The Relationship between Puberty, Empathy and Social Performance Monitoring in Early Adolescent Girls

Adolescence is an important developmental phase during which young people become more aware of their own actions and how these actions affect others. One important aspect of adolescence is the development of social performance monitoring. Social performance monitoring is the process of evaluating and adjusting our behavior during social interactions. Errors play an important role in this process, since recognizing our mistakes can help us adapt and take responsibility, in order to achieve more socially effective behavior. This study examined whether pubertal development and trait empathy relate to social performance monitoring in early adolescent girls, using the error-responsibility task. Fifty premenarcheal girls (ages 9-13, M = 11.1) performed an EEG task in two social contexts: a harmful condition in which their mistakes resulted in an aversive noise for a co-actor, and a non-harmful condition in which their mistakes led to a soft beep. Contrary to our expectations, no...Show moreAdolescence is an important developmental phase during which young people become more aware of their own actions and how these actions affect others. One important aspect of adolescence is the development of social performance monitoring. Social performance monitoring is the process of evaluating and adjusting our behavior during social interactions. Errors play an important role in this process, since recognizing our mistakes can help us adapt and take responsibility, in order to achieve more socially effective behavior. This study examined whether pubertal development and trait empathy relate to social performance monitoring in early adolescent girls, using the error-responsibility task. Fifty premenarcheal girls (ages 9-13, M = 11.1) performed an EEG task in two social contexts: a harmful condition in which their mistakes resulted in an aversive noise for a co-actor, and a non-harmful condition in which their mistakes led to a soft beep. Contrary to our expectations, no significant differences in ERN amplitudes were found between the harmful and non-harmful conditions. Additionally, pubertal development was not significantly related to ERN amplitudes, and empathy did not moderate this effect. However, self-report data indicated that participants experienced greater emotional distress in the harmful condition, suggesting that emotional sensitivity to social consequences may emerge before neurocognitive development. Interventions focusing on reflection and emotion regulation may help support social- emotional development and prevent internalizing difficulties in pubertal girls. Future research could explore hormonal reactions to social situations to create a better understanding of when social performance monitoring exactly develops during adolescence.Show less

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The Relationship between Puberty, Empathy and Social Performance Monitoring in Early Adolescent Girls