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Author Spotlight: Understanding Adolescent Social Adversity Effects on Neurodevelopment in Mice
Published on: March 15, 2024
Prosocial development in adolescence
Eveline A Crone1, Michelle Achterberg1
1Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burg. Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Leiden University, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
In this review, we describe the development of prosocial behavior in adolescence as a critical inflection period for social adjustment. Experimental research using prosocial giving tasks demonstrates that adolescents differentiate more between recipients and contexts, suggesting increasing ingroup-outgroup differentiation during adolescence. We also demonstrate that social brain development during adolescence is partly driven by environmental influences, further underlining adolescence as a critical period for social development. The COVID-19 pandemic has had and will have long-term effects on the current generation of adolescents, for which we describe both the risks, resilience factors, and opportunities for engaging in prosocial acts of kindness.
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