Anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation among early adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Anxiety and depression are among the most common and debilitating psychiatric disorders affecting youth, with both related to increased suicide risk. While rates of youth anxiety and depression were increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic further negatively impacted adolescent mental health. Unfortunately, few studies have examined prevalence of these concerns among early adolescents (ages 10-13) longitudinally during the pandemic. METHOD: The current study examined self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms, and suicidal ideation amongst a general pediatrics population of 11- to 13-year-olds (n = 623) from March through September 2020 (early-pandemic) and approximately 7 months later (September 2020 through May 2021; mid-pandemic). Paired samples proportions were used to examine changes in prevalence of moderate to severe anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation from early- to mid-pandemic. RESULTS: Results highlight high initial rates and stability in anxiety and suicidal ideation, as well as a significant increase in depression (42.9% increase; p < .05) among the full sample during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prevalance of concerns were greatest for females and Hispanic youth during the early-pandemic, and generally highest for females and Medicaid insured youth at mid-pandemic. DISCUSSION: Results extend recent research and underscore the need for continued monitoring of mental health concerns across development for youth who grew up during the COVID-19 pandemic; highlighting the need for sustainable, effective, and accessible early detection, prevention, and intervention strategies. Improving these services is critical to support youth who experienced pandemic-related stressors, and to prepare for supporting youth during future disruptive and isolating events.

Triadic Collaboration Between Adolescents, Caregivers, and Health-Care Providers to Promote Healthy Behavior.

PURPOSE: To further elucidate the various aspects of the triadic relationship between health-care providers (HCP), adolescents, and caregivers during adolescent health-care visits, with the goal of helping HCPs better understand how they can best support adolescents to choose healthy behaviors. METHODS: Adolescents (ages 13-18 years) and caregivers of adolescents were recruited to participate in qualitative interviews regarding preferences for provider interactions around health behavior change. Data analysis was conducted using inductive thematic analysis to identify and describe patterns of themes across the dataset. RESULTS: Thirty one adolescents and 30 caregivers participated. Fourteen themes emerged in the analysis regarding adolescent and caregiver preferences for direct and indirect relationships between adolescents, caregivers, and HCPs in promoting healthy behavior. These themes were organized into a triadic collaboration framework to promote healthy behavior using an adolescent-centered and caregiver-involved approach. DISCUSSION: This study supports findings of previous research on triadic interactions between HCPs, adolescents, and caregivers while deepening our understanding of the HCP's role in helping adolescents to choose healthy behaviors. These themes are representative of the continuing shift toward an adolescent-centered and caregiver-involved approach to adolescent health care and provide further guidance to HCPs on how to work collaboratively with both adolescents and caregivers to promote healthy behaviors and improve health outcomes.

Here's looking at you, kid? Maternal depression and adolescent attention to self- or other-directed emotional faces.

BACKGROUND: Maternal depression history represents a significant risk factor for developing psychopathology in children, altered emotional responding may represent a central risk pathway. However, additional research is needed on factors that affect the strength or direction of response alterations in relation to depression-risk in youth. In particular, facial orientation and gaze direction may alter personal relevance, with emotions directed towards an individual heightening motivational salience, compared to emotions directed away. METHODS: Mother-daughter dyads (N = 56) were recruited based on presence or absence of maternal depression history and absence of youth depression. In line with theoretical perspectives suggesting diminished sensitivity to emotional context in relation to depression risk, we examined three Event-Related Potential (ERP) components in relation to forward versus averted emotional faces in a sample of girls with and without a maternal history of depression: the N200, N400, and Late Positive Potential (LPP). RESULTS: Results showed a significant maternal depression history by face-orientation effect. Low-risk girls exhibited more negative N200 and N400 amplitudes for straight (M = -3.72, SE = 0.83; M = -3.57, SE = 0.86) versus averted (M = -2.15, SE = 0.76; M = -1.68, SE = 0.81) faces, while girls of mothers with histories of depression showed undifferentiated N200 or N400 responses in relation to face orientation. For LPP amplitudes, low-risk girls exhibited significantly more positive LPP amplitudes than high-risk girls, but only for averted faces (M = 0.69, SE = 0.59 and M = -2.63, SE = 0.74, respectively). LIMITATIONS: Cross-sectional design and limited sample. CONCLUSIONS: Results indicate that familial depression risk is associated with altered responsivity to face-orientation, these were interpreted as representing differential sensitivity to the personal-relevance of emotional stimuli.

Rumination in Early Adolescent Girls: An EEG Study of Cognitive Control and Emotional Responding in an Emotional Go/NoGo Task.

Although there is a substantial literature on rumination and depression, research examining neurocognitive processes related to rumination is just emerging, and few studies have examined such processes in relation to depression-risk in early adolescence. This study examined the associations between neurocognitive processes and trait-rumination in relation to familial risk for depression in nondepressed girls in early adolescence. Neurocognitive processes were assessed via EEG recording during an emotional Go/NoGo task, and analyses examined two Event-Related Potential components, including the Go and NoGo N2, reflecting attentional engagement and cognitive control processes respectively, and the Go and NoGo P3, reflecting motivated attention and inhibitory motor processes. In higher-risk youth, rumination was associated with specific alterations in both N2 and P3 amplitudes to nonemotional faces when required to enact a response, suggesting disrupted behavioral flexibility in adjusting responses to meet task demands. In lower-risk youth, however, greater rumination was associated with diminished engagement of top-down attention and cognitive control resources (i.e., attenuated N2 amplitudes), and enhanced activation of inhibitory motor control processes (i.e., enhanced P3 amplitudes). Results provide novel information regarding the association between depression-risk, rumination, and emotional processing in early adolescence that may have implications for risk-identification and prevention.

Indirect effects of the early childhood Family Check-Up on adolescent suicide risk: The mediating role of inhibitory control.

This study investigates suicide risk in late childhood and early adolescence in relation to a family-centered intervention, the Family Check-Up, for problem behavior delivered in early childhood. At age 2, 731 low-income families receiving nutritional services from Women, Infants, and Children programs were randomized to the Family Check-Up intervention or to a control group. Trend-level main effects were observed on endorsement of suicide risk by parents or teachers from ages 7.5 to 14, with higher rates of suicide risk endorsement in youth in the control versus intervention condition. A significant indirect effect of intervention was also observed, with treatment-related improvements in inhibitory control across childhood predicting reductions in suicide-related risk both at age 10.5, assessed via diagnostic interviews with parents and youth, and at age 14, assessed via parent and teacher reports. Results add to the emerging body of work demonstrating long-term reductions in suicide risk related to family-focused preventive interventions, and highlight improvements in youth self-regulatory skills as an important mechanism of such reductions in risk.

Children's appraisals of maternal depression and responses to emotional faces in early-adolescence: An Event Related Potential (ERP) study.

BACKGROUND: Parental depression represents a significant risk for depression development in offspring. While cognitive mechanisms represent a central risk pathway, children's appraisals of parental symptoms have been understudied. This study examined associations between children's self-blame, threat, and frequency/duration appraisals for maternal symptoms in relation to cognitive control and emotional response processes. METHODS: Sixty mother-daughter (aged 10-14-years) pairs participated. Affective processing was assessed by three Event Related Potential (ERP) components, the N2, P3, and LPP, during an emotional Go/NoGo task. RESULTS: Threat-appraisals were associated with alterations in all three ERP components, independently of maternal diagnostic histories or youth depressive symptoms. Self-blame was associated with early attentional engagement towards calm faces. Independent effects of maternal depression history and youth symptoms were also observed. CONCLUSIONS: Results highlight the importance of youth perceptions of maternal depressive symptoms in models of depression-risk.

Effects of depression and past-year binge drinking on cognitive control processes during a flanker task in college-aged adults.

BACKGROUND: Recent but largely separate literatures have examined neurocognitive alterations related to both depression and binge drinking, suggesting similar patterns of impairments in attention control and decisional processes. However, depression and problematic alcohol use tend to co-occur, and few studies have examined whether cognitive processing effects of depression and binge drinking are independent or interacting. OBJECTIVE: The current study examined joint effects of depressive symptoms and past-year binge drinking on cognitive processing (measured via EEG assessment). METHODS: University students aged 18 and over (N = 46; 63.4% female) were recruited based on self-reported depressive symptoms and also provided reports of alcohol use (51% reported significant depression; 46% reported at-least one past-year binge-drinking episode). Participants completed a computerized flanker task, assessing cognitive control processes. Forty-one participants providing useable data were included in analyses. RESULTS: Past-year binge drinking was associated with slower and more accurate behavioral responding. The interaction of binge-drinking and depressive symptoms was related to the magnitude of early attentional components (N1 and N2), with individuals reporting high depressive symptoms and a history of binge-drinking exhibiting attenuated early attentional engagement (e.g., less negative N1) coupled with enhanced attention control processing (e.g., more negative N2). Depressive symptoms also predicted a lack of discriminated P3 amplitudes on congruent versus incongruent trials. CONCLUSION: The data suggest that depression and binge drinking in the past-year jointly interact to predict early attentional processing, with the pattern of responding consistent with a compensatory response process. Results highlight the importance of future work on binge-drinking accounting for co-occurring depression.

Associations between alcohol-use and depression symptoms in adolescence: Examining gender differences and pathways over time.

Several studies examining alcohol use and depression in youth have focused on documenting prevalence of overlap, or temporal ordering in longitudinal samples. Fewer studies have examined pathways connecting alcohol use and depression over time. This study examined gender differences between depression and alcohol use across adolescence while examining peer and family pathways as possible mediators of effects. Data was collected longitudinally from 593 families from three urban public middle schools in the United States. Participants were recruited in 6th grade and followed through 9th grade. We examined gender differences using a nested model comparison approach. Results indicated the association between depression and alcohol use differs by gender. For males, depression and alcohol use were independent across adolescence, and no significant indirect pathways were observed. For females, bidirectional effects were found between alcohol use and depression, as well as an indirect effect from depression to alcohol use via peer deviance.

The psychophysiology of parenting: Individual differences in autonomic reactivity to positive and negative mood inductions and observed parental affect during dyadic interactions with children.

Parenting is a complex activity driven, in part, by parental emotional and physiological responses. However, work examining the physiological underpinnings of parenting behavior is still in its infancy, and very few studies have examined such processes beyond early childhood. The current study examines associations between Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) indices of parents' physiological reactivity to positive and negative mood states and observed parental affect during a series of discussion tasks with their adolescent child. Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) was measured as an index of parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activation while viewing film clips designed to induce neutral, sad, and amused mood states. Parental positive affect, anger, and distress were observed during a series of parent-child discussion tasks, which included an ambiguous discussion regarding adolescent growth, a conflict discussion, and a fun-activity planning discussion. Results supported the association between aspects of parental physiological reactivity and observed affect during dyadic interactions. Further, RSA interacted with maternal depression to predict observed positive affect, anger, and distress, although differences across tasks and specific emotions were found regarding the nature of the interaction effects. Overall, results suggest that such neurobiological processes may be particularly important predictors of parental behavior, particularly in at-risk populations. (PsycINFO Database Record