Research shows that children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder are at elevated risk of criminality. However, several issues still need to be addressed in order to verify whether ...hyperactivity in itself plays a role in the prediction of criminality. In particular, co-occurrence with other behaviors as well as the internal heterogeneity in ADHD symptoms (hyperactivity and inattention) should be taken into account. The aim of this study was to assess the unique and interactive contributions of hyperactivity to the development of criminality, whilst considering inattention, physical aggression and family adversity.
We monitored the development of a population-based sample of kindergarten children (N = 2,741). Hyperactivity, inattention, and physical aggression were assessed annually between the ages of 6 and 12 years by mothers and teachers. Information on the presence, the age at first charge and the type of criminal charge was obtained from official records when the participants were aged 25 years. We used survival analysis models to predict the development of criminality in adolescence and adulthood: high childhood hyperactivity was highly predictive when bivariate analyses were used; however, with multivariate analyses, high hyperactivity was only marginally significant (Hazard Ratio: 1.38; 95% CI: 0.94-2.02). Sensitivity analyses revealed that hyperactivity was not a consistent predictor. High physical aggression was strongly predictive (Hazard Ratio: 3.44; 95% CI: 2.43-4.87) and its role was consistent in sensitivity analyses and for different types of crime. Inattention was not predictive of later criminality.
Although the contribution of childhood hyperactivity to criminality may be detected in large samples using multi-informant longitudinal designs, our results show that it is not a strong predictor of later criminality. Crime prevention should instead target children with the highest levels of childhood physical aggression and family adversity.
Basic parenting research reveals that child mental health is associated with optimal parenting, which is composed of three key dimensions (structure, affiliation and autonomy support). The present ...study aims to test the efficacy of the parenting program "How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk" (French version), thought to address all of these dimensions, in promoting children's mental health. We predict that the How-to Parenting Program will promote child mental health by fostering optimal parenting.
In this randomized controlled trial (RCT), the seven-week parenting group was offered to parents of 5- to 12-year-old children, in their local grade school. Children's mental health assessments were questionnaire-based (parent, child and teacher reports) and took place at pre- (T1) and post- (T2) intervention as well as at 6-month (T3) and 1-year (T4) follow-ups. We compared children whose parents took part in the program with children whose parents did not take part in it until the completion of the trial (i.e., 1 year wait-list control groups). The primary outcome is children's psychological problems (externalizing and internalizing). Secondary outcomes include parenting, the putative mediator of the expected benefits of the program on child mental health, as well as positive indicators of child mental health (strengths and subjective well-being) and parents' own mental health.
To our knowledge, this is the first RCT to test the efficacy of the "How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk" program in promoting child mental health. In addition to the close correspondence between basic parenting research and the selected program, strengths of this study include its feasibility, monitoring of potentially confounding variables, ecological validity and inclusion of positive indicators of mental health.
Current clinical trial number is NCT03030352 . Ongoing study, retrospectively registered on January 2017. No amendment to initial protocol.
•Genes rather than environment contribute to family resemblance in academic motivation.•Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.•Attending same vs. different ...classes did not affect twin similarity in motivation.•Results are similar across ages, countries and academic subjects.
Little is known about why people differ in their levels of academic motivation. This study explored the etiology of individual differences in enjoyment and self-perceived ability for several school subjects in nearly 13,000 twins aged 9–16 from 6 countries. The results showed a striking consistency across ages, school subjects, and cultures. Contrary to common belief, enjoyment of learning and children’s perceptions of their competence were no less heritable than cognitive ability. Genetic factors explained approximately 40% of the variance and all of the observed twins’ similarity in academic motivation. Shared environmental factors, such as home or classroom, did not contribute to the twin’s similarity in academic motivation. Environmental influences stemmed entirely from individual specific experiences.
Numerous studies have shown differences in the functioning in the areas of the frontal-limbic circuitry between depressed patients and controls. However, current knowledge on frontal-limbic neural ...substrates of individual differences in mood states in everyday life in healthy individuals is scarce. The present study investigates anatomical, resting-state, and functional neural correlates of daily mood states in healthy individuals. We expected to observe associations between mood and the frontal-limbic circuitry and the default-mode network (DMN). A total of 42 healthy adults (19 men, 23 women; 34 ± 1.2 years) regularly followed for behavior and psychosocial functioning since age of 6, underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan, and completed a daily diary of mood states and related cognitions for 5 consecutive days. Results showed that individuals with smaller left hippocampal gray matter volumes experienced more negative mood and rumination in their daily life. Greater resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) within the DMN, namely between posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex regions as well as between PCC and precuneus, was associated with both greater negative and positive mood states in daily life. These rsFC results could be indicative of the role of the DMN regional functioning in emotional arousal, irrespective of valence. Lastly, greater daily positive mood was associated with greater activation in response to negative emotional stimuli in the precentral gyri, previously linked to emotional interference on cognitive control. Altogether, present findings might reflect neural mechanisms underlying daily affect and cognition among healthy individuals.
An increasing number of animal and human studies are indicating that inflammation is associated with behavioral disorders including aggression. This study investigates the association between chronic ...physical aggression during childhood and plasma cytokine levels in early adulthood.
Two longitudinal studies were used to select males on a chronic physical aggression trajectory from childhood to adolescence (n = 7) and a control group from the same background (n = 25). Physical aggression was assessed yearly by teachers from childhood to adolescence and plasma levels of 10 inflammatory cytokines were assessed at age 26 and 28 years. Compared to the control group, males on a chronic physical aggression trajectory from childhood to adolescence had consistently lower plasma levels of five cytokines: lower pro-inflammatory interleukins IL-1α (T(28.7) = 3.48, P = 0.002) and IL-6 (T(26.9) = 3.76, P = 0.001), lower anti-inflammatory interleukin IL-4 (T(27.1) = 4.91, P = 0.00004) and IL-10 (T(29.8) = 2.84, P = 0.008) and lower chemokine IL-8 (T(26) = 3.69, P = 0.001). The plasma levels of four cytokines accurately predicted aggressive and control group membership for all subjects.
Physical aggression of boys during childhood is a strong predictor of reduced plasma levels of cytokines in early adulthood. The causal and physiological relations underlying this association should be further investigated since animal data suggest that some cytokines such as IL-6 and IL-1β play a causal role in aggression.
Trajectories of prosocial behavior and physical aggression between 6 and 12 years of age were identified for a sample (N=1,025) of males. The trajectories were then used to predict school dropout and ...physical violence at age 17. Using a group‐based semi‐parametric method, two trajectories of prosociality (low and moderate declining) and three trajectories of physical aggression (low, moderate, and high declining) were obtained. Only a small minority (3.4%) of the boys were characterized by both high aggression and moderate prosociality. Physical aggression predicted both school dropout and physical violence, but contrary to expectations, prosocial behavior did not have additive or protective effects.
De novo mutations (DNM) are an important source of rare variants and are increasingly being linked to the development of many diseases. Recently, the paternal age effect has been the focus of a ...number of studies that attempt to explain the observation that increasing paternal age increases the risk for a number of diseases. Using disease-free familial quartets we show that there is a strong positive correlation between paternal age and germline DNM in healthy subjects. We also observed that germline CNVs do not follow the same trend, suggesting a different mechanism. Finally, we observed that DNM were not evenly distributed across the genome, which adds support to the existence of DNM hotspots.
Background Cross-sectional studies have shown that hyperactivity and impaired executive functioning are associated with symptoms of eating disorders in adolescence and adulthood. Whether ...hyperactivity and executive functions in early life can prospectively predict the emergence of eating disorder symptoms in adolescence remains unknown. The present study relies on a longitudinal design to investigate how hyperactivity at age 3, eating behaviours at age 3.5 and cognition at ages 3-6 were associated with the development of eating-disorder symptoms from 12 to 20 years old. Methods Using archival data collected since 1997 from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development cohort (N = 2, 223), we used Latent Curve Models to analyse predictors of youth's trajectories of eating-disorder symptoms at four timepoints. Results A quadratic (curvilinear) trajectory of eating-disorder symptoms was found to be most representative of the data. Higher hyperactivity at age 3 was associated with higher levels of eating-disorder symptoms at age 12, and this association was partially mediated by higher levels of overeating and cognitive inflexibility in childhood. Cognitive inflexibility in childhood also mediated the association between hyperactivity at age 3 and increases in eating-disorder symptoms during adolescence. Furthermore, working memory was indirectly related to eating-disorder symptoms via the mediational role of cognitive flexibility. Conclusions Hyperactivity, overeating, cognitive inflexibility, and working memory early in life might precede the onset of eating-disorder symptoms in adolescence. Early behavioural and cognitive screening may help to identify children who are most at risk for eating disorders. This, in turn, could guide preventive interventions. Keywords: Eating disorders, Hyperactivity, Executive functions, Adolescence, Childhood eating
The Power of Friendship Hodges, Ernest V. E; Boivin, Michel; Vitaro, Frank ...
Developmental psychology,
01/1999, Letnik:
35, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This study examined 2 aspects of friendship (presence and perceived qualities of a best friend) as moderators of behavioral antecedents and outcomes of peer victimization. A total of 393 children ...(188 boys and 205 girls) in the 4th and 5th grades (mean age = 10 years 7 months) participated during each of 2 waves of data collection in this 1-year longitudinal study. Results indicated that teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors predicted increases in peer-reported victimization, but the relation of internalizing behaviors to increases in victimization was attenuated for children with a protective friendship. Victimization predicted increases in internalizing and externalizing behaviors but only for children without a mutual best friendship. Results highlight the importance of peer friendships in preventing an escalating cycle of peer abuse.
Difficult temperament in infancy is a risk factor for forms of later internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, including depression and anxiety. A better understanding of the roots of ...difficult temperament requires assessment of its early development with a genetically informative design. The goal of this study was to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in infant negative emotionality, their persistence over time and their influences on stability between 5 and 18 months of age.
Participants were 244 monozygotic and 394 dizygotic twin pairs (49.7% male) recruited from birth. Mothers rated their twins for negative emotionality at 5 and 18 months. Longitudinal analysis of stability and innovation between the two time points was performed in Mplus.
There were substantial and similar heritability (approximately 31%) and shared environmental (57.3%) contributions to negative emotionality at both 5 and 18 months. The trait's interindividual stability across time was both genetically- and environmentally- mediated. Evidence of innovative effects (i.e., variance at 18 months independent from variance at 5 months) indicated that negative emotionality is developmentally dynamic and affected by persistent and new genetic and environmental factors at 18 months.
In the first two years of life, ongoing genetic and environmental influences support temperamental negative emotionality but new genetic and environmental factors also indicate dynamic change of those factors across time. A better understanding of the source and timing of factors on temperament in early development, and role of sex, could improve efforts to prevent related psychopathology.
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