scholarly journals Developmental co-occurrence of psychopathology dimensions in childhood: between and within person processes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Allegrini ◽  
Toos van Beijsterveldt ◽  
Dorret Boomsma ◽  
Kaili Rimfeld ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Pingault ◽  
...  

BackgroundComorbidity between psychopathologies may be attributed to genetic and environmentaldifferences between people as well as causal processes within individuals, where onepathology increases risk for another. Disentangling between-person (co)variance fromwithin-person processes of psychopathology dimensions across childhood could shed light ondevelopmental causes of comorbid mental health problems. Cross-sectional data as well asstandard models to investigate lagged effects conflate between-person and within-personprocesses. This makes it difficult to distinguish time invariant overarching (confounding)factors from temporal directed effects. Additionally, more recent random effects modelsmake no allowance for direct temporal effects from one person to another. Here, we aim todetermine whether and to what extent directional relationships between psychopathologydimensions within-person, and between individuals within families, play a role inmultivariate comorbidity.MethodsWe investigated longitudinal data on measures of common psychopathologies fromchildhood to early adolescence (age 7 to 12), jointly estimating between-person and withinpersonprocesses across time. We conducted random intercepts cross-lagged panel model(RI-CLPM) analyses to unravel the longitudinal co-occurrence of child psychopathologydimensions, and developed an extension of the model to estimate sibling effects withinfamily(wfRI-CLPM). Analyses were separately conducted in two large population-basedcohorts, the Twin Early Developmental Study and the Netherlands Twin Register, includingparent-rated measures of child problem behaviours based on the SDQ and CBCL scalesrespectively.ResultsWe found evidence for strong between-person effects underlying the positive intercorrelationbetween problem behaviours across time. We further identified time-varying within-personprocesses accounting for an increasing amount of trait variance overtime, up to 11% forattention problems in TEDS, and up to 18% for attention problems and social problems inNTR. Lastly, by accommodating family-level data, we found evidence for reciprocaldirectional influences within sib-pairs longitudinally, from externalizing to internalizingproblems, after accounting for similarities that arise through shared (genetic orenvironmental) influences.Co-occurrence of psychopathology dimensions in childhoodConclusionsOur results indicate that within-person processes partly explain the co-occurrence ofpsychopathology dimensions in childhood, and within families, suggesting that both shouldbe taken into account in developmental models of comorbidity.

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-890
Author(s):  
Barry Wright ◽  
Megan Garside ◽  
Victoria Allgar ◽  
Rachel Hodkinson ◽  
Helen Thorpe

Background: There has been a recent reported rise in prevalence of mental health problems among children in the United Kingdom, alongside increased referrals into specialist services. There is a need for up-to-date information regarding changing trends of young people’s mental health to allow for improved understanding and service planning. Objectives: This article aims to provide an overview of the current mental health and well-being of years 8, 9 and 11 secondary school–aged pupils from two large regions in the North of England. Method: This was a cohort cross-sectional study. Measures including the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire, the EQ-5D-Y, social media use questions, and a mental health service use questionnaire were completed by participants. Results: In total, 6328 questionnaires were returned from 21 secondary schools. One in 10 participating pupils scored ‘very high’ for total mental health difficulties. Significant differences on well-being scores were found between both gender and year groups. Conclusion: In recent years, the proportion of children facing mental health problems has increased. In particular, high levels of female pupils and year 11 pupils report facing difficulties. It is important to develop targeted, accessible interventions, and to continue to collect up-to-date measures for this population.


2020 ◽  
pp. 194855062094430
Author(s):  
Olga Stavrova ◽  
Jaap Denissen

Social networking sites (SNS) are frequently criticized as a driving force behind rising depression rates. Yet empirical studies exploring the associations between SNS use and well-being have been predominantly cross-sectional, while the few existing longitudinal studies provided mixed results. We examined prospective associations between SNS use and multiple indicators of well-being in a nationally representative sample of Dutch adults ( N ∼ 10,000), comprising six waves of annual measures of SNS use and well-being. We used an analytic method that estimated prospective effects of SNS use and well-being while also estimating time-invariant between-person associations between these variables. Between individuals, SNS use was associated with lower well-being. However, within individuals, year-to-year changes in SNS use were not prospectively associated with changes in well-being (or vice versa). Overall, our analyses suggest that the conclusions about the causal impact of social media on rising mental health problems in the population might be premature.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinman Zhuang ◽  
Guoxi Cai ◽  
Yixiao Lu ◽  
Yulan Lin ◽  
Liping Ping Wong ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Anxiety plays an important role in psychology, explore the anxiety and its chain reactions can provide a good insight of the measures to address mental health problem caused by the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) epidemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study using data collected via an online self-reported questionnaire was conduct on Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-6) to assess the level of anxiety, and explore the relationship of anxiety STAI-6 Score, sources of COVID-19 information, the influences of COVID-19, social anxiety symptoms, discrimination, and evaluation toward the government. Results: 4,127 participants were included to the analysis. The level of anxiety is not equally distributed across the general population with different age, gender, educational level, occupation, income, presence of underlying disease and location (P<0.05). The numbers of sources to get information about COVID-19 have a positive correlation with STAI-6 Score (Spearman’rho=0.176, P<0.001). The influences caused by the pandemic are related to moderate-severe anxiety. Then the high level of anxiety would add to social anxiety (Spearman’rho=0.04, P<0.05) and discrimination behaviors (Spearman’rho=0.11, P<0.01). Generalized additive model shows that high anxiety would lower the responders’ evaluations of the preventive measures took by either national government or local government. Conclusions: Our findings provide a statistical evidence for the chain reaction of anxiety, that anxiety reactions may vary in predictable ways. Further researches can focus on what types of strategic interventions can cut the chain response of anxiety, in order to address the mental health problems in a pandemic.


Author(s):  
Kennedy Amone-P'Olak ◽  
Boniface Kealeboga Ramotuana

In Africa, the structure of the family is changing rapidly. The effects of this change on mental health remain unknown. This study investigated the extent to which different family types (intact, single-mother, and multiple) predict mental health problems in young adults in Botswana (N = 264, mean age = 21.31, SD = 2.40). In a cross-sectional design, the study sampled students registered at various faculties at the University of Botswana. The revised symptoms checklist (SCL-90-R) was used to assess symptoms of mental health problems (depression, anxiety and hostility). Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95 per cent confidence intervals (CIs) of mental health problems for mother-only and multiple family types relative to the intact family type. Compared to the intact family type, single-mother (OR = 2.34; 95% CI: 1.21, 4.51) and multiple family types (OR = 1.56; CI: 0.88, 2.78) were associated with an increased risk of depression. For anxiety, the ORs were 2.27 (CI: 1.18, 4.38) and 1.10 (CI: 0.56, 1.82) for single-mother and multiple family types respectively. For hostility, the ORs were 2.60 (CI: 1.34, 5.04), and 0.79 (CI: 0.44, 1.42) for single-mother and multiple family types, respectively. Family types predict mental health problems in young adults and therefore the interventions to mitigate the effects should consider family backgrounds and the ramifications of family types for treatment and care.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Rajni Suri ◽  
Anshu Suri ◽  
Neelam Kumari ◽  
Amool R. Singh ◽  
Manisha Kiran

The role of women is very crucial in our society. She cares for her parents, partner, children and other relatives. She performs all types of duties in family and also in the society without any expectations. Because of playing many roles, women often face many challenges in their life including both physical and mental. Mental health problems affect women and men equally, but some problems are more common among women including both physical and mental health problems. Aim of the study - The present study is aimed to describe and compare the clinical and socio-demographic correlates of female mentally ill patients. Methods and Materials: The study includes 180 female mentally ill patients based on cross sectional design and the sample for the study was drawn purposively. A semi structured socio-demographic data sheet was prepared to collect relevant information as per the need of the study. Result: The present study reveals that the socio-demographic factors contribute a vital role in mental illness. Findings also showed that majority of patients had mental problems in the age range of 20-30 have high rate. Illiterate and primary level of education and daily wage working women as well as low and middle socio-economic status women are more prone to have mental illness. Other factors like marital status, type of family and religion etc also important factors for mental illness. Keywords: Socio demographic profile, female, psychiatric patient


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carita Håkansson ◽  
Annika Lexén

Abstract Background The numbers of people who are on sick leave due to mental health problems, such as exhaustion disorder, are increasing in Sweden. One of the most affected groups is healthcare professionals. In order to develop preventive strategies to promote a sustainable working life for occupational therapists, there is a need to understand the associations between psychosocial working conditions, occupational balance and no or negligible stress symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, neither the combination of these factors nor the salutogenic perspective, have been taken into consideration when exploring factors associated with stress symptoms among occupational therapists in previous research. Methods Purposeful sampling was used. All currently working members of the Swedish Association of Occupational Therapists were invited to take part in the present study in 2018. The final sample was 3658 (48% response rate). A web-survey with questions about signs of exhaustion, psychosocial working conditions, occupational balance and sociodemographic characteristics was used. Logistic regression analyses were used in order to calculate associations between psychosocial working conditions, occupational balance, sociodemographic characteristics and no or negligible signs of exhaustion. Results Experiencing high occupational balance, low workload, high control, high sense of community and high justice, were associated with no or negligible stress symptoms. Furthermore, a satisfying financial situation, having children living at home, being married and long professional experience were significant in this model. Conclusions It seems important to consider not only psychosocial working conditions, but also occupational balance to prevent exhaustion disorder among occupational therapists in Sweden. Organisational programmes, which reduce the workload, strengthen the control and sense of community and facilitate occupational balance, seem to be important areas for health promotion in this group.


Author(s):  
Yasuhiro Kotera ◽  
Jaroslava Dosedlova ◽  
Denise Andrzejewski ◽  
Greta Kaluzeviciute ◽  
Makoto Sakai

AbstractPsychological stress has become a major concern, potentially leading to diverse health problems including psychopathology such as depression and anxiety. Transactional Model of Stress and Coping is an established model, conceptualizing stressful experiences via person–environment relationship. This cross-sectional study aimed to explore the pathway from stress to depression/anxiety, with a focus on self-criticism (inadequate-self and hated-self) and self-reassurance (reassured-self) in Czech students who suffered from high prevalence of mental health problems. Convenience sample of 119 undergraduates completed the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 and the Forms of the Self-Criticizing/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale. Correlation and path analyses were conducted. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines were used to aid an accurate and complete report of the study. Depression, anxiety, and stress were positively associated with inadequate-self and hated-self while negatively associated with reassured-self. Both inadequate-self and hated-self partially mediated the stress–depression and stress–anxiety relationships, whereas reassured-self only partially mediated the stress–depression relationship. Inadequate-self had greater impact on the stress–depression/anxiety pathways than hated-self and reassured-self. Findings indicate that clinical treatment may benefit from targeting the feelings of inadequacy to prevent stress progressing to psychopathology. This is particularly relevant as stress levels are rising globally. Our findings offer developments to the Transactional Model, and help practitioners and educators identify solutions to protect mental health of Czech university students.


Author(s):  
Huan Wang ◽  
Cody Abbey ◽  
Xinshu She ◽  
Scott Rozelle ◽  
Xiaochen Ma

Assessing the mental health problems encountered by school children and understanding the contributing factors are crucial to inform strategies aimed at improving mental health in low-resource contexts. However, few studies have investigated the mental health problems among disadvantaged children in poorer countries. This study examines the prevalence of mental health problems in rural China and their association with child and family characteristics. The study uses survey data from 9696 children in 120 rural primary schools and measures child mental health using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Overall, 17.9% of the sample children were found to be in the abnormal range of the SDQ total difficulties scores. The mean score was 12.93 (SD = 4.94). Abnormal scores were associated with child and family characteristics, including older child age (Odds Ratio, OR = 0.704, 95% CI: 0.611, 0.810; p < 0.001), gender (OR = 1.235, 95% CI: 1.112, 1.371; p < 0.001), and academic performance (OR = 0.421, 95% CI: 0.369, 0.480; p < 0.001). Reading time was found to be protective for mental health. Risk factors include excessive screen time (OR = 1.685, 95% CI: 1.409, 2.016; p < 0.001) and being bullied (OR = 3.695, 95% CI: 3.301, 4.136; p < 0.001). Our study suggests that future mental health illness prevention programs in rural China should consider targeting different aspects of children’s social contexts.


Author(s):  
Ruth D Neill ◽  
Carolyn Blair ◽  
Paul Best ◽  
Emily McGlinchey ◽  
Cherie Armour

Abstract Aim As individuals adjust to new ‘norms’ and ways of living during the COVID-19 lockdown, there is a continuing need for up-to-date information and guidance. Evidence suggests that frequent media exposure is related to a higher prevalence of mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression. The aim of this study was to determine whether COVID-19 related media consumption is associated with changes in mental health outcomes. Methods This paper presents baseline data from the COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study. The cross-sectional study data was collected using an online survey following the Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), with some other basic information collected. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the influence of socio-demographic and media specific factors on anxiety and depression. Results The study suggested that media usage is statistically significantly associated with anxiety and depression on the GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales with excessive media exposure related to higher anxiety and depression scores. Conclusion This study indicated that higher media consumption was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. Worldwide it should be acknowledged that excessive media consumption, particularly social media relating to COVID-19, can have an effect on mental health. However, as this was a cross-sectional study we cannot infer any directionality as we cannot infer cause and effect; therefore, future research involving longitudinal data collection and analyses of variables over time is warranted.


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