Adolescent Mental Health Research Research Articles

The relationship between future time perspective and suicide ideation in college students: Multiple mediating effects of anxiety and depression

BackgroundSuicide ideation has high prevalence in adolescents, better future time perspective is considered a protective role for anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. However, the impact of future time perspective on suicide ideation remains unclear, especially when anxiety and depression as mediating roles. MethodsA cross-sectional study of college students was performed in Chongqing, China. There are 851 students enrolled in this study and we distribute questionnaires through the WeChat platform to obtain data in 2023. We conducted Pearson correlation analysis and descriptive statistics. Model 6 in PROCESS 4.0 was used to test the multiple mediating effect. ResultsCollege students who have higher future time perspective are associated with a lower risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation. Future time perspective not only affects suicide ideation directly, but also influence it by means of two mediating pathways: ①depression, the mediation effect is 37.41 %; ②the multiple mediating effects of anxiety and depression with a mediating effect of 29.68 %. ConclusionHigher future time perspective functions as a protective role in anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation; future time perspective can affect and predict the occurrence of suicide ideation by influencing anxiety and depression in college students. This conclusion will be a novel and insightful part of adolescent mental health research, and provide a new perspective to prevent college students from committing suicide in the future.

Manifold Learning Uncovers Nonlinear Interactions Between the Adolescent Brain and Environment That Predict Emotional and Behavioral Problems

BackgroundTo progress adolescent mental health research beyond our present achievements—a complex account of brain and environmental risk factors without understanding neurobiological embedding in the environment—we need methods to uncover relationships between the developing brain and real-world environmental experiences. MethodsWe investigated associations between brain function, environments, and emotional and behavioral problems using participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (n = 2401 female). We applied manifold learning, a promising technique for uncovering latent structure from high-dimensional biomedical data such as functional magnetic resonance imaging. Specifically, we developed exogenous PHATE (potential of heat-diffusion for affinity-based trajectory embedding) (E-PHATE) to model brain-environment interactions. We used E-PHATE embeddings of participants’ brain activation during emotional and cognitive processing tasks to predict individual differences in cognition and emotional and behavioral problems both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. ResultsE-PHATE embeddings of participants’ brain activation and environments at baseline showed moderate-to-large associations with total, externalizing, and internalizing problems at baseline, across several subcortical regions and large-scale cortical networks, compared with the zero-to-small effects achieved by voxelwise data or common low-dimensional embedding methods. E-PHATE embeddings of the brain and environment at baseline were also related to emotional and behavioral problems 2 years later. These longitudinal predictions showed a consistent moderate effect in the frontoparietal and attention networks. ConclusionsThe embedding of the adolescent brain in the environment yields enriched insight into emotional and behavioral problems. Using E-PHATE, we demonstrated how the harmonization of cutting-edge computational methods with longstanding developmental theories advances the detection and prediction of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.

Manifold learning uncovers nonlinear interactions between the adolescent brain and environment that predict emotional and behavioral problems.

To progress adolescent mental health research beyond our present achievements - a complex account of brain and environmental risk factors without understanding neurobiological embedding in the environment - we need methods to unveil relationships between the developing brain and real-world environmental experiences. We investigated associations among brain function, environments, and emotional and behavioral problems using participants from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development Study (N=2,401 female). We applied manifold learning, a promising technique for uncovering latent structure from high-dimensional biomedical data like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Specifically, we developed exogenous PHATE (E-PHATE) to model brain-environment interactions. We used E-PHATE embeddings of participants' brain activation during emotional and cognitive processing to predict individual differences in cognition and emotional and behavioral problems, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. E-PHATE embeddings of participants' brain activation and environments at baseline show moderate-to-large associations with total, externalizing, and internalizing problems at baseline, across several subcortical regions and large-scale cortical networks, relative to the zero-to-small effects achieved by voxel or PHATE methods. E-PHATE embeddings of the brain and environment at baseline also relate to emotional and behavioral problems two years later. These longitudinal predictions show a consistent, moderate effect in the frontoparietal and attention networks. Adolescent brain's embedding in the environment yields enriched insight into emotional and behavioral problems. Using E-PHATE, we demonstrate how the harmonization of cutting-edge computational methods with longstanding developmental theories advances detection and prediction of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems.

Child and adolescent mental health services in Khartoum State, Sudan: a desktop situational analysis.

Sudan is a Northeast African country, with 61.7% of its population under 24 years. With a large youth population and significant cultural and linguistic diversity, Sudan, like most low-income countries, has contributed minimal data to global child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) research. This study aimed to perform the first ever situational analysis of CAMH services and systems in Khartoum State, Sudan. The study focused on Khartoum state and covered the calendar years 2019 and 2020. Using the World Health Organization Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) version 2.2 adapted for CAMH, the study focused on the publically available data sources. Findings were described and presented in tables and figures using the WHO-AIMS template. The situational analysis found no CAMH-specific policies, no separate budget for CAMH, and no supervising body for CAMH services in Khartoum. Three tertiary mental health hospitals provided CAMH services, all combined with adult mental health services. Essential medicines were available in all facilities, except methylphenidate available only in 3 central pharmacies. There was no free access to essential psychotropic drugs for children and adolescents except in emergency settings. Data about training to primary healthcare providers and the process of referral to specialized services were limited. A school mental health programme existed which provided early identification and management of CAMH problems in schools. The workforce was small and variable across all levels of care. No formal public health awareness campaigns and little evidence of formal intersectoral collaboration on CAMH were identified. A health information system existed, but no CAMH-specific items were reported. Among a handful of publications on CAMH, no national studies on CAMH were identified. This situational analysis represented the first systematic collation of data and information about CAMH in Sudan. Findings highlighted some areas of strength, but also many gaps in CAMH services and systems. We acknowledge the need to complement the desktop analysis with in-depth data collection with stakeholders across multiple levels, but hope that this will serve as a first step towards strengthening CAMH services in Sudan and other low-income countries.

Trends in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Research and its Countermeasures

The mental health issues among children and adolescents have become a focal point of attention in today's society. This paper reviews and analyzes the current trends in research on the mental health of children and adolescents. The results indicate that future research will exhibit characteristics of interdisciplinary collaboration, technological applications, and innovative psychological intervention strategies. To promote overall improvement in the mental health of children and adolescents, it is necessary to enhance the qualifications of professionals, provide social support, and establish collaborative networks. By implementing these measures, we can create a better psychological environment for children and adolescents.

Involving children, teachers and parents/carers in dialogues around child well-being in schools

Building dynamic partnerships between communities and academic institutions, via knowledge exchange, plays a vital role in generating research with mutual benefits for research partners and wider communities. Knowledge exchange between universities and schools has recently received particular interest in child and adolescent mental health research. This article outlines a knowledge exchange programme that involved children, primarily, and teachers and parents/carers in dialogues around school well-being. Using a series of co-created and multimodal creative activities, we: (1) worked closely with 25 students of an inclusive and multicultural primary school (aged 9 to 10 years old) to understand their school well-being experiences, and to co-create a school blog to communicate key messages with local communities; and (2) initiated a discussion around child and school well-being with a group of parents/carers and teachers through expanding on the children’s blog. In this article, we outline our methodology to facilitate children’s involvement with the project well-being activities. We explore key methodological strengths and challenges, and highlight lessons we learned and how these stress the significance of seeking young people’s points of view when designing school well-being initiatives.

Adolescent Health Series: The status of adolescent mental health research, practice and policy in sub-Saharan Africa: A narrative review.

Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) has the fastest growing adolescent population in the world. In addition to developmental changes, adolescents in SSA face health and socioeconomic challenges that increase their vulnerability to mental ill‐health. This paper is a narrative review of adolescent mental health (AMH) in SSA with a focus on past achievements, current developments, and future directions in the areas of research, practice and policy in the region. We describe the status of AMH in the region, critical factors that negatively impact AMH, and the ways in which research, practice and policy have responded to this need. Depression, anxiety and post‐traumatic stress disorders are the most common mental health problems among adolescents in SSA. Intervention development has largely been focused on HIV/AIDS service delivery in school or community programs by non‐specialist health workers. There is a severe shortage of specialised AMH services, poor integration of services into primary health care, lack of a coordinated inter‐sectoral collaboration, and the absence of clear referral pathways. Policies for the promotion of AMH have been given less attention by policymakers, due to stigma attached to mental health problems, and an insufficient understanding of the link between mental health and social determinants, such as poverty. Given these gaps, traditional healers are the most accessible care available to help‐seeking adolescents. Sustained AMH research with a focus on the socioeconomic benefits of implementing evidence‐based, contextually adapted psychosocial interventions might prove useful in advocating for much needed policies to improve AMH in SSA.

Toward a Demand-Driven, Collaborative Data Agenda for Adolescent Mental Health

PurposeExisting datasets and research in the field of adolescent mental health do not always meet the needs of practitioners, policymakers, and program implementers, particularly in the context of vulnerable populations. Here, we introduce a collaborative, demand-driven methodology for the development of a strategic adolescent mental health research agenda. Ultimately, this agenda aims to guide future data sharing and collection efforts that meet the most pressing data needs of key stakeholders. MethodsWe conducted a rapid literature search to summarize common themes in adolescent mental health research into a “topic map”. We then hosted two virtual workshops with a range of international experts to discuss the topic map and identify shared priorities for future collaboration and research. ResultsOur topic map identifies 10 major themes in adolescent mental health, organized into system-level, community-level, and individual-level categories. The engagement of cross-sectoral experts resulted in the validation of the mapping exercise, critical insights for refining the topic map, and a collaborative list of priorities for future research. DiscussionThis innovative agile methodology enables a focused deliberation with diverse stakeholders and can serve as the starting point for data generation and collaboration practices, both in the field of adolescent mental health and other topics.

Adolescent mental health research in Tanzania: a study protocol for a priority setting exercise and the development of an interinstitutional capacity strengthening programme

IntroductionPoor adolescent mental health is a barrier to achieving several sustainable development goals in Tanzania, where adolescent mental health infrastructure is weak. This is compounded by a lack of community...

Debate: Inequalities within understanding of Eco Distress.

Increased attention and youth action on Climate Change have increased global societal awareness of the climate crisis. However, this has not come without a cost, lack of international political action and increased media attention towards climate change has triggered a surge in young people experiencing Eco Distress. I discuss how increased levels of Eco Distress experienced by young people has uncovered vast inequalities within child and adolescent mental health provision and research across the globe, which follow geopolitical and Economic divides formed during the colonial period. I also discuss how psychiatrists can embrace different knowledge systems and collaborate across socio-political barriers, to support and enable equality in the access of mental health care for all young people, regardless of location in helping manage Eco Distress or climate-related worries. I conclude this piece by suggesting actions which psychiatrists can undertake to show themselves to be allies with young people, in not only tackling climate change, but systemic inequality harboured in child and adolescent mental health care.

Holes in the wall: Examining gaps in knowledge in child and adolescent mental health in Tanzania - Scoping review.

To perform scoping review of the existing literature available specific to child and adolescent mental health in Tanzania. An extensive literature search of PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE and EMBASE was undertaken to identify studies that focussed specifically on mental illness in children and young people in Tanzania. This included neurological and functional disorders, affective disorders, psychosis, epidemiological, intervention and treatment-based studies. Qualitative analysis of the studies was then undertaken to assess what is currently known about the subject and how reliable this information is and to identify areas for further research. Of 23 studies were included in the final synthesis, which could be broadly split into studies focussing on the prevalence and incidence of child and adolescent mental illness, hypothesised causes and correlations, identified treatments and interventions and qualitative studies of human experience. There is a dearth of published research regarding child and adolescent mental health in Tanzania. Although some high-quality studies allow us good insight into the epidemiology of mental illness, interventional studies are often small and low-power, and significant correlational relationships are yet to be drawn. There is significant scope for further child and adolescent mental health research in Tanzania.

Children and young people\u2019s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research: learning from two school-based pilot projects

BackgroundIn recent years there has been growing interest in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, alongside increasing emphasis on schools as a crucial site for research and intervention. This has coincided with an increased use of self-report mental health and wellbeing measures in research with this population, including in school-based research projects. We set out to explore the way that children and young people perceive and experience completing mental health and wellbeing measures, with a specific focus on completion in a school context, in order to inform future measure and research design.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 133 participants aged 8–16 years following their completion of mental health and wellbeing measures as part of school-based research programmes, using thematic analysis to identify patterns of experience.FindingsWe identified six themes: Reflecting on emotions during completion; the importance of anonymity; understanding what is going to happen; ease of responding to items; level of demand; and interacting with the measure format.ConclusionsOur findings offer greater insight into children and young people’s perceptions and experiences in reporting on their mental health and wellbeing. Such understanding can be used to support more ethical and robust data collection procedures in child and adolescent mental health research, both for data quality and ethical purposes. We offer several practical recommendations for researchers, including facilitating this in a school context.

Special Issue: Adolescent development, mental health, and promising research directions for Aboriginal youth

Special Issue: Adolescent development, mental health, and promising research directions for Aboriginal youth

Same proof, different pudding: comparative views of New Zealand child psychiatrists, child psychologists and child psychotherapists regarding a proposed national child and adolescent research network.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the views of New Zealand clinicians regarding a proposed national child and adolescent mental health research network. Child psychiatrists, child psychologists and child psychotherapists were invited to participate in an electronic survey describing their previous experience of research, current interest in research, barriers to undertaking research and interest in a national research network. Responses were received from child psychiatrists (N = 33), child psychologists (N = 58) and child psychotherapists (N = 8), many of whom were clinicians and few of whom were researchers. Although most clinicians were interested in participating in future research, areas of interest differed between clinical groups. Clinician barriers to research included lack of time, lack of confidence and lack of research skills. Researcher barriers included lack of funding, time and administrative support. All groups were supportive of the development of a national research network. Despite some different areas of interest, there appears to be sufficient combined support from New Zealand child psychiatrists, child psychologists and child psychotherapists to pursue the establishment of a national child and adolescent mental health research network.

Five models for child and adolescent data linkage in the UK: a review of existing and proposed methods.

Over the last decade dramatic advances have been made in both the technology and data available to better understand the multifactorial influences on child and adolescent health and development. This paper seeks to clarify methods that can be used to link information from health, education, social care and research datasets. Linking these different types of data can facilitate epidemiological research that investigates mental health from the population to the patient; enabling advanced analytics to better identify, conceptualise and address child and adolescent needs. The majority of adolescent mental health research is not able to maximise the full potential of data linkage, primarily due to four key challenges: confidentiality, sampling, matching and scalability. By presenting five existing and proposed models for linking adolescent data in relation to these challenges, this paper aims to facilitate the clinical benefits that will be derived from effective integration of available data in understanding, preventing and treating mental disorders.

Adaptation of the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (Short Form) for Pakistani Adolescents

Objectives: Adaptive coping varies across cultures, underscoring the need to validate this construct cross-culturally. However, there is a lack of psychometrically sound measures of coping adapted for use with adolescents in South Asian countries, such as Pakistan. Method: The current study translated the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations 21 (CISS-21) from English to Urdu using back-translation method and examined its scale structure, Cronbach’s alpha reliability and construct validity in a sample of 405 Pakistani adolescents (12-18 years; 50.5% male; Mean age=14.3 years; SD=1.62). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and CISS-21 subscales` (task focused, emotion focused andavoidant coping) correlations with the Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were assessed. Results: CFA results demonstrated a similar good fit to both 2-factor and 3-factor structures. High Cronbach’s alphas (.87-.91) supported the internal consistency of the CISS-21. CISS-21 subscales scores were significantly correlated with the HADS and the RSES scores in the expected direction, supporting its construct validity. Conclusion: This study has provided a new psychometrically robust coping measure for future research with Pakistani adolescents or other Urdu speaking settings. This contribution to methodological development is an important step in advancing adolescent mental health research in South Asian countries such as Pakistan, which have limited research and clinical resources.

Adolescence and Gender Equality in Health

Adolescence and Gender Equality in Health

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in South Africa-Senior Stakeholder Perceptions of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in the Western Cape Province.

Background: There is general consensus that child and adolescent mental health services in low- and middle-income countries have an urgent need to be strengthened. However, this require not only a universal understanding of services and service needs, but also in-depth local knowledge to inform relevant service strengthening. This study sought to explore the perspectives of senior child and adolescent mental health service providers and policy-makers in one South African province to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to child and adolescent mental health services. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 13 purposively sampled senior child and adolescent mental health service providers, senior managers, and policy-makers from the Western Cape Province, using a half-day multi-stakeholder workshop format. Verbal and written data were recorded and coded for analysis. Two independent raters performed thematic analysis. Results: The comprehensive bio-psycho-social approach and strong specialist child and adolescent mental health service units were identified as strengths. Limited capacity, workload demands, inadequate and inequitable resource allocation, poor implementation of early detection and preventative policies, and overall neglect of child and adolescent mental health services, were identified as weaknesses. Collaborative working between child and adolescent mental health and pediatric services, and increased provincial government (Department of Health) involvement, were identified as potential opportunities to develop and strengthen child and adolescent mental health services. Silo working of agencies, societal stressors, inadequate infrastructure and other resources, and lack of dedicated funding for child and adolescent mental health, were identified as threats to the development of services. Conclusions: This analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats reinforced the widespread neglect of child and adolescent mental health services in South Africa and highlighted areas for further research and advocacy. There is a clear need to explore the perspectives and experiences of service users and providers to generate comprehensive multi-stakeholder evidence that may identify positive "tipping points" for improvements and strengthening of child and adolescent mental health service delivery, training, and research.

What next for adolescent forensic mental health research?

A small proportion of every nation's young people become sufficiently antisocial to come into contact with the criminal justice system. Many also have disorders of mental health or emotional well-being. Although countries vary in designating age of criminal responsibility, all must provide services for offenders, perhaps as young as 10, both to help them and safeguard their peers and the wider public. The aim of this article is to map the range of research required to support the development of satisfactory services for young mentally disordered offenders and identify knowledge gaps from a practitioner's perspective. Using a public health prevention framework, we identified the main streams of research pertinent to young, mentally disordered offenders and sought examples of each to consider the extent to which they have been used to inform service development in England. As in most countries, service development seems first driven by unusual, newsworthy cases. Overall, however, current English provision follows sound primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention principles with parallel tiers of service, including public health initiatives. Primary prevention and more specific treatments are likely to be informed by research findings, but service structure tends to emerge from a wider review base, including criminal justice, social and educational practitioner reviews, and also politics. Thus, services and populations of service users may change in advance of research evidence. Substantial reduction in numbers of young offenders in prison in England, for example, is clearly good in principle, but the intensity of need in the residual group is posing new challenges to which there are, yet, few answers. Although the last 15 years of coordinated service development in England has been broadly theoretically based, it has not been systematically assessed to establish what works best for whom. New problems emerging, such as new drugs of misuse, and new opportunities, such as technology for supporting and monitoring, require model studies. More research focusing on correlates of success is essential.

The importance of the post-disaster context in fostering human resilience

The importance of the post-disaster context in fostering human resilience