European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

The Internet may offer new opportunities for treating depressed adolescents. However, before such treatments are possible, well-validated screening instruments are needed. In the current study, we validate two Internet-based screening instruments for depression among adolescents, the major depression inventory (MDI), and the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (CES-D). A total of 1,392 adolescents, recruited through high schools and the Internet, filled in the online questionnaires. Of these, 243 (17%) were interviewed with the MINI diagnostic interview to assess the presence of a mood disorder. Cronbach’s alpha was high for both the CES-D (0.93) and the MDI (0.88), and both correlated highly with each other (0.88; P < .001). The scores on both instruments were significantly increased in all subjects with a mood disorder, whether current or lifetime, except for lifetime minor depression. In the ROC analyses, high areas under the curve were found for the MDI (0.89) and CES-D (0.90). The best cut-off point for the MDI was 19 (sensitivity: 90.48; specificity: 71.53), and for the CES-D it was 22 (sensitivity: 90.48; specificity: 74.31). We conclude that the MDI and CES-D are reliable and valid instruments that can be used for this screening.

The original version of this article inadvertently contained the wrong version of Fig. 4 and the descriptives derived from it.

High rates of co-occurrence of mental disorders have been hypothesized to represent a result of common susceptibility to overall psychopathology. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that commonalities among psychiatric disorders might be partially driven by sharable perinatal and neonatal environmental factors for mental disorders. Participants were 6–14 years of age children and their parents. Primary caregivers provided data on perinatal and neonatal information assessed retrospectively (n = 2231). Psychiatric disorders diagnoses were assessed using the Development and Well Being Behavior Assessment (DAWBA). We used bifactor models to disentangle common from dissociable aspects of psychopathology. These models allow modeling psychiatric disorders as the result of a common domain of psychopathology (p-factor) and three dissociable domains (fear, distress, and externalizing symptoms). Associations were tested using linear and tobit regression models. The p-factor was associated with male sex, low socioeconomic status, gestational smoking, gestational drinking, low levels of maternal education and presence of mental disorder in the mother. Associations with specific factors also emerged suggesting some risk factors might also have some role for fear, distress and externalizing factors. Our study supports the hypothesis that overall susceptibility to psychopathology might be partially driven by sharable perinatal and neonatal factors.

Current prospective reports suggest a pandemic-related increase in adolescent mental health problems. We examine whether age-related change over 11–14 years accounts for this increase. Mothers and adolescents in a UK-based birth cohort (Wirral Child Health and Development Study; WCHADS; N = 737) reported on adolescent depression and behavioural problems pre-pandemic (December 2019–March 2020), mid-pandemic (June 2020–March 2021) and late pandemic (July 2021–March 2022). Analysis used repeated measures models for over-dispersed Poisson counts with an adolescent-specific intercept with age as a time-varying covariate. Maturational curves for girls, but not for boys, showed a significant increase in self-reported depression symptoms over ages 11–14 years. Behavioural problems decreased for both. After adjusting for age-related change, girls’ depression increased by only 13% at mid-pandemic and returned to near pre-pandemic level at late pandemic (mid versus late – 12%), whereas boys’ depression increased by 31% and remained elevated (mid versus late 1%). Age-adjusted behavioural problems increased for both (girls 40%, boys 41%) and worsened from mid- to late pandemic (girls 33%, boys 18%). Initial reports of a pandemic-related increase in depression in young adolescent girls could be explained by a natural maturational rise. In contrast, maturational decreases in boys’ depression and both boys’ and girls’ behavioural problems may mask an effect of the pandemic.

Nghiên cứu này nhằm đánh giá công cụ đo lường sự tích cực ít kỳ thị hơn và mối liên hệ của nó với hành vi tự gây hại gần đây ở thanh thiếu niên. Người tham gia là 193 thanh niên Đài Loan bị giam giữ. Các bảng hỏi bao gồm một bản ghi danh tự gây hại có chủ ý, một công cụ đo lường sự tích cực, thang đo trầm cảm, và dữ liệu liên quan đến các hành vi sức khỏe rủi ro và nhân khẩu học. Tỷ lệ mắc hành vi tự gây hại gần đây ở thanh thiếu niên trong nhà giam là 43.5%. Mô hình logistic cho thấy rằng tuổi tác, giới tính và mức độ tích cực thể hiện tỷ lệ cược đáng kể cho hành vi tự gây hại. Kết quả cho thấy rằng tuổi trẻ và giới tính nữ làm tăng hành vi tự gây hại. Thêm vào đó, điểm số thấp trong công cụ đo lường sự tích cực làm tăng khả năng xảy ra hành vi tự gây hại. Hơn nữa, những thanh thiếu niên này cũng tham gia vào các hành vi sức khỏe rủi ro và có mức độ trầm cảm cao hơn. Nhận thức của phụ huynh và trường học về những hành vi rủi ro này cần được nâng cao và thực hiện can thiệp sớm phù hợp để ngăn ngừa những hậu quả sức khỏe tiêu cực.