Background: This study examined whether social-cognitive processes in children mediate relations between mothers' depressive symptoms across the first 3 years and children's first-grade social competence. Three maladaptive cognitions were examined: self-perceived social inadequacy, hostile attribution, and aggressive response generation.…

Background: The literature on the prevalence of mental disorders affecting children and adolescents has expanded significantly over the last three decades around the world. Despite the field having matured significantly, there has been no meta-analysis to calculate a worldwide-pooled prevalence and to empirically assess the sources of…

Background: Scientific enthusiasm about gene × environment interactions, spurred by the 5-HTTLPR (serotonin transporter-linked polymorphic region) × SLEs (stressful life events) interaction predicting depression, have recently been tempered by sober realizations of small effects and meta-analyses reaching opposing conclusions. These mixed findings…

Background: The depression-inhibition hypothesis suggests that mothers' depressive symptoms undermine development because they lead children to withdraw from social contact. To test this, this study examined whether poor first-grade adjustment among children of mothers with depressive symptoms is mediated by the emergence of child withdrawal…

In light of continuing disagreement, even at the meta-analytic level, as to whether the gene- × -environment (G×E) interaction involving 5-HTTLPR and stressful life events (SLEs) predicts depression, Bogdan and associates (this issue, Bogdan et al., 2014) sought to extend research on what has become a highly controversial general (GxE) and…

Background: The primary aim of this study was to examine differences in physiological reactivity (measured via pupillometry) to emotional stimuli between children of depressed versus nondepressed mothers. A second goal was to examine differences in pupil dilation to emotional stimuli between children of anxious versus nonanxious mothers. Method:…

Background: Relatively few studies have examined prevalence and predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depressive episode (MDE) in disaster-affected adolescents. Fewer still have administered diagnostic measures or studied samples exposed to tornadoes, a common type of disaster. Further, methodologic problems limit the…

Background: A substantial minority of adolescents suffer from depression and it is associated with increased risk of suicide, social and educational impairment, and mental health problems in adulthood. A recently conducted randomized controlled trial in England evaluated the effectiveness of a manualized universally delivered age-appropriate CBT…

Background: Different dimensions of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) have been found as valid predictors of further mental health problems and antisocial behaviors in youth. The present study aimed at testing the construct, concurrent, and predictive validity of ODD dimensions derived from parent- and self-report measures. Method: Confirmatory…

Background: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been home to the world's deadliest conflict since World War II and is reported to have the largest number of child soldiers in the world. Despite evidence of the debilitating impact of war, no group-based mental health or psychosocial intervention has been evaluated in a randomised…

Background: Within a therapeutic gene by environment (G × E) framework, we recently demonstrated that variation in the Serotonin Transporter Promoter Polymorphism; "5HTTLPR" and marker rs6330 in Nerve Growth Factor gene; "NGF" is associated with poorer outcomes following cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for child anxiety…

Background: Confounding introduced by gene-environment correlation (rGE) may prevent one from observing a true gene-environment interaction (G × E) effect on psychopathology. The present study investigated the interacting effect of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and stressful life events (SLEs) on adolescent depression while controlling for the…

Background: Social withdrawal is a core neuropsychiatric phenomenon in developmental psychopathology. Its presence predicts psychopathology across many domains, including depression, psychosis, autism, anxiety, and suicide. Withdrawn behavior is highly heritable, persistent, and characteristically worsens without intervention. To date, few studies…

Background: Building on reports that parental maltreatment and neglect adversely affect young children's executive function (EF), this longitudinal study examined whether exposure to a more common risk factor, mothers' depressive symptoms, predicted individual differences in EF at school-age. Methods: We followed up at age 6 a socially…

Background: There are few evaluations of very early intervention for the prevention of internalising disorders and those that exist generally evaluate outcomes to a maximum of 12 months. The current study evaluated the very long term effects (11 years) of a brief internalising prevention program presented to parents of preschool aged children.…