# Close friendship quality and the emergence of depression in adolescent females: Neurodevelopmental mechanisms and sensitive periods

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF OREGON · 2021 · $4,620

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The quality of close friendships during adolescence is related to physical and mental health over a decade
later. This outsized and lasting influence is consistent with theories that adolescence is a sensitive period for
social development. Intervening on social relationships during this period may improve adolescent mental health
and mitigate the lifespan disease burden associated with poor social relationships. This public health strategy
may be particularly beneficial for adolescent girls, a population with specific vulnerabilities and biopsychosocial
pathways to depression. This project investigates these pathways by examining close adolescent friendships in
three waves of data from a longitudinal study of adolescent females (initial N = 174, initial ages 10-13, 18 months
between waves). We focus on self-disclosure, a critical behavior for forming and maintaining feelings of intimacy
within friendships. Our prior work with an fMRI adaptation of the Self-Disclosure Task suggests that adolescents
find disclosing to a close friend to be intrinsically rewarding, and that neural responses during disclosure
decisions are related to friendship quality and feelings of being supported. The guiding framework of this project
is that intimacy and affiliation within close friendships may serve as protective and/or risk factor for the
emergence of depression via their influence on the functioning of a cortico-striatal circuit during specific phases
of pubertal development. To test this framework, the specific aims of this proposal are (1) to predict the
emergence of depressive symptoms from close friendship quality and neurobehavioral indices of self-disclosure
and, (2) to probe a neurodevelopmental mechanism relating patterns of neural responses during self-disclosure
processes to changes in the brain’s resting-state functional architecture over time. (3) A third exploratory aim
examines age and puberty as moderators of these associations. Completion of these research aims will result
in a body of work that examines the influence of close friendship quality and self-disclosure processes on
psychopathology and neurodevelopment across time and identifies timing windows during which these effects
might be more pronounced. Dr. Jennifer Pfeifer will be the primary training mentor overseeing the project due to
her extensive knowledge of adolescent social development and developmental neuroimaging. Additional
mentors will take the lead on each of three training goals: (1) advanced methods for longitudinal developmental
neuroimaging (Dr. Kate Mills), (2) biopsychosocial models of adolescent internalizing problems (Dr. Nick Allen),
and (3) open and reproducible neuroscience (Dr. Rob Chavez). Both the primary mentor (Dr. Pfeifer) and co-
sponsor (Dr. Mills) will provide substantive mentorship and hands-on support across research and training aims.
This coordinated didactic, experiential, and professional training support my long-term goal of becomi...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10237924
- **Project number:** 5F31MH124353-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
- **Principal Investigator:** Theresa W Cheng
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $4,620
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-12 → 2021-09-11

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10237924

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10237924, Close friendship quality and the emergence of depression in adolescent females: Neurodevelopmental mechanisms and sensitive periods (5F31MH124353-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10237924. Licensed CC0.

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