Cosgrove Kelly T, Rhudy Jamie L, Morris Amanda Sheffield, Thompson Wesley K, Mosconi Matthew, Paulus Martin P, Aupperle Robin L
Laureate Institute for Brain Research, 6655 S Yale Ave, Tulsa, OK 74136, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Dr, Tulsa, OK 74104, USA.
Adv Neurodev Disord. 2025 May 31. doi: 10.1007/s41252-025-00448-y.
Neurodevelopmental disorders have significant public health impacts, and novel approaches to understanding these disorders are greatly needed. Social connectedness, including relationships with parents and peers as well as family and school environments, may serve as a protective factor for neurodivergent youth. Neural networks that support social processing could also influence outcomes for these individuals.
The current study used data from the large Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study ( = 11,878) to explore associations between social connectedness, brain functional connectivity, and subjective and objective measures of neurodevelopmental functioning in youth. Linear mixed effects models assessed links between social connectedness and neurodevelopmental functioning. Mediation models evaluated whether connectivity of the salience network mediated these associations.
Authoritative parenting practices and involvement in extracurricular activities were linked to better neurodevelopmental functioning (s ≤ 0.002), while family conflict was associated with worse functioning (s ≤ 0.003). Salience network connectivity showed no significant associations with either social connectedness or neurodevelopmental functioning (s > 0.01).
Although the sizes of the observed effects were small, our findings imply that fostering positive family relationships and encouraging extracurricular involvement may relate to improved outcomes for neurodivergent youth. Future work is needed to identify additional factors that influence neurodevelopmental functioning over time and to determine the neural mechanisms underlying these relationships.
神经发育障碍对公众健康有重大影响，因此非常需要新的方法来理解这些障碍。社会联系，包括与父母和同伴的关系以及家庭和学校环境，可能是神经发育异常青少年的一个保护因素。支持社会加工的神经网络也可能影响这些个体的结果。
本研究使用了来自大型青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD）研究（n = 11878）的数据，以探讨社会联系、脑功能连接以及青少年神经发育功能的主观和客观测量之间的关联。线性混合效应模型评估了社会联系与神经发育功能之间的联系。中介模型评估了突显网络的连接性是否介导了这些关联。
权威的育儿方式和参与课外活动与更好的神经发育功能相关（p ≤ 0.002），而家庭冲突则与较差的功能相关（p ≤ 0.003）。突显网络连接性与社会联系或神经发育功能均无显著关联（p > 0.01）。
尽管观察到的效应大小较小，但我们的研究结果表明，培养积极的家庭关系和鼓励参与课外活动可能与神经发育异常青少年的更好结果相关。未来需要开展更多工作，以确定随着时间推移影响神经发育功能的其他因素，并确定这些关系背后的神经机制。
