Teens have a stronger response to perceived threats after social isolation

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-11-13 11:01

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Teens respond more strongly to perceived threats after social isolation, according to international researchers who say this could mean teen loneliness is putting them at a higher risk of anxiety-related disorders. The team recruited 40 healthy teens aged 16-19 and isolated them for periods of at least 3.5 hours - either with access to online social interaction or no social interaction at all. Following their isolation period, the teens were given a task aimed at measuring how quickly and strongly they learned to react to a threat - a neutral shape they were taught to associate with a harsh, distressing sound - with electrodes measuring their physical response. The researchers say that compared to a baseline test, social isolation with or without online access was associated with a heightened threat response during the test. They say threat learning is related to the development of threat-related disorders such as anxiety, phobias and OCD, and it's possible over the long-term during adolescence, social isolation could be putting teens at a higher risk of developing those disorders.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Increased Threat Learning After Social Isolation in Human Adolescents

This study reveals that social isolation heightens threat learning in adolescents, potentially increasing their vulnerability to threat-related disorders. We examined the effects of acute social isolation on teenagers aged 16-19 years, comparing complete isolation to isolation with virtual social interactions. After both types of isolation compared to baseline, participants rated a learned threat cue as more anxiety-inducing and unpleasant and showed partial elevation in the physiological threat response (electrodermal activity). These findings indicate that isolation and loneliness during adolescence might increase threat learning, thereby raising the risk for threat-related disorders such as anxiety, phobias, OCD, and PTSD. This research underscores the importance of social connections for adolescent mental health.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Cambridge, UK

Funder: E.T. is funded by a Gates Cambridge Scholarship and a St John's College Benefactors’ Scholarship. S.-J.B. is funded by Wellcome (grant no. WT107496/Z/15/Z), the MRC, the Jacobs Foundation, the Wellspring Foundation and the University of Cambridge. K.T. is funded by the UK Research and Innovation Economic and Social Research Council and Gonville Studentship. We gratefully acknowledge support of this project by a Henslow Research Fellowship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society (to L.)T

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