Bullying as a Social Risk Factor for Neurobiological Vulnerability to Adolescent Anxiety: An Exploratory Study
D. Porta-Casteràs, R. Miranda-Olivos, V. De la Peña-Arteaga, O. Contreras-Rodríguez, A. Álvarez-Monell, M. Guxens, M. Vrijheid, N. Cardoner, M. CanoIntroduction
Bullying is one of the most common adverse social experiences during early adolescence. Identifying potential brain-based biomarkers that modulate vulnerability to internalizing symptoms after bullying could inform targeted prevention strategies.
Objectives
To identify potential neuroimaging biomarkers associated with subclinical anxiety, depressive, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in adolescents who were exposed to bullying.
Methods
We collected neuroimaging and subclinical mental health data at the 18-year follow-up of the INMA-Sabadell cohort. Among 159 healthy adolescents without neuropsychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders, a subgroup of 12 adolescents reported bullying exposure at age 11 (Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire). An age- and sex-matched control subsample of 12 non-victims was selected. Anatomical, functional, and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging were processed with FreeSurfer, MELODIC, and TRACULA to derive cortical surface area and thickness, subcortical volumes, functional connectivity, and diffusion metrics. Subclinical symptoms were assessed with the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Child Version and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS). Symptom–brain associations were compared between bullying victims and non-victims using Fisher Z-transformed Pearson correlations (structural data) or multivariate ANOVA (functional data).
Results
Adolescents exposed to bullying at age 11 showed a stronger positive relationship between left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) surface area and DASS-Anxiety scores at age 18 compared to non-victims (Z=5.01;
p
Bonf
=0.0004). Within-group analyses found a significant positive correlation in victims (R(9)=0.94;
p
Bonf
=0.00086), whereas non-victims exhibited a non-significant negative correlation (R(9)=-0.53;
p
Bonf
=1).
Image 1: Long description.