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1. Sexual and gender minority ( SGM ) adolescents' disordered eating: Exploring general and SGM‐specific factors

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23727  

   Roberts, Savannah R. ; Maheux, Anne J. ; Watson, Ryan J. ; Puhl, Rebecca M. ; Choukas‐Bradley, Sophia ( May 2022 , International Journal of Eating Disorders)

   Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents disproportionately report disordered eating, yet have primarily been considered under a larger SGM umbrella. The current study 1) compared disordered eating between sexual minority (SM) and gender minority (GM) adolescents; 2) examined how general psychological factors (self‐esteem, depression, and stress) and SGM‐specific factors (e.g., feelings about SGM identity, access to SGM resources) were associated with disordered eating; and 3) examined whether associations between these factors differed for SM versus GM adolescents.

   SGM adolescents in the U.S. (N = 8814; 35.0% GM; 43.7% cisgender girls; 66.9% White;M_age = 15.6) reported their disordered eating, depressive symptoms, stress, self‐esteem, and SGM‐related experiences on an anonymous, cross‐sectional online survey.

   GM adolescents exhibited a higher prevalence of clinical threshold disordered eating than SM adolescents. Self‐esteem was associated with lower odds of caloric restriction, purging, and binge eating. Depression was associated with higher odds of caloric restriction, diet pill use, purging, laxatives, and binge eating. Stress was associated with higher odds of purging. Associations were stronger for GM adolescents' caloric restriction. Positive feelings about SGM identity were associated with lower odds of caloric restriction, purging, and binge eating, whereas greater stress of “coming out” was associated with higher odds of caloric restriction, purging, and binge eating.

   These results suggest that SGM adolescents' disordered eating is associated with both general psychological factors and unique SGM experiences. Results highlight the importance of considering how the unique experiences of SGM youth may leave them vulnerable to disordered eating behaviors.

   Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth are disproportionately affected by disordered eating. The current study found that higher depression and stress, and lower self‐esteem, were associated with SGM adolescents' disordered eating. Furthermore, unique SGM experiences, such as stress about coming out, were also associated with eating pathology. Results highlight the importance of considering SGM adolescents' perceptions of their identity and social support.

    

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2. Family conflict shapes how adolescents take risks when their family is affected

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12611  

   Guassi Moreira, João F. ; Telzer, Eva H. ( October 2017 , Developmental Science)

   Numerous studies have established that the social context greatly affects adolescent risk taking. However, it remains unexplored whether adolescents' decision‐making behaviors change when they take risks that affect other individuals such as a parent. In the current study, we sought to investigate how the social context influences risky decisions when adolescents' behavior affects their family using a formalized risk‐taking model. Sixty‐three early adolescents (M_age= 13.3 years; 51% female) played a risk‐taking task twice, once during which they could make risky choices that only affected themselves and another during which their risky choices only affected their parent. Results showed that adolescents reporting high family conflict made more risky decisions when taking risks for their parent compared to themselves, whereas adolescents reporting low family conflict made fewer risky decisions when taking risks for their parent compared to themselves. These findings are the first to show that adolescents change their decision‐making behaviors when their risks affect their family and have important implications for current theories of adolescent risk taking.

    

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3. Neural connectivity underlying adolescent social learning in sibling dyads

   https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsac025  

   Rogers, Christy R. ; Fry, Cassidy M. ; Lee, Tae-Ho ; Galvan, Michael ; Gates, Kathleen M. ; Telzer, Eva H. ( March 2022 , Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience)

   Social learning theory posits that adolescents learn to adopt social norms by observing the behaviors of others and internalizing the associated outcomes. However, the underlying neural processes by which social learning occurs is less well-understood, despite extensive neurobiological reorganization and a peak in social influence sensitivity during adolescence. Forty-four adolescents (Mage = 12.2 years) completed an fMRI scan while observing their older sibling within four years of age (Mage = 14.3 years) of age complete a risky decision-making task. Group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME) was used to examine patterns of directional brain region connectivity supporting social learning. We identified group-level neural pathways underlying social observation including the anterior insula to the anterior cingulate cortex and mentalizing regions to social cognition regions. We also found neural states based on adolescent sensitivity to social learning via age, gender, modeling, differentiation, and behavior. Adolescents who were more likely to be influenced elicited neurological up-regulation whereas adolescents who were less likely to be socially influenced elicited neurological down-regulation during risk-taking. These findings highlight patterns of how adolescents process information while a salient influencer takes risks, as well as salient neural pathways that are dependent on similarity factors associated with social learning theory.

    

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4. Global adoption of personal and social mitigation behaviors during COVID-19: The role of trust & confidence

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256159  

   Jones, Pauline ; Menon, Anil ; Hicken, Allen ; Rozek, Laura S. ( September 2021 , PLOS ONE)

   Mukherjee, Amitava (Ed.)

   What influences the adoption of SARS-CoV-2 mitigation behaviors–both personal, such as mask wearing and frequent handwashing, and social, such as avoiding large gatherings and physical contact–across countries? Understanding why some individuals are more willing to change their behavior to mitigate the spread of a pandemic will not only help us to address the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic but also to respond to future ones. Researchers have pointed to a variety of factors that may influence individual adoption of personal and social mitigation behaviors, including social inequality, risk perception, personality traits, and government policies. While not denying the importance of these factors, we argue that the role of trust and confidence has received insufficient attention to date. Our study explores whether there is a difference in the way trust and confidence in particular leaders and organizations affect individual compliance and whether this effect is consistent across different types of mitigation behaviors. Specifically, we utilize an original cross-national survey conducted during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (May-June 2020) to investigate how trust in scientists, medical professionals, politicians, and religious leaders and confidence in global, national, and local health organizations affects individual compliance in 16 countries/territories across five world regions. Our analyses, which control for the aforementioned factors as well as several others, suggest that trust in politicians and confidence in national health ministries have the most consistent influence on whether individuals adopt both personal and social mitigation behaviors. Across our sample, we find that greater trust in politicians is associated with lower levels of individual compliance with public health directives, whereas greater confidence in the national health ministry is associated with higher levels of individual compliance. Our findings suggest the need to understand trust and confidence as among the most important individual level characteristics driving compliance when developing and delivering messaging about the adoption of mitigation behaviors. The content of the message, it seems, will be most effective when citizens across countries trust its source. Trusted sources, such as politicians and the national health ministry, should thus consider working closely together when determining and communicating recommended health behaviors to avoid contradicting one another.

    

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5. Associations between household income and disordered eating differ across sex and racial identity in a population‐based sample of adults

   https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23948  

   Mikhail, Megan E. ; Ackerman, Lindsay S. ; Anaya, Carolina ; Culbert, Kristen M. ; Burt, S. Alexandra ; Klump, Kelly L. ( March 2023 , International Journal of Eating Disorders)

   Most research on socioeconomic status (SES) and eating disorders (EDs) has focused on young White women. Consequently, little is known regarding how SES may relate to EDs/disordered eating in older adults, men, or people with different racial identities. We examined whether associations between SES and EDs/disordered eating differed across age, sex, and racial identity in a large, population‐based sample spanning early‐to‐later adulthood.

   Analyses included 2797 women and 2781 men ages 18–65 (M_age = 37.41, SD = 7.38) from the population‐based Michigan State University Twin Registry. We first examined associations between SES and dimensional ED symptoms, binge eating (BE), and self‐reported ED diagnoses across age and sex in the full sample. We then examined the impact of racial identity on associations by conducting within‐ and between‐group analyses among Black and White participants.

   In the full sample, lower SES was associated with significantly greater odds of BE and lifetime EDs in men, but not women, across adulthood. The association between lower SES and greater BE risk was stronger for Black men than for White men, though significant in both groups. Conversely, Black women showed apositiveassociation between SES and dimensional ED symptoms that significantly differed from effects for Black men and White women.

   Associations between socioeconomic disadvantage and EDs/disordered eating may be particularly robust for men in adulthood, especially men with a marginalized racial identity. Oppositely, Black women may encounter social pressures and minority stress in higher SES environments that could contribute to somewhat heightened ED risk.

   Little is known regarding how associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and eating disorders (EDs) may differ across age/sex or racial identity. We found lower SES was associated with greater odds of a lifetime ED or binge eating in men only, with a particularly strong association between lower SES and binge eating for Black men. Results highlight the importance of examining how SES‐ED associations may differ across other aspects of identity.

    

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