J Child Psychol Psychiatry [JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Annual Research Review: Neural mechanisms of eating disorders in youth - from current theory and findings to future directions.
Hagan K, Lloyd EC, Gorrell S
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Apr · PMID 40791012 · Full text
Eating disorders are prevalent and profoundly debilitating psychiatric conditions with multifactorial etiology that frequently manifest during adolescence. This developmental stage is characterized by significant neurost...
Eating disorders are prevalent and profoundly debilitating psychiatric conditions with multifactorial etiology that frequently manifest during adolescence. This developmental stage is characterized by significant neurostructural and neurofunctional change, which may create a context conducive to the emergence of eating pathology. In this Annual Research Review, we examine notable changes in brain structure and function that occur during adolescence and elucidate theoretical models that connect neural modifications to eating disorders. Subsequently, we present a narrative review and critical analysis of the extant research on the neural correlates of eating disorders in adolescents and young adults (up to age 24). We conclude by pinpointing gaps in the literature and highlighting avenues for future inquiries into the neural correlates of eating disorders in youth. Overall, this Annual Research Review emphasizes the scarcity of research focused on the neural correlates of eating disorders in young persons and its predominant emphasis on anorexia nervosa in comparison to other eating disorders thus far. Future neurobiological investigations in adolescent eating disorders hold the promise of advancing our knowledge of these complex conditions and improving therapeutic outcomes through the development of mechanistic interventions.
Editorial Perspective: Issues for DSM 6 - an Alternative Model for Neurodevelopmental Disorders to enhance nosological validity and clinical utility.
Poletti M, Preti A, Raballo A
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Feb · PMID 40759600 · Full text
The categorical diagnostic approach in the DSM-5 for Neurodevelopmental Disorders often reveals significant limitations, as high rates of comorbidity are common across conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, a...
The categorical diagnostic approach in the DSM-5 for Neurodevelopmental Disorders often reveals significant limitations, as high rates of comorbidity are common across conditions such as ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and developmental coordination disorder. This co-occurrence aligns with a neuroconstructive dimensional perspective of neurodevelopment, which emphasizes the interconnectedness of cognitive, motor, and social impairments evolving throughout development. This perspective challenges modular and categorical views of neurodevelopmental phenotypic manifestations. Envisioning the DSM-6, a proposed dimensional Alternative Model for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (AMND) could integrate functioning severity and pathological traits, drawing inspiration from DSM-5 innovations, such as the Autism Spectrum Disorder severity levels. Such a model could facilitate nuanced profiling of individual strengths, needs, and developmental risks, accommodating both categorical and dimensional diagnostic approaches. This framework could also improve early identification of vulnerabilities to severe mental illnesses and clarify the developmental antecedents of adult-onset psychiatric conditions, offering pragmatic insights for clinical interventions and prognosis.
Youth psychotic experiences: psychometric evaluation and diagnostic associations of the CAPE-16 in adolescents from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort.
Birkenæs V, Parekh P, Hegemann L … +10 more , Bakken NR, Frei E, Jaholkowski P, Smeland OB, Susser E, Rodriguez KM, Tesfaye M, Andreassen OA, Havdahl A, Sønderby IE
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40759589 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Adolescent self-reported psychotic experiences are associated with mental illness and could help guide prevention strategies. Youth report substantially more experiences than adults. However, with large socie...
BACKGROUND: Adolescent self-reported psychotic experiences are associated with mental illness and could help guide prevention strategies. Youth report substantially more experiences than adults. However, with large societal changes like the digital revolution and COVID-19 pandemic, existing questionnaires may no longer accurately capture youth experiences. We aimed to determine the ability of the CAPE-16 questionnaire in capturing psychotic experiences across contexts (biological sex and COVID-19 response) and generations, thereby validating important psychometric aspects of the tool in modern adolescents. METHODS: We used data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Study (MoBa), a population-based pregnancy cohort. Adolescents responded to the CAPE-16 questionnaire (n = 18,835). For a comparison between age groups, we included adult men from the parent generation who responded to the CAPE-9 (n = 28,793). We investigated the psychometric properties of CAPE-16 through confirmatory factor analyses, measurement invariance testing across biological sex, response before/during the COVID-19 pandemic, and generations (adolescents and fathers), and examined subscale and item-level associations with subsequent registry-based psychiatric diagnoses (average time between CAPE and last registry update: 3.68 ± 1.34 years). RESULTS: Out of 18,835 adolescents, 33.2% reported lifetime psychotic experiences. We confirmed a three-factor structure (paranoia, bizarre thoughts, and hallucinations) and good subscale reliability (ω = .86 and .90). CAPE-16 scores were stable across biological sex and pandemic status. CAPE-9 response patterns were non-invariant across adolescents and adult men, with an item related to digital technology particularly prone to bias. CAPE-16 subscales were associated with subsequent psychiatric diagnoses, especially psychotic disorders. CONCLUSIONS: CAPE-16 is a reliable measure of psychotic experiences across sex and a major societal stressor in adolescents. More frequent and distressing experiences increase the risk of subsequent psychiatric diagnoses. Different response patterns between adults and adolescents for items related to digital technology suggest differences in interpretation. Hence, certain items may benefit from revisions.
Impaired sensory-motor integration in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder during visual search.
Li D, Luo X, Dang C … +8 more , Kong Y, Li Y, Zhu Y, Huang J, Wang Y, Guo J, Sun L, Song Y
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40759587 · Publisher ↗
OBJECTIVE: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in school-age children. Abnormal sensory-motor integration, such as concurrent visuomotor selection, is a prominent featu...
OBJECTIVE: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder in school-age children. Abnormal sensory-motor integration, such as concurrent visuomotor selection, is a prominent feature of ADHD. However, underlying pathophysiological substrates of impaired sensory-motor integration in childhood ADHD remain unclear. Identifying neural markers of cognitive impairment in children with ADHD is vital for the early assisted diagnosis and the selection of intervention targets. METHODS: We collected electroencephalography (EEG) signals from 70 children with ADHD and 65 matched typically developing (TD) children while performing a visual search task. Oscillation-based multivariate pattern decoding was used to investigate visuomotor coordination during spatial attention. RESULTS: Compared with TD children, children with ADHD showed impairments in accuracy, response time, and response time variability. Multivariate machine learning revealed that the ADHD group showed deficits in alpha (visual-related) and beta (motor-related) power-based decoding accuracy, indicating the impaired sensory orienting and motor preparation. Importantly, children with ADHD exhibited a delay between alpha and beta decoding, suggesting a deficit of concurrent visuomotor coordination. However, this visuomotor asynchrony was absent in TD children. Furthermore, the degree of visuomotor asynchrony between alpha and beta decoding was predictive of behavioral impairments and symptom severity in children with ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: These observations reveal that impaired concurrent visuomotor coordination might be a potential neural marker of impaired sensory-motor integration in children with ADHD, further advancing the understanding of cognitive deficits, and providing potential research directions for the early diagnosis and optimization of intervention in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Parental income and psychiatric disorders from age 10 to 40: a genetically informative population study.
Sunde HF, Eilertsen EM, Kinge JM … +5 more , Kleppesto TH, Nordmo M, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Torvik FA
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40757633 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Lower parental income is associated with more psychiatric disorders among offspring, but it is unclear if this association reflects effects of parental income (social causation) or shared risk factors (social...
BACKGROUND: Lower parental income is associated with more psychiatric disorders among offspring, but it is unclear if this association reflects effects of parental income (social causation) or shared risk factors (social selection). Prior research finds contradictory results, which may be due to age differences between the studied offspring. METHODS: Here, we studied psychiatric disorders in the entire Norwegian population aged 10 to 40 years between 2006 and 2018 (N = 2,468,503). By linking tax registries to administrative health registries, we described prevalence rates by age, sex, and parental income rank. Next, we grouped observations into age groups (adolescence, ages 10-20 years; early adulthood, 21-30 years; adulthood, 30-40 years) and applied kinship-based models with extended families of twins and siblings to decompose the parent-offspring correlation into phenotypic transmission, passive genetic transmission, and passive environmental transmission. RESULTS: We found that lower parental income rank was associated with higher prevalence of nearly all psychiatric disorders, except for eating disorders, for both men and women at all ages from 10 to 40 years. Comparing the top with the bottom paternal income quartile, the prevalence ratio of any psychiatric disorder was 0.47 among 10-year-olds and decreased to 0.72 among 40-year-olds. The parent-offspring correlation was -.15 in adolescence, -.10 in early adulthood, and -.06 in adulthood. The kinship-based models indicated that phenotypic transmission could account for 39% of the parent-offspring correlation among adolescents (p < .001), but with no significant contribution in early adulthood (p = .181) or adulthood (p = .737). Passive genetic and environmental transmission contributed to the parent-offspring correlation in all age groups (all p's < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are consistent with a significant role of social causation during adolescence, while social selection could fully explain the parent-offspring correlation in adulthood.
Effects of social context information on neural face processing in youth with social anxiety disorder.
Rauschenbach AL, Hauffe V, Fink-Lamotte J … +2 more , Tuschen-Caffier B, Schmitz J
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 May · PMID 40757613 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in youth is associated with significant psychosocial impairments; however, the cognitive and neural mechanisms that maintain it, particularly during childhood and adolescence, re...
BACKGROUND: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in youth is associated with significant psychosocial impairments; however, the cognitive and neural mechanisms that maintain it, particularly during childhood and adolescence, remain underexplored. Cognitive models emphasize the role of altered face processing, and neutral facial expressions may be perceived as threatening. Due to their ambiguous nature, contextual cues may play a particularly important role in interpretation. METHODS: We presented neutral child faces paired with social context information varying in valence (negative, neutral, positive) while continuous EEG was recorded. Subjective valence ratings and neural responses (P100, N170, and LPP) were assessed in children and adolescents aged 10-15 years with SAD (n = 53), clinical controls with specific phobias (SP; n = 41), and healthy controls (HC; n = 61). RESULTS: Overall, context information affected both the subjective and neural responses to neutral faces in all children and adolescents, for example, more negative ratings for negatively contextualized faces. Further, participants with SAD generally rated all faces as more negative compared to HCs. Neurally, they showed lower N170 amplitudes compared to both control groups in response to all neutral faces, independent of the context valence. However, only younger children (aged 10-12 years) with SAD showed higher LPP amplitudes than younger HCs. CONCLUSIONS: Processing biases seem to be already present in children and adolescents with SAD, both at the subjective and neural level. Social context information influences neutral face processing but is independent of psychopathology. Future studies examining age effects are needed to investigate whether childhood reflects a particularly sensitive period for the development of processing biases.
The longitudinal role of sleep on self-harm during adolescence: A birth cohort study.
Pawley M, Morales-Muñoz I, Bagshaw AP … +1 more , Tang NKY
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40757588 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Sleep problems and self-harm during adolescence are both highly common and major public health concerns, yet the nature of their relationship remains poorly understood. This study examined the cross-sectional...
BACKGROUND: Sleep problems and self-harm during adolescence are both highly common and major public health concerns, yet the nature of their relationship remains poorly understood. This study examined the cross-sectional and long-term effects of several sleep phenotypes on self-harm and whether decision-making moderated this relationship. METHODS: Data was utilised from the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 10,477, Female = 5,314 [50.72%]) when individuals were approximately 9 months, 14 years and 17 years of age. Sleep variables available were measured at 14 years and included sleep duration on weekdays and weekends, social jetlag, sleep onset latency and night awakenings. Self-harm was measured at 14 and 17 years. The Cambridge Gambling Task assessed rational decision-making at 14 years. RESULTS: Cross-sectionally, shorter sleep duration on school days (AOR = 0.875; 95% CI = 0.820, 0.933; p < .001), longer sleep onset latency (AOR = 1.005; 95% CI = 1.002, 1.007; p < .001) and more frequent night awakenings (AOR = 1.140; 95% CI = 1.086, 1.197; p < .001) were significantly associated with self-harm at 14, even when controlling for demographic and clinical covariates. Longitudinal results indicated that shorter sleep duration on school days (AOR = 0.926; 95% CI = 0.874-0.982; p = .010), longer sleep onset latency (AOR = 1.003; 95% CI = 1.001-1.005; p = .008) and more frequent night awakenings (AOR = 1.090; 95% CI = 1.043-1.139; p < .001) also had a direct prospective effect on self-harm at 17 when controlling for demographic and clinical factors. Rational decision-making as measured by the Cambridge Gambling Task did not significantly contribute to this relationship. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the prospective association between short sleep duration, increased sleep onset latency, fragmented sleep and self-harm during adolescence. Ensuring adolescents obtain enough good quality, uninterrupted sleep appears critical to prevent engagement with self-harm.
Evocative effects of children's education-associated genetics on maternal parenting: results from the Norwegian mother, father and child cohort study.
Austerberry C, Zayats T, Ronald A … +8 more , Corfield E, Smajlagic D, Havdahl A, Andreassen OA, Magnus P, Njølstad PR, Bekkhus M, Fearon P
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Feb · PMID 40757461 · Full text
BACKGROUND: It has long been hypothesized that increasing heritability with age of cognitive and educational performance is partly attributable to evocative gene-environment correlation. However, this hypothesis has not...
BACKGROUND: It has long been hypothesized that increasing heritability with age of cognitive and educational performance is partly attributable to evocative gene-environment correlation. However, this hypothesis has not been widely tested. METHODS: We addressed this gap by examining whether children's education polygenic scores (PGS) were associated with maternal self-reported positive and literacy-focused parenting when children were 5 years old, and if evoked parenting differences mediated genetic effects on children's educational outcomes (mother-reported at 6-8 years of age), while controlling for parental PGS. We also investigated whether maternal reports of children's language at 5 years old were associated with parenting and mediated genetic effects on educational performance. These questions were addressed in a sample of 83,627 parent-offspring trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, a longitudinal population-based pregnancy cohort. RESULTS: Children's PGS were significantly associated with maternal literacy-focused (β = .03, 95% CI [0.01, 0.05], p = .021) but not positive parenting (β = 0.01, 95% CI [-0.02, 0.05], p = .410), and literacy-focused parenting significantly mediated the effects of children's PGS on their educational performance (β = 0.01, 95% CI [1 × 10, 0.01], p = .023). Children's language was associated with maternal parenting and mediated the effects of children's PGS on their educational performance (β = 0.01, 95% CI [3 × 10, 0.02], p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support our hypotheses and suggest early language and parenting may be mechanisms implicated in the pathways from children's genetics to their educational outcomes.
Motor stereotypies in toddlers with and without autism: A transdiagnostic dimension.
Chawarska K, Fernandez TV, Milgramm A … +6 more , Volkmar F, Torres-Viso M, Powell K, Vernetti A, Macari S, Morgan C
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40757458 · Publisher ↗
BACKGROUND: Motor stereotypies (MS) represent one of the transdiagnostic symptom dimensions identified by the NIMH Research Domain Criteria work group as relevant to psychopathology. MS are common in neurodevelopmental c...
BACKGROUND: Motor stereotypies (MS) represent one of the transdiagnostic symptom dimensions identified by the NIMH Research Domain Criteria work group as relevant to psychopathology. MS are common in neurodevelopmental conditions, but they remain poorly understood, particularly in early childhood. The present study examined MS in 648 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (autism, n = 455) and other neurodevelopmental conditions (non-autism, n = 193) and their concurrent and prospective links with other phenotypic characteristics. METHODS: Toddlers were recruited between February 2000 and October 2018 and evaluated at 24 +/- 5 months (Time 1, N = 648) and 41 +/- 6 months (Time 2, N = 455). The presence of MS was determined based on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule assessment. The phenotypic measures included adaptive socialization skills, severity of social symptoms of autism, and verbal, nonverbal, and motor skills. The analysis was conducted using the general linear models while controlling for age, sex, visit year, group, and other relevant covariates. RESULTS: MS were present in both groups, but were more common and intense in autism, and their prevalence did not vary by sex in either group. Regardless of group, MS was associated concurrently with higher social-affective symptoms [p < .001, = .034], lower socialization [p = .001, = .017], expressive language [p = .008, = .011], visual reception [p = .002, = .015], fine motor [p < .001, = .020] and gross motor [p < .001, = .032] scores, and prospectively with higher social-affective symptoms [p = .011, = .014], lower socialization [p = .039, = .009], and lower verbal scores [p < .014, = .013]. CONCLUSIONS: Motor stereotypies are present in toddlers with and without autism and may represent a distinct transdiagnostic dimension expressed early in development, associated with core developmental skills and, putatively, characterized by shared pathophysiology across neurodevelopmental conditions.
Competition between the positive youth development and the psychopathological system among adolescents: less vulnerability or more scarring?
Huang S, Lei H, Yang Z … +4 more , Lai X, Wang X, Zhang C, Wang Y
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40757405 · Full text
BACKGROUND: The alleviating effect of positive youth development (PYD) on psychopathological symptoms (PS) represents the less vulnerability hypothesis, while the damaging effect of PS on PYD represents the competitional...
BACKGROUND: The alleviating effect of positive youth development (PYD) on psychopathological symptoms (PS) represents the less vulnerability hypothesis, while the damaging effect of PS on PYD represents the competitional hypothesis or the scar hypothesis. This study aims to explore which hypothesis is more dominant and which component of PYD plays the central role across developmental stages and environmental adversity. METHOD: Two longitudinal waves of 40,473 Chinese adolescents (48.4% girls, M = 12.67 ± 2.28) were analysed via a cross-lagged network panel model. RESULTS: The results showed that competition indeed exists between the PYD and PS systems, while the alleviating effect of the PYD is greater than the damaging effect of the PS system, but less than the self-loop effect within the PS system. The PYD components with the most alleviating effects are self-esteem, emotion regulation and self-regulation. With adolescents maturing (early, middle and late adolescence), the alleviating effect surpasses the damaging effect and self-loop effect in the PS system. When adversity (low, moderate and high) increases in severity, the alleviating effect also surpasses the damaging effect and self-loop effect in the PS system. In addition, resilience plays a central role in alleviating the PS system only when adversity is high. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with the scar hypothesis, the less vulnerability hypothesis showed a more powerful impact. Early and adversity-aimed interventions aimed at promoting adolescents' positive attributes are the most beneficial. The central PYD components should be treated as core targets in future intervention programs.
Multilevel risk and protective factors for self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in adolescents.
Calear AL, Batterham PJ, Werner-Seidler A … +5 more , Maston K, Torok M, O'Dea B, Larsen ME, Christensen H
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 May · PMID 40757402 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Better characterising risk and protective factors for suicidal distress and self-harm in adolescents may facilitate better targeting of interventions that address underlying vulnerabilities. However, few prev...
BACKGROUND: Better characterising risk and protective factors for suicidal distress and self-harm in adolescents may facilitate better targeting of interventions that address underlying vulnerabilities. However, few previous longitudinal studies have: (1) sufficient power to identify key risk and protective factors, (2) limited representativeness to the community and (3) accounted for multilevel factors (individual, family, community). This study aimed to assess prevalence and identify risk and protective factors for self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in a large cohort of Australian adolescents. METHODS: Data from 4,122 adolescents from 134 Australian schools were collected as part of the Future Proofing Study, a prospective cohort study of adolescent mental health and wellbeing. Generalised linear mixed models were used to assess the effect of baseline mental health, lifestyle, social and school-level factors on self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt at 12-month follow-up. RESULTS: At 12-month follow-up, 17.7% of adolescents reported self-harming behaviour, 18.6% reported suicidal ideation and 3.0% reported a suicide attempt. In addition to mental health history, female and gender-diverse identities, LGBTQA+ identity and greater levels of prosocial behaviour were significantly associated with self-harm and suicidal ideation. Peer problems were associated with suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. CONCLUSIONS: Rates of suicidal distress and self-harm remain high in Australian adolescents. Reducing symptoms of depression, improving peer relationships, mitigating online bullying and providing social support for families may be suitable targets for future prevention and early intervention programs.
Avoidance habit learning in adolescents and young women with anorexia nervosa: an fMRI study.
Hennig J, Boehm I, Zwosta K … +12 more , King JA, Geisler D, Ruge H, Seidel M, Bernardoni F, Hellerhoff I, Doose A, Pauligk S, Leschzinski H, Roessner V, Wolfensteller U, Ehrlich S
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40744019 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa (AN), often with an onset in adolescence, is a complex eating disorder characterized by distorted body image, fear of weight gain, and extreme food restriction, leading to severe underweight....
BACKGROUND: Anorexia nervosa (AN), often with an onset in adolescence, is a complex eating disorder characterized by distorted body image, fear of weight gain, and extreme food restriction, leading to severe underweight. Excessive goal pursuit and avoidance behaviors have been proposed as key factors in AN, which over time may become over-trained into habits. METHODS: This study investigated the behavioral and neural correlates of habit learning in AN with an experiment consisting of three consecutive phases: (1) training goal-directed behavior, (2) avoidance learning, and (3) a habit test. Forty-five acutely underweight adolescent female patients with AN and 45 age-matched healthy control participants underwent an fMRI scan. RESULTS: No behavioral group differences were evident either during learning of avoidance habits or when testing habit strength. Importantly, however, the AN group showed both generally superior task performance and increased involvement of the frontoparietal brain regions during habit learning. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our findings provide novel evidence suggesting that excessive goal pursuit may predominate in young AN in an avoidance learning context. Future research should examine if this tendency develops into habit learning over time and investigate the speed and strength of avoidance habit formation in adults with a longer history of AN to further elucidate the intricate dynamic between goal-directed and habitual processes in the disorder.
Editorial: The pressing need to investigate the effects of media immersion in early childhood on brain and behavioral development.
Donohue MR, Camacho MC, Luby J
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Sep · PMID 40734381 · Publisher ↗
Over the past several years, increasingly younger children are being exposed to significant amounts of media, while at the same time parental monitoring of young children's media exposure is decreasing. Increasing media...
Over the past several years, increasingly younger children are being exposed to significant amounts of media, while at the same time parental monitoring of young children's media exposure is decreasing. Increasing media exposure in young children, including increased exposure to media with aggressive, violent, or otherwise inappropriate content, has potential adverse consequences for social, emotional, and neural development. Adverse effects are potentially greater in early childhood given the high neuroplasticity of this period. Despite this, very little research has rigorously examined potential detrimental consequences of exposure to excessive and/or inappropriate media during early childhood. The purpose of this article is to discuss potential adverse developmental effects of early childhood media exposure and to suggest directions for critically needed future research on these potential effects.
Trajectories of psychotic-like experiences in youth and associations with lifestyle factors.
Cooper R, van der Ven E, Jalbrzikowski M
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2026 Jan · PMID 40729543 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Persistent and/or distressing psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) during adolescence are associated with poorer subsequent psychiatric outcomes. Modifiable lifestyle factors (such as sleep quality or regular ex...
BACKGROUND: Persistent and/or distressing psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) during adolescence are associated with poorer subsequent psychiatric outcomes. Modifiable lifestyle factors (such as sleep quality or regular exercise) may improve mental health outcomes; however, it is unknown how lifestyle factors are linked to trajectories of PLEs. METHODS: Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 10,075, age 9-10 years at baseline), we characterized trajectories of PLEs using latent growth mixture models assessed using the Prodromal Questionnaire-Brief Child Version. We examined trajectories of Total and Distress scores. We used multinomial logistic regressions to examine associations between baseline lifestyle behaviors (including self-reported screen time, physical activity and caffeine intake, and parent-reported sleep disturbances and recreational activities) and PLE trajectories. RESULTS: We identified four trajectories of distress-related PLEs: No Distress (27%), Rapid Decreasing (17%), Gradual Decreasing (36%), and Persistent Elevated Distress (21%). Compared with the No Distress trajectory, individuals in the Persistent Elevated Distress trajectory spent more time using screens (adjusted Odds Ratio [OR] 2.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.03-2.53), had higher caffeine intake (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.28-2.04), greater sleep disturbance (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.45-1.73), participated in fewer recreational activities (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.68-0.83) and less frequent physical activity (OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.74-0.89). Greater screen time and sleep disturbances further distinguished the most severe group from all other trajectories. Findings were similar when examining total scores. Results remained statistically significant when we included established risk factors of psychosis in each model. CONCLUSIONS: Lifestyle factors associate with trajectories of PLE-related distress, providing novel tools for intervention and risk prediction.
Emotional burden in school as a source of mental health problems associated with ADHD and/or autism: Development and validation of a new co-produced self-report measure.
Lukito S, Chandler S, Kakoulidou M … +8 more , Griffiths K, Wyatt A, Funnell E, Pavlopoulou G, Baker S, Stahl D, Sonuga-Barke E, RE‐STAR team
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Oct · PMID 40707015 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are elevated in adolescents with ADHD and/or autism. Emotion regulation deficits (ERD) have been hypothesised as a key driver of such difficulties. The Regulating Emotions - Strengtheni...
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are elevated in adolescents with ADHD and/or autism. Emotion regulation deficits (ERD) have been hypothesised as a key driver of such difficulties. The Regulating Emotions - Strengthening Adolescent Resilience (RE-STAR) programme is examining an alternative pathway from neurodivergence to mental health problems, mediated by elevated emotional burden (EB) resulting from the interplay of increased exposure and an unusually intense emotional reaction to commonly upsetting events (CUEs). We present the development and application of the My Emotions in School Inventory (MESI), a self-report questionnaire co-produced with neurodivergent young people, focusing on EB in schools - a setting thought to be of particular significance in this regard. METHODS: The MESI, containing 25 school-related CUEs rated on their frequency and the intensity of negative emotions they induce, was completed by secondary school students meeting symptom cut-offs on clinically validated scales of ADHD (n = 100), autism (n = 104), ADHD + autism (n = 79) and neurotypical students (n = 452). Psychometric properties were examined. The ability of the MESI to discriminate adolescents with ADHD and/or autism from neurotypical adolescents, and to predict depression and anxiety, independently of ERD, was explored. RESULTS: Adolescents in the ADHD and/or autism groups experienced higher CUE frequency and intensity of reaction than their neurotypical peers. Overall levels of EB, most robustly indexed by 24 MESI CUEs, were higher in the three neurodivergent groups, though they did not differ from each other. EB in the autism and ADHD groups was generated by distinctly different CUEs. EB and ERD each contributed independently to the prediction of higher depression or anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings illustrate the potential value of the MESI as an instrument to measure the contribution of EB alongside ERD in relation to adolescent mental health risks in ADHD and/or autism. Future studies need to investigate its role longitudinally.
Examining the association between cognitive ability and emotional problems across childhood using a genetically informative design: could there be a causal relationship?
Han MX, Voronin I, Malanchini M … +1 more , McAdams TA
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Dec · PMID 40667738 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Emotional problems co-occur with difficulties in verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability, yet the pathways underlying their association remain poorly understood: It is unclear whether effects may be causal, an...
BACKGROUND: Emotional problems co-occur with difficulties in verbal and nonverbal cognitive ability, yet the pathways underlying their association remain poorly understood: It is unclear whether effects may be causal, and to what extent they may run from cognition to emotion, or vice versa. METHODS: Our preregistered analyses included 5,124 twin pairs from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). At ages 7, 9 and 12, emotional problems were assessed through the strengths and difficulties questionnaire, and cognition was assessed using task-based measures. Cross-lagged models examined the influence of cognition and subdomains of verbal and nonverbal abilities on emotional problems and vice versa, across development. Genetic cross-lagged models examined the effect of cognition on emotional problems and vice versa, after controlling for shared genetic and environmental influence. RESULTS: Cross-lagged paths in both directions were observed between cognitive ability and emotional problems (from -0.11 to -0.05). Cross-lagged associations that persisted after accounting for common genetic and environmental influences were between nonverbal ability and emotional problems. Higher emotional problems at age 7 predicted lower nonverbal ability at age 9, with 22% of the phenotypic association remaining. This, in turn, predicted greater emotional problems at age 12, with 13% of the association remaining. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic and environmental factors accounted for a large proportion of the cross-lagged associations. Emotional problems in early childhood could result in a cascade effect, leading to lower nonverbal cognition in middle childhood, which increases the risk of emotional problems in late childhood. These findings highlight the importance of age- and domain-specific interventions.
Fostering positive mental health outcomes in vulnerable children: Pathways to resilience after preterm birth.
Twilhaar ES, Wolke D
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Dec · PMID 40665809 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Children born preterm (<37 weeks' gestation) are at increased risk of mental health problems, and their mental health outcomes have not improved in the past decades. This study aims to (1) determine the degre...
BACKGROUND: Children born preterm (<37 weeks' gestation) are at increased risk of mental health problems, and their mental health outcomes have not improved in the past decades. This study aims to (1) determine the degree of mental health resilience in preterm-born children; (2) identify modifiable factors at individual, parent-child, family, peer group, and neighbourhood levels associated with resilience; (3) explore differential effects of factors based on sex and contextual adversity. METHODS: Preterm-born children from the Bavarian Longitudinal Study (BLS; n = 574) born in Germany (1985-1986) and Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; n = 985) born in the UK (2000-2002) were assessed prospectively at 7 (MCS) or 8 (BLS) years. Resilience was defined as better-than-expected mental health outcomes, using a residuals approach. Potential promotive factors included (1) individual: self-regulation, perceived competence, cognition; (2) parent-child relationships; (3) family: home environment, interparental relationship, social support, sibling relationships; (4) peers: bullying, friendships; and (5) neighbourhood characteristics. Associations between promotive factors and resilience were tested using regression-based methods, with sex and contextual adversity (adverse life events, psychosocial stress, socioeconomic deprivation) as moderators and mediators. RESULTS: The following factors were consistently (in both cohorts) associated with resilience: (1) individual: regulatory abilities, cognition; (2) parent-child: mother-child relationship; (3) family: authoritative and structured climate, interparental relationship; (4) peers: bullying. Regulatory abilities showed independent effect in both cohorts. Collectively, factors explained 30%-41% of the variance in resilience. Effects were similar across sex and contextual adversity, but promotive factors were less prevalent in boys and adverse contexts. Particularly in the UK, promotive resources were scarce amidst contextual adversity, which explained the lower resilience of children living in adversity. CONCLUSIONS: This study identified modifiable factors such as child self-regulation, interparental relationships, and bullying that - if improved - have a high potential for improving mental health outcomes in preterm-born children.
Childhood Mild Traumatic Brain Injury is Reliably Associated with Anxiety but Not Other Examined Psychiatric Outcomes at Two-Year Follow-up, After Adjusting for Prior Mental Health.
Revill G, Poole N, Carlisi C … +2 more , David AS, Bell V
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Dec · PMID 40660870 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Evidence that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) causes psychiatric problems in children has been mixed. Investigating this issue has been difficult due to the lack of representative longitudinal data that in...
BACKGROUND: Evidence that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) causes psychiatric problems in children has been mixed. Investigating this issue has been difficult due to the lack of representative longitudinal data that includes adequate measures of mTBI, subsequent mental health symptoms and service use. METHODS: We used data from the ABCD longitudinal cohort study to examine the association between mTBI and psychiatric diagnoses, symptoms and psychiatric service use in over 11,000 children. In both children reporting (i) previous mTBI at baseline and (ii) previously uninjured children reporting new cases of mTBI since baseline, we examined psychiatric outcomes and service use at 2-year follow-up. We also compared mTBI cases to a comparison group of participants with orthopaedic injury but without mTBI. Mixed-effects models were used and adjusted for demographic and social covariates, with missing data imputed using random forest multiple imputation. To account for baseline mental health, we used propensity-score matching to identify a comparison sample matched on confounding variables and baseline outcome measures. RESULTS: When examined without adjustment for baseline mental health, both lifetime mTBI at baseline and new occurrence of mTBI at 2-year follow-up were reliably associated with an increased risk of DSM-5 anxiety and behavioural disorders, a range of psychiatric symptom scores and increased service use. Controlling for baseline mental health in the mTBI group using propensity-score matching eliminated all statistically reliable associations apart from anxiety disorder diagnosis and symptoms, which remain associated at 2-year follow-up. Evidence for association with medication use was inconsistent. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent evidence supporting an association between paediatric mTBI and subsequent anxiety was found; however, similar associations were not observed for other mental health outcomes. Regardless of potential causality, children with mTBI are likely to present with high levels of mental health difficulties, and this remains an important comorbidity that clinicians should be aware of.
Research Review: What we have learned about early detection and intervention of borderline personality disorder.
Kaess M, Cavelti M
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Dec · PMID 40659496 · Full text
BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) typically emerges during adolescence and early adulthood and has severe personal, social and economic consequences. Despite significant research efforts on early interven...
BACKGROUND: Borderline personality disorder (BPD) typically emerges during adolescence and early adulthood and has severe personal, social and economic consequences. Despite significant research efforts on early intervention over the past two decades, delays in diagnosis and treatment are still common, and exclusion of individuals with BPD from mental health services is prevalent. METHODS: In order to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice, this review qualitatively synthesises empirical evidence on early intervention for BPD, addressing four key questions: (1) Should BPD be diagnosed in adolescents? (2) How is BPD diagnosed in adolescents? (3) Is adolescent BPD treatable, and how effective are treatments? and (4) Can BPD development be prevented? FINDINGS: Evidence supports diagnosing BPD in adolescents from the age of 12 years, with validated diagnostic measures available. While outpatient, disorder-specific psychotherapy has shown efficacy in reducing BPD symptoms and self-harm in youth, the evidence is limited by the small number of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), small sample sizes, heterogeneous inclusion criteria, varying control interventions and high risk of bias. Indicated prevention targeting subthreshold BPD symptoms shows promise, but further research is needed on selective and universal prevention strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Enhancing healthcare professionals' knowledge about early diagnosis and treatment for BPD appears necessary in order to reduce the reluctance to diagnose the disorder in adolescence, which is recommended by many national treatment guidelines today. Additionally, large-scale, rigorous RCTs are necessary to establish the superiority of disorder-specific treatments over standard care and explore novel service models that offer easily accessible and scalable evidence-based care for young people with BPD features.
Parent-child similarity on autism and ADHD traits and children's social functioning and psychological well-being at 3 years.
Wechsler DL, Jones EJH, Pasco G … +5 more , Bazelmans T, Begum-Ali J, Johnson MH, Charman T, BASIS/STAARS Team
J Child Psychol Psychiatry · 2025 Dec · PMID 40650388 · Full text
BACKGROUND: There is a pressing need for research on neurodevelopmental conditions to focus on predictors of resilient or positive outcomes, rather than core symptoms and impairment. One promising avenue is to consider w...
BACKGROUND: There is a pressing need for research on neurodevelopmental conditions to focus on predictors of resilient or positive outcomes, rather than core symptoms and impairment. One promising avenue is to consider whether child-parent similarity contributes to a protective family environment. For instance, investigations of the similarity-fit hypothesis have shown that parent-child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) trait similarity is associated with more favourable parent or child ratings of parenting and parent-child interaction. However, very little similarity-fit research has focused on autism, and none to date has investigated whether parent-child trait similarity is more broadly predictive of children's outcomes beyond parent-child interaction. We assessed whether parent-child autism and ADHD trait similarity predicted children's social functioning and psychological well-being in early childhood in a family history cohort. METHODS: Our analytic sample comprised 222 children (45.5% female) and their parents from a longitudinal family history (autism and/or ADHD) cohort. A novel parent-child trait similarity measure was computed for autism and ADHD traits in each parent-child pair, and robust hierarchical regression was used to assess whether mother-child and father-child autism and ADHD similarity predicted children's social functioning and psychological well-being at age 3 years, after accounting for the main effects of parent and child traits. RESULTS: Mother-child autism trait similarity positively predicted both social functioning and psychological well-being in children, while mother-child ADHD trait similarity positively predicted children's social functioning (but not well-being). Furthermore, father-child autism trait similarity positively predicted children's social functioning, though it fell just short of statistical significance in outlier-robust regression. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that parent-child neurodevelopmental trait similarity may act as a protective or promotive factor for children's early social functioning and psychological well-being. Further work is warranted to determine whether there are similar effects in later childhood and to investigate the potential mechanisms underlying similarity-fit effects on children's outcomes.
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