Sophie W. Sweijen

• PhD Student at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Helping others may serve as a resiliency-promoting factor for adolescents during challenging times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study examined short- and long-term within-person associations between providing emotional support and feelings of vigor among adolescents. We used data from an 8-wave longitudinal study with 6 months in-bet...

In an eight-wave longitudinal online experiment, we test pre-registered hypotheses on adolescents’ giving behavior during and after the COVID-19 pandemic employing a Pandemic Dictator Game (PDG). Participants (n = 898) showed higher generosity towards pandemic- related targets (medical doctors, individuals with a poor immune system and COVID-19 pat...

This study examines the distinct developmental trajectories of prosocial and rebellious behaviors in adolescence. Using data from an accelerated three-wave project among adolescents aged 9-22-yrs (N = 142, 63% female, middle to high SES), trajectories of prosocial actions towards friends and peers, prosocial tendencies across multiple situations, g...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected daily life of young people but not all youth were affected in the same way. Methods: We studied mood trajectories in young people (10-29 years) across eight longitudinal waves spanning four years to test for resilience and recovery profiles during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: A four-cl...

Trust plays an important role during adolescence for developing social relations. Although prior developmental studies give us insight into adolescents' development of differentiation between close (e.g., friends) and unknown (e.g., unknown peers) targets in trust choices, less is known about the development of trust to societal targets (e.g., memb...

Using a newly developed version of the Trust Game among 196 adolescents aged 11–20 years, this study examined whether adolescents distinguish between trust and reciprocity to unknown peers, friends, and community members. We also tested for effects of age, gender, and individual differences in attending to others' emotions, emotional support to fri...

This is a preprint of an article published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. The final authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_02055. Trust plays an important role during adolescence for developing social relations. While prior developmental studies give us insight into adolescents’ development of differentia...

Adolescence is characterized by impulsivity but also by increased importance of friendships. This study took the novel perspective of testing temporal discounting in a fMRI task where choices could affect outcomes for 96 adolescents (aged 10-20-years) themselves and their best friend. Decisions either benefitted themselves (i.e., the Self Immediate...

In this study, we examined whether adolescents helped others during the COVID-19 pandemic and how stories in the media inspired them in doing so. Using an online daily diary design, 481 younger adolescents (M = 15.29, SD = 1.76) and 404 older adolescents (M = 21.48, SD = 1.91) were followed for 2 weeks. Findings from linear mixed effects models dem...

Socioeconomic vulnerabilities put adolescents at risk for mental wellbeing issues, also in times of a pandemic. In the present longitudinal online survey study, we explored changes in mental wellbeing (i.e., mood and life satisfaction) during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Second, we examined how socioeconomic hardship in online home schooling predicted ad...

Using a newly developed version of the Trust Game among 196 adolescents aged 11-20, this study examined whether adolescents distinguish between trust and reciprocity choices to unknown peers, friends, and community members. We also tested for effects of age, gender, and individual differences in attending to others’ emotions, emotional support to f...

Adolescents are often characterized as impulsive. This study took the novel perspective of testing impulsivity in a fMRI task where choices could affect outcomes for adolescents’ themselves and their best friend. Participants were 96 adolescents (aged 10-19) who performed a temporal discounting task with rewards for either themselves (i.e., the Sel...

This study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first 6 months of the COVID‐19 pandemic in a sample of 1,339 adolescents (9–18 years old, 59% female) from three countries. We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in symptoms. D...

Adolescent development is often regarded as a period of social sensitivities, given that brain development continues into the early 20s in interplay with social experiences. In this review, we present adolescence as a unique window for prosocial development; that is, behavior that benefits others. We present evidence for multiple pathways of neural...

Prosocial actions are a building block for developing mature and caring social relations. However, the global pandemic may hamper adolescents’ prosocial actions. In this preregistered study, we examined the extent to which adolescents provided daily emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 10–25-year-old high school and university...

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted adolescents’ mental health (i.e. mood and life satisfaction). Some adolescents are at risk to be disproportionally hit by the pandemic due to vulnerabilities in their social environment. In the present longitudinal study, we explored adolescents’ mood trajectories throughout the pandemic, and whether vu...

Adolescence is a formative period for socio-emotional development which is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current longitudinal study examined two aims: (1) the short- and long-term effects of the pandemic on young people’s mood (i.e. vigor, tension, and depression levels) and emotional reactivity (i.e. fluctuations in daily mood), and (2)...

Background: Although most young people do not become seriously ill from the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease, they do play a role in its spread. It is therefore important that they adhere to the recommended preventive behaviors, most importantly, physical distancing. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial determi...

In this study, we examined whether adolescents and young adults help others during the COVID-19 pandemic and how stories in the media can inspire them in doing so. For this online daily diary study, 481 adolescents (M = 15.29, SD = 1.76) and 404 young adults (M = 21.48, SD = 1.91) were followed for two weeks. Findings of linear mixed effects models...

Adolescence is a formative period for socio-emotional development which is threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current longitudinal study examined the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mood, emotional reactivity, and wellbeing (i.e., operationalized as balancing needs of self and others). Hence, we conducted an online two-week daily dia...

The study aimed to examine changes in depression and anxiety symptoms from before to during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a large, diverse, international sample of 1,339 adolescents (9-18 years, 59% female). We also examined if age, race/ethnicity, disease burden, or strictness of government restrictions moderated change in sympt...

In the present preregistered study, we tested the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on opportunities for prosocial actions in adolescence, a formative phase for social development. 888 adolescents (10-20-years) and university students (18-25-years) completed two weeks of daily diaries on their daily prosocial support during the pandemic and Dictator Game...

Although most young people do not become seriously ill from the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease, they do play a role in its spread. It is therefore important that they adhere to the recommended preventive behaviors, most importantly, physical distancing. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial determinants of you...

Adolescence is a formative phase for social development. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated regulations have led to many changes in adolescents’ lives, including limited opportunities for social interactions. The current exploratory study investigated the effect of the first weeks of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on Dutch adolescents’ (N = 53 with a...

Adolescence is a formative phase for social development. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social distancing measures social contact with peers has been severely limited. In the current three-week daily diary study, we investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and associated social distancing measures on Dutch adolescents’...

Analogical reasoning is assumed to play a large role in learning and problem solving in everyday and school settings. It was examined whether a newly developed dynamic test of analogical reasoning would be sufficiently difficult for identifying young gifted children’s potential for solving analogies. The study included 74 gifted (n = 31) and averag...

This study investigated the potential of dynamic testing of geometric analogical reasoning in differentiating between the potential for learning of gifted and average-ability children (aged 9–10 years old). In doing so, it was analysed whether planning, a higher-order executive function, was related to outcomes of the dynamic test, and to instructi...

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the extreme fear and avoidance of one or more social situations. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether heart rate variability (HRV) during resting state and a social performance task (SPT) is a candidate endophenotype of SAD. Methods: In this two-generation family study, patients wi...