Baseline network connectivity is longitudinally associated with internalizing symptoms through conduct problems in adolescents

To investigate whether baseline brain network connectivity in early adolescence was longitudinally associated with future internalizing symptoms through conduct problems. We used the data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 4696). Conduct problems were assessed at a 1-year follow-up, and internalizing symptoms (anxiety, depression, and somatic problems) were measured at a 2-year follow-up using the Child Behavior Checklist.

Resting-state functional connectivity within and between eight brain networks was extracted at baseline (age 9–10). We then investigated whether baseline brain network connectivity was longitudinally associated with future internalizing symptoms through conduct problems. Baseline connectivity within the dorsal attention network (DAN), between the DAN and the default mode network, and between the retrosplenial temporal network and the fronto-parietal (FPN)/salience (SN) networks was significantly correlated with conduct problems at the 1-year follow-up, and conduct problems showed indirect-only associations linking these connectivity patterns to anxiety, depression, and somatic problems at the 2-year follow-up.

The DAN-related indirect associations remained significant in sensitivity analyses. Our findings revealed that specific patterns of brain network connectivity in early adolescence were associated with later internalizing symptoms through their associations with conduct problems, pointing to a temporal sequence where altered neural connectivity patterns may first manifest as conduct problems before developing into internalizing symptoms. These findings offer significant insight into modelling vulnerability and developmental trajectory of adolescent psychopathology and inform early intervention strategies.

Data used in the preparation of this article were obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive DevelopmentSM (ABCD) Study (https://abcdstudy.org), held in the NIMH Data Archive (NDA). This is a multisite, longitudinal study designed to recruit more than 10,000 children aged 9–10 and follow them over 10 years into early adulthood. The ABCD Study® is supported by the National Institutes of Health and additional federal partners under award numbers U01DA041048, U01DA050989, U01DA051016, U01DA041022, U01DA051018, U01DA051037, U01DA050987, U01DA041174, U01DA041106, U01DA041117, U01DA041028, U01DA041134, U01DA050988, U01DA051039, U01DA041156, U01DA041025, U01DA041120, U01DA051038, U01DA041148, U01DA041093, U01DA041089, U24DA041123, U24DA041147.

A full list of supporters is available at https://abcdstudy.org/federal-partners.html. A listing of participating sites and a complete listing of the study investigators can be found at https://abcdstudy.org/consortium_members/. ABCD consortium investigators designed and implemented the study and/or provided data, but did not necessarily participate in the analysis or writing of this report.

This paper reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the NIH or ABCD consortium investigators. The ABCD data repository grows and changes over time. The ABCD data used in this report came from https://doi.org/10.15154/1523041.