Journal of Adolescent Health最新文献

Purpose: The present study describes juveniles injured in fatal and nonfatal shootings by the police from 2015 to 2020, compares characteristics of juvenile victimizations to adult victimizations, and estimates the odds of a shooting victim being a juvenile v. adult, given known characteristics.

Methods: From July 2021 to April 2023, we manually reviewed publicly available records on all 2015-2020 injurious shootings by the US police, identified from Gun Violence Archive. We first calculated counts and proportions of victim, incident, and response characteristics among juvenile and adult injured people, then estimated the odds of juvenile (vs. adult) victimization associated with each characteristic in multilevel logistic regression models with random intercepts to account for state- and incident-level correlation.

Results: 97 percent of shootings involved presumed on-duty officers and victims whose categorical age status (i.e., juvenile or adult) was reported (n = 10,382). Included among these injured people were 317 juveniles, 33% of whom were fatally injured (mean reported juvenile age = 15.5 years). Several patterns differentiated juveniles from adult police shooting victims, including multiple demographic characteristics (e.g., race or ethnicity and gender) and the outcomes of and circumstances surrounding these events (e.g., fatality, victim weapon status, and single-officer response).

Discussion: Findings point to a critical need to identify and implement public health and policing strategies that greatly reduce the number of juveniles shot by the police every year, so that all children have the opportunity to thrive into adulthood.

Mental health conditions constitute a major burden of disease for adolescents globally and can lead to significant adverse consequences. This systematic review aimed to identify if psychosocial interventions are effective in preventing mental health conditions in adolescents already experiencing emotional problems. We searched for randomized controlled trials comparing psychosocial interventions for preventing mental health conditions with care as usual in adolescents aged 10-19 who are experiencing symptoms of emotional problems. We searched PubMed/Medline, PsycINFO, ERIC, EMBASE, and ASSIA databases to identify studies. We found 82 eligible studies (n = 13,562 participants). Findings show that interventions can reduce mental health conditions and increase positive mental health. Across all reported time points, psychosocial interventions showed significant, small-to moderate-sized beneficial effects on preventing mental health conditions (SMD: -0.26, 95% CI [-0.42, -0.19] and small positive effects on positive mental health (SMD: 0.17, 95% CI [0.097, 0.29]. There were no statistically significant pooled findings suggesting that psychosocial interventions had either a positive or negative effect on self-harm or suicide; aggressive, disruptive and oppositional behavior; substance use; or school attendance. Despite the positive findings, a critical gap exists in the design of effective psychosocial interventions to reduce self-harm and suicide, and other risk behaviors in adolescents with symptoms of emotional problems.

Purpose: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) increase the risk for poor adolescent mental health, yet mediational pathways that connect ACEs with mental health problems remain unaddressed. Our study investigates whether school involvement and disengagement mediate the longitudinal associations between ACEs and adolescent mental health problems.

Methods: Using data from the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, this study included 7,558 adolescents aged 9-10 years at baseline. ACEs were a cumulative risk score of 21 adverse experiences (e.g., emotional abuse, community violence) reported by parents and youths at baseline or 1-year follow-up. School involvement and disengagement were reported by youths at two-year follow-up. Internalizing and externalizing problems were reported by parents using the Child Behavior Checklist at 3-year follow-up.

Results: A higher ACE score was associated with decreased school involvement (β = -0.08, 95% CI = [-0.10, -0.05]) and increased school disengagement (β = 0.09, 95% CI = [0.06, 0.11]) one year later, and with increased internalizing (β = 0.10, 95% CI = [0.07, 0.12]) and externalizing problems (β = 0.08, 95% CI = [0.06, 0.10]) 2 years later, adjusted for demographics and baseline mental health and school engagement levels. Decreased school involvement and increased disengagement mediated the associations between ACEs with the change in internalizing and externalizing problems over time.

Discussion: The present study highlights the roles of school involvement and disengagement in linking ACEs to worsened mental health outcomes. The findings may inform tailored school-based interventions that address mental health challenges faced by adolescents exposed to ACEs.

Purpose: Building on research suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic may have led to an exacerbation of deteriorating trends in mental health among adolescents, this paper examined trends in adolescents' psychological and somatic complaints across 35 countries from 2010 to 2022, and tested trends in sociodemographic inequalities in these outcomes between 2018 and 2022.

Methods: Using data from 792,606 adolescents from 35 countries (51% girls; mean age = 13.5; standard deviation 1.6) across four Health Behaviour in School-aged Children surveys (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022), hierarchical multilevel models estimated cross-national trends in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints. We tested whether observed values in 2022 were in line with predicted values based on 2010-2018 linear trends. Finally, moderation effects of age, family affluence, and family structures on the outcomes were tested (2018-2022).

Results: Both girls and boys showed substantially higher levels of psychological complaints in 2022 compared with the predicted values. For somatic complaints, higher levels than predicted in 2022 were observed only in girls. Moderation analyses revealed an increase from 2018 to 2022 in age gaps and a narrowing in the socioeconomic gap for both outcomes. Also, there was a widening gap between adolescents living with 2 parents and those living in a single parent household in 2022 compared to 2018.

Discussion: Cross-national increases in adolescent psychological and somatic complaints were higher than expected in 2022, based on previous trends. Magnitudes of change varied across different sociodemographics groups, with implications for pre-existing mental health inequalities.

Purpose: Persistent self-control in the context of upward mobility in low-income adolescents, especially those of color, may have physiological costs, such as greater risks of developing cardiometabolic diseases in young adulthood. One potential mechanism linking self-control to cardiometabolic health is epigenetic age acceleration (EAA). However, little is known regarding the association between high self-control and EAA, as well as what factors may play protective roles. Therefore, we evaluated (1) the association between self-control and EAA and if this association varies by race and ethnicity, and (2) whether neighborhood collective efficacy (NCE) and school connectedness moderate the association in low-income adolescents.

Methods: This study used data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Participants included 772 adolescents with a household income <300% of poverty level (mean age: 15.6 years). Self-control, NCE, and school connectedness were all self-reported. EAA was assessed in saliva and estimated using Horvath, Skin and Blood, and Pediatric-Buccal-Epigenetic clocks. Multiple linear regression and PROCESS analyses were employed.

Results: Higher self-control was positively associated with EAA estimated by the skin and blood clock in low-income adolescents of color. Further, the association of higher self-control with EAA was not significant among low-income adolescents of color with higher NCE. No significant association was found among low-income White adolescents.

Discussion: The results suggest that supportive resources like neighborhood collective efficacy could mitigate adverse associations of high self-control with health in low-income adolescents of color.