Yang Qu

How children come to evaluate social-affective cues is shaped within the family, yet the neural expression of this process and its dependence on family relationships remain unclear. We tested whether parent-child similarity in the neural coding of affective judgment varies with family environment, and whether it relates to youth affective distress. Twenty-five parent-child dyads (youth, mean age 11.8; parents mean age 42 years) judged faces morphed along an angry-to-happy continuum as positive or negative during fMRI. For each participant, we defined an evaluative choice axis distinguishing faces judged positive from negative, independent of expression intensity. Using searchlight-based parent-child cross-decoding, we tested whether one dyad member's evaluative coding predicted the other member's judgments, indexing shared evaluative coding rather than shared sensitivity to expression intensity. Inference focused a priori on medial prefrontal cortex. There was no reliable average parent-child neural similarity across the sample. Instead, higher family conflict was associated with lower parent-child neural similarity in ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Demonstrating specificity to negative relational strain, this effect was not observed for complementary dimensions of family cohesion or identity. Moreover, the effect was specific to true dyads rather than random pairings and to vmPFC rather than a face-selective network or other medial prefrontal regions. Lower vmPFC similarity showed a preliminary association with higher youth affective distress. These findings indicate that affective valuation, rather than sensory encoding, may be a representational level at which perceived family conflict is reflected in parent-child neural similarity.

In recent years, a growing body of research has demonstrated that parents’ and children’s brains often exhibit neural similarity and synchrony during shared activities, emotional exchanges, and everyday interactions. This interbrain alignment offers a novel window into the mechanisms through which social connection, caregiving, and development unfold. In this review, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of studies investigating parent–child neural similarity and synchrony, drawing on diverse neuroimaging tools, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and electroencephalography. To bring conceptual clarity to this rapidly growing field, we introduce a 2 × 2 framework that categorizes research contexts along two key dimensions: level of interaction (low vs. high) and emotional salience (low vs. high). Using this framework, we organize and interpret the empirical literature, highlighting consistent findings, methodological variations, and developmental implications across different types of parent–child engagement. This framework not only helps structure existing knowledge but also reveals context-specific understanding in the literature. Finally, we outline future directions that emphasize the importance of longitudinal designs, cultural diversity, multimodal imaging, and expanding beyond the dyadic unit. This review aims to deepen the understanding of how neural alignment within families supports learning, emotion regulation, and social development across the life span.

Adolescent depression has risen sharply, especially among racial-ethnic minority youths. Although racial-ethnic discrimination is known to be linked with depression, there is limited understanding of how individual differences in brain development contribute to this process. Drawing on the framework of adolescent neurobiological susceptibility, in this study, we examined the moderating role of hippocampal volume in the longitudinal association between racial-ethnic discrimination and adolescent depression. Using longitudinal data of racial-ethnic minority youths from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study ( N = 5,061; age: M = 9.93 years; 52% female), we found that racial-ethnic discrimination was associated with adolescents’ increased depression 2 years later. A larger left hippocampal volume amplified the link between discrimination and depression. These findings highlight the detrimental role of racial-ethnic discrimination on adolescents’ psychological well-being and suggest that hippocampal volume may serve as a neurobiological marker of susceptibility, amplifying the negative impact of racial-ethnic discrimination among racial-ethnic minority youths.

Using three-wave longitudinal data of 554 Chinese youth (mean age = 13.35 years; 50% girls; T1 = July 2020, T2 = January 2021, T3 = July 2021), this study examined how youth's views of teens regarding family obligation predict their academic functioning and relationship with parents, with attention to the mediating role of youth's sense of responsibility to parents. Results showed that views of teens regarding family obligation predicted youth's greater academic delay of gratification, motivational response to academic failure, and attachment security to mother and father over time. Importantly, youth's sense of responsibility to parents mediated the longitudinal associations between views of teens and their academic and social adjustment. Taken together, the findings elucidate why and how views of teens matter for positive youth development in a culturally sensitive manner.

Adolescence is a developmental stage characterized by increased engagement in risk taking, which can serve adaptive functions such as identity exploration and social integration. However, most existing research has focused on negative risk taking, with limited attention to how positive and prosocial risk taking contribute to adolescents’ leadership development. Moreover, previous studies on adolescent risk taking have predominantly relied on cross-sectional designs, leaving within-person developmental processes underexplored. This study utilized three-wave longitudinal data (N = 554; mean age = 13.35 years, SD = 0.35 years; 50% girls) to examine the relations among positive risk taking, prosocial risk taking, and prosocial leadership. Participants were assessed at three time points: July 2020 (T1), January 2021 (T2), and July 2021 (T3), each wave separated by six months. The Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) was applied to distinguish within-person effects from between-person effects. Results indicated that, at the within-person level, both positive risk taking and prosocial risk taking predicted subsequent increases in prosocial leadership, which in turn, predicted further increases in positive and prosocial risk taking. Conversely, negative risk taking was not significantly associated with prosocial leadership at the within-person level. These findings suggest that participation in positive and prosocial risk-taking activities facilitates the cultivation and reinforcement of leadership skills among adolescents.

Parents’ internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, may contribute to similar symptoms in their youth. However, these associations vary, as youth with better emotion regulation may be more protected from negative parental influence. Yet, it remains unclear how youth’s neural correlates of emotion regulation, particularly in prefrontal regions—such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC), and medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC)—play a role in these associations. To address this gap, this study used two-wave longitudinal data that spanned 2 yr from the nationwide Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study including 7,932 youth (Mage = 9.96 yr, SD = 7.52; 49% females) and their parents. Results revealed significant longitudinal associations between parents’ and youth’s internalizing symptoms over 2 yr. Moreover, youth’s dlPFC, lOFC, and mOFC activity to negative emotions moderated these links. Youth with higher activity in these regions showed weaker parent-youth associations in internalizing symptoms over time. This study provides robust evidence that dlPFC, lOFC, and mOFC serve as neurobiological protective factors in the longitudinal links between parents and youth’s internalizing symptoms. Findings inform interventions targeting youth’s neural development in emotion regulation to promote emotional adjustment in families where parents face mental health challenges.

Parental burnout is a chronic condition of experiencing exhaustion, inefficacy, and emotional distance in one's parental role. Given the detrimental influence of parental burnout on both parents and children, it is important to study the antecedents and consequences of parental burnout, particularly at the within‐family level. Using a three‐wave sample of 443 Chinese parents (70% mothers; mean age = 41.81 years, SD = 3.81 years) of middle school adolescents (50% girls; mean age = 13.35 years, SD = 0.36 years), the present study examined the transactional processes between parental burnout and parent–adolescent conflict. Random intercept cross‐lagged panel modeling allowed the present study to focus on within‐family effects by using random intercepts to account for between‐family effects. In this way, this study can rule out time‐invariant confounds by focusing on whether the ups and downs of parental burnout at a family level contribute to the changes in parent–adolescent conflict, and vice versa. At the within‐family level, parental burnout predicted greater parent–adolescent conflict over time, and parent–adolescent conflict also predicted greater parental burnout over time. Notably, multigroup comparisons showed that the link from parent–adolescent conflict to parental burnout was only significant among parents with lower but not higher educational attainment, and the link from parental burnout to parent–adolescent conflict was only evident among mothers but not fathers. Taken together, the findings suggest that parental burnout and parent–adolescent conflict positively shape and sustain one another over time, highlighting the necessity to adapt the designs of family conflict interventions in treating and preventing parental burnout.