Friends, family, and community influences on adolescent development: A review of impactful findings from the ABCD study®

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Authors: Marybel Robledo Gonzalez, Kazi Priyanka Silmi, Victoria del Castillo, Yailene Perez, Melissa Orama, Arlyn Cuan, Diana Alkire, Robin Aupperle, Laika Aguinaldo, William Pelham, Elisa M. Trucco, Michael Mason
+12 more Carlos Cardenas‐Iniguez, Brynn Tepp, Bruce McCandliss, Alejandra Fernández, Ka I Ip, Evan White, Jana Hong, Erin Thompson, Rada K. Dagher, Gayathri J. Dowling, Susan F. Tapert, Raúl González
Cited by: 1
References: 103

Abstract

(ABCD) Study was funded to investigate adolescent development across 10 + years, assessing multilevel social contexts of influence and adolescent health outcomes. As such, the ABCD study has generated a large body of literature investigating adolescent health outcomes in neurocognition, mental health, physical health and substance use. However, the extent to which family, peer, and community contexts are measured and integrated across these outcomes has not been systematically examined. We synthesized 64 articles, deemed to be of high impact using a variety of metrics, to determine the extent to which measures within the Family, Friends, and Community (FFC) domains, across multi-level contexts of identity and values, family, and peers and community were investigated in relation to adolescent health outcomes. FFC measures were most frequently examined in relation to neuroimaging and neurocognitive outcomes, as well as mental health outcomes, with substantially fewer studies incorporating FFC measures for physical health and substance use outcomes, identifying FFC measures as both risk and protective factors. The ABCD study literature to date underscores the central role of FFC measures in contextualizing neurocognitive development as well as other health outcomes during adolescence, primarily with cross-sectional data. Building on existing use of FFC measures in neuroimaging and neurocognitive studies, future research can leverage longitudinal ABCD data to better understand how proximal social contexts shape neurocognitive development across adolescence.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Functional Brain Connectivity Studies Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Publication details

Journal / source
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Volume
81
Pages
101785–101785
Publication date
22 July 2026
Language
EN