Kinder, die ihre Häuser, Schulen oder Nachbarschaften als bedrohlich betrachten, können eher Schwierigkeiten mit psychischen Gesundheit entwickeln. Diese sind mit Veränderungen der Hirnkonnektivität während der frühen Adoleszenz verbunden, die Monate und sogar Jahre später Angstzustände, Depressionen und Aufmerksamkeitsprobleme vorhersagen.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/social-threat-neural-connectivity-and-adolescent-mental-health-a-populationbased-longitudinal-study/E1F5D34831B541F7E0AE441B1ED8BB40

From the linked article:

Neuroscience research finds altered brain networks in youth who perceive home or school as unsafe

**Children who view their homes, schools, or neighborhoods as threatening may be more likely to develop mental health difficulties** as they grow older. A large-scale study published in Psychological Medicine suggests that **these perceptions of social danger are linked to changes in brain connectivity during early adolescence, which in turn predict symptoms like anxiety, depression, and attention problems months and even years later**.

Adolescence is a time of rapid brain development and increased vulnerability to mental health issues. In recent years, youth mental health problems have become more prevalent, raising concerns among health professionals and researchers alike. While many studies have explored how negative social environments affect children’s emotional well-being, fewer have investigated how these experiences shape brain development and contribute to later mental health outcomes.

When the researchers broke down the types of symptoms, they found that brain connectivity differences were most closely linked to internalizing problems (like sadness or anxiety) and attention problems. The same patterns were not found for externalizing problems such as aggression.

Interestingly, when the different sources of social threat (family conflict, school unsafety, and neighborhood unsafety) were analyzed together, family conflict emerged as the strongest overall predictor of later mental health problems. However, only neighborhood unsafety was associated with distinct changes in brain connectivity, suggesting that different types of threats may impact mental health through different pathways.