Publications by authors named "Katherine H Shelton"

Article Synopsis
  • - Parents of children with skin conditions often experience high levels of stress, and current psychological support for these families is limited.
  • - The 'Living in the Present' mindfulness program was tested on ten parents to see if it could lower stress levels and improve the quality of life for both parents and their children.
  • - Results showed mixed improvements in stress and quality of life, with some participants benefiting while others struggled with anxiety, indicating the need for more thorough research on such interventions.
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Background: Skin conditions can have a psychological impact on a child and their caregivers, however, support is not equally distributed between geographical regions in the United Kingdom (UK).

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the experience of National Health Service (NHS) healthcare professionals (HCPs) of addressing the psychological needs of children with skin conditions and their families, and gain expert opinion as to how services need to further develop.

Design: HCPs were recruited to a qualitative study with an advert posted on social media.

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Objectives: This systematic review aimed to identify and appraise studies investigating the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for improving depression, anxiety and parental stress in families affected by childhood physical illnesses, as well as feasibility and acceptability.

Methods: Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus, Medline, and PubMed were searched between February 2 and 17, 2021, and updated on August 5, 2022. Studies investigating MBIs with children and adolescents (<18 years) with physical health conditions were included, and results are presented with narrative synthesis.

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Background: Managing a skin condition can be difficult, and there is a lack of psychological support for children and their families.

Objectives: To identify issues surrounding caring for a child with a skin condition, investigate experiences of current psychological support to gain a sense of what is needed, and determine the relevance of offering mindfulness-based interventions for children and families.

Materials And Methods: This study employed a mixed inductive and deductive form of qualitative inquiry to understand the experiences and needs of children and families.

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Early life adversity (ELA) tends to accelerate neurobiological ageing, which, in turn, is thought to heighten vulnerability to both major depressive disorder (MDD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The two conditions are putatively related, with MDD representing either a risk factor or early symptom of AD. Given the substantial environmental susceptibility of both disorders, timely identification of their neurocognitive markers could facilitate interventions to prevent clinical onset.

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We investigated risk and facilitating factors related to families' change in finances and employment over 5 years following adoption of a child from local authority care in a prospective, longitudinal study of children placed for adoption between 2014 and 2015 (N = 96). Parents completed questionnaires at approximately 5, 21, 36, 48 and 60 months post-placement. We used time series analysis to examine the impact of child (e.

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Children adopted from public care are more likely to experience emotional and behavioural problems. We investigated two aspects of emotion recognition that may be associated with these outcomes, including discrimination accuracy of emotions and response bias, in a mixed-method, multi-informant study of 4-to-8-year old children adopted from local authority care in the UK (N = 42). We compared adopted children's emotion recognition performance to that of a comparison group of children living with their birth families, who were matched by age, sex, and teacher-rated total difficulties on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, N = 42).

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While psychologically informed environments (PIEs) are gaining in prominence in efforts to improve well-being and practice in the homeless sector, their empirical foundations remain tenuous. We present a unique scoping needs analysis of staff and client well-being, staff attitudes and the social-therapeutic climate in a UK-based homeless prevention organisation (prior to PIE implementation). Our aims were: (a) to apply a robust framework to pinpoint need and target forthcoming PIE initiatives and (b) to establish a validated needs baseline that informs and measures efficacy of PIE for its future development.

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Impaired facial emotion recognition is a transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychiatric disorders. Childhood behavioral difficulties and parental emotional environment have been independently associated with impaired emotion recognition; however, no study has examined the contribution of these factors in conjunction. We measured recognition of negative (sad, fear, anger), neutral, and happy facial expressions in 135 children aged 5-7 years referred by their teachers for behavioral problems.

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Adoptees' mental health problems in childhood and later life are well described, but little attention has been paid to domestically adopted children's emotional and behavioral problems and neurocognitive profiles. The aim of this study was to describe the neurocognitive profiles of domestically adopted children in the UK and their parent- and teacher-rated emotional and behavioral problems. Forty-five children ( age = 75.

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Children adopted from the public care system are likely to experience a cluster of inter-related risk factors that may place them on a trajectory of mental health problems that persist across the life course. However, the specific effects of putative risk factors on children's mental health post-placement are not well understood. We conducted a prospective, longitudinal study of children placed for adoption between 2014 and 2015 (N = 96).

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Children who are adopted from care are more likely to experience enduring emotional and behavioral problems across development; however, adoptees' trajectories of mental health problems and factors that impact their trajectories are poorly understood. Therefore, we used multilevel growth analyses to chart adoptees' internalizing and externalizing problems across childhood, and examined the associations between preadoptive risk and postadoptive protective factors on their trajectories. This was investigated in a prospective longitudinal study of case file records (N = 374) and questionnaire-based follow-ups (N = 96) at approximately 5, 21, and 36 months postadoptive placement.

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The mental health of birth parents has gained attention due to the serious negative consequences for personal, family, and child outcomes, but depression and anxiety in adoptive parents remains under-recognized. Using a prospective, longitudinal design, we investigated anxiety and depression symptoms in 96 British adoptive parents over four time points in the first four years of an adoptive placement. Depression and anxiety symptom scores were relatively stable across time.

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We investigated the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children's internalising symptoms and externalising problems in the Wales Adoption Cohort Study, a prospective longitudinal study that used case file records ( = 374) for a sample of British children adopted from care ( = 2 years, 55% male). Parents ( = 96) completed questionnaires at 3-5 months, 15-17 months, and 31-33 months post-placement. We hypothesised that: (1) children adopted from care would have experienced more ACEs than children in the general population; (2) the number of ACEs would be associated with higher internalising symptom and externalising problem scores; and (3) adoptive parental warmth would moderate the relationship between ACEs and post-placement internalising symptoms and externalising problems.

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Most homeless young people have experienced multiple adversities, with potential implications for the development of Executive Functions (EFs), higher-order cognitive processes important for adaptation. EFs have been identified as putative contributors to the capacity to exit homelessness, however, little research has investigated EFs in homeless young people. To address gaps in current knowledge, this study compared executive function performance between homeless and housed young people.

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Background: Friendships have been linked to mental health and school attainment in children. The effects of friendlessness and friendship quality have been well researched, but less is known about the role of friendship stability (i.e.

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Maternal depression is associated with reduced academic attainment in children, however, it is not clear how this association comes about. Depressive symptoms are associated with impairment in social roles including parenting. Children's self-control is an important contributor to academic attainment and is influenced by parenting.

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Improving children's mental wellbeing is a recognised public health priority, but evidence on recent trends is lacking. This study updates evidence on differences in child mental health since 2008 by comparing two nationally representative cohorts in Wales, UK. Parents of 4- to 12-year-old children completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).

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Early identification of problems with psychosocial stress regulation is important for supporting mental and physical health. However, we currently lack knowledge about when reliable individual differences in stress-responsive physiology emerge and which aspects of maternal behavior determine the unfolding of infants' stress responses. Knowledge of these processes is further limited by analytic approaches that do not account for multiple levels of within- and between-family effects.

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Young people who have experienced homelessness, foster care, or poverty are among the most disadvantaged in society. This review examines whether young people who have these experiences differ from their non-disadvantaged peers with respect to their cognitive skills and abilities, and whether cognitive profiles differ between these three groups. Three electronic databases were systematically searched for articles published between 1 January 1995 and 1 February 2015 on cognitive functioning among young people aged 15 to 24 years who have experienced homelessness, foster care, or poverty.

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Higher self-control in children and adolescents is associated with a range of positive outcomes in adulthood. However, little is known about the naturalistic development of self-control during early adolescence and the factors that affect this. We examined the role of puberty and parenting style as theoretically important influences on stability and change in self-control.

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Background: Depression is typically more common in females and rates rise around puberty. However, studies of children and adolescents suggest that depression accompanied by conduct problems may represent a different subtype not characterised by a female preponderance, with differing risk factors and genetic architecture compared to pure-depression. This study aimed to identify aetiologically distinct profiles of depressive symptoms, distinguished by the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct problems.

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Depressive symptoms have been linked to the development of harmful drinking in adolescence but it remains unclear to what extent this effect continues into emerging adulthood. Deviant peers represent a risk factor while parental monitoring is a protective factor for harmful drinking. The study explored the relationship between depressive symptoms and harmful drinking between early adolescence and emerging adulthood.

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Stress has been shown to have a causal effect on risk for depression. We investigated the role of cognitive ability as a moderator of the effect of stressful life events on depressive symptoms and whether this varied by gender. Data were analyzed in two adolescent data sets: one representative community sample aged 11-12 years (n = 460) and one at increased familial risk of depression aged 9-17 years (n = 335).

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