Chronic Childhood Peer Rejection is Associated with Heightened Neural Responses to Social Exclusion During Adolescence

Chronic Childhood Peer Rejection is Associated with Heightened Neural Responses to Social Exclusion During Adolescence Geert-Jan Will 0 1 Pol A. C. van Lier 0 1 Eveline A. Crone 0 1 Berna Grolu 0 1 0 P. A. C. van Lier Department of Developmental Psychology, VU University , Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam , The Netherlands 1 E. A. Crone Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam , Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA Amsterdam , The Netherlands This functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study examined subjective and neural responses to social exclusion in adolescents (age 12-15) who either had a stable accepted (n=27; 14 males) or a chronic rejected (n=19; 12 males) status among peers from age 6 to 12. Both groups of adolescents reported similar increases in distress after being excluded in a virtual ball-tossing game (Cyberball), but adolescents with a history of chronic peer rejection showed higher activity in brain regions previously linked to the detection of, and the distress caused by, social exclusion. Specifically, compared with stably accepted adolescents, chronically rejected adolescents displayed: 1) higher activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during social exclusion and 2) higher activity in the dACC and anterior prefrontal cortex when they were incidentally excluded in a social interaction in which they were overall included. These findings demonstrate that chronic childhood peer rejection is associated with heightened neural responses to social exclusion during adolescence, which has implications for understanding the processes through which peer rejection may lead to adverse effects on mental health over time. Anterior cingulate cortex; Cyberball; fMRI; Ostracism; Peer relations; Peer status - Children and adolescents who are rejected by peers suffer from widespread impairments in mental health that can persist across development (Ladd 2006; Ladd and Troop-Gordon 2003; Prinstein and Aikins 2004). A potential mechanism through which a rejected status among peers leads to mental health problems is a heightened emotional and neural reactivity to negative treatment that accompanies a rejected status (e.g., being ignored, harassed, excluded). For example, boys with a rejected status who are more distressed by a rejection experience have more externalizing behavioral problems than boys with a rejected status who show lower levels of reactive distress (Sandstrom et al. 2003). Similarly, adolescents who display enhanced neural responses to social exclusion are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms 1 year later (Masten et al. 2011). Given that childrens social experiences in peer groups play a crucial role in shaping their perceptions and expectations about future social interactions (Crick and Dodge 1994; Ladd et al. 2014; London et al. 2007), sustained exposure to either high or low levels of peer group rejection is likely to have an impact on how adolescents respond to negative peer treatment, such as social exclusion. Therefore, we examined subjective and neural responses to social exclusion in adolescents who either had a stable accepted or a chronic rejected status among their classmates across six elementary school grades. Adverse adjustment outcomes resulting from peer group rejection have been well documented. Peer group rejection has proven to be reliably assessed by asking children to nominate the classmates they like and dislike (Asher and Coie 1990; Bukowski et al. 2000; Jiang and Cillessen 2005; Parker and Asher 1987). Children who receive many negative (dislike) nominations and who receive few positive (like) nominations are classified as having a rejected status (Asher and Dodge 1986; Bukowski et al. 2000). A rejected status has been found to be highly stable across time and across different social contexts (Coie and Kupersmidt 1983; Hardy et al. 2002; Jiang and Cillessen 2005). Moreover, a chronic rejected status has been prospectively linked to an array of impairments in daily life, ranging from poor academic achievement (DeRosier et al. 1994) to an increased incidence of both internalizing (Ladd and Troop-Gordon 2003) and externalizing behavior problems (Sturaro et al. 2011). Transactional models of peer rejection posit that such impairments in daily life arise from a sustained pattern of reciprocal interactions between peers expressing their dislike and the way a rejected child responds to being disliked (Coie 1990). For example, repeated exposure to rejection experiences (e.g., social exclusion) may elicit negative emotions (e.g., anger at exclusion) resulting in aggressive reactions, which in turn could trigger repeated instances of exclusion by the peer group ultimately giving rise to externalizing problems (Coie 2004; Dodge et al. 2003). Internalizing problems have been hypothesized to arise from a similar developmental cascade in which repeated exposure to rejection experiences may amplify negative emotions (e.g., sadness, distress), which in turn heighten anxiety, lead to withdrawal or bolster psychological processes that underlie the development of internalizing disorders (e.g., low self-esteem, lower levels of trust in others) (Ladd et al. 2014; TroopGordon and Ladd 2005). As such, a rejected status could be maintained across development through a heightened emotional or neural reactivity to negative treatment such as social exclusion. Understanding the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of a rejected status can aid in understanding why some children are able to deal with episodes of peer rejection without much difficulty whereas others become trapped in a pattern of sustained rejection and associated impairments in daily life (Sandstrom 2004; Sandstrom and Coie 1999). Social Exclusion: Distress and Neural Correlates Social exclusion is highly distressing and immediately threatens fundamental human needs, such as our need to belong, our need for control over our (social) environment and our needs for self-esteem and a meaningful existence (Baumeister and Leary 1995; Williams 2007). Relationships with peers are vital to satisfying these needs across the lifespan (Ladd 1999; Rubin et al. 2006) and therefore we hypothesized that childhood peer acceptance and rejection have an impact on the extent to which these needs are threatened by social exclusion in adolescence. An experimental design which has proven to be a reliable paradigm to elicit exclusion-related distress is a virtual ball-tossing game called Cyberball (Williams et al. 2000). After being ostensibly excluded by two peers in Cyberball, children, adolescents and adults consistently report heightened levels of distress in the form of higher levels of negative mood (e.g., sadness and anger) and a decreased satisfaction of the need to belong, the need for control, self-esteem, and the need for a meaningful existence (Abrams et al. 2011; Gunther Moor et al. 2012; van Beest and Williams 2006). Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (f (...truncated)