The Development of Negative Symptoms and the Impact of Social Stress in Adolescents.

Negative symptoms, including avolition, asociality, and anhedonia, are associated with functional impairment and are observed across both clinical and community populations. Although negative symptoms have been widely studied in adults with psychosis, less is known about the relationships among discrete domains and how they develop during adolescence. Adolescence is a period marked by substantial neurodevelopmental and social change, characterised by heightened sensitivity to peer relationships and social evaluation, suggesting that social stress may influence motivational and social functioning. However, it remains unclear how discrete negative symptom domains influence one another over time, and whether social stress moderates these associations. The present study will examine the longitudinal trajectories of avolition, asociality, and anhedonia in adolescents, and test whether social stress moderates the relationships among these symptom domains over time.