Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

A combination of genetic and environmental factors working in interplay is thought to underlie differences in symptoms of psychopathology between adolescents. Yet, studies that have investigated gene-environment interaction in isolated aspects of developmental psychopathology lack robust effects, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive approach. We adopted a multivariable framework to investigate gene-environment interaction in internalising and externalising symptoms of psychopathology i...

BackgroundTemperament traits, which reflect early emerging individual differences in reactivity and regulation, are well-established correlates of psychopathology. However, studies have historically examined static temperament-psychopathology associations within limited age ranges. Research is required to understand the developmental dynamics of these associations. MethodsWe leveraged data from a longitudinal cohort (N = 767) with repeated measures in infancy and at ages 2 years, 3 years, 5 yea...

BackgroundComorbidity and heterogeneity in psychiatric disorders may stem from a general psychopathology (p) factor influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Although the relative contributions of these influences on psychopathology are established, the longitudinal associations between p-factor and specific environmental exposures across development are not well understood. Using a longitudinal genetically informative design, this study investigates the association between the home ...

BackgroundDepression (DEP) has an estimated heritability of [~]37%. Polygenic risk scores (PRS), which aggregate common genetic variant effects, account for up to 8.4% variance in case versus control status. Understanding the relationships between sleep, activity, and DEP symptoms, and whether these relationships differ depending on genetic predisposition is crucial for early identification, particularly during adolescence when DEP rates tend to increase. Method2,768 adolescents (African [AFR],...

Studies of developmental trajectories of depression are important for understanding its etiology. Existing studies have been limited by short time frames and no studies have explored a key factor: differential patterns of responding to life events. This paper introduces a novel analytic technique, growth mixture modeling with structured residuals, to examine the course of youth depression symptoms in a large, prospective cohort (N=11,641, ages 4-16.5). Age-specific critical points were identifie...

ImportanceParental mental health and wellbeing are strongly associated with offspring emotional, behavioural and temperament difficulties in the preschool years, which in turn are linked to later mental illness. Understanding how intergenerational transmission of parental mental health and wellbeing traits occurs can inform intervention strategies. ObjectiveIntergenerational transmission of mental health and wellbeing traits can occur through both genetic and environmental pathways, which can b...

Maternal internalizing (anxiety and depressive) symptoms are a robust risk factor for the development of internalizing symptoms in offspring, yet the neurobiological mechanisms that influence this association remain relatively unexplored. The aperiodic slope of the EEG power spectrum (i.e., aperiodic exponent) is hypothesized to index the cortical excitatory-inhibitory balance and may serve as an early neurophysiological marker of mental health risk. In a prospective longitudinal cohort (N = 32...

ImportanceLacking social connectedness is associated with broad morbidity. Yet the underlying mechanisms remain obscures, especially given its entanglement with depressive symptoms. Clarifying whether social connectedness confers unique risk beyond depression can guide clinical care and social infrastructure interventions. ObjectiveTo decompose shared genetic architecture between social connectedness and depressive affect, derive independent polygenic liabilities, and test their differential as...

Disentangling direct and indirect genetic pathways underlying the intergenerational transmission of emotional problems could guide preventative strategies and further the understanding of the role of parental mental health in childrens outcomes. This study aimed to estimate the extent to which genetic pathways that are direct (via child genotype) and indirect (e.g., via parental phenotype) explain the well-established association between parent and child emotional problems. We leveraged data fro...

BackgroundAllostatic load is the cumulative "wear and tear" on the body due to chronic adversity. We aimed to test poly-environmental (exposomic) and polygenic contributions to allostatic load and their combined contribution to early adolescent mental health. MethodsWe analyzed data on N = 5,035 diverse youth (mean age 12) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (ABCD). Using dimensionality reduction method, we calculated and overall allostatic load score (AL) using body mass inde...

BackgroundSmoking and depression often co-occur in young adults, potentially due to reciprocal causal effects and/or shared underlying etiological factors. Here, we tested causal hypotheses between smoking quantity (cigarettes per day; CigDay) and depressive symptoms (DepSx) using novel Biometrical Cross-Lagged Panel Models (CLPMs), which integrate twin developmental and direction-of-causation analyses for more robust causal inference in longitudinal twin studies. MethodsStudy sample included 1...

Internalizing disorders (depression, anxiety, somatic symptom disorder) are among the most common mental health conditions that can substantially reduce daily life function. Early adolescence is an important developmental stage for the increase in prevalence of internalizing disorders and understanding specific factors that predict their onset may be germane to intervention and prevention strategies. We analyzed [~]6,000 candidate predictors from multiple knowledge domains (cognitive, psychosoci...

ObjectiveMania symptoms in youth predict poor long-term mental health outcomes, yet their developmental trajectories and associated risk factors remain unclear. MethodsLeveraging data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N=10,474; 9-10 years at baseline; 48% female, 65% white), we used latent growth mixture models to identify trajectories of mania symptoms across two years in early adolescence. We used multinomial logistic regressions to examine associations between trajectori...

BackgroundEarly life adversities (ELAs) including experiences such as abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction are strongly linked to psychopathology; yet, the developmental pathways connecting ELA to externalizing and internalizing psychopathology remain unclear. While most research has focused on threat and negative affect, positive emotions may represent a critical but understudied mechanism linking ELA to mental health outcomes. MethodsUsing data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Develop...

BackgroundExternalizing behavior refers to emotional and behavioral problems or disorders characterized by conducts directed outward at an individuals environment. Polygenic scores (PGSs) indexing the individual genetic susceptibility for this behavior still explain a small proportion of the phenotypic variance. To increase this phenotypic variance explained for externalizing behavior we used a multi-PGS approach combining PGSs for several risk factors, mental health conditions and related pheno...

ABCTRACTO_ST_ABSObjectivesC_ST_ABSTransdiagnostic dimensional approaches have advanced our understanding of psychiatric comorbidity and developmental continuity, but have rarely been applied to investigate links between neurodevelopmental (e.g., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism) and other psychiatric conditions. Building on recent research delineating a transdiagnostic "neurodevelopmental spectrum", we examined longitudinal associations between this spectrum in late childhood and...

Adolescence is a critical developmental with increased vulnerability to mental disorders. While the positive impact of physical exercise on adult mental health is well-established, dose-response relationships and the underlying neural and genetic mechanisms in adolescents remain elusive. Leveraging data from >11,000 pre-adolescents (9-10 years, ABCD Study) we examined associations between seven different measures of exercise dosage across 15 exercises and psychopathology, and the roles of brain ...

ImportanceLockdowns and social restrictions imposed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic intensified the proximity and reciprocal exposure among members of nuclear families. It is unclear how variation in mental distress during this period is attributed to family members influence. ObjectiveUsing genetic data from family members, it is possible to disentangle parent-driven, child-driven, and partner-driven influences of mental distress. We separated between two types of influences; direct genet...

Exposure is considered the most active element of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for pediatric anxiety, and its efficacy is theorized to depend on cognitive control and its supporting neural substrates (e.g., central executive [CEN], salience [SN], and default mode networks [DMN]). However, little work has identified how CBT, or exposure specifically, modulates intrinsic connectivity of these networks. Progress may be limited by heterogeneity in network connectivity in anxiety, which may obs...

ObjectiveWe examined whether common and specific genetic liabilities for internalized (INT) and externalized (EXT) traits predict corresponding disorders in Mexican youth, and whether adversity moderates these associations. MethodsParticipants were 1,130 Mexican adolescents (ages 12-17; 54.9% female). Psychiatric diagnoses and adversities were assessed using the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview for Adolescents. Genome-wide association summary statistics for 12 IN...