Sex-specific trajectories of adolescent brain development and behavioral health in relation to family environments.

Background: The associations of family environment with adolescent behavioral health are well established, yet insights into how these associations are moderated by sex, particularly through changes in brain structure, are limited.

Methods: This cohort study included over 9000 children aged 9-12 from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. We used structural equation modeling to create a composite measure of family environment, incorporating factors such as family conflict, acceptance, parental monitoring and socioeconomic status, as reported by both children and parents. We conducted stratified analyses by sex to examine the longitudinal associations between family environment and internalizing/externalizing symptoms using generalized additive mixed models. Additionally, we explored the mediating role of brain cortical surface area, measured by structural MRI, in these associations.

Results: Lower family environment scores in childhood were consistently linked to higher internalizing/externalizing symptoms in follow-ups. The trajectories varied by sex, with females showing greater vulnerability to internalizing symptoms when exposed to worse family environment. In a subset of children with no initial symptoms, worse family environment still predicted more symptoms at a 3-year follow-up for both sexes. Sex-specific patterns emerged in brain regions mediating the relationship between family environment and externalizing symptoms. Males exhibited differences of cortical surface area primarily in the left hemisphere and temporal lobe, while females in the right hemisphere and parietal and temporal lobes.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the critical role of sex in considering the effects of family environment on adolescent brain development and mental health.