J Child Psychol Psychiatry [JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Sustained mental health outcomes from the youth readiness intervention: A four-year effectiveness follow-up of a hybrid type II trial in Sierra Leone.
Van Den Boom W, Noon K, Yang S … +5 more , Menart R, Momoh F, Bah AJ, Placencio-Castro M, Betancourt TS
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 42046391 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Strategies to expand access to care and sustain evidence-based mental health interventions (EBIs) must be tested within novel delivery platforms to extend the reach of services in fragile and conflict-affecte...
BACKGROUND: Strategies to expand access to care and sustain evidence-based mental health interventions (EBIs) must be tested within novel delivery platforms to extend the reach of services in fragile and conflict-affected settings. Integration into broader development programs may help maintain long-term effects. This study presents a four-year follow-up of a previously conducted Hybrid Type II implementation-effectiveness cluster-randomized trial (CRT) of the Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI)-an EBI drawing on cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and mindfulness-based approaches-delivered within a youth entrepreneurship program in Sierra Leone (2018-2019). METHODS: Long-term mental health outcomes (emotion regulation, psychological distress, and interpersonal functioning) were examined among a randomly selected subgroup of 584 participants across three study arms: a control group, a group that only received entrepreneurship training ('ENTR'), and a group that received both YRI and ENTR ('YRI + ENTR'). Linear mixed-effect models accounted for the nested structure of the data. Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was also assessed through economic and relationship stressors using structural equation modeling. RESULTS: Four years postintervention, YRI + ENTR-youth maintained improvements in depression (β = -.057; 95% CI -0.09 to -0.02; [effect size] d = -.111) and combined depression/anxiety symptoms (β = -.047; 95% CI -0.08 to -0.01; [effect size] d = -.096) though no sustained effects were observed for daily functioning or emotion regulation. No differences were found for ENTR-only participants versus controls and YRI + ENTR. COVID-19-related economic stressors mediated the relationship between study arm and mental health, revealing small but significant effects. CONCLUSIONS: In low-income settings like Sierra Leone, where formal mental health services are scarce, sustainable community-based interventions such as the combined YRI + ENTR intervention offer a critical approach to reducing psychological distress. Sustained long-term benefits suggest that participants developed coping strategies that supported resilience during challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. These gains may also foster broader community resilience, enhancing both individual well-being and collective capacity to withstand future adversity.
Editorial: Society and child mental health shape each other.
Leijten P, Jansen LMC
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jun · PMID 42021617 · Publisher ↗
Child psychology and psychiatry have long examined how the environments in which children grow up shape their mental health. Contemporary frameworks on children's mental health emphasize the causal influence of environme...
Child psychology and psychiatry have long examined how the environments in which children grow up shape their mental health. Contemporary frameworks on children's mental health emphasize the causal influence of environmental factors and how these influences vary across children by their individual characteristics. The present issue illustrates the breadth of relevant environmental influences, ranging from parental knowledge to neighborhood disadvantage and the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, most empirical research in child psychology and psychiatry has focused on proximal environmental factors; broader societal factors - such as geopolitical tensions, climate change, and socioeconomic inequality - remain comparatively underexplored. In addition, most research on societal factors prioritizes societal factors as causes of child mental health. The impact of child mental health on societal developments has received far less attention. This Editorial advocates for greater integration of societal factors into research on child mental health and highlights the urgent need to examine the bidirectional relation between society and children, including how research contributes to societal change.
Well-being decline during adolescence: school transition as a predominant driver beyond age progression.
Zhou M, Maher C, Brinkman S … +2 more , Cools J, Dumuid D
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 42012771 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: The transition from primary-to-secondary school significantly impacts students' well-being. However, existing research provides limited insight into the long-term impact of school transition on well-being, an...
BACKGROUND: The transition from primary-to-secondary school significantly impacts students' well-being. However, existing research provides limited insight into the long-term impact of school transition on well-being, and no studies have disentangled age-related changes from transition-specific effects. This study leverages a natural experiment, where an educational reform resulted in two different age cohorts transitioning simultaneously, to disentangle age effects from transition effects on student well-being. METHODS: This study analyzed longitudinal data from the Well-being and Engagement Collection census (2019-2025) in South Australia. Participants were two cohorts of students who simultaneously started secondary school in 2022: one transitioning at Year 7 and the other at Year 8. Well-being was measured across eight domains. Linear mixed-effects regression models examined transition effects and tested interactions with sociodemographic factors. RESULTS: A total of 20,910 participants (Male: 52.1%, Age in 2019: 9.7 ± 0.6) contributing 104,800 observations (5.0 responses/participant) across the 7 years were included. In the first 2 years post-transition, well-being experienced adverse changes across all domains (marginal effects for positively-worded measures: -0.44 to -0.18; negatively-worded measures: 0.08 to 0.13). The largest declines were observed in cognitive engagement (-0.44) and perseverance (-0.31). Younger and older cohorts experienced similar adverse changes; however, the younger cohort showed a larger well-being decline in the second-year post-transition. Females experienced more pronounced declines than males. The well-being decline among students residing in remote and very remote areas persisted until the third year after the transition. CONCLUSIONS: School transitions negatively affect students' well-being, with impacts that persist for more than 2 years. This decline was largely attributable to the school transition rather than age-related progression. Females and students residing in remote areas experienced greater declines in well-being than their counterparts. These findings highlight the need for transition-specific support strategies for vulnerable groups that extend beyond the first year of secondary schooling.
Childhood cognitive control as a predictor of long-term clinical and functional outcomes in Tourette syndrome.
Barber KE, Ricketts EJ, Woods DW … +10 more , Piacentini J, Espil FM, Specht M, Bennett SM, Walkup JT, Chang S, Peterson AL, Scahill L, Wilhelm S, McGuire JF
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 42012022 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric condition characterized by motor and vocal tics. Many individuals with TS continue to experience tics and functional difficulties into adulthood, y...
BACKGROUND: Tourette syndrome (TS) is a childhood-onset neuropsychiatric condition characterized by motor and vocal tics. Many individuals with TS continue to experience tics and functional difficulties into adulthood, yet the factors influencing these long-term trajectories remain poorly understood. Cognitive control processes, implicated in the etiology and treatment of TS, may serve as indicators of later clinical and functional outcomes. METHODS: This study tested whether childhood cognitive control predicted outcomes in early adulthood. Participants were 80 individuals with TS (M = 22.8 years, SD = 2.7) who had entered a randomized clinical trial of behavioral therapy as children and completed a follow-up evaluation an average of 11.7 years (SD = 1.3) later. Childhood assessments measured tic severity and neurocognitive domains, including processing speed, inhibition, set-shifting, and working memory. Follow-up assessments evaluated clinical, functional, and quality of life outcomes. RESULTS: Results showed that greater inhibition, set-shifting, and processing speed in childhood predicted lower tic severity and impairment, greater odds of tic remission, and higher quality of life in early adulthood. Greater working memory and response flexibility predicted higher educational attainment and income. These relationships remained significant after accounting for treatment conditions and comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight childhood cognitive control as an important predictor of clinical and functional outcomes in TS and a viable target for intervention.
Attenuated selective attention during visual perspective taking in autism: A combined behavior, ERP, and pupillometry study.
Polzer L, Bast N, Boxhoorn S … +5 more , Mühlherr A, Mössinger H, Schütz M, Freitag CM, Luckhardt C
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41992731 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Altered social cognition in autism may be influenced by difficulties in domain-general functions, such as selective attention. Here, we manipulated the requirement for selective attention during a visual pers...
BACKGROUND: Altered social cognition in autism may be influenced by difficulties in domain-general functions, such as selective attention. Here, we manipulated the requirement for selective attention during a visual perspective taking (VPT) task and used neurophysiological indices to delineate underlying mechanisms. METHODS: 43 autistic and 38 neurotypical children and youth completed a VPT paradigm. Participants' and an avatar's perspectives were either congruent or incongruent, manipulating the demand for selective attention to inhibit irrelevant information processing. Group differences in dependence on the attended perspective and congruency were examined for behavioral performance, event-related potentials (ERPs), and in a subsample, stimulus-evoked pupil response (SEPR). RESULTS: Autistic participants showed reduced accuracy when rating an avatar's perspective and pronounced perspective-related differences in a late-frontal slow wave (LFSW). Incongruency elicited stronger effects on behavioral performance and LFSW in autistic relative to neurotypical participants. Additionally, generally larger and more sustained SEPR was observed for autistic participants, reflecting an alteration that was dissociable from LFSW differences. Across groups, SEPR and ERP measures explained both distinct and partially overlapping variance in response slowing. CONCLUSIONS: Findings support attenuated VPT abilities and difficulties to deploy selective attention in autistic youth. Altered fronto-cortical activation patterns in the LFSW likely reflect an increased top-down involvement in VPT. Concurrently, pupil responses indicate an increased cognitive effort when reporting visual perspectives. Findings emphasize a co-characterization of social cognition difficulties by social and domain-general functions in autism.
Research Review: Omega-3 supplementation to reduce antisocial behavior - a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Raine A, Saven HQ
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41980788 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Omega-3, a long-chain fatty acid critical for brain structure and function, has been argued to be effective in reducing antisocial behavior, but findings are variable. This meta-analysis examines 25 randomize...
BACKGROUND: Omega-3, a long-chain fatty acid critical for brain structure and function, has been argued to be effective in reducing antisocial behavior, but findings are variable. This meta-analysis examines 25 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with a total of 2,889 participants. METHODS: This study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42021256959). Two separate analyses were conducted where the unit of analysis was independent studies and independent laboratories. RESULTS: Significant effect sizes (p < .001) were observed for both analyses (g = .13, .14 respectively) and in the direction of omega-3 supplementation reducing antisocial behavior. There was equivocal evidence of publication bias. Study quality was good. Stratified analyses were nonsignificant for age, gender, dose, sample size, and study quality, although the effect size was larger for unmedicated participants. Combining these data with a recent meta-analysis on aggressive behavior produced an overall effect size of g = .22 for externalizing behavior based on 36 nonoverlapping RCTs. CONCLUSIONS: Given that omega-3 supplementation is relatively cheap, easy to implement, transfers well from the research environment to community settings, and has additional health benefits, it is suggested that it may be considered as an adjunctive intervention for the treatment of antisocial and externalizing behavior.
Executive function challenges persist into young adulthood and predict mental health outcomes in autism.
Kenworthy L, Baczewski L, Gerber AH … +7 more , Pugliese CE, Armour AC, Csumitta KD, Reimann GE, Candy C, Wallace GL, Fritz MS
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41964372 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Executive functioning (EF) challenges are common among autistic youth and persist throughout childhood and adolescence; they have been linked to important outcomes, including poorer mental health, adaptive sk...
BACKGROUND: Executive functioning (EF) challenges are common among autistic youth and persist throughout childhood and adolescence; they have been linked to important outcomes, including poorer mental health, adaptive skills, and overall quality of life. Despite the significance of EF in autism, few studies have examined the trajectory of EF challenges longitudinally, and those that have are constrained by small sample sizes, limited age ranges, and a focus on global EF at the expense of specific EF subdomains. METHODS: This study examines the trajectory of parent-reported EF flexibility, working memory, and inhibition challenges in autistic youth from early childhood to young adulthood and their relationship to parent-reported aggression, anxiety, and depression symptoms. Leveraging a longitudinal sample of 313 participants (age range = 2-25, 79 females, mean age at first visit = 9.5 ± 4.6 years, age range at first visit 2.6-23.1 years; mean FSIQ = 103.3, FSIQ range 52-159; mean number of visits per participant = 2.3, range 2-9) across 941 observations, multilevel growth curve modeling was used to examine the trajectory of EF challenges and their relationship to mental health across time. RESULTS: We found that EF challenges persist in autistic people from 2 to 25 years old, regardless of cognitive ability and parent education level. Although symptoms of aggression decline with age, depression symptoms increase with age in this sample of autistic people. Notably, autistic females are at unique risk for increasing anxiety in adolescence. Flexibility challenges in particular predict mental health outcomes across anxiety, depression, and aggression symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate the enduring nature of EF challenges among autistic people during childhood and into young adulthood, as well as their influence on mental health. EF and flexibility, in particular, are potent and persistent yet malleable predictors of key outcomes, making them important targets for intervention.
Parental incarceration and psychiatric disorders, suicidal behavior, risk-taking, and substance misuse events in offspring: A longitudinal within-individual study.
Järvinen A, Kuja-Halkola R, Brikell I … +6 more , Chang Z, D'Onofrio BM, Fazel S, Larsson H, Lichtenstein P, Latvala A
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41957897 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Parental incarceration (PI) is associated with mental and behavioral problems in offspring, but causality remains unclear. We conducted a quasi-experimental within-individual study on the associations of PI w...
BACKGROUND: Parental incarceration (PI) is associated with mental and behavioral problems in offspring, but causality remains unclear. We conducted a quasi-experimental within-individual study on the associations of PI with offspring psychiatric disorders, suicidal behavior, risk-taking, and substance misuse events, aiming to test the effect of PI on offspring. METHODS: The study included 43,011 and 5,912 individuals born in Sweden 1973-2010 and exposed to paternal or maternal incarceration, respectively, between ages 10 and 30. Using data from nationwide registers available until the end of 2020, we examined associations between PI and offspring time-varying events in a longitudinal within-individual design to control for time-invariant confounding. We further studied potential moderation effects in within-individual models by offspring sex, family living arrangements, age, and other factors. For comparison, we conducted corresponding between-individual analyses. RESULTS: Overall, no clear within-individual associations between paternal or maternal incarceration and offspring events were observed (HRs 0.99-1.08 and 0.82-1.03, respectively), but in a sensitivity analysis, the first recorded exposure to PI was associated with a slightly increased risk of some events (HRs 1.08-1.10). Regarding moderation effects, preliminary evidence suggested that child-father coresiding, paternal offending type, and exposure age slightly moderated the within-individual associations for certain outcomes. Statistically significant associations were found in all between-individual models. CONCLUSIONS: The elevated rates of mental and behavioral problems among offspring exposed to PI are unlikely to be due to a direct impact of PI, but an impact may exist under certain circumstances. These findings can help in targeting support to this vulnerable group.
Convergent genetic pathways linking neuropsychiatric and ocular disorders in children.
Pan M, Zhou W, Qu HQ … +5 more , Xiu Z, Sun R, Hakonarson H, Li J, Shi X
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41947537 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Clinical and epidemiological studies conducted in children have suggested a potential link between neuropsychiatric and ocular disorders. However, the existence and directionality of this relationship remain...
BACKGROUND: Clinical and epidemiological studies conducted in children have suggested a potential link between neuropsychiatric and ocular disorders. However, the existence and directionality of this relationship remain inconsistent, likely due to the complex interplay between genetic predisposition and environmental factors that may influence both conditions. METHODS: We investigated the overall and local genetic correlations and causal relationship between eight neuropsychiatric disorders and five ocular disorders based on large-scale genome-wide association study cohorts from Psychiatric Genomics Consortium and UK Biobank. An in-house independent cohort (2,726 attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cases and 16,299 controls) was also assessed to confirm the disease relationships. We further performed joint analyses to pinpoint the shared genetic loci. Finally, we explored their underlying biological pathways by SNP- and Gene-based enrichment analyses. RESULTS: We discovered significant positive genetic correlations between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and myopia/astigmatism; inverse genetic correlation and potential causal relationship between ADHD and myopia/astigmatism. The aggregated protective effect of ADHD on myopia and astigmatism was demonstrated using Mendelian randomization, and was validated in the independent in-house cohort. In total, 124 loci were found to be shared between psychiatric diseases and refractive errors. Enrichment analyses highlighted early neurodevelopmental processes as key shared genetic mechanisms that may play a critical role in the development of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and refractive errors. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate a shared genetic architecture underlying the development of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and refractive errors. These results help clarify the clinically observed associations between ADHD, ASD, and refractive errors and provide evidence that shared early neurodevelopmental processes contribute to both conditions. Together, the findings offer a novel perspective on the neurogenetic basis of refractive error and its connection to early brain development.
The association between inflammatory markers in routine blood counts at 1 year and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A case-control study.
Merzon E, Israel A, Salminis-Linzen S … +9 more , Magen E, Geishin A, Vinker S, Green I, Golan-Cohen A, Ashkenazi S, Faraone SV, Weizman A, Manor I
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41858080 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder marked by persistent patterns of inattention, disorganization, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Increasing evidence impl...
BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder marked by persistent patterns of inattention, disorganization, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Increasing evidence implicates immune-inflammatory processes in its etiology, with observed associations between ADHD and infectious diseases, allergic conditions, and recent findings involving SARS-CoV-2. This study investigated whether early-life inflammatory markers, as measured by routine complete blood counts (CBCs) in clinically healthy 1-year-old children, were associated with subsequent diagnoses of ADHD. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study was conducted using electronic medical records from Leumit Health Services, encompassing children under 18 years between January 1, 2006, and June 30, 2021. The sample included children who underwent routine CBC testing at age one during a well-child visit, without signs of acute illness. ADHD cases were identified based on ICD-9/10 criteria. Controls, free of any ADHD diagnosis, were randomly selected at a 1:2 ratio and matched for age, sex, socioeconomic status, and cultural sector. Analyses included white blood cell (WBC) subtypes and platelet counts, with the calculation of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR). RESULTS: Children who were subsequently diagnosed with ADHD demonstrated statistically significant elevated total WBC counts at age one, including higher neutrophil, eosinophil, and lymphocyte levels, and lower basophil counts compared to matched controls (all p < .05). No significant differences were observed in PLR between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated inflammatory markers were detectable in clinically healthy 1-year-old children who were later diagnosed with ADHD. These findings suggest a potential preclinical inflammatory phenotype linked to ADHD risk, highlighting the need for further investigation into early immune dysregulation as a contributing factor in ADHD pathophysiology. Early identification of such biomarkers may inform preventive strategies and targeted interventions in high-risk pediatric populations.
Research Review: Mathematical skills in children with developmental language disorder - a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Høgetveit AM, Canrinus ET, Donolato E … +1 more , Melby-Lervåg M
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41855560 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Language is an essential skill for learning and academic achievement; therefore, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are at risk for learning difficulties. Previous research has indicated a hi...
BACKGROUND: Language is an essential skill for learning and academic achievement; therefore, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are at risk for learning difficulties. Previous research has indicated a higher prevalence of mathematical difficulties in children with DLD compared to control children without such difficulties. However, the extent to which DLD and mathematical difficulties co-occur, as well as the nature of the difficulties, remains unclear. METHODS: We performed a meta-analysis of 30 studies examining the mathematical skills of children with DLD compared to controls and examined moderators related to children's age, cognitive abilities, mathematical domains, diagnostic status, and publication type. RESULTS: Children with DLD performed approximately 1 SD (Hedges' g = -1.03) below age-matched controls in mathematics. Group differences were moderated by the type of mathematical task, with children with DLD being more impaired in arithmetic, counting, word problems, and composite math skills than in tasks evaluating Arabic number knowledge and magnitude judgment. There was a small-study effect, but publication bias was not confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: Children with DLD perform considerably more poorly than controls in mathematics and are at a high risk of mathematical difficulties. This supports the notion that these children have a complex profile of difficulties.
Synthesizing five decades of research on sensitive caregiving: A commentary on Nivison et al. (2026).
Raby KL
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 41846510 · Full text
This commentary highlights the contributions of Nivison et al.'s (2026) umbrella meta-analysis synthesizing five decades of research on sensitive caregiving and child development. Integrating findings from numerous meta-...
This commentary highlights the contributions of Nivison et al.'s (2026) umbrella meta-analysis synthesizing five decades of research on sensitive caregiving and child development. Integrating findings from numerous meta-analyses, the authors demonstrate that caregiver sensitivity is meaningfully associated with multiple domains of child development. Notably, associations with cognitive and language development are at least as large as those with attachment security and behavior problems, expanding traditional conceptualizations of sensitivity's developmental significance. The findings further indicate substantial consistency across child, parent, and family demographic characteristics, while suggesting amplified benefits in socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts. This commentary underscores key gaps in the literature, including the need for meta-analytic investigations of children's peer competence, self-regulation, and physical health outcomes, as well as the need for refined measurement of caregiving dimensions. Although causal inferences require randomized intervention evidence, the synthesis provides compelling support for sensitive caregiving as a central determinant of healthy development and offers a roadmap for future research and policy.
Editorial: ADHD persistence - the interplay of genes, socioeconomic context, and symptom domains over development.
Thomson P, Rakesh D
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 May · PMID 41844271 · Publisher ↗
Persistence of childhood ADHD symptoms into adolescence and adulthood is common. However, persistence is not simply a continuation of early high severity ADHD. Rather, it is the product of influences from individual-leve...
Persistence of childhood ADHD symptoms into adolescence and adulthood is common. However, persistence is not simply a continuation of early high severity ADHD. Rather, it is the product of influences from individual-level genetic liability, one's environmental context, and their interplay. The field has often focused on cross-sectional ADHD severity and genetic load. However, environments - such as one's socioeconomic context - exert their own influence over development independently of genetics, as well as modulate genetic influences. Importantly, these genetic and environmental effects vary significantly between inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom domains, emphasizing the need to consider these domains separately when studying persistence risk. This article outlines a unifying persistence framework reflecting the changing contributions of genes, environmental context, and their interaction over time, offering a path to a more complete understanding of risk for symptom persistence.
Effectiveness of the school-based internet intervention StresSOS for the prevention of mental health problems in young people: a randomized controlled trial as part of the ProHEAD consortium.
Lehner L, Gillé V, Moessner M … +12 more , Baldofski S, Bauer S, Becker K, Diestelkamp S, Hiery A, Kaess M, Koenig J, Lustig S, Rummel-Kluge C, Thomasius R, Eschenbeck H, ProHEAD Consortium
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41821499 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Given the high prevalence of mental illnesses in adolescents, there is an urgent need for effective prevention strategies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the school-based internet intervention StresSOS...
BACKGROUND: Given the high prevalence of mental illnesses in adolescents, there is an urgent need for effective prevention strategies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the school-based internet intervention StresSOS for the universal prevention of mental illnesses in youth. METHODS: A two-arm, randomized controlled trial was conducted. Participants were recruited from schools across five regions of Germany. Young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years without mental health problems were invited to the trial and randomly assigned to StresSOS or to the attention placebo control condition, stratified by sex. Participants in both conditions received eight web-based sessions with information and exercises and weekly e-mail teasers about program content and a monitoring survey. StresSOS comprised content on life skills, particularly stress management and mental health literacy, and the control condition content comprised healthy nutrition. The primary outcome was self-reported mental health status at a 12-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat analyses were calculated. The trial was preregistered with the German Register of Clinical Trials (DRKS00014693, see https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00014693). RESULTS: A total of 5,268 eligible students were invited to participate, 2,327 (44%) activated their account and were randomized to StresSOS (n = 1,154) or to the control condition (n = 1,173). Due to COVID-19-related school closures, 1,209 were lost to follow-up, and data from 1,118 students were analyzed (535 in StresSOS and 583 in the control group). Participation in StresSOS led to significantly reduced incidences of emerging mental health problems at the 12-month follow-up (controls: n = 162 [28%] 'with problems'; StresSOS: n = 113 [21%] 'with problems'; OR 0.70, 95% CI [0.52, 0.92], p = .01). CONCLUSIONS: StresSOS was effective in universally preventing the onset of mental health problems, with a small effect. Internet interventions have the potential to contribute to a reduction of the disease burden in young people.
Research Review: Measuring life impact of youth mental health difficulties: scoping umbrella review of 80 instruments.
Krause KR, Chung S, Konstantopoulos C … +8 more , Rodak T, Calderón A, Snagg NE, Cleverley K, Butcher NJ, Salum GA, Merikangas KR, Szatmari P
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41813067 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Mental health symptoms affect children and youths' functioning, quality of life (QOL), and well-being in daily life. While this 'life impact' is a critical outcome, there is a lack of conceptual clarity and w...
BACKGROUND: Mental health symptoms affect children and youths' functioning, quality of life (QOL), and well-being in daily life. While this 'life impact' is a critical outcome, there is a lack of conceptual clarity and widely endorsed outcome measurement instruments (OMI) to support consistent assessment across studies. This scoping umbrella review sought to map OMIs that assess life impact through measures of functioning, QOL, or well-being. Specifically, our aims were to: identify life impact OMIs from existing reviews, compare OMI design characteristics, descriptively appraise essential aspects of development quality for selected OMIs, and assess how consistently reviews identified OMI target constructs. METHODS: We searched six databases for systematic, scoping, rapid, or narrative reviews of functioning, QOL, or well-being OMIs for 6-to-24-year-olds with primary mental health concerns. We separately retrieved original development/validation reports for each OMI and extracted information on the target construct and key design characteristics. For a subset of OMIs, we descriptively appraised essential features of OMI development quality. RESULTS: We identified 80 OMIs of functioning (n = 35), QOL (n = 33), and well-being (n = 12). Two-thirds were developed for children and youth up to 18 years, but none targeted young adults aged 19-24. Functioning OMIs were frequently designed for multi-informant assessment; QOL and well-being OMIs were mainly self-reported. Most functioning OMIs were originally validated in populations with mental health difficulties, unlike OMIs of QOL and well-being. For over one quarter of OMIs, the target construct was misclassified in at least one review, with frequent conflation of QOL and well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Mental health difficulties impact life across functioning, QOL, and well-being. Life impact is a core outcome to track in clinical research and practice. This review provides a roadmap to selecting OMIs of life impact in youth mental health based on OMI design characteristics.
Violent and sexual victimisation and incident anxiety, mood and substance use disorders in childhood and adolescence: a co-sibling study.
Pitkänen J, Sariaslan A, Bishop L … +5 more , Aaltonen M, Mielityinen L, Laajasalo T, Ellonen N, Martikainen P
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41793315 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Studies on the association between victimisation in childhood and adolescence and psychiatric disorders increasingly acknowledge that these associations might be partly confounded by unmeasured familial facto...
BACKGROUND: Studies on the association between victimisation in childhood and adolescence and psychiatric disorders increasingly acknowledge that these associations might be partly confounded by unmeasured familial factors. However, previous quasi-experimental evidence is largely based on retrospective self-reported data with potential response biases and small samples. METHODS: We measured psychiatric disorders and victimisation events from routinely collected administrative datasets on Finnish total birth cohorts 1996-2005. We identified all violent and sexual victimisation events using plaintiff information taken from registers containing data on crimes reported to the police between birth and the end of 2020. Incident anxiety, mood and substance use disorders were identified from registers containing records of inpatient and specialised outpatient psychiatric care. We compared all those exposed to victimisation to five population controls and their unexposed siblings, with the latter thereby adjusting for shared unobserved familial factors. We used stratified Cox regression models to estimate the associations between victimisation and the psychiatric disorders, with a follow-up from victimisation until the outcome, exit from the population or the end of 2020. RESULTS: Violent and sexual police-reported victimisation were both associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, with adjusted hazard ratios ranging between 2.3 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 2.2, 2.4) for the association between violent victimisation and mood disorders and 3.9 (3.7, 4.1) for the association between sexual victimisation and anxiety disorders. In the sibling comparisons, the associations attenuated but remained clearly elevated, with the corresponding hazard ratios ranging between 1.9 (1.7, 2.1) and 2.6 (2.3, 2.9). CONCLUSIONS: The results are consistent with a causal interpretation of the association between police-reported victimisation and psychiatric disorders. Mental health-related support after victimisation is an important task as it may prevent the onset of psychiatric disorders. Prevention of victimisation might decrease the number of psychiatric disorders in the population.
Children's oppositional defiant disorder and mother-child interpersonal brain synchrony: the role of maternal meta-emotion philosophy.
Wang P, Ma J, Qiao L … +3 more , He T, Zhang J, Lin X
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41789721 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Parent-child interpersonal brain synchrony (IBS) has been suggested to play an important role in children's socio-emotional functioning and may be relevant to oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Yet, empiric...
BACKGROUND: Parent-child interpersonal brain synchrony (IBS) has been suggested to play an important role in children's socio-emotional functioning and may be relevant to oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Yet, empirical evidence regarding IBS deficits between parents and ODD children remains limited, as well as their association with ODD symptoms within different emotional parenting contexts. Therefore, the present study investigated the IBS among mother-child dyads by utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and the moderating role of maternal meta-emotion philosophy between IBS and ODD symptoms. METHODS: We initially recruited 72 mother-child dyads and included data from 63 dyads in the final analyses after data quality checks, including 29 ODD children and 34 typically developing (TD) children. Each dyad was measured for IBS while completing a computer-based game, including cooperative and independent conditions. The children's ODD symptoms and maternal meta-emotion philosophy were measured using questionnaires. RESULTS: The IBS deficits of left postcentral gyrus-left dorsal superior frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus-right postcentral gyrus, and right angular gyrus-right dorsal superior frontal gyrus were revealed among ODD mother-child dyads across multiple time-lags. In addition, IBS negatively predicted ODD symptoms when mothers were involved in their children's emotions and positively predicted ODD symptoms when mothers were not involved in their children's emotions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggested a potential "Other-(Social) Cognition-Self-Regulation" IBS network, wherein "Other-Cognition" involves social cognitive processing of information from others, and "Self-Regulation" consists of the regulation of oneself. Furthermore, the deficits within this IBS network among ODD mother-child dyads are prospectively predictive of children's later ODD symptoms. Additionally, our research indicated that whether the mother is involved in the child's emotions is crucial when considering the impact of IBS on the development of ODD symptoms.
Directionality of longitudinal associations between frontostriatal structural connectivity and depressive symptoms in adolescent girls.
Barendse MEA, Machle CJ, Kievit R … +1 more , Pfeifer JH
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41782457 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Individual differences in the structure and function of the frontostriatal reward network have been related to depression. However, there is a strong need for prospective, longitudinal studies aiming to under...
BACKGROUND: Individual differences in the structure and function of the frontostriatal reward network have been related to depression. However, there is a strong need for prospective, longitudinal studies aiming to understand the role of frontostriatal networks in depression in a developmental context. We aimed to examine bidirectional associations between structural connectivity in the frontostriatal reward network and depressive symptoms in adolescent girls, as well as to determine to what extent the directionality and strength of these associations are dependent on age or pubertal stage. METHODS: About 596 observations from 174 adolescent girls (up to 4 time points per person, ages 10-17) were included. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale for Children and pubertal stage with the Pubertal Development Scale and the Tanner Stage Line Drawings. Probabilistic tractography was done on diffusion-weighted imaging scans to obtain average fractional anisotropy from ventral striatum to orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum to ventromedial prefrontal cortex tracts. RESULTS: Linear mixed-effects models showed that frontostriatal connectivity was not associated with subsequent change in depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were also not associated with subsequent change in frontostriatal connectivity. Depressive symptoms increased with age and pubertal stage, but the association with connectivity did not vary with age or pubertal stage. CONCLUSIONS: This suggests previously reported cross-sectional associations might not pertain to developmental effects in girls. Future research should examine prospective associations between frontostriatal functional connectivity and depression.
Outcome and cost-effectiveness of transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy compared with management as usual for youth with common mental health problems: Long-term results from the Mind-My-Mind randomized trial.
Vassard D, Rimvall MK, Wolf RT … +12 more , Christensen R, Nielsen SM, Plessen KJ, Verhulst F, Bilenberg N, Thomsen PH, Thastum M, Neumer SP, Pagsberg AK, Silverman WK, Correll CU, Jeppesen P
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41774040 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Credible long-term outcomes from randomized trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive programs for mental health problems are needed. We compared long-term effects of the Mind M...
BACKGROUND: Credible long-term outcomes from randomized trials evaluating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive programs for mental health problems are needed. We compared long-term effects of the Mind My Mind (MMM) transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program to management as usual (MAU). METHODS: The study was a pragmatic, multisite, randomized superiority trial (2017-2019) involving youths aged 6-16 years with anxiety, depressive symptoms, and/or behavioral disturbances, recruited through family self-referral. The MMM intervention included 9-13 weekly CBT sessions. The primary outcome was change from baseline in parent-reported impact of mental health problems at 3-year follow-up post-randomization using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) impact scale. Register-based outcomes tracked youths' psychiatric diagnoses in mental health services. To assess cost-effectiveness, we calculated the incremental costs and incremental quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). All primary analyses followed the intention-to-treat (ITT) approach. CLINICAL TRIALS REGISTRATION: ID NCT04804917. RESULTS: Among 396 youths randomized (baseline mean [SD] age, 10.3 [2.4] years; 52.0% boys; MMM n = 197, MAU n = 199), the 3-year follow-up (median 167 weeks; range 124-203 weeks) primary outcome data were available in 69.0% and 59.3%, respectively. The decrease in SDQ-impact-score from baseline to 3-year follow-up (4.12→1.79 points [MMM] and 4.21→1.85 [MAU]) was similar (between-group difference, 0.06 [95% CI -0.41 to 0.52]; p = .81). An equal proportion (25%) of youths in MMM and MAU were diagnosed with any mental disorder during follow-up (HR 1.01, 95% CI 0.68-1.50). Total costs over the intervention period were higher in the MMM group (incremental costs 3,014 Euros [95% CI: 2.174-3.855]). Cost-effectiveness analyses favored MMM: QALY net gain 0.121 (95% CI 0.045-0.196); the cost-effectiveness ratio was 24,789 Euro/QALY. CONCLUSIONS: Although MMM was potentially cost-effective, the beneficial effects diminished over 3 years post-treatment. The findings highlight the need for strategies to sustain long-term effects.
Reward-network connectivity in childhood predicts multi-domain dysregulation in adolescence.
Giampetruzzi E, Khosravi P, Kircanski K … +3 more , Antonacci C, Pine DS, Gotlib IH
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Mar · PMID 41774020 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Multi-domain dysregulation in adolescence, indexed by co-occurring affective, cognitive, and behavioural difficulties, is a robust transdiagnostic risk factor. However, its developmental course and neural ant...
BACKGROUND: Multi-domain dysregulation in adolescence, indexed by co-occurring affective, cognitive, and behavioural difficulties, is a robust transdiagnostic risk factor. However, its developmental course and neural antecedents are poorly understood. Given heightened emotional reactivity and impulsivity in adolescence, alterations in reward-network connectivity may represent an early neural marker of risk. METHODS: Adolescents completed four assessments approximately two years apart between ages 9-13 and 15-18 years. Multi-domain dysregulation was assessed at each wave using the Youth Self-Report Dysregulation Profile (YSR-DP), computed as the sum of the anxious/depressed, aggressive behaviour, and attention problems subscales. Resting-state fMRI was acquired at baseline (M = 11.34 years). Piecewise linear mixed-effects models (N = 211) characterized trajectories of YSR-DP scores across adolescence. Principal component scores indexing a Latent Dysregulation Factor were used to derive residualised change in dysregulation, and regression analyses (N = 94) tested whether baseline reward-network connectivity predicted this change. RESULTS: YSR-DP scores declined from late childhood to early adolescence, increased from early to mid-adolescence, and then stabilized in late adolescence. Weaker connectivity within the reward network in late childhood predicted greater increases in the latent dysregulation factor from early to mid-adolescence, above and beyond baseline dysregulation. Connectivity in seven large-scale control networks did not predict changes in dysregulation. CONCLUSIONS: Multi-domain dysregulation follows a nonlinear trajectory across adolescence, and weaker reward-network connectivity in childhood prospectively predicts subsequent escalation of this phenotype. Prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from targeting reward processing and regulatory skills in late childhood and early adolescence.
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