title: What they bring: baseline psychological distress differentially predicts neural response in social exclusion by children's friends and strangers in best friend dyads.
abstract: Friendships play a major role in cognitive, emotional and social development in middle childhood. We employed the online Cyberball social exclusion paradigm to understand the neural correlates of dyadic social exclusion among best friends assessed simultaneously. Each child played with their friend and an unfamiliar player. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were assessed via electroencephalogram during exclusion by friend and unfamiliar peer. Data were analyzed with hierarchical linear modeling to account for nesting of children within friendship dyads. Results showed that stranger rejection was associated with larger P2 and positive slow wave ERP responses compared to exclusion by a friend. Psychological distress differentially moderated the effects of friend and stranger exclusion such that children with greater psychological distress were observed to have larger neural responses (larger P2 and slow wave) to exclusion by a stranger compared to exclusion by a friend. Conversely, children with lower levels of psychological distress had larger neural responses for exclusion by a friend than by a stranger. Psychological distress within the dyad differentially predicted the P2 and slow wave response. Findings highlight the prominent, but differential role of individual and dyadic psychological distress levels in moderating responses to social exclusion in middle childhood.
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, Yale University.
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baddam
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Laws
authors.affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, Yale University.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, Yale University.
authors.forename: Danielle Z
authors.initials: DZ
authors.lastname: Bolling
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, Yale University.
authors.forename: Linda C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Mayes
authors.affiliation: Yale Child Study Center, Yale University michael.crowley@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Crowley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cyberball; P2; anxiety; best friend dyads; depression; exclusion; middle childhood; ostracism; slow wave