Title Participants Abstract "Childhood Adversity and Emerging Psychotic Experiences: A Network Perspective" "Zhiling Qiao, Ginette Lafit, Robin Achterhof, Olivia Kirtley, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Noëmi Hagemann, Bart Boets, Inez Germeys, Ruud van Winkel" "BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Childhood adversity is associated with a myriad of psychiatric symptoms, including psychotic experiences (PEs), and with multiple psychological processes that may all mediate these associations. STUDY DESIGN: Using a network approach, the present study examined the complex interactions between childhood adversity, PEs, other psychiatric symptoms, and multiple psychological mediators (ie, activity-related and social stress, negative affect, loneliness, threat anticipation, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation, attachment insecurity) in a general population, adolescent sample (n = 865, age 12-20, 67% female). STUDY RESULTS: Centrality analyses revealed a pivotal role of depression, anxiety, negative affect, and loneliness within the network and a bridging role of threat anticipation between childhood adversity and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation. By constructing shortest path networks, we found multiple existing paths between different categories of childhood adversity and PEs, with symptoms of general psychopathology (ie, anxiety, hostility, and somatization) as the main connective component. Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness and stability of the networks. Longitudinal analysis in a subsample with Wave 2 data (n = 161) further found that variables with higher centrality (ie, depression, negative affect, and loneliness) better predicted follow-up PEs. CONCLUSIONS: Pathways linking childhood adversity to PEs are complex, with multifaceted psychological and symptom-symptom interactions. They underscore the transdiagnostic, heterotypic nature of mental ill-health in young people experiencing PEs, in agreement with current clinical recommendations." "The role of threat anticipation in the development of psychopathology in adolescence: findings from the SIGMA Study" "Olivia Kirtley, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Inez Germeys" "Childhood adversity is associated with psychopathology. First evidence in adults suggests that threat anticipation, i.e., an enhanced anticipation of unpleasant events creating an enduring sense of threat, may be a putative mechanism linking childhood adversity to psychopathology. This study aimed to test the indirect effect of childhood adversity on psychopathology via threat anticipation in a large community sample of adolescents. We measured childhood trauma and bullying victimization (as indicators of childhood adversity), threat anticipation, general psychopathology and prodromal psychotic symptoms in adolescents aged 12-16 years (full sample size N = 1682; minimum sample size in the complete case sample N = 449) in wave I of the SIGMA study. We found strong evidence that childhood adversity (e.g. childhood trauma, adj. β (aβ) = 0.54, p " "Emotion regulation in daily life in early psychosis: The role of contextual appraisals" "Ginette Lafit, Evelyne van Aubel, Thomas Vaessen, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Marlies Houben, Inez Germeys" "BACKGROUND: Little is known about whether and how contextual appraisals relate to emotion regulation (ER) strategy use across the ultra-high risk and first episode stages of psychosis. The present study extends previous research by investigating the extent to which different appraisal dimensions of the most negative and positive events of the day are associated with ER strategy use in individuals with ultra-high risk (UHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP). METHOD: Sixty-eight UHR individuals and fifty-five FEP individuals filled out an experience sampling evening questionnaire for six consecutive days, in which their appraisal of intensity, importance and perceived control concerning the most negative or positive event of the day, and the ER strategies they deploy in response to these events were measured. RESULTS: Multilevel mixed effect models showed that intensity appraisal was most closely associated with ER strategy use, as opposed to importance and controllability appraisals. Higher intense negative events were associated with more rumination and social sharing, while less intense negative events were associated with more reappraisal. Higher intense positive events were associated with a greater number of deployed strategies and more efforts in using savoring, expression and social sharing. The UHR and FEP individuals did not significantly differ regarding effects of above-mentioned appraisal dimensions on ER. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence supporting ER flexibility in early psychosis, and event intensity emerged as the dimension most strongly associated with ER. Future research should better account for other situational factors (such as social context) that might affect ER use in psychosis." "Lifetime and Current Self-Harm Thoughts and Behaviors and Their Relationship to Parent and Peer Attachment" "Julie Janssens, Inez Germeys, Ginette Lafit, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Olivia Kirtley" "Background: Previous research suggests attachment is a vulnerability factor for self-harm thoughts and behaviors in adults. Yet, few studies have investigated this relationship during adolescence, although adolescence is a critical period for changes in attachment relationships and self-harm onset. Whether and how attachment relates to self-harm thoughts and behaviors as measured in daily life is also unknown. Aims: To investigate whether and how paternal, maternal, and peer attachment are associated with lifetime and current adolescent self-harm thoughts and behaviors. Additionally, to examine how different attachment bonds interact in relation to lifetime and current adolescent self-harm thoughts and behaviors. Method: Pre-existing data from N = 1,913 adolescents of the SIGMA study were used. Attachment and lifetime history of self-harm thoughts and behaviors were measured via retrospective questionnaires. Current self-harm thoughts and behaviors were assessed 10 times per day for 6 days using the experience sampling method (ESM). Results: Paternal and maternal attachments were associated with lifetime self-harm thoughts and behaviors and current self-harm thoughts. No significant associations were found between peer attachment and self-harm outcomes. Limitations: Some analyses were underpowered. Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of parent-child attachment relationships, which may be intervention targets for prevention and treatment of adolescent self-harm." "The role of identity in the development of depressive, anxiety, and psychosis symptoms in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity" "Celine Samaey, Aleksandra Lecei, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Olivia Kirtley, Bart Boets, Inez Germeys, Ruud van Winkel" "INTRODUCTION: Childhood adversity is a major risk factor for psychiatric disorders and has especially been associated with an admixture of depressive, anxiety, and psychosis symptoms. Identity formation, a main developmental task during adolescence, may be impacted by these adverse experiences and act as an important process in the association between childhood adversity and psychopathology. METHODS: We investigated the association between childhood adversity, identity formation, and depressive, anxiety, and psychosis symptoms cross-sectionally in 1913 Flemish adolescents between 11 and 20 years old (mean = 13.76, SD = 1.86). Adolescents completed questionnaires during the first wave of the SIGMA study between January 2018 and May 2019. RESULTS: Childhood interpersonal adversity was associated with increased identity confusion and decreased identity synthesis. Additionally, identity confusion was associated with increased self-reported levels of psychopathology and potentially mediated the association between childhood adversity and psychopathology. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of promoting healthy identity formation in adolescents with and without exposure to adverse childhood experiences." "Ecological and Convergent Validity of Experimentally and Dynamically Assessed Capacity for Social Contingency Detection Using the Perceptual Crossing Experiment in Adolescence" "Olivia Kirtley, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Ginette Lafit, Inez Germeys" "The Perceptual Crossing Experiment (PCE) captures the capacity for social contingency detection using real-time social interaction dynamics but has not been externally validated. We tested ecological and convergent validity of the PCE in a sample of 208 adolescents from the general population, aged 11 to 19 years. We expected associations between PCE performance and (a) quantity and quality of social interaction in daily life, using Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM; ecological validity) and (b) self-reported social skills using a questionnaire (convergent validity). We also expected PCE performance to better explain variance in ESM social measures than self-reported social skills. Multilevel analyses showed that only self-reported social skills were positively associated with social experience of company in daily life. These initial results do not support ecological and convergent validity of the PCE. However, fueled by novel insights regarding the complexity of capturing social dynamics, we identified promising methodological advances for future validation efforts." "Identifying Clusters of Adolescents Based on Their Daily-Life Social Withdrawal Experience" "Eva Bamps, Ginette Lafit, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Olivia Kirtley, Inez Germeys" "Social withdrawal is often presented as overall negative, with a focus on loneliness and peer exclusion. However, social withdrawal is also a part of normative adolescent development, which indicates that groups of adolescents potentially experience social withdrawal differently from one another. This study investigated whether different groups of adolescents experienced social withdrawal in daily life as positive versus negative, using experience sampling data from a large-scale study on mental health in general population adolescents aged 11 to 20 (n = 1913, MAge = 13.8, SDAge = 1.9, 63% female) from the Flemish region in Belgium. Two social withdrawal clusters were identified using model-based cluster analysis: one cluster characterized by high levels of positive affect and one cluster characterized by high levels of negative affect, loneliness and exclusion. Logistic regression showed that boys had 66% decreased odds of belonging to the negative cluster. These results show that daily-life social withdrawal experiences are heterogeneous in adolescence, which strengthens the view that, both in research and clinical practice, social withdrawal should not be seen as necessarily maladaptive." "Adolescents' real-time social and affective experiences of online and face-to-face interactions" "Robin Achterhof, Olivia Kirtley, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Ginette Lafit, Inez Germeys" "Capacity for social contingency detection continues to develop across adolescence" "Olivia Kirtley, Robin Achterhof, Noëmi Hagemann, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Ginette Lafit, Inez Germeys" "Objectively measured physical activity and symptoms of psychopathology in general population adolescents from the SIGMA cohort" "Noëmi Hagemann, Olivia Kirtley, Ginette Lafit, Martien Wampers, Robin Achterhof, Anu Pauliina Hiekkaranta, Aleksandra Lecei, Davy Vancampfort, Inez Germeys"