Factors that impact mental health help-seeking in Australian adolescents: a life-course and socioecological perspective.

Background: Help-seeking provides opportunities for early prevention and intervention of mental health problems. However, little is known about factors that impact help-seeking from a life-course and socioecological perspective. This study aimed to examine factors that impact adolescents' formal and informal help-seeking in three population groups: the whole population, adolescents with depressive symptoms and adolescents with anxiety symptoms.

Learning outcomes in primary school children with emotional problems: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Academic difficulties are common in adolescents with mental health problems. Although earlier childhood emotional problems, characterised by heightened anxiety and depressive symptoms are common forerunners to adolescent mental health problems, the degree to which mental health problems in childhood may contribute independently to academic difficulties has been little explored.

Methods: Data were drawn from a prospective cohort study of students in Melbourne, Australia (N = 1239).

Estradiol variability is associated with brain structure in early adolescent females.

One-third of adolescents are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder by age 16, with female adolescents twice as likely to experience an internalizing (i.e., depression or anxiety) disorder as their male peers.

The effects of puberty and its hormones on subcortical brain development.

Puberty triggers a period of structural "re-organization" in the brain, when rising hormone levels act via receptors to influence morphology. However, our understanding of these neuroendocrine processes in humans remains poor. As such, the current longitudinal study characterized development of the human subcortex during puberty, including changes in relation to pubertal (Tanner) stage and hormone (testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA]) levels.

The development of structural covariance networks during the transition from childhood to adolescence.

Structural covariance conceptualizes how morphologic properties of brain regions are related to one another (across individuals). It can provide unique information to cortical structure (e.g.

A longitudinal analysis of puberty-related cortical development.

The brain undergoes extensive structural changes during adolescence, concurrent to puberty-related physical and hormonal changes. While animal research suggests these biological processes are related to one another, our knowledge of brain development in humans is largely based on age-related processes. Thus, the current study characterized puberty-related changes in human brain structure, by combining data from two longitudinal neuroimaging cohorts.

Self-harm in primary school-aged children: Prospective cohort study.

Introduction: No prospective studies have examined the prevalence, antecedents or concurrent characteristics associated with self-harm in non-treatment-seeking primary school-aged children.

Methods: In this cohort study from Melbourne, Australia we assessed 1239 children annually from age 8-9 years (wave 1) to 11-12 years (wave 4) on a range of health, social, educational and family measures. Past-year self-harm was assessed at wave 4.

Social networking and symptoms of depression and anxiety in early adolescence.

Background: Use of social networking in later childhood and adolescence has risen quickly. The consequences of these changes for mental health are debated but require further empirical evaluation.

Methods: Using data from the Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study (n = 1,156), duration of social networking use was measured annually at four time points from 11.

Bullying Across Late Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Prospective Cohort of Students Assessed Annually From Grades 3 to 8.

Objective: Bullying is a well-established risk factor for common adolescent mental disorders. Yet there has been little published on how patterns of bullying change across late childhood and early adolescence. We estimated the prevalence and patterns of being a victim of bullying across this period including changes with the transition from primary to secondary school.

Electronic media use and academic performance in late childhood: A longitudinal study.

Introduction: The effects of electronic media use on health has received much attention but less is known about links with academic performance. This study prospectively examines the effect of media use on academic performance in late childhood.

Materials And Methods: 1239 8- to 9-year-olds and their parents were recruited to take part in a prospective, longitudinal study.

Sleep problems increase the risk of musculoskeletal pain in boys but not girls: a prospective cohort study.

Adults with sleep problems are at higher risk for onset of musculoskeletal pain, but the evidence is less clear for children. This prospective cohort study investigated whether children with sleep problems are at higher risk for onset of musculoskeletal pain and explored whether sex is a modifier of this association. In a prospective cohort study of Australian schoolchildren (n = 1239, mean age 9 years), the associations between sleep problems at baseline and new onset of both musculoskeletal pain and persistent musculoskeletal pain (pain lasting > 3 months) 1 year later were investigated using logistic regression.

Adrenarcheal Timing Longitudinally Predicts Anxiety Symptoms via Amygdala Connectivity During Emotion Processing.

Objective: This study aimed to examine longitudinally whether adrenarcheal timing (adrenarcheal hormone levels independent of age) and tempo (change in hormone levels over time) were associated with amygdala functional connectivity and how this in turn related to anxiety symptoms in the transition from childhood to adolescence.

Method: Participants were 64 children (34 girls) who completed the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale and saliva collections to measure levels of testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate at two time points (mean age 9.5 years at time 1 [T1], 12.

Diet quality and mental health problems in late childhood.

There is evidence that diet quality is associated with mental health problems in adults and adolescents. Yet the extent to which overall diet quality (not individual nutrients or dietary patterns) may be associated with mental health problems in pre-adolescent children, a common time for first onset of symptoms, remains unclear. This study examined associations between overall diet quality, using a brief measure, and mental health problems during late childhood, in a large community sample.

Relationships between adrenarcheal hormones, hippocampal volumes and depressive symptoms in children.

Early timing of puberty (i.e., advanced pubertal maturation relative to same-age peers) has been associated with depressive symptoms during adolescence.

Bullying, mental health and friendship in Australian primary school children.

Background: Frequent bullying predicts adolescent mental health problems, particularly depression. This population-based study with young Australian primary school children aimed to determine the frequency and mental health correlates of bullying, and whether friendship could be protective.

Method: Participants were a population-based sample of 1221 children aged 8-9 years attending 43 primary schools in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia.

Interaction Between Parenting Styles and Adrenarcheal Timing Associated With Affective Brain Function in Late Childhood.

Objective: Parenting and pubertal timing have consistently been associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence, and there is some evidence that the interaction between these factors may be important in conferring risk. However, few studies have investigated whether neurobiological factors mediate these relationships. The current study examined whether interactions between adrenarcheal timing and parenting styles were associated with affective brain function and, in turn, mental health difficulties.

Body Image Dissatisfaction and the Adrenarchal Transition.

Background: Puberty marks a transition in risk for body image disturbance and disordered eating. Yet few studies have examined these symptoms across puberty and none have examined links with adrenarche, the earliest phase in the pubertal hormonal cascade.

Method: Levels of adrenal androgens (dehydroepiandrosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate, and testosterone) were measured in a population-based study of 8- to 9-year-old children (516 males and 621 females).

Associations between adrenarcheal hormones, amygdala functional connectivity and anxiety symptoms in children.

Objective: The transition from childhood to adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of anxiety symptoms. There is some evidence that hormonal changes occurring during adrenarche, an early pubertal phase, might play a role in this increased vulnerability. Little is known about underlying brain mechanisms.

Brain structural connectivity during adrenarche: Associations between hormone levels and white matter microstructure.

Levels of the adrenal hormones dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its sulfate (DHEAS), and testosterone, have all been linked to behavior and mental health during adrenarche, and preclinical studies suggest that these hormones influence brain development. However, little is known about how variation in these hormones is associated with white matter structure during this period of life. The current study aimed to examine associations between DHEA, DHEAS, and testosterone, and white matter microstructure during adrenarche.

If You Go Down to the Woods Today: Infants' Distress During a Teddy Bear's Picnic in Relation to Peer Relations and Later Emotional Problems.

Infants' emotional reactions to an unusual event were assessed at a simulated birthday party during which two costumed characters enacted a Teddy Bear's Picnic. Two hundred and fifty-eight firstborn infants in a representative British community sample were observed at a mean age of 12.8 months in the presence of their parents and other participating families, in a laboratory sitting room decorated with balloons and banners.