Abstract
Background: Childhood peer victimization is a stressful life experience associated with long-lasting adverse psychological consequences. While there is some evidence that victimization is associated with alterations in brain function, little is known about effects on brain structure. This study explored the relationships between childhood peer victimization, cortisol, and adolescent ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) structure in a sample of healthy children.Methods: A total of 50 (Mage = 9.29 years at baseline) children participated in this longitudinal study. We examined whether diurnal cortisol levels (assessed at baseline) moderated the link between children’s self-reported peer victimization (assessed at baseline) and vlPFC surface area, gray matter volume, and thickness 5 years later.Results: For boys, cortisol levels moderated the association between victimization and brain structure. For boys with a low daily cortisol output (assessed as area under the curve; AUC), high victimization was associated with a smaller right vlPFC surface area, and for boys with a high AUC, high victimization was associated with a larger right vlPFC surface area. In addition, for boys with a steeper diurnal slope, high victimization was associated with a smaller right vlPFC surface area, and for boys with a low flatter diurnal slope, high victimization was associated with a larger right vlPFC surface area.Conclusion: These results indicate the differential influence of cortisol on the relationship between victimization and brain structure. Findings suggest that victimization may have differential effects on brain development in boys who are more versus less biologically sensitive to stress.
Highlights
Peer victimization is characterized as being the habitual target of peers’ physical or emotional aggression (Olweus, 1993)
A final sample of 50 (24 boys) participants was used in the analyses. These participants represented those with non-missing dependent variables. Of these 50, cortisol awakening response (CAR) and diurnal slope was available for 41 children; AUCground was available for 40 children due to missing data for one child at one of the five time points
Boys and girls did not differ on victimization, bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) thickness, surface area, left hemisphere volume, CAR, diurnal slope, and AUCground
Summary
Peer victimization is characterized as being the habitual target of peers’ physical or emotional aggression (Olweus, 1993). There is mounting evidence that peer victimization is an experience that can have long-lasting adverse psychological consequences. Peer victimization has been associated with altered neurobiology, and it has been suggested that this is one mechanism by which victimization can impact psychological functioning (Rudolph et al, 2016), with the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) being implicated. Children who are habitually excluded by their peers show more lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) activity in the face of social stress (Will et al, 2016) and when resisting risky behaviors (Telzer et al, 2017), and show greater vlPFC activation when receiving negative social feedback than do children who are not peer-rejected (Lee et al, 2014). Childhood peer victimization is a stressful life experience associated with long-lasting adverse psychological consequences. This study explored the relationships between childhood peer victimization, cortisol, and adolescent ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) structure in a sample of healthy children
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