Sociocultural and perinatal health factors associated with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children.

While previous research has examined perinatal factors in the context of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), studies focusing on sociocultural factors is limited. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis utilizing data from the Australian Autism Biobank (AAB), which encompasses autistic children aged 2-17, their siblings, parents, and unrelated controls. Employing multivariable regression analyses, we aimed to identify factors associated with ASD across various domains, spanning health and lifestyle, perinatal, and postnatal contexts.

The Building Blocks for Successful Hub Implementation for Migrant and Refugee Families and Their Children in the First 2000 Days of Life.

Background And Objective: Migrant and refugee women, families, and their children can experience significant language, cultural, and psychosocial barriers to engage with child and family services. Integrated child and family health Hubs are increasingly promoted as a potential solution to address access barriers; however, there is scant literature on how to best implement them with migrant and refugee populations. Our aim was to explore with service providers and consumers the barriers, enablers, and experiences with Hubs and the resulting building blocks required for acceptable Hub implementation for migrant and refugee families.

Mental health help-seeking behaviours among children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities in a multicultural urban Australian population.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the help-seeking behaviours among children and young people (CYP) from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds for mental health (MH) needs in a multicultural Australian population.

Methods: We analysed the electronic medical records (eMR) of 8135 MH-related emergency department (ED) encounters of CYP aged up to 18 years across six public hospitals in the South Western Sydney Local Health District, Australia, from January 2016 to April 2022. Urgency of MH care was grouped into high priority (triage categories 1 and 2, needing to have treatment within 10 minutes) and low-to-moderate (triage categories 3-5, needing to have treatment within 30-120 minutes) presentations.

Impact of Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs): A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.

Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) may mitigate the negative outcomes resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). To date, most PCE research has used cross-sectional or retrospective designs. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane, PsychINFO, CINAHL, and Scopus were searched in May 2024 for longitudinal studies that examined the impact of cumulative PCEs.

Prolonged cell cycle arrest in response to DNA damage in yeast requires the maintenance of DNA damage signaling and the spindle assembly checkpoint.

Cells evoke the DNA damage checkpoint (DDC) to inhibit mitosis in the presence of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) to allow more time for DNA repair. In budding yeast, a single irreparable DSB is sufficient to activate the DDC and induce cell cycle arrest prior to anaphase for about 12-15 hr, after which cells 'adapt' to the damage by extinguishing the DDC and resuming the cell cycle. While activation of the DNA damage-dependent cell cycle arrest is well understood, how it is maintained remains unclear.

Self-harm-related mental health presentations to emergency departments by children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse groups in South Western Sydney.

Background: Rates of self-harm among children and young people (CYP) have been on the rise, presenting major public health concerns in Australia and worldwide. However, there is a scarcity of evidence relating to self-harm among CYP from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds.

Aims: To analyse the relationship between self-harm-related mental health presentations of CYP to emergency departments and CALD status in South Western Sydney (SWS), Australia.

Optimizing parenting and child outcomes following parent-child interaction therapy - toddler: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Toddler (PCIT-T) is an attachment-informed intervention model designed to meet the specific developmental needs of toddlers aged 12-24 months presenting with challenging behaviors.

Methods: This study used a randomized controlled design to evaluate outcomes of PCIT-T for children aged 14-24 months with disruptive behaviors. Ninety toddlers with parent-reported disruptive behavior were randomly allocated to PCIT-T (intervention), an active control condition (Circle of Security- Parenting™; COS-P), or a non-treatment control condition (wait-list; WL).

When Is the Still-Face Not the Still-Face: Mothers' Behavior in the Face-to-Face Still-Face Procedure and Its Relationship to Infant Arousal.

The Face-to-Face Still-Face (FF-SF) procedure has been a popular paradigm to understand infant behavior. The current study examines the validity of mothers' behavior during the Still-Face phase of the FF-SF, especially the quality of her neutral face and its impact on infant arousal (N = 358 ethnically-diverse mother-infant dyads, Mean infant age = 223 days, SD = 27 days). Results showed that more than half of the mothers in the sample breached one or more Still-Face phase instructions; however, mothers' breaches of the Still-Face instructions were unrelated to infant arousal (Skin Conductance Responses) during the FF-SF.

IRGQ-mediated autophagy in MHC class I quality control promotes tumor immune evasion.

The autophagy-lysosome system directs the degradation of a wide variety of cargo and is also involved in tumor progression. Here, we show that the immunity-related GTPase family Q protein (IRGQ), an uncharacterized protein to date, acts in the quality control of major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC class I) molecules. IRGQ directs misfolded MHC class I toward lysosomal degradation through its binding mode to GABARAPL2 and LC3B.

Perinatal continuity of care for mothers with depressive symptoms: perspectives of mothers and clinicians.

Background: Mothers with mild to moderate depression in pregnancy are at risk of developing postpartum depression. Midwife-led continuity of care may support maternal mental health throughout the perinatal period. Research is needed to better understand how continuity of care may support mothers experiencing depression in pregnancy.

Evaluating the Link between Visual Attention Bias and Emotion Dysregulation of Young Children.

The ability to regulate emotions is vital to successful social interactions. This study explores whether visual attention bias is associated with emotion dysregulation (ED) in early childhood. Parental reports of child ED (Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and Temper Tantrum Scale) were examined in relation to child visual attention bias whilst viewing emotional faces.

Family member and service provider experiences and perspectives of a digital surveillance and service navigation approach in multicultural context: a qualitative study in identifying the barriers and enablers to Watch Me Grow-Electronic (WMG-E) program with a culturally diverse community.

Background: Children and families from priority populations experienced significant psychosocial and mental health issues to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they also faced significant barriers to service access, particularly families from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. With most child and family health nurse clinics ceasing in-person consultations due to the pandemic, many children missed out on health and developmental checks.

A qualitative study investigating the experiences of unmet social needs for children with cerebral palsy and their families: perspectives of parents and clinicians.

Purpose: To explore (i) the impact of unmet social needs on children with cerebral palsy and their families; (ii) enablers-, and (iii) barriers to addressing unmet social needs.

Material And Methods: Eligible participants attended or worked at one of the three Paediatric Rehabilitation Departments including: children with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy; parents/carers; and clinicians. One-on-one interviews were conducted with parents/carers and focus groups with clinicians.

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This study examined the associations between maternal depression and oxytocin in pregnancy, caregiving sensitivity and adult attachment style, and infant temperament. One hundred and six women recruited from a public hospital antenatal clinic in Australia, and their infants completed assessments at three time points (Time 1: pregnancy; Time 2: 3-month postpartum; Time 3: 12-month postpartum). Mothers completed self-report questionnaires assessing maternal depression symptom severity at Time 1-3, adult attachment style at Time 2, and infant temperament at Time 3.

Huntingtin contains an ubiquitin-binding domain and regulates lysosomal targeting of mitochondrial and RNA-binding proteins.

Understanding the normal function of the Huntingtin (HTT) protein is of significance in the design and implementation of therapeutic strategies for Huntington's disease (HD). Expansion of the CAG repeat in the gene, encoding an expanded polyglutamine (polyQ) repeat within the HTT protein, causes HD and may compromise HTT's normal activity contributing to HD pathology. Here, we investigated the previously defined role of HTT in autophagy specifically through studying HTT's association with ubiquitin.

Sociodemographic and clinical indicators of children and young people with cerebral palsy and reported unmet social needs.

Aim: To determine the frequency, type, clinical, and sociodemographic associations of unmet social needs in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Method: We conducted a cross-sectional study of parents and carers of children with CP attending a specialist hospital clinic between July and September 2022. Unmet social needs were self-identified using a survey, guided by the WE CARE survey instrument and adapted to the local context.

Sex Differences in the Broad Autism Phenotype: Insights from the Australian Biobank.

Examining sub-threshold autistic traits in non-autistic first-degree relatives of individuals on the autism spectrum, known as the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP), could provide new insights into the associations and familial aggregation of autistic traits. This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study of parents (n = 1008), probands with autism (n = 613), and unaffected siblings (n = 221) of probands with autism. BAP traits were examined by the BAP Questionnaire and Communication Checklist-Adult in parents, Autism Developmental Observation Scale-Second edition in probands, and Social Responsiveness Scale in siblings.

Moving from idea to reality: The barriers and enablers to implementing Child and Family Hubs policy into practice in NSW, Australia.

Background: Adverse childhood experiences can impact physical and mental health throughout the lifespan. To support families experiencing adversity and improve child health and developmental equity, an integrated, multi-sector response is required. Child and Family Hubs (Hubs) are a feasible and acceptable approach to providing such a response.

EPIC-CP pilot trial study protocol: a multicentre, randomised controlled trial investigating the feasibility and acceptability of social prescribing for Australian children with cerebral palsy.

Introduction: The social determinants of health contribute to poorer health outcomes for children with cerebral palsy (CP) and are barriers to families accessing health services. At an individual level, social determinants of health are experienced as unmet social needs, for example, unsafe housing conditions. There is emerging evidence that clinical pathways for the systematic identification and referral to services for unmet social needs can support families to address these needs.

Creation of the Youth Integration Project Framework: A Narrative Synthesis of the Youth Mental Health Integrated Care Literature.

Introduction: Integrated care has been posited as a potential solution to the global burden of youth mental health (YMH), but there is limited evidence on how best to design, staff, and evaluate different integrated care models. Our review aimed to consolidate the evidence on integrated models of mental healthcare for young people, to identify the core components of integration, and create a framework that can be used to analyse levels of YMH integration.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of literature across PubMed, SCOPUS, and PsycINFO databases and the grey literature We performed a narrative synthesis extracting core components of integrated YMH care.

The relationship between hair cortisol concentration and autism diagnosis.

Background: Autistic children are prone to experience heightened levels of distress and physiological reactivity to a range of sensory, social, and emotional stimuli. In line with this, multiple studies have demonstrated that autistic children have higher acute cortisol stress responses to adverse or threatening stimuli and altered cortisol awakening responses. However, few studies have examined whether this sensitivity may relate to heightened levels of chronic stress and persistently elevated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity.