Early Adversity Effects on Adolescent Depression

• Geordan Haynes, Psychology, University of Chicago

• Mary Dozier, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware

Early adversity is widely known to have significant effects on psychological and neurobiological development. Specifically, it can influence the development of various essential brain processes, such as reward processing, and increase one’s risk of developing mental health issues (e.g., major depressive disorder). Early life stress has been shown to be associated with smaller nucleus accumbens (NAcc) volume in animal models and reduced NAcc functional activity in human models. However, structural deficits of the nucleus accumbens, such as reduced volumes, caused by early adversity have not been vastly studied in human models. Thus, the influence of those structural deficits on the risk of experiencing major depression is not fully known. To investigate this, we examined the structural development of the nucleus accumbens and depression in relation to exposure to early adversity. Participants included adolescents (N = 100; Mage = 13.32) who experienced early adversity (high-risk; n = 67) and adolescents who had not (low-risk; n = 33) as defined by CPS involvement. We collected structural magnetic resonance imaging and self-reported depression scales, norming the scores for sex and age. Analyses revealed that the high-risk group reported significantly higher mean depression scores (M = 55.26, SD = 11.52) than the low-risk group (M = 50.58, SD = 9.84) at 13 years old; However, there were no significant differences in nucleus accumbens volumes between groups, nor was there a significant association between the nucleus accumbens and depression scores. Future research should examine these relationships within clinical populations rather than community samples.