Targeted community-based programmes for children's mental health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the Australian literature.

Objective: No synthesis of the Australian evidence regarding targeted prevention and early intervention for mental health concerns among young children exists. This review aimed to (1) describe the types of targeted community-based mental health programmes evaluated in Australia to support children aged 1-9 years exhibiting internalising and/or externalising symptoms and (2) examine their impact on children's internalising and externalising symptoms and disorder diagnosis.

Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted (PROSPERO: CRD42021255257).

Partners in Parenting: A Multi-Level Web-Based Approach to Support Parents in Prevention and Early Intervention for Adolescent Depression and Anxiety.

Depression and anxiety disorders in young people are a global health concern. Various risk and protective factors for these disorders are potentially modifiable by parents, underscoring the important role parents play in reducing the risk and impact of these disorders in their adolescent children. However, cost-effective, evidence-based interventions for parents that can be widely disseminated are lacking.

Parenting strategies for reducing the risk of childhood depression and anxiety disorders: A Delphi consensus study.

Background: Substantial evidence that some modifiable parental factors are associated with childhood depression and anxiety indicates that parents can play a crucial role in the prevention of these disorders in their children. However, more effective translation of research evidence is required.

Methods: This study employed the Delphi methodology to establish expert consensus on parenting strategies that are important for preventing depression or anxiety disorders in children aged 5-11 years.

Identifying prevention strategies for adolescents to reduce their risk of depression: A Delphi consensus study.

Background: Adolescence is a peak time for the onset of depression, but little is known about what adolescents can do to reduce their own level of risk.

Method: This study employed the Delphi methodology to establish expert consensus on self-help prevention strategies for adolescent depression. A literature search identified 194 recommendations for adolescents.

What are parents doing to reduce adolescent alcohol misuse? Evaluating concordance with parenting guidelines for adolescent alcohol use.

Background: The Parenting Guidelines for Adolescent Alcohol Use were developed to support parents in reducing adolescent alcohol misuse. The aims of this paper were to: (1) validate an online parent self-assessment survey as a criterion-referenced measure of parental factors that are important for predicting adolescent alcohol misuse; (2) examine parent web-users' concordance with the Parenting Guidelines (extent to which their knowledge and behaviours align with Guidelines recommendations), and (3) examine the associations of parent and child characteristics with parental Guidelines concordance.

Methods: Participants were 489 parents who completed the online survey.

Parental factors associated with childhood anxiety, depression, and internalizing problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: There is a burgeoning and varied literature examining the associations between parental factors and depression or anxiety disorders in children. However, there is hitherto no systematic review of this complex literature with a focus on the 5-11 years age range, when there is a steep increase in onset of these disorders. Furthermore, to facilitate the application of the evidence in prevention, a focus on modifiable factors is required.

Risk and protective factors for depression that adolescents can modify: a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.

Background: Adolescence is a peak time for the onset of depression, but little is known about what adolescents can do to reduce their own level of risk. To fill this gap, a review was carried out to identify risk and protective factors for depression during adolescence that are modifiable by the young person.

Methods: Employing the PRISMA method, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies to identify risk and protective factors during the adolescent period (aged 12-18 years) that are potentially modifiable by the young person without professional intervention or assistance.

The measurement properties of stigmatizing attitudes towards mental disorders: results from two community surveys.

Stigma is a well-documented concern of people living with mental illness. Through the use of novel exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) methods, we aimed to elucidate the structure of stigma as measured by two stigma scales (the Depression Stigma Scale and the Social Distance Scale), to establish dimensions of stigma towards a range of disorders and to compare levels on these dimensions between disorders and respondent subgroups. We used data from two Australian national surveys, one of the general community aged 15+ and another of youths aged 15-25.

Parenting strategies for reducing the risk of adolescent depression and anxiety disorders: a Delphi consensus study.

Background: The family setting, particularly parents, is a strategic target for preventive interventions for youth depression and anxiety disorders. However, more effective translation of relevant research evidence is required.

Method: This study employed the Delphi methodology to establish expert consensus on parenting strategies that are important for preventing adolescent depression or anxiety disorders.

Parental factors associated with depression and anxiety in young people: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: There is a burgeoning and varied literature examining the associations between parental factors and depression or anxiety disorders in young people. However, there is hitherto no systematic review of this complex literature with a focus on the 12-18 years age range, when the first onset for these disorders peaks. Furthermore, to facilitate the application of the evidence in prevention, a focus on modifiable factors is required.

Positive parenting predicts the development of adolescent brain structure: a longitudinal study.

Little work has been conducted that examines the effects of positive environmental experiences on brain development to date. The aim of this study was to prospectively investigate the effects of positive (warm and supportive) maternal behavior on structural brain development during adolescence, using longitudinal structural MRI. Participants were 188 (92 female) adolescents, who were part of a longitudinal adolescent development study that involved mother-adolescent interactions and MRI scans at approximately 12 years old, and follow-up MRI scans approximately 4 years later.

Associations between stigma and help-seeking intentions and beliefs: findings from an Australian national survey of young people.

To reduce stigma and improve help seeking by young people for mental illness, we need a better understanding of the associations between various dimensions of stigma and young people's help-seeking intentions and helpfulness beliefs for various sources of help and for different disorders. This study assessed stigmatizing attitudes and help-seeking intentions and helpfulness beliefs via a national telephone survey of 3021 youths aged 15-25. Five stigma scales were used: social distance, personally held weak-not-sick and dangerousness beliefs, and weak-not-sick and dangerousness beliefs perceived in others.

Psychiatric labels and other influences on young people's stigmatizing attitudes: Findings from an Australian national survey.

Background: Stigma is a major impediment to help seeking for mental disorders by young people. To reduce stigma and improve help seeking, a better understanding of the influences on different components of stigma for different disorders is required.

Methods: In 2011, a telephone interview was conducted with a national sample of 2522 Australians aged 15-25 years.

Young people's mental health first aid intentions and beliefs prospectively predict their actions: findings from an Australian National Survey of Youth.

Little is known about whether mental health first aid knowledge and beliefs of young people actually translate into actual behavior. This study examined whether young people's first aid intentions and beliefs predicted the actions they later took to help a close friend or family member with a mental health problem. Participants in a 2006 national survey of Australian youth (aged 12-25 years) reported on their first aid intentions and beliefs based on one of four vignettes: depression, depression with alcohol misuse, psychosis, and social phobia.

Australian youth still have limited awareness of headspace: results from a national survey.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to assess Australian young people's awareness of mental health services available for their age group. Of particular interest was awareness of headspace, which was created in 2006 to provide youth-oriented mental health services, and has expanded to 30 centres nationally in 5 years.

Method: In 2011, a telephone interview was conducted with a national sample of 3021 Australians aged between 15 and 25 years.

Intentions and helpfulness beliefs about first aid responses for young people with mental disorders: findings from two Australian national surveys of youth.

Background: Youths are important sources of first aid for people close to them who are experiencing mental health problems, but their skills are not optimal. A better understanding of predictors of young people's first aid intentions and beliefs will facilitate future efforts to improve their mental health first aid skills.

Methods: Young people's first aid intentions and beliefs were assessed by a national telephone survey of 3746 Australian youth aged 12-25 years in 2006.

Young people's beliefs about the harmfulness of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco for mental disorders: findings from two Australian national youth surveys.

Aims: Using cross-sectional national survey data, we assessed young peoples' beliefs about the role of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders as well as the predictors of these beliefs. We also compared these findings with those from a similar survey carried out in 2006.

Design, Setting And Participants: Between January and May 2011, a national computer-assisted telephone survey was conducted on a representative sample of Australian youths aged 15-25 years.

Emotional inertia prospectively predicts the onset of depressive disorder in adolescence.

Emotional inertia refers to the degree to which a person's current emotional state is predicted by their prior emotional state, reflecting how much it carries over from one moment to the next. Recently, in a cross-sectional study, we showed that high inertia is an important characteristic of the emotion dynamics observed in psychological maladjustment such as depression. In the present study, we examined whether emotional inertia prospectively predicts the onset of first-episode depression during adolescence.

Young people's beliefs about preventive strategies for mental disorders: findings from two Australian national surveys of youth.

Background: Political interest in prevention of mental illness has increased in recent years. However, relatively little is known about the public's beliefs about prevention, and the predictors of these beliefs. Since many disorders start in the first decades of life, a focus on young people is warranted.

Actions taken by young people to deal with mental disorders: findings from an Australian national survey of youth.

Aims: The study examined actions taken by young people to deal with mental disorders and the factors associated with help-seeking and self-help behaviours.

Methods: Participants in a 2006 national survey of Australian youth (aged 12-25 years) were contacted 2 years later and participated in telephone interviews based on a vignette of one of the following disorders: depression, depression with alcohol misuse, social phobia and psychosis. Personal experiences of these disorders and subsequent self-help and help-seeking behaviours were examined.

Adolescents' depressive symptoms moderate neural responses to their mothers' positive behavior.

The way that parents express their emotions during interactions with their adolescent children is important for adolescent adjustment, and predicts adolescent emotional problems such as depression. In the current study, we assessed whether adolescent depressive symptoms were associated with neural activity during exposure to their mother's affective behavior. Thirty adolescents (18 females, mean age 17.

Parental behaviors during family interactions predict changes in depression and anxiety symptoms during adolescence.

This study investigated the prospective, longitudinal relations between parental behaviors observed during parent-adolescent interactions, and the development of depression and anxiety symptoms in a community-based sample of 194 adolescents. Positive and negative parental behaviors were examined, with negative behaviors operationalized to distinguish between observed parental expressions of aggression and dysphoria. Results showed that higher levels of parental aggression prospectively predicted higher levels of both depression and anxiety symptoms in adolescents over two-and-a-half years, whereas higher levels of positive parental behaviors prospectively predicted lower levels of depression symptoms only.

The influence of stigma on first aid actions taken by young people for mental health problems in a close friend or family member: findings from an Australian national survey of youth.

Background: Young people are an important source of first aid for mental health problems in people they are close to, but their first aid skills remain inadequate. Research into the factors that influence mental health first aid skills are required to reveal targets for improving these skills. This study examined the influence of stigma on first aid actions taken by young people to help someone close to them with a mental health problem.