Background: There is a pressing need to offer more accessible, evidence-based psychological interventions to secondary school students who are increasingly reporting difficulties with anxiety and low mood. The aim of this pragmatic randomised multiple baseline trial is to evaluate the efficacy of a school-based counselling intervention called Knowledge Insight Tools (KIT) for reducing anxiety and low mood in UK secondary school students. KIT is a flexible intervention delivered individually and informed by cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study provides insights into the roles played by perceived stress and social support in the relationship between cumulative risk exposure (CRE) and adolescent emotional distress. Preregistered longitudinal moderated mediation analyses were used to test hypotheses relating to the association between CRE and later emotional distress; the mediating role of perceived stress in the relationship between CRE and later emotional distress; and, the moderating effects of peer and adult-level family support on the relationship between CRE and later perceived stress, among = 19,159 adolescents over three annual waves (at ages 11/12, 12/13, 13/14). Analyses revealed that CRE significantly predicted later adolescent emotional distress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adolescent mental wellbeing has been declining in the United Kingdom for over a decade. Expansion of services to support the mental wellbeing of young people is a public health priority and a core component of the National Health Service's Long-Term Plan. In this paper, we leverage secondary analysis of a very large longitudinal dataset (#BeeWell) to generate insights regarding different patterns of health behaviour, their covariates, and consequences for mental wellbeing one year later.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There are more than 1.5 million children and young people in England with special educational needs (SEN), with over 160,000 young people in the United Kingdom attending a special school or alternative provision (AP) setting. Young people with SEN have been found to be at risk for poorer mental health and well-being than non-SEN peers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health
February 2024
Background: Individuals from marginalised groups experience higher levels of mental health difficulties and lower levels of wellbeing which may be due to the exposure to stress and adversity. This study explores trajectories of mental health over time for young women and girls and young people with other marginalised identities.
Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis on N = 14,215 children and young people (7,501 or 52.
In light of the dramatic rise in mental health disorders amongst adolescents seen in the past decade across the world, there is an urgent need for robust evidence on what works to combat this trend. This paper provides the first robust evaluation of the impacts on school outcomes of 6-year funding programme () for area-level mental health interventions for adolescents. Exploiting educational administrative data on ten cohorts of state-educated secondary school students, we use the synthetic control method to construct counterfactual outcomes for areas that received the funding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Digital peer support is an increasingly used form of mental health support for young people. However, there is a need for more research on the impact of digital peer support and why it has an impact.
Objective: The aim of this research is to examine young people's experiences of using a digital peer support tool: MeeToo.
Background: Mental health and subjective well-being are of great interest in both health policy and research. There has been considerable debate regarding whether mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing are two distinct domains or different ends of a single mental health spectrum. This study investigates if predictors of mental health difficulties and subjective wellbeing are the same or different in a large-scale community-based sample in the United Kingdom.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
September 2023
Gender differences in adolescents' mental health problems have been extensively reported. Yet, there is limited research in exploring longitudinal trends in mental health and wellbeing between boys and girls. This study investigated any emerging developmental trends of gender differences in mental health problems and subjective wellbeing for young people from early to mid-adolescence in England.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
August 2021
Objective: Enduring mental health (EMH) is a relatively new concept, which refers to a long-term state of not experiencing a mental illness (ie, enduring mental wellness). No analysis using this concept has been undertaken on United Kingdom data nor specifically in the childhood years. The present study seeks to consider the extent and predictors of EMH in children aged 9 months to 14 years who were part of the UK-wide Millennium Cohort Study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Current mental health provision for children is based on estimates of one in ten children experiencing mental health problems. This study analyses a large-scale community-based dataset of 28 160 adolescents to explore school-based prevalence of mental health problems and characteristics that predict increased odds of experiencing them. Findings indicate the scale of mental health problems in England is much higher than previous estimates, with two in five young people scoring above thresholds for emotional problems, conduct problems or hyperactivity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
August 2019
Evidence for the association between mental health difficulties and academic outcomes is sparse and shows mixed results. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between educational attainment, absenteeism and mental health difficulties while controlling for various child characteristics such as special educational needs and socioeconomic background. 15,301 Year 7 pupils (mean age 11.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: To delineate the sleep profile of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
Method: A meta-analysis to synthesise findings on the objective and subjective sleep characteristics of BPD.
Results: We identified 32 studies published between 1980 and December 2015.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health
November 2016
Background: Policies, designed to promote resilience, and research, to understand the determinants and correlates of resilience, require reliable and valid measures to ensure data quality. The student resilience survey (SRS) covers a range of external supports and internal characteristics which can potentially be viewed as protective factors and can be crucial in exploring the mechanisms between protective factors and risk factors, and to design intervention and prevention strategies. This study examines the validity of the SRS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChild Adolesc Ment Health
September 2016
Background: With evidence of rising need around mental health in young people, cuts in specialist health provision and increasing recognition of the central role of schools in supporting young people with mental health problems, it is important to understand the provision of mental health support currently available in schools, the nature of the relationship with health and other providers of child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) services, and what are the key barriers to accessing support.
Method: The study was a convenience sample survey of 577 school staff from 341 schools in England. Participants completed an online survey about the provision of specialist mental health support in their school, including what support is available, who provides it, and perceived barriers to supporting the mental health of young people.
Contemporary theories for the aetiology of borderline personality disorder (BPD) take a lifespan approach asserting that inborn biological predisposition is potentiated across development by environmental risk factors. In this review, we present and critically evaluate evidence on the neurobiology of BPD in childhood and adolescence, compare this evidence to the adult literature, and contextualise within a neurodevelopmental framework. A systematic review was conducted to identify studies examining the neurobiological (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Abnorm Child Psychol
January 2017
Sleep disorders, such as insomnia and nightmares, are commonly associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in adulthood. Whether nightmares and sleep-onset and maintenance problems predate BPD symptoms earlier in development is unknown. We addressed this gap in the literature using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFControversy surrounds the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in youth. This meta-analysis summarised evidence regarding the aetiological and psychopathological validity of youth BPD (the extent to which youth and adult BPD share common risk factors and psychopathology). We identified 61 studies satisfying predetermined inclusion criteria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The adult mental health consequences of childhood maltreatment are well documented. Maltreatment by peers (ie, bullying) has also been shown to have long-term adverse effects. We aimed to determine whether these effects are just due to being exposed to both maltreatment and bullying or whether bullying has a unique effect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Bullying is a common childhood experience with enduring psychosocial consequences. The aim of this study was to test whether bullying increases risk for eating disorder symptoms.
Method: Ten waves of data on 1,420 participants between ages 9 and 25 were used from the prospective population-based Great Smoky Mountains Study.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry
December 2015
It has been suggested that those who both bully and are victims of bullying (bully/victims) are at the highest risk of adverse mental health outcomes. However, unknown is whether most bully/victims were bullies or victims first and whether being a bully/victim is more detrimental to mental health than being a victim. A total of 4101 children were prospectively studied from birth, and structured interviews and questionnaires were used to assess bullying involvement at 10 years (elementary school) and 13 years of age (secondary school).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBullying is the systematic abuse of power and is defined as aggressive behaviour or intentional harm-doing by peers that is carried out repeatedly and involves an imbalance of power. Being bullied is still often wrongly considered as a 'normal rite of passage'. This review considers the importance of bullying as a major risk factor for poor physical and mental health and reduced adaptation to adult roles including forming lasting relationships, integrating into work and being economically independent.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Being the victim of peer bullying is associated with increased risk of psychopathology, yet it is not known whether similar experiences of bullying increase risk of psychiatric disorder when the perpetrator is a sibling. We tested whether being bullied by a sibling is prospectively associated with depression, anxiety, and self-harm in early adulthood.
Methods: We conducted a longitudinal study using data from >6900 participants of a UK community-based birth cohort (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children) who reported on sibling bullying at 12 years.
Background And Objectives: Environmental factors such as serious trauma or abuse and related stress can lead to nightmares or night terrors. Being bullied can be very distressing for children, and victims display long-term social, psychological, and health consequences. Unknown is whether being bullied by peers may increase the risk for experiencing parasomnias such as nightmares, night terrors, or sleepwalking.
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