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1. Adolescent Technology, Sleep, and Physical Activity Time in Two U.S. Cohorts

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X19868365  

   Fomby, Paula; Goode, Joshua_A; Truong-Vu, Kim-Phuong; Mollborn, Stefanie (August 2019, Youth & Society)

   The advent of Internet-enabled mobile digital devices has transformed U.S. adolescent technology use over the last decade, yet little is known about how these changes map onto other health-related behaviors. We provide a national profile of how contemporary technology use fits into adolescents’ daily health lifestyles compared with the previous generation, with particular attention to whether and for whom technology use displaces time spent in sleep or physical activity. Time diaries were collected from 11- to 17-year-olds in 2002-2003 ( N = 1,139) and 2014-2016 ( N = 527) through the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement. Contemporary adolescents spent 40 minutes more per week in technology-focused activities, but their composition was more varied compared with the earlier cohort. Contemporary technology use was predictive of less time in physical activity, and adolescents who engaged in frequent video game play spent less time in physical activity compared with peers with other technology use profiles. 

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2. Sensory processing challenges as a novel link between early caregiving experiences and mental health

   https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579422000633  

   Méndez Leal, Adriana S.; Alba, Laura A.; Cummings, Kaitlin K.; Jung, Jiwon; Waizman, Yael H.; Guassi Moreira, João F.; Saragosa-Harris, Natalie M.; Ninova, Emilia; Waterman, Jill M.; Langley, Audra K.; et al (January 2022, Development and Psychopathology)

   Abstract Early caregiving adversity (ECA) is associated with elevated psychological symptomatology. While neurobehavioral ECA research has focused on socioemotional and cognitive development, ECA may also increase risk for “low-level” sensory processing challenges. However, no prior work has compared how diverse ECA exposures differentially relate to sensory processing, or, critically, how this might influence psychological outcomes. We examined sensory processing challenges in 183 8-17-year-old youth with and without histories of institutional (orphanage) or foster caregiving, with a particular focus on sensory over-responsivity (SOR), a pattern of intensified responses to sensory stimuli that may negatively impact mental health. We further tested whether sensory processing challenges are linked to elevated internalizing and externalizing symptoms common in ECA-exposed youth. Relative to nonadopted comparison youth, both groups of ECA-exposed youth had elevated sensory processing challenges, including SOR, and also had heightened internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Additionally, we found significant indirect effects of ECA on internalizing and externalizing symptoms through both general sensory processing challenges and SOR, covarying for age and sex assigned at birth. These findings suggest multiple forms of ECA confer risk for sensory processing challenges that may contribute to mental health outcomes, and motivate continuing examination of these symptoms, with possible long-term implications for screening and treatment following ECA. 

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3. Neural correlates of social withdrawal and preference for solitude in adolescence

   https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf260  

   Risner, Matthew; Stamoulis, Catherine (October 2025, Cerebral Cortex)

   Abstract Social isolation during development, especially in adolescence, has detrimental but incompletely understood effects on the brain. This study investigated the neural correlates of preference for solitude and social withdrawal in a sample of 2809 youth [median (IQR) age = 12.0 (1.1) years, 1440 (51.26%) females] from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study. Older youth whose parents had mental health issues more frequently preferred solitude and/or were socially withdrawn (β = 0.04 to 0.14, CI = [0.002, 0.19], P < 0.05), both of which were associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors, depression, and anxiety (β = 0.25 to 0.45, CI = [0.20, 0.49], P < 0.05). Youth who preferred solitude and/or were socially withdrawn had lower cortical thickness in regions involved in social function (cuneus, insula, anterior cingulate, and superior temporal gyri) and/or mental health (β = −0.09 to −0.02, CI = [−0.14, −0.003], P < 0.05), and higher amygdala, entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus, and basal ganglia volume (β = 2.62 to 668.10, CI = [0.13, 668.10], P < 0.05). Youth who often preferred solitude had more topologically segregated dorsal attention, temporoparietal, and social networks (β = 0.07 to 0.10, CI = [0.02, 0.14], P ≤ 0.03). Socially withdrawn youth had a less topologically robust and efficient (β = −0.05 to −0.80, CI = [−1.34,−0.01], P < 0.03) and more fragile cerebellum (β = 0.04, CI = [0.01, 0.07], P < 0.05). These findings suggest that social isolation in adolescence may be a risk factor for widespread alterations in brain regions supporting social function and mental health. 

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4. Effects of multidomain environmental and mental health factors on the development of empathetic behaviors and emotions in adolescence

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293473  

   Smith, Calli; Stamoulis, Catherine (November 2023, PLOS ONE)

   Daher-Nashif, Suhad (Ed.)

   Empathy is at the core of our social world, yet multidomain factors that affect its development in socially sensitive periods, such as adolescence, are incompletely understood. To address this gap, this study investigated associations between social, environmental and mental health factors, and their temporal changes, on adolescent empathetic behaviors/emotions and, for comparison, callous unemotional (CU) traits and behaviors, in the early longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development sample (baseline: n = 11062; 2-year follow-up: n = 9832, median age = 119 and 144 months, respectively). Caregiver affection towards the youth, liking school, having a close friend, and importance of religious beliefs/spirituality in the youth’s life were consistently positively correlated with empathetic behaviors/emotions across assessments (p<0.001, Cohen’s f = ~0.10). Positive family dynamics and cohesion, living in a neighborhood that shared the family’s values, but also parent history of substance use and (aggregated) internalizing problems were additionally positively associated with one or more empathetic behaviors at follow-up (p<0.001, f = ~0.10). In contrast, externalizing problems, anxiety, depression, fear of social situations, and being withdrawn were negatively associated with empathetic behaviors and positively associated with CU traits and behaviors (p<0.001, f = ~0.1–0.44). The latter were also correlated with being cyberbullied and/or discriminated against, anhedonia, and impulsivity, and their interactions with externalizing and internalizing issues. Significant positive temporal correlations of behaviors at the two assessments indicated positive (early) developmental empathetic behavior trajectories, and negative CU traits’ trajectories. Negative changes in mental health adversely moderated positive trajectories and facilitated negative ones. These findings highlight that adolescent empathetic behaviors/emotions are positively related to multidomain protective social environmental factors, but simultaneously adversely associated with risk factors in the same domains, as well as bully victimization, discrimination, and mental health problems. Risk factors instead facilitate the development of CU traits and behaviors. 

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5. The Impact of Telemedicine on Physicians’ After-hours Electronic Health Record “Work Outside Work” During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Retrospective Cohort Study

   https://doi.org/10.2196/34826  

   Lawrence, Katharine; Nov, Oded; Mann, Devin; Mandal, Soumik; Iturrate, Eduardo; Wiesenfeld, Batia (January 2022, JMIR Medical Informatics)

   Background Telemedicine as a mode of health care work has grown dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of this transition on clinicians’ after-hours electronic health record (EHR)–based clinical and administrative work is unclear. Objective This study assesses the impact of the transition to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic on physicians’ EHR-based after-hours workload (ie, “work outside work”) at a large academic medical center in New York City. Methods We conducted an EHR-based retrospective cohort study of ambulatory care physicians providing telemedicine services before the pandemic, during the acute pandemic, and after the acute pandemic, relating EHR-based after-hours work to telemedicine intensity (ie, percentage of care provided via telemedicine) and clinical load (ie, patient load per provider). Results A total of 2129 physicians were included in this study. During the acute pandemic, the volume of care provided via telemedicine significantly increased for all physicians, whereas patient volume decreased. When normalized by clinical load (ie, average appointments per day by average clinical days per week), telemedicine intensity was positively associated with work outside work across time periods. This association was strongest after the acute pandemic. Conclusions Taking physicians’ clinical load into account, physicians who devoted a higher proportion of their clinical time to telemedicine throughout various stages of the pandemic engaged in higher levels of EHR-based after-hours work compared to those who used telemedicine less intensively. This suggests that telemedicine, as currently delivered, may be less efficient than in-person–based care and may increase the after-hours work burden of physicians. 

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