Objectives To test whether frequent bullying victimisation in childhood increases the likelihood of self harming in early adolescence, and to identify which bullied children are at highest risk of ...self harm.Design The Environmental Risk (E-Risk) longitudinal study of a nationally representative UK cohort of 1116 twin pairs born in 1994-95 (2232 children).Setting England and Wales, United Kingdom.Participants Children assessed at 5, 7, 10, and 12 years of age.Main outcome measures Relative risks of children’s self harming behaviour in the six months before their 12th birthday. Results Self harm data were available for 2141 children. Among children aged 12 who had self harmed (2.9%; n=62), more than half were victims of frequent bullying (56%; n=35). Exposure to frequent bullying predicted higher rates of self harm even after children’s pre-morbid emotional and behavioural problems, low IQ, and family environmental risks were taken into account (bullying victimisation reported by mother: adjusted relative risk 1.92, 95% confidence interval 1.18 to 3.12; bullying victimisation reported by child: 2.44, 1.36 to 4.40). Victimised twins were more likely to self harm than were their non-victimised twin sibling (bullying victimisation reported by mother: 13/162 v 3/162, ratio=4.3, 95% confidence interval 1.3 to 14.0; bullying victimisation reported by child: 12/144 v 7/144, ratio=1.7, 0.71 to 4.1). Compared with bullied children who did not self harm, bullied children who self harmed were distinguished by a family history of attempted/completed suicide, concurrent mental health problems, and a history of physical maltreatment by an adult.Conclusions Prevention of non-suicidal self injury in young adolescents should focus on helping bullied children to cope more appropriately with their distress. Programmes should target children who have additional mental health problems, have a family history of attempted/completed suicide, or have been maltreated by an adult.
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BFBNIB, CMK, NMLJ, NUK, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Structured clinical interviews were administered at age 11 to assess psychotic symptoms and study members underwent psychiatric assessments at ages 18, 21, 26, 32 and 38 to obtain past-year ...DSM-III-R/IV diagnoses and self-reports of attempted suicides since adolescence.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Controversy remains as to whether cannabis acts as a causal risk factor for schizophrenia or other functional psychotic illnesses.
To examine critically the evidence that cannabis causes psychosis ...using established criteria of causality.
We identified five studies that included a well-defined sample drawn from population-based registers or cohorts and used prospective measures of cannabis use and adult psychosis.
On an individual level, cannabis use confers an overall twofold increase in the relative risk for later schizophrenia. At the population level, elimination of cannabis use would reduce the incidence of schizophrenia by approximately 8%, assuming a causal relationship. Cannabis use appears to be neither a sufficient nor a necessary cause for psychosis. It is a component cause, part of a complex constellation of factors leading to psychosis.
Cases of psychotic disorder could be prevented by discouraging cannabis use among vulnerable youths. Research is needed to understand the mechanisms by which cannabis causes psychosis.
The study measures the development of bullying and victimization in early to mid-adolescence, the relations between the developmental trajectories, and their associations with delinquency and ...self-harm. Evidence suggests youths victimized by peers are at increased risk of victimizing others.
It has been shown that bullying victimization is associated with behavior and school adjustment problems, but it remains unclear whether the experience of bullying uniquely contributes to those ...problems after taking into account preexisting adjustment problems.
We examined bullying in the Environmental Risk Study, a nationally representative 1994-1995 birth cohort of 2232 children. We identified children who experienced bullying between the ages of 5 and 7 years either as pure victims or bully/victims. We collected reports from mothers and teachers about children's behavior problems and school adjustment when they were 5 years old and again when they were age 7.
Compared with control children, pure victims showed more internalizing problems and unhappiness at school when they were 5 and 7 years. Girls who were pure victims also showed more externalizing problems than controls. Compared with controls and pure victims, bully/victims showed more internalizing problems, more externalizing problems, and fewer prosocial behaviors when they were 5 and 7 years. They also were less happy at school compared with control children at 7 years of age. Pure victims and bully/victims showed more behavior and school adjustment problems at 7 years of age, even after controlling for preexisting adjustment problems at 5 years of age.
Being the victim of a bully during the first years of schooling contributes to maladjustment in young children. Prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing mental health problems during childhood should target bullying as an important risk factor.
Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) are associated with experiences of victimization, but mechanisms remain unclear. We explored sex differences and the role of familial factors and externalizing ...problems in the association between several NDs and violent victimization in adolescence and young adulthood.
Individuals born in Sweden 1985-1997, residing in Sweden at their 15th birthday, were followed until date of violent victimization causing a hospital visit or death, death due to other causes, emigration, or December 31, 2013, whichever came first. The exposures were diagnoses of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID) and other NDs. We used three different Cox regression models: a crude model, a model adjusted for familial confounding using sibling-comparisons, and a model additionally adjusted for externalizing problems.
Among 1 344 944 individuals followed, on average, for 5 years, 74 487 were diagnosed with NDs and 37 765 had a hospital visit or died due to violence. ADHD was associated with an increased risk of violent victimization in males hazard ratio (HR) 2.56; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.43-2.70) and females (HR 5.39; 95% CI 4.97-5.85). ASD and ID were associated with an increased risk of violent victimization in females only. After adjusting for familial factors and externalizing problems, only ADHD was associated with violent victimization among males (HR 1.27; 95% CI 1.06-1.51) and females (HR 1.69; 95% CI 1.21-2.36).
Females with NDs and males with ADHD are at greater risk of being victim of severe violence during adolescence and young adulthood. Relevant mechanisms include shared familial liability and externalizing problems. ADHD may be independently associated with violent victimization.
Recent evidence documents that cannabis use by young people is a modest statistical risk factor for psychotic symptoms in adulthood, such as hallucinations and delusions, as well as clinically ...significant schizophrenia. The vast majority of cannabis users do not develop psychosis, however, prompting us to hypothesize that some people are genetically vulnerable to the deleterious effects of cannabis.
In a longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort followed to adulthood, we tested why cannabis use is associated with the emergence of psychosis in a minority of users, but not in others.
A functional polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene moderated the influence of adolescent cannabis use on developing adult psychosis. Carriers of the COMT valine
158 allele were most likely to exhibit psychotic symptoms and to develop schizophreniform disorder if they used cannabis. Cannabis use had no such adverse influence on individuals with two copies of the methionine allele.
These findings provide evidence of a gene × environment interaction and suggest that a role of some susceptibility genes is to influence vulnerability to environmental pathogens.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The authors examined the role of food insecurity in the etiology of children's cognitive and mental health problems. Data from a prospective longitudinal study of 1,116 United Kingdom families with ...twins (sample constructed in 1999–2000) were used to test associations among household food insecurity; income; maternal personality; household sensitivity to children's needs; and children's cognitive, behavioral, and emotional development. Food-insecure children had lower IQs and higher levels of behavioral and emotional problems relative to their peers. After differences in household income, the personalities of children's mothers, and the sensitivity of household organization to children's needs were accounted for, food-insecure children had moderately higher levels of emotional problems relative to food-secure children (β = 0.22, P = 0.02). Differences in children's cognitive development were accounted for by household income, and differences in their behavioral development were accounted for by their mothers’ personalities and their households’ sensitivity to children's needs. Results suggest that food insecurity was associated with school-aged children's emotional problems but not with their cognitive or behavioral problems after accounting for differences in the home environments in which children were reared. Mothers’ personality and household sensitivity to children's needs may present challenges to improving outcomes of children with food insecurity.
Objective: Bullying is the act of intentionally and repeatedly causing harm to someone who has difficulty defending him- or herself, and is a relatively widespread school-age phenomenon. Being the ...victim of bullying is associated with a broad spectrum of emotional problems; however, not all children who are bullied go on to develop such problems. Method: We tested the hypothesis that the relationship between bullying victimization and emotional problems was moderated by variation in the serotonin transporter ("5-HTT") gene in 2,232 British children comprising the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) study cohort. Results: Our data supported the hypothesis that children's bullying victimization leads to their developing emotional problems, and that genetic variation in the "5-HTT"LPR moderates this relationship. Specifically, frequently bullied children with the SS genotype were at greater risk for developing emotional problems at age 12 than were children with the SL or LL genotype. Furthermore, we demonstrated that this genetic moderation persisted (a) after controlling for children's previctimization emotional problems by assessing intraindividual change in problems between ages 5 and 12 years, and (b) after controlling for other risk factors shared by children growing up in the same family by comparing emotional problems in twins discordant for bullying victimization. Conclusions: These findings are further evidence that the "5-HTT"LPR moderates the risk of emotional disturbance after exposure to stressful events. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.)
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