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. 2022 Apr:54:101099.
doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101099. Epub 2022 Mar 15.

Adolescents' affective and neural responses to parental praise and criticism

Lisanne A E M van Houtum  1 , Geert-Jan Will  2 , Mirjam C M Wever  2 , Loes H C Janssen  2 , Charlotte C van Schie  3 , Marieke S Tollenaar  2 , Bernet M Elzinga  2
Affiliations

Adolescents' affective and neural responses to parental praise and criticism

Lisanne A E M van Houtum et al. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Social feedback from parents has a profound impact on the development of a child's self-concept. Yet, little is known about adolescents' affective and neural responses to parental social feedback, such as criticism or praise. Adolescents (n = 63) received standardized social feedback supposedly provided by their mother or father in the form of appraisals about their personality (e.g., 'respectful', 'lazy') during fMRI scanning. After each feedback word, adolescents reported their mood. Additionally, adolescents had rated whether feedback words matched their self-views on an earlier occasion. In line with preregistered hypotheses, negative parental feedback worsened adolescents' mood, which was exacerbated when feedback did not match adolescents' self-views. Negative feedback was associated with increased activity in the neural 'saliency network', including anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Positive feedback improved mood and increased activity in brain regions supporting social cognition, including temporoparietal junction, posterior superior temporal sulcus, and precuneus. A more positive general self-view and perceived parental warmth were associated with elevated mood, independent of feedback valence, but did not impact neural responses. Taken together, these results enhance our understanding of adolescents' neural circuitry involved in the processing of parental praise and criticism, and the impact of parental feedback on well-being.

Keywords: Adolescence; FMRI; Parental criticism; Parental praise; Self-views; Social feedback.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trial structure of parental social feedback task. Dependent on the participating parent, ‘mother’ was replaced by ‘father’.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A whole-brain analysis contrasting positive with negative parental feedback resulted in activation in temporoparietal regions, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and precuneus (thresholded at p < .05 using Family-wise Error (FWE) cluster-correction with a cluster-forming threshold of p < .001). Abbreviations: dPFC = dorsal prefrontal cortex; PCC = posterior cingulate cortex; pSTS = posterior superior temporal sulcus; TPJ = temporoparietal junction; L = left; R = right.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Activation in adolescents’ brain regions revealed by whole-brain regression analysis in response to negative as compared to positive parental feedback resulted in activation in anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Neural results are corrected for multiple comparisons using Family-wise Error (FWE) cluster-correction at p < .05 with a cluster-forming threshold of p < .001. Abbreviations: ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; AI = anterior insula; dmPFC = dorsomedial prefrontal cortex; IFG = inferior frontal gyrus; L = left; R = right.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A. Interaction effect of receiving positive (yellow), intermediate (blue) and negative (red) parental, which is not (−1) or very (1) applicable (standardized) on adolescents’ mood (standardized; higher score indicates better mood), p = .005. B. Main effect of adolescents’ general self-view (standardized) on adolescents’ mood after receiving parental feedback (standardized), p = .035. C. Main effect of perceived parental warmth in daily life (standardized) on adolescents’ mood after receiving parental feedback (standardized), p = .036.
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