Direct and indirect links between children's socio-economic status and education: pathways via mental health, attitude, and cognition.

A child's socio-economic environment can profoundly affect their development. While existing literature focusses on simplified metrics and pair-wise relations between few variables, we aimed to capture complex interrelationships between several relevant domains using a broad assessment of 519 children aged 7-9 years. Our analyses comprised three multivariate techniques that complimented each other, and worked at different levels of granularity. First, an exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis followed by varimax rotation) revealed that our sample varied along continuous dimensions of cognition, attitude and mental health (from parallel analysis); with potentially emerging dimensions speed and socio-economic status (passed Kaiser's criterion). Second, k-means cluster analysis showed that children did not group into discrete phenotypes. Third, a network analysis on the basis of bootstrapped partial correlations (confirmed by both cross-validated LASSO and multiple comparisons correction of binarised connection probabilities) uncovered how our developmental measures interconnected: educational outcomes (reading and maths fluency) were directly related to cognition (short-term memory, number sense, processing speed, inhibition). By contrast, mental health (anxiety and depression symptoms) and attitudes (conscientiousness, grit, growth mindset) showed indirect relationships with educational outcomes via cognition. Finally, socio-economic factors (neighbourhood deprivation, family affluence) related directly to educational outcomes, cognition, mental health, and even grit. In sum, cognition is a central cog through which mental health and attitude relate to educational outcomes. However, through direct relations with all components of developmental outcomes, socio-economic status acts as a great 'unequaliser'. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02232-2.

Two Pathways to Self-Harm in Adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: The behavioral and emotional profiles underlying adolescent self-harm, and its developmental risk factors, are relatively unknown. We aimed to identify subgroups of young people who self-harm (YPSH) and longitudinal risk factors leading to self-harm. METHOD: Participants were from the Millennium Cohort Study (N = 10,827). A clustering algorithm was used to identify subgroups who self-harmed with different behavioral and emotional profiles at age 14 years. We then traced the profiles back in time (ages 5-14 years) and used feature selection analyses to identify concurrent correlates and longitudinal risk factors of self-harming behavior. RESULTS: There were 2 distinct subgroups at age 14 years: a smaller group (n = 379) who reported a long history of psychopathology, and a second, much larger group (n = 905) without. Notably, both groups could be predicted almost a decade before the reported self-harm. They were similarly characterized by sleep problems and low self-esteem, but there was developmental differentiation. From an early age, the first group had poorer emotion regulation, were bullied, and their caregivers faced emotional challenges. The second group showed less consistency in early childhood, but later reported more willingness to take risks and less security with peers/family. CONCLUSION: Our results uncover 2 distinct pathways to self-harm: a "psychopathology" pathway, associated with early and persistent emotional difficulties and bullying; and an "adolescent risky behavior" pathway, whereby risk taking and external challenges emerge later into adolescence and are associated with self-harm. At least one of these pathways has a long developmental history, providing an extended window for interventions as well as potential improvements in the identification of children at risk, biopsychosocial causes, and treatment or prevention of self-harm.

Longitudinal increases in childhood depression symptoms during the COVID-19 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: There has been widespread concern that so-called lockdown measures, including social distancing and school closures, could negatively impact children's mental health. However, there has been little direct evidence of any association due to the paucity of longitudinal studies reporting mental health before and during the lockdown. This present study provides the first longitudinal examination of changes in childhood mental health, a key component of an urgently needed evidence base that can inform policy and practice surrounding the continuing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Mental health assessments on 168 children (aged 7.6-11.6 years) were taken before and during the UK lockdown (April-June 2020). Assessments included self-reports, caregiver reports, and teacher reports. Mean mental health scores before and during the UK lockdown were compared using mixed linear models. RESULTS: A significant increase in depression symptoms during the UK lockdown was observed, as measured by the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) short form. CIs suggest a medium-to-large effect size. There were no significant changes in the RCADS anxiety subscale and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire emotional problems subscale. CONCLUSIONS: During the UK lockdown, children's depression symptoms have increased substantially, relative to before lockdown. The scale of this effect has direct relevance for the continuation of different elements of lockdown policy, such as complete or partial school closures. This early evidence for the direct impact of lockdown must now be combined with larger scale epidemiological studies that establish which children are most at risk and tracks their future recovery.

The Selfishness Questionnaire: Egocentric, Adaptive, and Pathological Forms of Selfishness.

Despite its importance in society, there is virtually no standardized research on the personality trait of selfishness, in part due to the absence of an assessment instrument. The central aim of this study was to develop a brief (2-3 min) self-report personality measure of selfishness with three main subtypes: egocentric, adaptive, and pathological. Questionnaires were administered to an undergraduate sample, with replicability and generalizability tested on a community population. A confirmatory factor analysis supported the existence of the three hypothesized forms of selfishness. Good internal reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, factorial validity, incremental validity, and criterion validity were documented. Selfishness was associated with reduced levels of mindfulness and more utilitarian decision making, whereas Tibetan Buddhist monks were less selfish than controls. Findings from the student sample were replicated in the community sample. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic examination of the personality construct of selfishness and the first instrument to assess selfishness and its variants.