Risk and resilience profiles and their transition pathways in the ABCD Study

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Public Health

Background:

• Adolescence is a critical period for the onset of psychopathology.
• Developmental trajectories are influenced by a complex interplay of individual, family, and environmental factors.
• Ecologically informed approaches are needed to understand youth mental health risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To derive and characterize ecologically informed risk/resilience profiles in youth.
• To examine the transition pathways between these profiles over time.
• To investigate the associations between profiles, transition pathways, and psychopathology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study data.
• Employed latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify risk/resilience profiles at baseline, Year-1, and Year-2.
• Applied latent transition analysis (LTA) to model profile shifts and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to assess associations with psychopathology.

Main Results:

• Identified four distinct profiles: High-SES High-Protective, High-SES Low-Protective, Low-SES High-Family-Risk, and Low-SES High-Protective.
• Detected significant, though generally stable, transitions between profiles over the 2-year study period.
• Baseline profile membership and transition pathways significantly predicted concurrent and future (Year-2) psychopathology, demonstrating equifinality and multifinality.

Conclusions:

• Ecologically informed risk/resilience profiles provide a nuanced understanding of youth psychopathology development.
• Dynamic shifts in these profiles highlight the importance of longitudinal assessment.
• Findings support the development of targeted interventions by identifying specific risk and resilience pathways.