The importance of friendships in reducing brain responses to stress in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity: a pre-registered systematic review

Abstract

Up to 50% of all children and adolescents growing up worldwide are exposed to at least one form of childhood adversity (CA), which is one of the strongest predictors for later-life psychopathology. One way through which CA confers such vulnerability in later-life is through increased sensitivity to and likelihood of social stress. A growing body of research demonstrates the positive impact of adolescent friendship support on mental well-being after CA, however, the mechanisms that may underlie this relationship are unknown. Neurobiological models of social buffering suggest that social support can reduce perceptions, reactions, and physiological responses to and after stress. Therefore, this pre-registered, systematic literature search examined whether friendships reduce neural stress responses in adolescents with CA.