Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) is a collaboration of researchers from seven universities and a wide variety of disciplines that share one mission: to understand how young people grow up in a complex society and make contributions to society. Scientists involved in GUTS will study individual neurobiological development in relation to educational processes, social networks, and societal norms, including antisocial behavior. By building an integrative framework on self-regulation development and contributions to society that will have explanatory as well as predictive power across multiple domains of functioning in adolescence and early adulthood.
Research programme
The key-question that our programme aims to answer is: how do young people with varying opportunities grow up in an increasingly complex society? And what are the main causes for differences in contributing to society?
We investigate how young people’s brain and (social) behavior develop over a period of ten years. We connect these patterns of neurobiological and behavioral development to the circumstances someone grows up in: what access to educational opportunities, social networks and societal norms does someone have? And what makes some adolescents deviate from expected societal norms and engage in antisocial behavior? In other words, how do nature and nurture interact during growing up to adulthood? And what impact does your starting point in life have on where you will end up in society?
Work package Individual development: from genes to societal contributions
Scientists from the Donders Institute are mainly involved in the work package that is focused on identifying 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.
Visit the GUTS website for the latest news and events of this project:
