For the most part the science of neuro-developmental conditions, such as autism and ADHD, is conducted within a framework defined by a paradigm that assumes that these expressions of neuro-developmental variation are disorders resulting from brain dysfunction. the translational goal being to identify, then target, the source of such dysfunction to reduce disorder and resolve impairment. By shifting

In their recent examination of the Monitoring the Future (MTF) data, McCabe et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) address the complex, longstanding, and clinically valuable questions of whether and how stimulant medication treatment for adolescents with ADHD relates to their risk for substance use. Here, we expand on the authors' interpretations of their nuanced findings of increased

Given the robust evidence base for the efficacy of evidence-based treatments targeting youth anxiety, researchers have advanced beyond efficacy outcome analysis to identify mechanisms of change and treatment directionality. Grounded in developmental transactional models, interventions for young children at risk for anxiety by virtue of behaviorally inhibited temperament often target parenting and child

The associations of screen use with children's cognition are not well evidenced and recent, large, longitudinal studies are needed. We aimed to assess the associations between screen use and cognitive development in the French nationwide birth cohort.

Social camouflaging (hereafter camouflaging) in autism includes factors such as masking and compensating for one's neurodevelopmental differences, and to assimilate or ‘fit in’ with non-autistic peers. Efforts to hide one's authentic self and autism traits (masking) resemble impression management (IM) in safety behaviours identified in Clark and Wells' (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety (SA)

The effective treatment of child conduct problems is understood to rely on a range of therapist competencies, yet these have rarely been an explicit focus of research. In this practitioner review, we examine core competencies for the delivery of evidence-based parenting interventions for conduct problems in early-to-middle childhood. These are examined in light of research into the common elements

Childhood maltreatment is one of the most important preventable risk factors for a wide variety of psychiatric disorders. Further, when psychiatric disorders emerge in maltreated individuals they typically do so at younger ages, with greater severity, more psychiatric comorbid conditions, and poorer response to established treatments, resulting in a more pernicious course with an increased risk for

Nepal is a low-middle income country which is considered to be a collectivist culture and has a significant mental health treatment gap for young people. The dominant approach in the global mental health literature has been to import western treatments with varying degrees of cultural adaptation. We argue that this approach is at best cost-ineffective, and at worst harmful, particularly where young

Pediatric anxiety and depression are prevalent, impairing, and highly comorbid. Available evidence-based treatments have an average response rate of 60%. One path to increasing response may be to identify likely non-responders midway through treatment to adjust course prior to completing an episode of care. The aims of this study, thus, were to identify predictors of post-intervention response assessing

An evening circadian preference is common among adolescents. It is characterized by a behavioral predilection for later sleep and wake timing and is associated with higher rates of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The present study aims to (a) test the effectiveness of a cognitive behavioral sleep intervention (Transdiagnostic Sleep and Circadian Intervention; TranS-C) in a sample of adolescents with

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with increased risk for emotional and behavioural problems among children. Evidence from twin studies has shown that family SES moderates genetic and environmental influences on child mental health. However, it is also known that SES is itself under genetic influence and previous gene–environment interaction (G×E) studies have not incorporated the potential

Sexual minorities, including children, are at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes compared to their heterosexual peers, but longitudinal studies are needed to determine the factors that explain the associations between sexual minority identification and adverse mental health outcomes during this developmental period. We examined longitudinal associations between sexual orientation and

The number and proportion of children conceived through medically assisted reproduction (MAR) is steadily increasing yet the evidence on their mental health in adolescence is inconclusive. Two main mechanisms with opposite effects can explain differences in mental health outcomes by conception mode: while more advantaged parental characteristics could positively influence it, higher parental stress

Previous studies demonstrate a high prevalence of depression and loneliness among adolescents. Although they often co-occur, the relationship between symptoms of depression and loneliness remains poorly understood. This study investigates: (a) the symptoms of depression that are connected to loneliness; (b) the role played by loneliness in the network of depression symptoms; and (c) whether the method

Dr. Wickersham et al.'s study linked educational and health records providing important knowledge on educational trajectories in youths with mental disorders. They found that youths diagnosed with depression prior to age 18 were more likely to have a decline in educational attainment over time than youths without depression. Furthermore, educational attainment trajectories showed some specificity with

The relationship between early childhood exposure to general anesthesia (GA) and the risk of developing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is still uncertain and previous studies have presented conflicting results. This population-based cohort study aimed to investigate the potential relationship between GA exposure and ADHD risk using propensity score matching (PSM) in a large sample

In an outstanding paper, Hulsbosch et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) tested major reinforcement learning theories of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). On a reinforcement learning task, children with ADHD needed more trials to reach the criterion in the learning phase and chose the target less often in the extinction phase. These results only partially support

Commercial applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI have taken centre stage in the media sphere, business, public policy, and education. The ramifications for the field of child psychology and psychiatry are being debated and veer between LLMs as potential models for development and applications of generative AI becoming environmental

The tendency to prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards is known as delay discounting (DD). Developmental deviations in DD may be key in characterizing psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. Recent work empirically supported DD as a transdiagnostic process in various psychiatric disorders. Yet, there is a lack of research relating developmental changes in DD from mid-childhood

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant mental health concern with the highest prevalence among adolescents. NSSI has been conceptualized as one of the maladaptive strategies to cope with challenging affect or a form of self-punishment. Although characterizing moment-to-moment associations between shame and NSSI in individuals' real-world environment and partitioning between- and within-person

Here, we report new prevalence and temporal stability data for child attachment and parental caregiving behaviour, from infancy (1 year) to preschool (4 years).

We appreciate the comments of Gilman et al. (2023) on our paper and their acknowledgement of its importance in highlighting the significance of this area of research. Further, their acknowledgment that the primary results of our study are in a range that is similar to those from other published studies of children exposed to highly stressful environmental events emphasizes the validity of our findings

Evidence that autism often manifests differently between males and females is growing, particularly in terms of social interaction and communication, but it is unclear if there are sex differences in restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests (RRBIs) when rigorously focusing on the narrow construct level (i.e., stereotyped behaviour, restricted interests, insistence on sameness, and/or sensory

Suicide is a major public health crisis among youth. Several prominent theories, including the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide (IPTS), aim to characterize the factors leading from suicide ideation to action. These theories are largely based on findings in adults and require testing and elaboration in adolescents.

Impulsivity is viewed as key to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior disorders (DBD). Yet, to date, no work has provided an item-level analysis in longitudinal samples across the critical developmental period from childhood into adolescence, despite prior work suggesting items exhibit differential relevance with respect to various types of impairment. The current

How best to improve the early detection of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the subject of significant controversy. Some argue that universal ASD screeners are highly accurate, whereas others argue that evidence for this claim is insufficient. Relatedly, there is no clear consensus as to the optimal role of screening for making referral decisions for evaluation and treatment. Published screening research

Lateral ventricular volume (LVV) enlargement has been repeatedly linked to schizophrenia; yet, what biological factors shape LVV during early development remain unclear. DNA methylation (DNAm), an essential process for neurodevelopment that is altered in schizophrenia, is a key molecular system of interest.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a significant public health concern that is thought to increase risk for future self-injurious behaviors, including suicide attempts. Notably, NSSI is especially prevalent among adolescents, which underscores a critical need to identify modifiable risk factors that could be targeted to reduce future risk. The current study examined self- and co-regulation of physiological

Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems in young people. Currently, clinicians are advised to wait before initiating treatment for young people with these disorders as many spontaneously remit. However, others develop recurrent disorder but this subgroup cannot be identified at the outset. We examined whether psychiatric polygenic scores (PGS) could help inform stratification

We investigated the effectiveness of Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a prenatal-to-age-two-years home-visiting programme, in British Columbia (BC), Canada.

Internalizing conditions of psychopathology include depressive and anxiety disorders; they most often onset in adolescence, are relatively common, and contribute to significant population morbidity and mortality. In this research review, we present the evidence that internalizing conditions, including depression and anxiety, as well as psychological distress, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and fatal

In their reply to our editorial (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023, 64, 464), Dekkers et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023, 64, 470) argue that treatment is the best choice for children with mental disorders because there is ‘sound evidence’ that interventions are effective, also in the long term. We agree that there is sound evidence for treatment effectiveness in

The overarching goal of this paper is to examine the efficacy of early intervention when viewed through the lens of developmental neuroscience. We begin by briefly summarizing neural development from conception through the first few postnatal years. We emphasize the role of experience during the postnatal period, and consistent with decades of research on critical periods, we argue that experience

Comorbid externalizing and internalizing disorders are common in offspring of a parent with bipolar I or II disorder. In some cases, the symptoms are harbingers of future bipolar spectrum disorder. Even when they are not, they are likely to be impairing to the child. Clinicians need to be better informed about how the history leading up to mania/hypomania unfolds, and what comorbid disorders are impairing

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly commonly diagnosed neurodevelopmental condition. One possibility is that this reflects a genuine increase in the prevalence of ADHD due to secular environmental changes, yet this hypothesis remains untested. We therefore investigated whether the genetic and environmental variance underlying ADHD, and traits of ADHD, has changed over

The deleterious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth mental health has garnered much attention (Newlove-Delgado et al., 2023). It has been a topic of interest in both research and academic writing, as well as in the public press (e.g., Tanner, 2023). Disorders and mental health concerns of focus have been wide-ranging, with some of the most severe presentations, such as suicidality, highlighted

Childhood maltreatment is associated with pervasive risk for depression. However, the immediate cognitive and neural mechanisms that mediate this risk during development are unknown. We here studied the impact of maltreatment on self-generated thought (SGT) patterns and their association with depressive symptoms, subcallosal cingulate cortex (SCC) thickness, and cortisol levels in children.

Parents' and peers' cannabis use are well-documented predictors of youth cannabis use, however, relatively little is known about the influence of siblings' cannabis use. Hence, this meta-analysis investigated the association between sibling-youth cannabis use (disorder) and explored moderation by sibling type (monozygotic- vs. dizygotic- vs. non-twins), age, age spacing, birth order, gender, and gender

The study by Phillips et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) shows that preschool executive functions (EF) are a transdiagnostic mechanism through which deprivation increases the risk for psychopathology in adolescence. In addition, deprivation appeared to be a key mechanism through which economic adversity (i.e., lower income-to-needs ratio and maternal education) undermines EF

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism, defined as traits or disorders, commonly co-occur. Developmental trajectories of ADHD and autistic traits both show heterogeneity in onset and course, but little is known about how symptom trajectories co-develop into adulthood.

Ten years have passed since the release of DSM-5, which brought with it some notable changes in diagnostic labels. In this editorial, the impact of labels, and the changes in labels used in child and adolescent psychiatry, are discussed, with examples drawn from autism and schizophrenia. The diagnostic labels that children and adolescents receive feed into their treatment access and future potential

Emotional symptoms, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms, are common during adolescence, often persist over time, and can precede the emergence of severe anxiety and depressive disorders. Studies suggest that a vicious cycle of reciprocal influences between emotional symptoms and interpersonal difficulties may explain why some adolescents suffer from persisting emotional symptoms. However, the role

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction. Crucial for efficient social interaction is the ability to quickly and accurately extract information from a person's face. Frequency-tagging electroencephalography (EEG) is a novel tool to quantify face-processing sensitivity in a robust and implicit manner. In terms

Across several sites in the United States, we examined whether kindergarten conduct problems among mostly population-representative samples of children were associated with increased criminal and related (criminal + lost offender productivity + victim; described as criminal + victim hereafter) costs across adolescence and adulthood, as well as government and medical services costs in adulthood.

Childhood oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is associated with adverse outcomes which can continue to impair life well into adulthood. Identifying modifiable etiological factors of ODD is therefore essential. Although bullying victimization and poor emotion regulation are assumed to be risk factors for the development of ODD symptoms, little research has been conducted to test this possibility.

Exercise for weight loss and maladaptive exercise (exercise that results in negative consequences or interference with daily life) are common behaviors among youth and are associated with increased risk of disordered eating symptoms. The current study clarifies processes that influence exercise-related risk in adolescence and young adulthood, including the frequency with which young people transition

Sleep difficulties are common in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, sleep problems are multifaceted and little is known about the variation in sleep difficulties across children with ADHD. We examined the profiles of sleep difficulties in children with ADHD and associated clinical factors (e.g. co-occurring mental health conditions, stimulant use and parent mental

We propose and evaluate a contribution to the conceptualization and assessment of personality functioning based on social domains and mentalizing hypotheses. Social domains are distinct social contexts, such as with acquaintances and friends, with differentiated expectations regarding participants' behaviours and social attributions. The capacity to organize social participation according to these

Nomura et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) reported that children whose mothers were pregnant when Superstorm Sandy struck the Eastern Seaboard of the United States had elevated risk of psychopathology. Their study leverages data from a unique cohort of children established prior to Sandy that enabled researchers to investigate children's mental health depending on their prenatal

Longitudinal studies show that lower cognitive performance in adolescence and early adulthood is associated with higher risk of suicide death throughout adulthood. However, it is unclear whether this cognitive vulnerability originates earlier in childhood since studies conducted in children are scarce and have inconsistent results.

Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a risk factor for poor outcomes across development. Recent evidence suggests that, although psychosocial resilience among youth living in low-SES households is common, such expressions of resilience may not extend to physical health. Questions remain about when these diverging mental and physical health trajectories emerge. The current study hypothesized that skin-deep

Adolescence, a developmental period characterized by significant changes in sleep, is associated with normative increases in impulsivity. While short sleep duration has been linked to elevated impulsivity, the neural mechanism underlying the relationship between short sleep duration and elevated impulsivity remains poorly understood.

The research presented by Oppenheim et al. (J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 2023) breaks important new ground by moving beyond the mother–child dyad and investigating the coparenting alliance between mothers and fathers of young children with autism. By integrating family systems thinking, developmental science, and research on autism spectrum disorder, this line of research is bound to improve our understanding

Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have increasingly received attention as a potential predictor and outcome of treatment for children with conduct problems. The results of Perlstein et al. (2023) offer the first meta-analytic evidence against the long-held belief that CU traits confer treatment resistance. The results also suggest that children with conduct problems and CU traits require something more

Reporting of effect sizes is standard practice in psychology and psychiatry research. However, interpretation of these effect sizes can be meaningless or misleading – in particular, the evaluation of specific effect sizes as ‘small’, ‘medium’ and ‘large’ can be inaccurate depending on the research context. A real-world example of this is research into the mental health of children and young people

Youth anxiety and depression have long been combined within the empirically derived internalizing syndrome. The two conditions show substantial comorbidity, symptom co-occurrence, and overlap in treatment procedures, but paradoxically diverge in psychotherapy outcomes: strong, positive effects for anxiety and weak effects for depression.

Epigenetic clocks are based on DNA methylation levels of several genomic loci and have been developed as indices of biological aging. Studies examining the effects of stressful environmental exposures have shown that stress is associated with differences between epigenetic age and chronological age (i.e., Epigenetic Age acceleration, EA). This pre-registered longitudinal study examined the long-term

The question ‘what works for whom’ is essential to mental health research, as matching individuals to the treatment best suited to their needs has the potential to maximize the effectiveness of existing approaches. Digitally administered single-session interventions (SSIs) are effective means of reducing depressive symptoms in adolescence, with potential for rapid, large-scale implementation. However

People with ADHD in our society struggle, and they often report that they experience a lack of full acceptance in society. The realization that the current situation is suboptimal for individuals with ADHD and for society as a whole leads to a call of researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experience and their families for a modernized concept of ADHD. This new concept should take the discourse

Parental feeding practices (PFPs) are a key component of a child's food environment. Parent–child feeding relationships are hypothesised to be bidirectional; however, to date, few large prospective studies have examined this, instead focussing on unidirectional relationships. As such, the direction of relationships between PFPs and children's eating behaviours remains unclear.