Objectives: To synthesize evidence from fruit and vegetable intervention studies investigating mental or cognitive health outcomes (or both) in children ≤10 y. Our aim was to understand the efficacy of such interventions in improving measures of cognitive performance or mental health and to identify successful intervention elements to inform future research.
Methods: We conducted a systematic search of the Cochrane, Embase, PubMed, and CINAHL databases for articles published before August 2022 (PROSPERO registration no.
Background: Adolescent depression has increased markedly over the last decade and often persists into adulthood with a range of adverse outcomes. Identifying the perinatal risk factors contributing to adolescent depression is crucial to advise early interventions.
Methods: The study included 4563 young people from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) longitudinal study who completed a questionnaire on depression symptoms at age 12 years (Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CESD-10).
To test the transmission of mental health difficulties from mother to child, we examined mediation through emotion reminiscing conversations and child language. Maternal depression symptoms were measured at 9 months post-partum, and child mental health outcomes were measured at age 8 years. Emotion reminiscing conversations between 1,234 mother-child pairs (624 boys, 610 girls) were recorded as part of a large, diverse, longitudinal cohort .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe biological mechanisms that explain how adverse early life events influence adult disease risk are poorly understood. One proposed mechanism is via the induction of accelerated biological aging, for which telomere length is considered a biomarker. We aimed to determine if maternal depression pre- and post-partum was associated with telomere length in children at 4 years of age (n = 4299).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutism spectrum disorder is an increasingly prevalent and debilitating neurodevelopmental condition and an electroencephalogram (EEG) diagnostic challenge. Despite large amounts of electrophysiological research over many decades, an EEG biomarker for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has not been found. We hypothesized that reductions in complex dynamical system behaviour in the human central nervous system as part of the macroscale neuronal function during cognitive processes might be detectable in whole EEG for higher-risk ASD adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaternal depressive symptoms (MDS) in the postnatal period may impact children's later development through poorer quality parent-child interactions. The current study tested a specific pathway from MDS (child age 9 months) to child receptive vocabulary (4 ½ years) through both self-reported and observed parent-child verbal interactions (at both 2 and 4 ½ years). Participants ( = 4,432) were part of a large, diverse, contemporary pre-birth national cohort study: .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild Psychiatry Hum Dev
September 2023
There is growing interest in child socio-emotional competence from parents, educators, employers and policy makers, with emphasis on developing it as early as possible. The aim of the present study was to examine contextual and proximal factors that influence socio-emotional competence development across the first five years of a child's life. We used data from 3200 mothers and their children drawn mostly from four major data collection waves (antenatal, 9 months, 2 years and 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Antenatal exposure to both antidepressants and maternal depression has been associated with child behavioural difficulties. However, previous research has not adequately distinguished between the effects of the antidepressants and the underlying maternal depression.
Methods: Child behavioural difficulties were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at 2-, 4.
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
May 2023
Rationale: Viral illnesses in children are common and are frequently treated with antibiotic medication. Antibiotics reduce the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota, leading to poor developmental outcomes.
Objectives: To investigate the relationship between age at first exposure to antibiotics and cognitive and behavioural development at 4.
We investigated the association between persistence and change in behavioral difficulties during early to middle childhood and several cognitive outcomes. We observed 3904 8-year-olds enrolled in the longitudinal study Growing Up in New Zealand (50% male/female; 23% Māori, 9% Pacific Peoples, 13% Asian, 2% Middle Eastern/Latin American/African, 9% Other, 43% European). The NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery was used to assess cognitive functioning at 8 years and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for behavioral difficulties at 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurophysiological research on the bilingual activity of interpretation or interpreting has been very fruitful in understanding the bilingual brain and has gained increasing popularity recently. Issues like word interpreting and the directionality of interpreting have been attended to by many researchers, mainly with localizing techniques. Brain structures such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex have been repeatedly identified during interpreting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFis this country's largest contemporary longitudinal study of child development. The study has been designed to provide insight into the lives of children and young people growing up in the context of twenty-first century New Zealand. The cohort recruited 6853 children representative of the current ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of births in Aotearoa, New Zealand in 2009 and 2010.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of this study was to assess the association of antenatal maternal dietary patterns (DPs) and other health aspects with infant temperament in a large multiethnic cohort, taking maternal personality and prenatal stress into account.
Design And Methods: Using data from 3968 children born in 2009/2010 and their mothers from the Growing Up in New Zealand cohort, infant temperament was assessed at 9 months using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised Very Short Form. Maternal antenatal diet and other health aspects were assessed antenatally.
The primary objective of this study was to delineate classes of individuals based on depression trajectories from the antenatal period through 54-month postpartum and internal and external resources that are associated with low depression risk. Participants came from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study (n = 5664), which is a pregnancy cohort study and is nationally representative of the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of contemporary New Zealand births. Growth curve mixture modeling was used to identify distinct subgroups based on depression scores from the antenatal period through 54-month postpartum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Young people who experience depression are at an increased risk of adverse psychosocial and developmental outcomes that can persist over the lifecourse. Identifying maternal prenatal risk factors that may contribute to childhood depressive symptoms can be useful when considering mental health intervention.
Methods: The current study included 3,925 children from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study who had complete data for self-reported depressive symptoms and mothers' antenatal information.
Background: Perinatal (antenatal and postpartum) depression impacts approximately 12% of mothers. Perinatal depression can impact everyday functioning for mothers, and the relationship with, and development of, their children. The purpose of this study was to investigate depression trajectories from the antenatal period through 54-months postpartum and associations with child body mass index at 54-months postpartum.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Throughout pregnancy, women are at an increased risk of depression, with prevalence estimates between 6.5% and 18%. Global prevalence of antenatal antidepressant use is considerably lower at 3%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children who are high priority candidates for early intervention need to be identified to reduce their risk for experiencing problems in development. Those exposed to multiple risk factors are more likely to exhibit problems in development than those exposed to a single or no risk factor. We examined the longitudinal associations between persistence and timing of exposure to cumulative risk (CR) on three occasions by age 2 and problems in development at age 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this study was to assess the validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a cohort of New Zealand children followed from birth to the age of eleven. The study also aimed to assess the stability of the child data in relation to behavioural outcomes during this period.
Methods: Children in the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative Study were assessed at approximately 3½, 7 and 11 years of age.
Socio-emotional competence and executive function both work together to meet the demands of the everyday environment. While many studies have focused on how various domains of socio-emotional competence are predicted by, or associated with executive function, the predictive influence of socio-emotional competence on executive function has largely been ignored despite strong theoretical links. In addition, contradictory information exists with regard to the divergent validity of two subtypes of executive function: cool and hot.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this study was to derive a factor structure of the measures of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Toolbox Cognition Battery (CB) that is representative of cognitive abilities in a large ethnically diverse cohort of 8-year-old children in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Methods: Our sample comprised of 4298 8-year-old children from the Growing Up in New Zealand study. We conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for the NIH Toolbox CB measures to discover the best-fitting factor structure in our sample.
INTRODUCTION Pacific women in New Zealand (NZ) have higher rates of antenatal depression than women from other ethnic groups. AIM To identify factors that are significantly associated with depression symptoms in pregnant Pacific women living in NZ. METHODS Data were collected from 5657 pregnant women, 727 of whom identified their ethnicity as Pacific Island.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Cross-sectional data indicate that physical activity, longer sleep duration, and normal body weight are associated with better mental health in childhood. It is less clear whether these factors protect against future emotional and behavioral problems. We investigated whether physical activity, sleep duration, and body mass index (BMI) at the age of 7 years are associated with emotional and behavioral problems at the age of 11 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe link between behavioural and cognitive difficulties is well established. However, research is limited on whether persistence and change in behavioural difficulties relates to cognitive outcomes, particularly during preschool. We used a large New Zealand birth cohort to investigate how persistence and change in serious behavioural problems from ages 2 to 4.
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