It is anticipated that the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and associated societal response will have wide‐ranging impacts on youth development and mental health. Sleep is crucial ...for child and adolescent health and well‐being, and the potential for sleep problems to emerge or worsen during and following the pandemic is high. This may be particularly true for children and adolescents who are at heightened risk for the onset of sleep and mental health disturbances and for those whom developmental changes impacting sleep are rapidly occurring. Youth with preexisting psychopathologies (including anxiety and depression) and neurodevelopmental conditions (including attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder) could be especially vulnerable to disturbed sleep during this period of change and uncertainty. It is thus imperative that sleep considerations be part of research and clinical initiatives aimed at understanding and mitigating the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic in children and adolescents. This article considers ways in which the pandemic may impact sleep, including research and clinical implications.
Summary Substantial research attention has been devoted to understanding the importance and impact of sleep in children and adolescents. Traditionally, this has focused on mean sleep variables (e.g., ...a child’s “typical” or average sleep duration), yet research increasingly suggests that intraindividual variability (IIV) of sleep/wake patterns (sometimes referred to as sleep variability or night-to-night variability) regularly occurs and may have implications for adjustment. A systematic search of five electronic databases identified 52 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2015 that examined correlates of sleep IIV in children and adolescents, with a recent increase in the publication rate of such studies. Identified studies were often atheoretical and included post hoc analyses, though IIV in select aspects of sleep does appear to be associated with increasing age/pubertal status, non-White race, physical and neurodevelopmental conditions (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; autism), psychopathology symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, inattention), body weight, stress, aspects of cognitive functioning, and poorer sleep functioning/habits. The limited intervention work examining sleep IIV in adolescents is promising, though studies are needed using more rigorous intervention designs. Clinical sleep recommendations may not only need to address overall sleep duration and sleep habits but also the stability of sleep duration and timing. It will be important for future research examining sleep IIV in children and adolescents to use a developmental framework in advancing theory pertaining to the causes, mechanisms, moderators, and outcomes of sleep IIV in youth, and a conceptual model is proposed to help guide such efforts.
This is an exciting time for research in sleep and psychopathology during the period of adolescence. The study by Cooper et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) is a much‐welcome ...addition to a rapidly accumulating body of work, examining change in eveningness preference throughout adolescence and its prediction of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. The study has a number of strengths, including a four‐wave longitudinal design, multi‐informant ratings of psychopathology, and an examination of white matter development in a subsample of participants. This commentary discusses the study's strengths and findings, while also providing directions for future research to build on the target article.
Read the full article at doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13718.
Individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently have sleep disturbances, daytime sleepiness, and/or circadian rhythm abnormalities. This article reviews recent ...advancements and key future directions: examining group differences across the life span, advancing a developmental psychopathology perspective, moving from correlation to causation, conceptualizing ADHD as a 24-hour disorder, understanding sleep in relation to other health behaviors, and evaluating sleep in interventions for individuals with ADHD. This is an exciting time in the empirical study and clinical care of sleep disturbances and circadian rhythm alterations in individuals with ADHD. As research continues to advance, studies are increasingly using large samples and longitudinal/experimental research designs to test hypotheses that will ultimately allow for a more robust and sophisticated understanding of sleep and ADHD.
Several studies have questioned the stability of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from childhood to adulthood. This systematic review illustrates how variability in diagnostic methods ...influences adult ADHD persistence estimates. Systematic database searches identified studies reporting adult ADHD persistence rates that were published in English between Jan 1, 1992, and May 31, 2016. Study inclusion criteria were systematic childhood diagnosis of attention-deficit disorder, ADHD, or a research diagnostic protocol that matched DSM-III, DSM-III-R, or DSM-IV standards; mean childhood age of younger than 12·0 years with no participants older than 18·0 years; and mean adult age of 18·0 years or older with no participants younger than 17·0 years. Across 12 included samples, we identified 41 estimates of ADHD persistence, which ranged from 4·0% to 77·0%. Methods of diagnosing ADHD in adulthood varied widely with respect to source of information, diagnostic instruments (eg, rating scales, interviews), diagnostic symptom threshold, and whether impairment was required for diagnosis. Sole reliance on self reports and a strict threshold of six DSM symptoms led to very low persistence estimates. To minimise false-negative and false-positive classifications, recommended methods for determining adult persistence of ADHD include collecting self and informant ratings, requiring the presence of impairment, and using an age-appropriate symptom threshold. Very few persistence estimates utilised these methods, but those that did indicated persistence rates of 40-50%.
Summary
Photosynthesis measurements are traditionally taken under steady‐state conditions; however, leaves in crop fields experience frequent fluctuations in light and take time to respond. This slow ...response reduces the efficiency of carbon assimilation. Transitions from low to high light require photosynthetic induction, including the activation of Rubisco and the opening of stomata, whereas transitions from high to low light require the relaxation of dissipative energy processes, collectively known as non‐photochemical quenching (NPQ). Previous attempts to assess the impact of these delays on net carbon assimilation have used simplified models of crop canopies, limiting the accuracy of predictions. Here, we use ray tracing to predict the spatial and temporal dynamics of lighting for a rendered mature Glycine max (soybean) canopy to review the relative importance of these delays on net cumulative assimilation over the course of both a sunny and a cloudy summer day. Combined limitations result in a 13% reduction in crop carbon assimilation on both sunny and cloudy days, with induction being more important on cloudy than on sunny days. Genetic variation in NPQ relaxation rates and photosynthetic induction in parental lines of a soybean nested association mapping (NAM) population was assessed. Short‐term NPQ relaxation (<30 min) showed little variation across the NAM lines, but substantial variation was found in the speeds of photosynthetic induction, attributable to Rubisco activation. Over the course of a sunny and an intermittently cloudy day these would translate to substantial differences in total crop carbon assimilation. These findings suggest an unexplored potential for breeding improved photosynthetic potential in our major crops.
Significance Statement
Improved photosynthetic efficiency is a means to achieve the sustainable crop yield increases that are a projected need for ensuring global food security over the next 30 years. Improving photosynthetic efficiency during fluctuating light in the field is shown from theory and from measured variability within crop germplasm a potential route to breeding higher efficiency.
Background
The impact of chronic stressors like the COVID‐19 pandemic is likely to be magnified in adolescents with pre‐existing mental health risk, such as attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder ...(ADHD). This study examined changes in and predictors of adolescent mental health from before to during the COVID‐19 pandemic in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States.
Methods
Participants include 238 adolescents (132 males; ages 15–17; 118 with ADHD). Parents and adolescents provided ratings of mental health symptoms shortly before the COVID‐19 pandemic and in spring and summer 2020.
Results
Adolescents on average experienced an increase in depression, anxiety, sluggish cognitive tempo, inattentive, and oppositional/defiant symptoms from pre‐COVID‐19 to spring 2020; however, with the exception of inattention, these symptoms decreased from spring to summer 2020. Adolescents with ADHD were more likely than adolescents without ADHD to experience an increase in inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, and oppositional/defiant symptoms. Adolescents with poorer pre‐COVID‐19 emotion regulation abilities were at‐risk for experiencing increases in all mental health symptoms relative to adolescents with better pre‐COVID‐19 emotion regulation abilities. Interactive risk based on ADHD status and pre‐COVID‐19 emotion regulation abilities was found for inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, such that adolescents with ADHD and poor pre‐COVID‐19 emotion regulation displayed the highest symptomatology across timepoints. Lower family income related to increases in inattention but higher family income related to increases in oppositional/defiant symptoms.
Conclusions
The early observed increases in adolescent mental health symptoms during the COVID‐19 pandemic do not on average appear to be sustained following the lift of stay‐at‐home orders, though studies evaluating mental health across longer periods of time are needed. Emotion dysregulation and ADHD increase risk for sustained negative mental health functioning and highlight the need for interventions for these populations during chronic stressors. Results and clinical implications should be considered within the context of our predominately White, middle class sample.
A nationally representative sample of U.S. children was used to determine the empirical and clinical differentiation of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ...(ADHD) symptoms using both categorical and dimensional approaches. Mothers of children (N = 2,056, M± SD
age
= 8.49 ± 2.15 years, 49.3% girls) completed measures of SCT, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, daily life executive functioning, conflicted shyness, friendship difficulties, and social and academic impairment. Scores greater than the top 5% on SCT and ADHD measures were used to create SCT-only (n = 53, 2.58%), ADHD-only (n = 93, 4.52%), SCT+ADHD (n = 49, 2.38%), and comparison (n = 1,861, 90.52%) groups. Fifty-two percent of the SCT group did not qualify for the ADHD group, whereas 65% of the ADHD group did not qualify for the SCT group. The SCT-only group had higher levels of anxiety, depression, conflicted shyness, and sleep difficulties than the ADHD-only group. In contrast, the ADHD-only group had greater executive functioning deficits and higher ODD than the SCT-only group. SCT-only and ADHD-only groups showed similar levels of friendship, social, and academic impairment. Similar findings emerged when using structural regression analyses to determine the unique clinical correlates of SCT and ADHD dimensions. This is only the second study to examine the distinction of clinically-elevated SCT from ADHD in a national sample of children and extends previous findings to a broader array of functional outcomes. Normative information on the SCT scale also provides a validated rating scale to advance research and clinical care.
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