Pitch Perfect: How Adolescents’ Voices Reveal Sensitivity to Social Context

We compared 44 adolescents’ (M_age = 12.5) average vocal pitch during happy and angry conversations with their friends versus caregivers. Adolescents used a significantly higher vocal pitch with their friends than caregivers. Older adolescents showed greatest sensitivity to the social context, suggesting maturation-based influences on context-dependent, nonverbal social behaviour.