02. SOCIAL NETWORKS: SELF-REGULATION IN AN INCREASINGLY COMPLEX SOCIAL WORLD

WP2 will identify how neural and self-regulation development affects emerging adults navigating their increasingly complex social world, fulfilling their social needs, and successfully transitioning to adulthood.

Emerging adulthood, which spans from the late teens to the mid-20s, represents a transitional period in which young people grapple with increasingly complex social and academic spheres while assuming a growing number of adult responsibilities. This shift from late adolescence to emerging adulthood, which often coincides with the transition to college, marks a period of profound identity exploration that shapes adult aspirations and goals. During this transition, young people face new obligations, expectations, and demands, sometimes conflicting or incongruent. To successfully navigate this transition, the cultivation of self-regulatory skills becomes paramount. In addition, the role of peer networks in adjusting to college life and achieving academic success looms large. Therefore, gaining a deeper insight into the dynamics of social networks among previously unidentified college students is of utmost importance. A consortium of GUTS researchers based in Amsterdam, Groningen, and Leiden will collect prospective longitudinal network, survey, and neuroimaging data among these young adults.

WP2 chairs:

01. EDUCATION: EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

WP1 will identify how social and societal opportunities impact short- and long-term individual, academic, and social outcomes in adolescence and emerging adulthood, tailored toward diversity in socio-economic status. We will investigate how self-regulation (at behavioral and neural levels) and its development moderate or mediate these processes. We use structural and functional neuroimaging along with behavioral experiments, in a longitudinal design.

In WP ‘SES and Education’ two longitudinal cohort-sequential MRI studies at two sites (Erasmus University Rotterdam and VU University) will be the basis for a comprehensive test-replication design by direct comparison between longitudinal waves. The aim is to collect data with a focus on diversity in socioeconomic status (SES) through ongoing collaboration with local governments and active involvement of citizens in our research. Genetics, brain structure and function, and an overlapping behavioural protocol to assess self-regulation are at the core of our approach and design. Relevant outcomes are determined in co-creation with adolescents and other stakeholders. Each site will also include focus designs, aimed to target specific questions and to allow for a wide-ranging approach to study the cornerstones of self-regulation.

WP1 chairs:

03. ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR: WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE DEVIATE FROM SOCIAL NORMS: ANTISOCIAL, RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIORS

WP3 focuses on predicting and understanding behavior that negatively affects society: antisocial behavior. In WP3, we will connect brain science at the individual level with the societal context to identify whether and which self-regulatory mechanisms make some adolescents deviate from expected societal norms and engage in antisocial behavior.

WP3 chair:

04. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT: FROM GENES TO SOCIETAL CONTRIBUTIONS

WP4 will identify biomarkers involved in the development of self-regulatory abilities in adolescence and emerging adulthood and will reveal information on neurobiological mechanisms and sensitivities that drive adolescents to become motivated, socially responsible adults.

WP4 chair:

 

05. RESPONSIBLE PREDICTIVE MODELING: INTEGRATING COHORTS TO PREDICT YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY

WP5 will develop an overarching new machine learning methodology for developing an interdisciplinary theory to predict young people’s contributions to society.

WP5 chair:



06. MANAGEMENT, TRAINING & KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION

The goal of WP6 is to provide assistance to the GUTS program with respect to the general management of the program and the organization of training, co-creation, and dissemination activities. This WP will also take action in case of conflict or assign confidants if a conflict arises.

Members: