Key points
• Measures of psychobiological systems can be used to provide insight into adolescent development and wellbeing.
• The nervous system, cardiovascular system, neuroendocrine system, and immune system are often used in research on adolescent development; other measures which traverse biological systems, such as the microbiota-gut-brain axis and
allostatic load, have received increasing attention in recent years.
• Psychobiological assessments can be completed in both controlled and ecological settings; advances in technology have enabled precise, rich data on psychobiological processes across the daily lives of adolescents.
• The measurement of psychobiological processes may require advanced technical skills and equipment, and close attention to sampling strategies and data analysis is necessary.
• Researchers must select measures based on the theoretical framework of the research and should consider how cultural context, race and ethnicity, identity, marginalization, cohort features and other factors may be relevant to measures of psychobiological processes.