A genetic analysis of individual differences in dissociative behaviors in childhood and adolescence

2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 522-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn A. Becker-Blease ◽  
Kirby Deater-Deckard ◽  
Thalia Eley ◽  
Jennifer J. Freyd ◽  
Jim Stevenson ◽  
...  
1997 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 169-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Field

Common myths hold that old persons are fixated on childhood memories, that they believe that youth is the best part of life, and that old age contains few satisfactions. Berkeley Older Generation Study members, when asked on two occasions during old age ( M ages = 69.8 and 82.7) to name the periods of their lives that brought them the most and the least satisfaction, dispelled these myths. The thirties and forties were popular choices for periods of great satisfaction, but childhood and adolescence were quite unpopular for these old persons. “Right now” was named more often than any other life period as most satisfactory. Men and women did not differ in life periods nominated, but they did differ in the reasons given for their choices. Each period provided its own pattern of satisfactions and disappointments, and strong individual differences were apparent.


2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorret I. Boomsma ◽  
John T. Cacioppo ◽  
Bengt Muthén ◽  
Tihomir Asparouhov ◽  
Shaunna Clark

AbstractIn previous studies we obtained evidence that variation in loneliness has a genetic component. Based on adult twin data, the heritability estimate for loneliness, which was assessed as an ordinal trait, was 48%. These analyses were done on loneliness scores averaged over items (‘I feel lonely’ and ‘Nobody loves me’) and over time points. In this article we present a longitudinal analysis of loneliness data assessed in 5 surveys (1991 through 2002) in Dutch twins (N = 8389) for the two separate items of the loneliness scale. From the longitudinal growth modeling it was found sufficient to have non-zero variance for the intercept only, while the other effects (linear, quadratic and cubic slope) had zero variance. For the item ‘I feel lonely’ we observed an increasing age trend up to age 30, followed by a decline to age 50. Heritability for individual differences in the intercept was estimated at 77%. For the item ‘Nobody loves me’ no significant trend over age was seen; the heritability of the intercept was estimated at 70%.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Mõttus ◽  
Christopher J. Soto ◽  
Helena R. Slobodskaya ◽  
Mitja Back

Do individual differences in personality traits become more or less pronounced over childhood and adolescence? The present research examined age differences in the variance of a range of personality traits, using parent reports of two large samples of children from predominantly the USA and Russia, respectively. Results indicate (i) that individual differences in most traits tend to increase with age from early childhood into early adolescence and then plateau, (ii) that this general pattern of greater personality variance at older childhood age is consistent across the two countries, and (iii) that this pattern is not an artefact of age differences in means or floor/ceiling effects. These findings are consistent with several (noncontradictory) developmental mechanisms, including youths’ expanding behavioural capacities and person–environment transactions (corresponsive principle). However, these mechanisms may predominantly characterize periods before adolescence, or they may be offset by countervailing processes, such as socialization pressure towards a mature personality profile, in late adolescence and adulthood. Finally, the findings also suggest that interpreting age trajectories in mean trait scores as pertaining to age differences in a typical person may sometimes be misleading. Investigating variance should become an integral part of studying personality development. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 355-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan R. Gunnar

This review provides a broad overview of my research group’s work on social buffering in human development in the context of the field. Much of the focus is on social buffering of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) system, one of the two major arms of the mammalian stress system. This focus reflects the centrality of the HPA system in research on social buffering in the fields of developmental psychobiology and developmental science. However, buffering of the cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system is also discussed. The central developmental question in this area derives from attachment theory, which argues that the infant’s experience of stress and arousal regulation in the context of her early attachment relationships is not an immature form of social buffering experienced in adulthood but rather the foundation out of which individual differences in the capacity to gain stress relief from social partners emerges. The emergence of social buffering in infancy, changes in social buffering throughout childhood and adolescence, the influence of early experience on later individual differences in social buffering, and critical gaps in our knowledge are described.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linn B. Norbom ◽  
Nhat Trung Doan ◽  
Dag Alnæs ◽  
Tobias Kaufmann ◽  
Torgeir Moberget ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundCerebral myeloarchitecture shows substantial development across childhood and adolescence, and aberrations in these trajectories are relevant for a range of mental disorders. Differential myelination between intracortical and subjacent white matter can be approximated using signal intensities in T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI).MethodsTo test the sensitivity of gray/white matter contrast (GWC) to age and individual differences in psychopathology and general cognitive ability in youth (8-23 years), we formed data-driven psychopathology and cognitive components using a large population-based sample, the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) (n=6487, 52% females). We then tested for associations with regional GWC defined by an independent component analysis (ICA) in a subsample with available MRI data (n=1467, 53% females).ResultsThe analyses revealed a global GWC component, which showed an age-related decrease from late childhood and across adolescence. In addition, we found regional anatomically meaningful components with differential age associations explaining variance beyond the global component. When accounting for age and sex, both higher symptom levels of anxiety or prodromal psychosis and lower cognitive ability were associated with higher GWC in insula and cingulate cortices and with lower GWC in pre- and postcentral cortices. We also found several additional regional associations with anxiety, prodromal psychosis and cognitive ability.ConclusionIndependent modes of GWC variation are sensitive to global and regional brain developmental processes, possibly related to differences between intracortical and subjacent white matter myelination, and individual differences in regional GWC are associated with both mental health and general cognitive functioning.


Author(s):  
Susan Harter

This chapter provides a developmental perspective on phenomena that involve a hypo-egoic perspective—such as perspective taking, prosocial behavior, empathy, true-self behavior, and self-coherence—with a focus on whether hypo-egoic processes that have been described in adult populations also exist in childhood and adolescence. The chapter examines the extent to which children and adolescents have the cognitive skills to engage in various hypo-egoic behaviors and explores the motives that might underlie hypo-egoic phenomena at different developmental levels. Along the way, the development of skills and motives that promote self-absorbed and self-aggrandizing tendencies, such as egocentrism and narcissism, are also discussed. The role of cognitive-developmental changes, socially driven developmental transitions, developmentally salient needs, and individual differences in parenting and socialization practices on hypo-egoic perspectives and behaviors are also examined.


2004 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 1575-1593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. McHale ◽  
Lilly Shanahan ◽  
Kimberly A. Updegraff ◽  
Ann C. Crouter ◽  
Alan Booth

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca L. Shiner

AbstractThe developmental pathways leading to personality disorders are poorly understood, but clues to these pathways come from recent research on personality disorders and normal personality development in childhood and adolescence. The first section of this paper reviews recent work on personality disorders in childhood and adolescence, and concludes that personality disorders in adolescence are already prevalent, moderately stable, and impairing. The second section draws on McAdams and Pals' personality model to offer a taxonomy of personality differences that can account for the known patterns of emerging personality pathology. This taxonomy includes youths' temperament and personality traits, mental representations (including attachment), coping strategies, and narrative identities. Individual differences in all of these domains may play critical roles in the development, manifestation, and course of personality disorders. Existing knowledge of normal and abnormal personality development can inform future research on the developmental pathways leading to personality pathology, the diagnostic criteria for personality disorders, and the development of validated treatments for personality disorders in the first two decades of life.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2024
Author(s):  
Valentina Bieneck ◽  
Anke Bletsch ◽  
Caroline Mann ◽  
Tim Schäfer ◽  
Hanna Seelemeyer ◽  
...  

The neuroanatomy of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) shows highly heterogeneous developmental trajectories across individuals. Mapping atypical brain development onto clinical phenotypes, and establishing their molecular underpinnings, is therefore crucial for patient stratification and subtyping. In this longitudinal study we examined intra- and inter-individual differences in the developmental trajectory of cortical thickness (CT) in childhood and adolescence, and their genomic underpinnings, in 33 individuals with ASD and 37 typically developing controls (aged 11–18 years). Moreover, we aimed to link regional atypical CT development to intra-individual variations in restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) over a two-year time period. Individuals with ASD showed significantly reduced cortical thinning in several of the brain regions functionally related to wider autism symptoms and traits (e.g., fronto-temporal and cingulate cortices). The spatial patterns of the neuroanatomical differences in CT were enriched for genes known to be associated with ASD at a genetic and transcriptomic level. Further, intra-individual differences in CT correlated with within-subject variability in the severity of RRBs. Our findings represent an important step towards characterizing the neuroanatomical underpinnings of ASD across development based upon measures of CT. Moreover, our findings provide important novel insights into the link between microscopic and macroscopic pathology in ASD, as well as their relationship with different clinical ASD phenotypes.


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