inadvertently left later periods of development comparatively neglected[15,16]. Most of us have an intuitive sense that the teenage years were a formative period of our lives, during which social influences and adversity had a big impact on us. However, there is little formal research investigating how social adversity impacts young people. Our research will highlight the fact that society needs to engage with the difficulties and vulnerabilities young people face. This will be achieved through engaging practitioners and policy makers (see below). We will also take the science of adversity directly into schools and highlight sources of support to young people.
Educational, clinical and social practitioners
Through our partnership with Barnardo's, we will access data on practitioners' views of what types of adversity matter most. This data is not currently used systematically. We will analyse the surveys and feed our results back to Barnardo's through an accessible policy brief describing what types of adversity matter most, according to practitioners. The policy brief will also highlight how adversity relates to mental health and cognitive outcomes in UK cohorts and what types of adversity co-occur. In collaboration with Barnardo's we will identify and communicate how this evidence can be used to guide day-to-day practice.
Policy-makers and government
UNICEF and the Lancet commission "Our Future" (2016) argued that "Although evidence is building in some domains of adolescent's lives, greater understanding of the transition to adulthood and how different underlying factors interact is needed in order to inform the basis for effective programming and policy."[15]. To develop effective and evidence-based policies and interventions for social adversity in adolescence, we first need to determine A) What type of adversity impacts young people most and B) At what point in life these adversities have the largest impact. The proposed research will achieve this through a combination of participatory research and rigorous, quantitative analyses of large, representative cohorts. Findings will be shared with relevant stakeholders in a workshop so as to provide opportunities for dissemination and interactive discussion.
Publications
Kievit RA
(2022)
Using large, publicly available data sets to study adolescent development: opportunities and challenges.
in Current opinion in psychology
Pollmann A
(2022)
Networks of Adversity in Childhood and Adolescence and Their Relationship to Adult Mental Health.
in Research on child and adolescent psychopathology
Description | Significant new knowledge generated & new questions opened up: Previous research has focused mainly on childhood adversity, such as experiences in the family environment. Little consideration had been given to adversities that may be particularly harmful in adolescence. To understand adolescents' adverse experiences (see Objective 1 and Study 1), we have been working on two empirical studies (Pollmann et al., 2022; Kwok, Inman, et al., in prep) and a policy report with our partner Barnardo's (Inman et al., 2023). These projects collectively highlight that family environment still matters in adolescence and is closely linked to mental health in early adulthood. In adolescence, school environments and abuse by a romantic partner are also important. This highlights that a broader set of adversities need to be considered for adolescence, compared to childhood. These findings highlight the need to develop age-dependent frameworks for adversity research and policymaking. New or improved research methods or skills developed: We have been completing methodological work to improve secondary data analysis and to develop new models to study sensitive periods. First, we started a collaboration with the Danish Centre for Magnetic Resonance to develop analysis methods for high-temporal resolution neuroimaging data (see Fuhrmann, Skak Madsen et al., 2022), which we are planning to use for Study 2. We have shown that nonlinear mixed effects models can be used to capture nonlinear trajectories of development and extract key parameters of interest (e.g., age of fastest developmental changes). Second, we have written a review to improve secondary data analysis in Developmental Studies (Kievit et al., 2022), highlighting the opportunities and challenges associated with cohort studies. We also provide an overview of resources and best practices to improve the rigour and transparency in Secondary Data Analysis. |
Exploitation Route | For academics, our work highlights that theories of childhood adversity may be insufficient to account for the complexity of adverse experiences in youth. It lays the groundwork for new theories of youth adversity, highlighting where and how current theories need to be revised and extended. Our methodological works provides code and examples for modelling nonlinear trends in development, as well as guidelines and resources for improving secondary data analysis. |
Sectors | Other |
Description | Capturing loneliness across youth: Co-production of a new developmentally sensitive scale |
Amount | £883,222 (GBP) |
Funding ID | MR/X002381/1 |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 12/2025 |
Description | Developing and Evaluating a Stepped Change Whole-University approach for Student Wellbeing and Mental Health |
Amount | £3,819,281 (GBP) |
Funding ID | MR/W002442/1 |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2021 |
End | 08/2025 |
Description | KCL Wellcome Trust Small Public Engagement Grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | King's College London |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2022 |
End | 04/2022 |
Description | King's Undergraduate Research Fellowship |
Amount | £1,222 (GBP) |
Organisation | King's College London |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 08/2022 |
Description | The time of their lives? Developing Concepts and Methods to Understand Loneliness in Students |
Amount | £843,960 (GBP) |
Funding ID | MR/X002810/1 |
Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2023 |
End | 12/2025 |
Description | Travel grant |
Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Guarantors of Brain |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2022 |
End | 11/2022 |
Title | Adapting non-linear mixed models for cogntive neuroscience research |
Description | For our paper, Fuhrmann, Skak Madsen et al., 2022, NeuroImage, we adapted analysis code, originally developed for pharmacological data, for the analysis of neuroimaging data. |
Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | We presented the methodology at a conference (FLUX, 2022) and are currently using it to model sensitive periods in youth. |
URL | https://osf.io/cw8t2/ |
Description | Policy collaboration with Barnardo's Charity |
Organisation | Barnardo's |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Dr Kathryn Bates led a team of research students to produce a public-facing report and parliamentary briefing for Barnardo's. We analysed qualitative data from Barnardo's quarterly practitioner survey and responses to questions on practitioners' emerging concerns for young people and what they thought the biggest issue young people had to face. We analysed 10 waves of data collected at quarterly intervals between June 2019 to November 2021 to understand what were main issues affecting young people and how had these changes over time. The findings of our report demonstrated that issues spanned structural (e.g., limited housing, government cuts to services), social (e.g., exposure to risk online, family issues) and individual levels (e.g., uncertainty and mental health issues). We also presented a call to action: tangible actions points to be presented to policymakers, such as reinstating community support for families and extending the age of discharge from child and adolescent mental health support services from 18 years old to 25 years old. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Barnardo's research team provided the data for analysis, support for completing the Barnardo's ethics application, as well as feedback on the research findings and written report. Prior to writing the report, we presented the research findings to the research team, policy team and Barnardo's chief officer. They provided discussion and feedback, which we integrated into the write up of the report. Dr Kathryn Bates has worked closely with the policy team who have supported editing the report, writing the parliamentary briefing and liaising with Barnardo's and KCL Press teams. The policy team will manage distribution of the report and parliamentary briefing. |
Impact | Through our collaboration we have produced a public-facing report on practitioners' perspectives of the key issues most affecting young people from June 2019-November 2021: Inman, A., Chen, S., Contini, E., Orben, A., Kievit, R., Kulbayeva, Z., Shah, M., Pollmann, A., Fuhrmann, D., Bates, K. E. (2023), "I am concerned about young people's mental health and that they have less hope for their future.": Practitioners' emerging concerns for young people between June 2019 to November 2021, Barnardo's Children's Charity. https://www.barnardos.org.uk/practitioners-concerns-issues-facing-young-people |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Research collaboration with Danish Centre for Magnetic Resonance |
Organisation | Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) |
Country | Denmark |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | DF and RK initiated this collaboration to develop analysis methods for modelling high temporal resolution longitudinal data, in preparation for Study 2. The study culminated in a publication (Fuhrmann, Skak Madsen et al., 2022, NeuroImage). DF developed and implemented the analysis plan, with feedback from RK. All authors contributed to the writing of the paper. We are currently preparing another project with them, to do further analyses of their data. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our partners provided the longitudinal data necessary for the study and processed the imaging data. They fed back on the analysis and contributed to the write-up of the study. |
Impact | Fuhrmann, D., Skak Madsen, K., Baruël Johansen, L., Baaré, W. F. C., & Kievit, R. A. (2022). The midpoint of cortical thinning between late childhood and early adulthood differs between individuals and brain regions: Evidence from longitudinal modelling in a 12-wave neuroimaging sample. NeuroImage, 261, 119507. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119507 |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Research collaboration with Dunn Lab at Harvard University |
Organisation | Harvard University |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Dr Kathryn Bates (postdoc on current award) and Dr Theresa Cheng (postdoc in the Dunn Lab) organised a scientific meeting with the Dunn Lab. This involved a day of talks and collaborative meetings between members of the Dunn Lab and Dr Delia Fuhrmann's research group: the Development and Environment Research Group (DERG). The Dunn Lab specialise in understanding the impact of adversity on development in childhood, we specialise in understanding the impact of adversity on development in adolescence. We shared insights and expertise on their research findings and future projects, and we presented a research proposal for our next project for feedback. |
Collaborator Contribution | The Dunn Lab specialise in methods to examine sensitive periods of development. We presented our proposal for our project modelling sensitive periods in mental health and the impact of adversity. The Dunn Lab offered expertise on how to model sensitive period of environmental exposure in longitudinal data. Moving forward, we will arrange bi-monthly meetings to discuss research methodology and research findings. The Dunn Lab collaboration will enhance the methodological and theoretical contributions of this project. |
Impact | This project is ongoing and there no outputs as of yet. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | Invited keynote talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | I gave an invited keynote to a broad audience of scientists as well as practitioners in adolescent wellbeing |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://brainanddevelopment.nl/l-cid-congress-lessons-learned-and-future-lookouts/ |
Description | Invited talk at Duke University |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | I gave a talk about ideas and findings from the grant |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |