Do Belonging and Social Exclusion at School Affect Structural Brain Development During Adolescence?

• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13613
• Publication Date: 2021-06-22T11:45:22Z
• Authors: Diana Raufelder; Nicola Neumann; Martin Domin; Robert C. Lorenz; Tobias Gleich; Sabrina Golde; Lydia Romund; Anne Beck; Frances Hoferichter
• Keywords: Social Exclusion; Affect; Socioemotional selectivity theory

Students' sense of belonging presents an essential resource for academic and health outcomes, whereas social exclusion at school negatively impacts students' well-being performance. Aiming to understand how feelings school-related shape the structural brain development, this study applied longitudinal questionnaire-based data MRI from 71 adolescent students (37 females, Mage t1 = 15.0; t2 16.1 years). All were white participants Germany. Voxel-based morphometry revealed only association (and not belonging) gray matter volume in left anterior insula: From t2, there was less decrease, more perceived. School-related disturbed neurodevelopment are thus significantly associated.