Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology最新文献

Parental factors have a profound implication on adolescents' depressive symptoms. Parents' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) shape their parenting, thus predicting the next generation's mental health. This study explored the mediating role of parenting stress and parent-child attachment in the correlation between both paternal and maternal ACEs and adolescents' depressive symptoms. Additionally, the study aimed to explore whether parental ACEs influence both one's own and the partner's parenting stress and attachment, ultimately predicting adolescent depressive symptoms. We recruited 533 Chinese families for this study. Fathers and mothers completed questionnaires assessing ACEs and parenting stress at Time 1. Adolescents (59.8% girls, M_age = 13.45 ± 0.78) completed a questionnaire on parent-child attachment at Time 2 and the questionnaire on depressive symptoms at both Time 2 and Time 3. We did not find the direct relationship between parental ACEs and adolescent depressive symptoms. However, both paternal and maternal ACEs were found to influence mother-child attachment through maternal, but not paternal, parenting stress and subsequently led to depressive symptoms in adolescents. Moreover, some specific pathways exhibited variations between genders. These findings highlight the vital influence of parenting stress and mother-child attachment in breaking the prediction of parental ACEs on adolescents' depressive symptoms and underscore the importance of promoting positive mother-child interactions.

Anhedonia is a hallmark symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD) characterized by diminished ability to experience pleasure, motivation, or interest in usual activities. Anhedonia also is recognized as a transdiagnostic symptom dimension, but its links to other symptom dimensions are not fully elucidated. Given the high rates of depression and anxiety comorbidity in adolescence, we assessed concurrent and longitudinal associations between anhedonia and anxiety symptoms in adolescents diagnosed with MDD. The sample consisted of 157 adolescents with MDD (M_age = 15.54, 71.34% female) who were followed for several years in a research context involving longitudinal observation and, for a portion of the sample, treatment. Participants regularly completed self-report measures of anhedonia and anxiety symptoms across time. Data were analyzed using multilevel modeling to examine within-person concurrent and temporally lagged effects. Findings indicated that anhedonia was concurrently associated with both social anxiety and generalized anxiety symptoms. Additionally, anhedonia predicted only social anxiety symptoms over time-such that anhedonia at the previous time point predicted subsequent social anxiety but not generalized anxiety. However, neither social anxiety nor generalized anxiety predicted anhedonia temporally. These results suggest that anhedonia may be one driver of comorbid social anxiety symptoms in adolescents with MDD. Putative mechanistic links warrant further investigation, including during transdiagnostic treatments for emotional disorders in adolescents. We highlight avenues for future research and intervention in adolescent MDD.

Suicidal ideation is a critical public health concern, particularly during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. This study examined longitudinal trajectories of suicidal ideation and their psychosocial and demographic predictors. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 6,490), we applied latent growth curve modeling to assess overall trends and latent class growth analysis to identify distinct subgroups. The results showed a quadratic decline in suicidal ideation over time and identified four distinct trajectory classes: (1) Stable Low Ideation; (2) Moderate Decline Ideation; (3) High Decline, Ideation; and (4) Severe Decline Ideation. Several predictors-including life satisfaction, school belonging, depression, parental relationships, sex, immigrant status, and socioeconomic status-were significantly associated with both the level and trajectory of suicidal ideation, as well as class membership. These findings underscore the importance of early, targeted interventions tailored to both shared and subgroup-specific risk factors to effectively reduce suicidal ideation across developmental stages.

Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs), encompassing both nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidality, are a growing public health concern in youth. Although maternal depression is a well-established risk factor for psychopathology in offspring, less is known about protective factors that may mitigate this risk. Peer social support, particularly during the transition to adolescence, may play a critical role in reducing risk for SITBs, yet limited research has examined the potential impact of different domains of peer influence (e.g., close friends versus classmates) as specific and distinct facets of the peer environment. In a two-year longitudinal study, we assessed SITBs in 215 children (ages 8-14), half of whom had mothers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD) during their child's life. We hypothesized that maternal MDD would predict increased risk of SITBs in children but that higher levels of peer social support would buffer this effect. Survival analyses confirmed that children of mothers with MDD were over twice as likely to develop SITBs during the follow-up. Importantly, higher levels of social support from classmates uniquely predicted reduced risk for SITBs in children, even after accounting for the influence of maternal MDD history. Our findings highlight the role of broad peer environments in protecting against SITBs in youth. These results underscore the importance of school-based interventions that foster social inclusion as potential preventive measures for SITBs.

Life history framework underscores the importance of time perspective in studies on dark personality development and its outcomes. This study aims to examine the potential role of future negative insight between Dark Triad and antisocial attitudes through a temporal process. Data were collected from 245 participants (120 boys, 125 girls; mean age = 15.58, SD = 1.76) across three time points in a longitudinal design. Study 1 used structural equation modeling (SEM) with baseline data (T1) to examine the mediating role of future negative insight in the relationship between Dark Triad traits and antisocial attitudes. Study 2 employed a three-wave Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model (RI-CLPM) to investigate the dynamic relationships among them. Study 1's SEM analysis demonstrated that future negative insight significantly mediated the relationship between Dark Triad traits and antisocial attitudes. Study 2's RI-CLPM revealed intricate cross-lagged associations among Dark Triad traits, future negative insight, and antisocial attitudes, underscoring their temporal dynamics and longitudinal interdependence. These findings highlight the motivational process and psychological developmental mechanisms underlying the link between dark personality traits and antisocial outcomes from a temporal perspective.

This study examined changes in the agreement, stability, and validity of parent and self-reports of a commonly used measure of youth depression symptoms, the Children's Depression Inventory, from childhood through adolescence. The study consists of 530 families (youth, mothers, and fathers) assessed at ages 9, 12, and 15. Agreement between youth and each parent on youth depression symptoms was modest but significant at age 9, while agreement between mothers and fathers was high. At age 12, agreement between youth and parents increased; agreement between parents was again high. At age 15, mother-youth and father-youth agreement did not change from age 12, but mother-youth agreement was higher than father-youth agreement. Agreement between parents remained high. Stability of youth-reported depression symptoms was low between ages 9 and 12 but high from ages 12 to 15. Parent-reported youth depression symptoms demonstrated greater stability than youth reports from 9 to 12 but similar stability to youth from 12 to 15. At age 9, parent-reported symptoms predicted concurrent and subsequent depressive diagnoses, however the youth reports did not. At age 12, parent-reported symptoms significantly independently predicted concurrent but not subsequent youth depressive diagnoses, whereas youth reports were independently associated with subsequent, but not concurrent, depressive diagnoses. At age 15, youth, but not parent, reports were independently associated with concurrent depressive disorder diagnoses. These findings indicate that although both informants can provide important insights into youth depression, parents' reports should be more heavily weighted in childhood and youth reports should be given increasing credence in adolescence.

Research on Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) has predominantly focused on adulthood, with limited attention to children. However, examining IU during childhood is clinically important, as it can shed light on the development of early-emerging psychopathologies. Valid and reliable tools assessing IU in children are therefore essential. This study aimed to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-Parent (IUS-P), a questionnaire for parents to evaluate IU in their children. 796 Italian parents (88.4% mothers) of children aged 4-10 years (51.3% boys) were involved. Other-report tools assessing IU, psychopathological features, and executive functioning impairments (i.e., cognitive inflexibility, impulsivity, difficulties in planning/organization, and emotion dysregulation) were administered. To investigate the IUS-P factor structure, we compared a one-factor model, a two-factor model, and a bifactor model. Measurement invariance across sex and age groups (i.e., 4-6 vs. 7-8 vs. 9-10 years), reliability, and construct validity were evaluated. The bifactor model outperformed competing factor models. Bifactor model indices suggested using a total score instead of separate subscale scores. Measurement invariance by sex and age groups was fully supported. Additionally, the IUS-P total score exhibited excellent one-month test-retest reliability. The total score also showed positive associations with psychopathological features and executive functioning impairments. These findings highlight the IUS-P as a reliable tool to evaluate IU in Italian children. The relations of IU with psychopathological dimensions and difficulties in executive functioning underscore the transdiagnostic nature of IU during childhood. The practical implications of these results are discussed.

The codevelopment of positive and negative coping styles and adolescent depression and their relationships at both the between-person and within-person levels remain poorly understood, particularly among adolescents in East Asia. This large-sample Chinese cohort study seeks to address these gaps through a three-wave design. A total of 4,548 Chinese high school students (50.70% female; M_age = 16.87, SD = 0.81) were surveyed at baseline. This study employed latent growth curve modeling (LGCM) and the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM). Univariate LGCMs revealed, on average, a decline in both positive and negative coping styles and an increase in depressive symptoms. Parallel LGCMs demonstrated that, relative to other adolescents, adolescents reporting steeper decreases in positive coping styles and less steep decreases in negative coping styles reported steeper increases in depressive symptoms (between-person effects). In the RI-CLPM, which affords clearer temporal order and within-person causal inference, we found that (1) adolescents reporting more negative coping relative to their own average in a given wave reported more depressive symptoms in the next wave (unidirectional within-person effect) and (2) adolescents reporting more positive coping relative to their own average at T2 reported fewer depressive symptoms at T3, and vice versa (bidirectional within-person effects). These within-person lagged effects are generalizable across genders, having siblings or not, and being from rural areas vs. urban areas. In conclusion, this study underscores the nuanced and largely convergent relationships between coping styles and adolescent depressive symptoms across levels of analysis.

Exploring psychiatric antecedents in youths at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) could help understand determinants for early detection and timely care pathways, consequently improving outcomes and prognosis. The aims of this investigation were: (1) to examine the proportion of CHR-P individuals with past contact with mental healthcare services enrolled within a specialized CHR-P service, and (2) to longitudinally compare sociodemographic, clinical, and treatment parameters between CHR-P subjects with and without psychiatric antecedents across 2 years of follow-up. All participants (aged 12-25 years) were recruited within the "Parma At Risk Mental States" (PARMS) program. Across the follow-up, they completed the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale (HoNOS) and the Positive And Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). A mixed-design ANOVA and a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis were also used. Of the 170 CHR-P subjects, 95 (55.9%) had previous contact with mental health services. In 85.2% of cases, a care discontinuity was observed. Main psychiatric antecedents were learning disorders (7.4%), anxiety disorder (23.1%), conduct disorder (22.1%), and depressive disorder (14.7%). CHR-P youths with psychiatric antecedents had longer duration of untreated psychosis and a higher 2-year incidence rate of psychosis transition. Having previous contact with psychiatric services also resulted to be a associated with poorer social functioning over time. Carefully monitor mental health suffering and related help-seeking-behavior in youths typically manifested in their early 20's is crucial, also in terms of psychosis prevention. Moreover, special attention should be given to service engagement as care continuity within adolescent-adult transition.