Levels of Involvement with Child Protection Services Associated with Early Adolescent Police Contact as a Victim and Person of Interest.

The relationship between childhood maltreatment and subsequent offending/victimization is well established. However, the magnitude of this relationship for different levels of child protection services (CPS) involvement is poorly understood, due to measurement issues, lack of longitudinal data, and reliance on reports of substantiated maltreatment, which can underestimate the impact of maltreatment. This study examined associations between CPS involvement during childhood (ages 0 to <11 years) and police services contact (as a victim and/or a person of interest) for criminal incidents in early adolescence (11 to ~14 years), differentiated according to levels of CPS involvement (i.e., no risk of significant harm [non-ROSH], unsubstantiated ROSH, substantiated ROSH, and out-of-home care; each examined relative to no CPS contact). Data for 71,465 children were drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study, an intergenerational, longitudinal investigation that uses administrative records from CPS and police alongside other health, justice, and education data. Multinomial regression analyses were conducted to determine associations between increasing levels of CPS involvement and police contact as a victim only, a person of interest only, and as both victim and person of interest while accounting for covariates (i.e., child's sex, Aboriginal, and/or Torres Strait Islander background, socioeconomic status, maternal age at child's birth, and parental offending history). Children exposed to any of the four levels of CPS involvement had higher odds of police contact, relative to children with no CPS involvement. Odds ratios were higher for contact with police as both a victim and a person of interest, compared to police contact as a victim or a person of interest only. These findings highlight that children with even unsubstantiated CPS reports (i.e., non-ROSH and unsubstantiated ROSH reports) are at heightened risk of police contact compared to children who are unknown to CPS, underlining the need to support all families in contact with CPS.

Early life exposure to air pollution and psychotic-like experiences, emotional symptoms, and conduct problems in middle childhood.

BACKGROUND: Air pollution has been linked to a variety of childhood mental health problems, but results are inconsistent across studies and the effect of exposure timing is unclear. We examined the associations between air pollution exposure at two time-points in early development and psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), and emotional and conduct symptoms, assessed in middle childhood (mean age 11.5 years). METHODS: Participants were 19,932 children selected from the NSW Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) with available linked multi-agency data from birth, and self-reported psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and psychopathology at age 11-12 years (middle childhood). We used binomial logistic regression to examine associations between exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) at two time-points (birth and middle childhood) and middle childhood PLEs, and emotional and conduct symptoms, with consideration of socioeconomic status and other potential confounding factors in adjusted models. RESULTS: In fully adjusted models, NO2 exposure in middle childhood was associated with concurrent PLEs (OR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.02-1.20). Similar associations with PLEs were found for middle childhood exposure to PM2.5 (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01-1.09). Neither NO2 nor PM2.5 exposure was associated with emotional symptoms or conduct problems in this study. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the need for a better understanding of potential mechanisms of action of NO2 in the brain during childhood.

Childhood Schizotypy and Adolescent Mental Disorder.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Schizotypy provides a framework for understanding the developmental nature of psychotic disorders and a means of identifying "at-risk" individuals early in the lifespan. However, there is a lack of prospective longitudinal research examining the relationship between schizotypy in childhood and later psychotic and other mental disorders. We hypothesized that distinct profiles of schizotypy in childhood would be differentially associated with psychotic and other mental disorders emerging later in adolescence. STUDY DESIGN: In a large population cohort of Australian young people (n = 26 837), we prospectively examined the relationship between person-centered profiles of schizotypy identified in middle childhood (age ~11 years) and adolescent diagnoses (age ~13-18 years) across 7 types of mental disorders using multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Membership in any of 3 childhood schizotypy profiles (true schizotypy, affective schizotypy, or introverted schizotypy) was associated with an increased likelihood of being diagnosed with any type of mental disorder in adolescence; effects were strongest for the true schizotypy group (aOR = 3.07, 95% CI = 2.64, 3.57), followed by the introverted (aOR = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.75, 2.15) and affective (aOR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.13, 1.47) schizotypy groups. Six of the 7 types of mental disorders measured (including psychotic disorders) were associated with at least 1 schizotypy group. CONCLUSIONS: Schizotypy in middle childhood is an important correlate of mental disorders in adolescence; however, it does not appear to be specifically associated with psychotic disorders in this age group.

Cumulative comorbidity between neurodevelopmental, internalising, and externalising disorders in childhood: a network approach.

Cumulative comorbidity of mental disorders is common, but the extent and patterns of comorbid psychopathology in childhood are not well established. The current study aimed to elucidate the emergent patterns of cumulative mental disorder comorbidity in children using network analysis of diagnoses recorded between birth and age 12 years. Participants were 90,269 children (mean age 12.7 years; 51.8% male) within the New South Wales Child Development Study (NSW-CDS)-a longitudinal record-linkage cohort study of Australian children born in NSW between 2002 and 2005. Binary indicators for eight types of mental disorder were derived from administrative health records. Patterns of conditional association between mental disorders were assessed utilising network analysis. Of 90,269 children, 2268 (2.5%) had at least one mental disorder by age 12 years; of the 2268 children who had at least one mental disorder by age 12 years, 461 (20.3%) were diagnosed with two or more different disorders out of the eight disorder types included in analyses. All disorders were either directly or indirectly interconnected, with childhood affective and emotional disorders and developmental disorders being most central to the network overall. Mental disorder nodes aggregated weakly (modularity = 0.185) into two communities, representative of internalising and externalising disorders, and neurodevelopmental and sleep disorders. Considerable sex differences in the structure of the mental disorder comorbidity networks were also observed. Developmental and childhood affective and emotional disorders appear to be key to mental disorder comorbidity in childhood, potentially reflecting that these disorders share symptoms in common with many other disorders.

Self-harm and suicidal ideation among young people is more often recorded by child protection than health services in an Australian population cohort.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated patterns of service contact for self-harm and suicidal ideation recorded by a range of human service agencies - including health, police and child protection - with specific focus on overlap and sequences of contacts, age of first contact and demographic and intergenerational characteristics associated with different service responses to self-harm. METHODS: Participants were 91,597 adolescents for whom multi-agency linked data were available in a longitudinal study of a population cohort in New South Wales, Australia. Self-harm and suicide-related incidents from birth to 18 years of age were derived from emergency department, inpatient hospital admission, mental health ambulatory, child protection and police administrative records. Descriptive statistics and binomial logistic regression were used to examine patterns of service contacts. RESULTS: Child protection services recorded the largest proportion of youth with reported self-harm and suicidal ideation, in which the age of first contact for self-harm was younger relative to other incidents of self-harm recorded by other agencies. Nearly 40% of youth with a health service contact for self-harm also had contact with child protection and/or police services for self-harm. Girls were more likely to access health services for self-harm than boys, but not child protection or police services. CONCLUSION: Suicide prevention is not solely the responsibility of health services; police and child protection services also respond to a significant proportion of self-harm and suicide-related incidents. High rates of overlap among different services responding to self-harm suggest the need for cross-agency strategies to prevent suicide in young people.

Conditions of Birth and Early Childhood Developmental Risk for Mental Disorders.

Distinct classes of children in the general population are at increased odds of later mental illness and other adverse outcomes according to patterns of early childhood developmental vulnerability. If certain risk factors known at the time of birth are reliably associated with membership in early childhood risk classes, then preventative interventions could be initiated in the earliest years of life. Associations between 14 factors known at the time of birth and membership in early childhood risk classes were examined in 66,464 children. Risk class membership was associated with maternal mental illness, parental criminal charges and being male; distinct patterns of association were shown for some conditions, for example, prenatal child protection notification was uniquely associated with misconduct risk'. These findings suggest that risk factors known at the time of birth could assist in very early detection of children who may benefit from early intervention in the first 2000 days.

Out-of-home care characteristics associated with childhood educational underachievement, mental disorder, and police contacts in an Australian population sample.

BACKGROUND: Children in out-of-home care (OOHC) are generally at increased risk of health and social adversities compared to their peers. However, the experiences of children in OOHC are not uniform and their associated health and social indices may vary in relation to characteristics of OOHC placements and child protection contact. OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between a range of characteristics of OOHC placements and child protection contact (e.g., number, type, and age of placement) with educational underachievement, mental disorder, and police contact (as a victim, witness, or person of interest) in childhood. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants were Australian children drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study cohort who had been placed in OOHC at least once between the ages of 0-13 years (n = 2082). METHODS: Logistic regression was used to examine prospective associations of OOHC placement and child protection contact characteristics (type of carer, placement instability, duration and frequency of maltreatment, and amount of time in care) with educational underachievement, mental disorder diagnosis and any type of police contact. RESULTS: Placements with foster carers, greater placement instability, longer and more frequent exposure to maltreatment, and longer time spent in care were each associated with greater likelihood of consequences in all domains of functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Children with certain placement characteristics are at higher risk of adverse consequences and should be prioritised for support services. The magnitude of relationships was not uniform across different health and social indices, highlighting the need for holistic, multiagency approaches to support children placed in care.

Parental mental disorders and offspring schizotypy in middle childhood: an intergenerational record linkage study.

PURPOSE: To investigate relationships between distinct schizotypy risk profiles in childhood and the full spectrum of parental mental disorders. METHODS: Participants were 22,137 children drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study, for whom profiles of risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in middle childhood (age ~ 11 years) were derived in a previous study. A series of multinomial logistic regression analyses examined the likelihood of child membership in one of three schizotypy profiles (true schizotypy, introverted schizotypy, and affective schizotypy) relative to the children showing no risk, according to maternal and paternal diagnoses of seven types of mental disorders. RESULTS: All types of parental mental disorders were associated with membership in all childhood schizotypy profiles. Children in the true schizotypy group were more than twice as likely as children in the no risk group to have a parent with any type of mental disorder (unadjusted odds ratio [OR] = 2.27, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 2.01-2.56); those in the affective (OR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.42-1.67) and introverted schizotypy profiles (OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.29-1.51) were also more likely to have been exposed to any parental mental disorder, relative to children showing no risk. CONCLUSION: Childhood schizotypy risk profiles appear not to be related specifically to familial liability for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders; this is consistent with a model where liability for psychopathology is largely general rather than specific to particular diagnostic categories.

Relationships between parental mental illness and/or offending and offspring contact with the police in childhood: Findings from a longitudinal record-linkage study.

BACKGROUND: Parental offending and mental illness are associated with an increased risk of criminal behaviour in offspring during adolescence and adulthood, but the impact of such problems on younger children, including children's experiences of victimisation, is less well known. AIM: To investigate the associations between parental offending and mental illness recorded prior to their offspring's age of 5 years and their offspring's contact with police as a 'person of interest', 'victim' or 'witness' between ages 5 and 13 years. METHODS: Our sample consisted of 72,771 children and their parents drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study, an Australian longitudinal population-based record linkage study. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between parental factors and offspring's police contact. Separate models examined the relationships between maternal or paternal offending and mental illness, as well as the combination among either or both parents, as the independent variables, and their child's police contact as the dependent variable. RESULTS: Parental offending and mental illness were each individually associated with indices of police contact among offspring. Stronger associations were observed when both offending and mental illness were present together (in either parent, or when one parent had both exposures). Stronger associations were evident for mothers with both factors across all offspring police contact types, relative to fathers with both factors, in fully adjusted models; that is, children of mothers with both factors were over four times as likely to have contact with police as a 'person of interest' (OR = 4.29; 95% CI = 3.75-4.92) and over three times as likely to have contact as a victim (OR = 3.35; 95% CI = 3.01-3.74) or witness (OR = 3.58; 95% CI = 3.03-4.24), than children whose mothers had no history of offending or mental illness. CONCLUSIONS: Children with a parental history of offending and mental illness in early life are at an increased likelihood of early police contact as young as 5-13 years of age; it is vital that this is taken as a signal to help them and their affected families according to need.

Pathways from developmental vulnerabilities in early childhood to schizotypy in middle childhood.

OBJECTIVES: Childhood disturbances in social, emotional, language, motor and cognitive functioning, and schizotypy have each been implicated as precursors of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. We investigated whether relationships between early childhood developmental vulnerabilities and childhood schizotypy are mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood. METHODS: Participants were members of a large Australian (n = 19,216) population cohort followed longitudinally. Path analyses were used to model relationships between developmental vulnerabilities at age ~5 years, educational underachievement from ages ~8 to 10 years and three distinct profiles of schizotypy at age ~11 years (true, introverted and affective schizotypy). RESULTS: Early childhood developmental vulnerabilities on five broad domains (related to physical, emotional, social, cognitive and communication development) were associated with schizotypy profiles in middle childhood. Educational underachievement in middle childhood was associated with all schizotypy profiles, but most strongly with the true schizotypy profile (OR = 3.92, 95% CI = 3.12, 4.91). The relationships between schizotypy profiles and early childhood developmental vulnerabilities in 'language and cognitive skills (school-based)' and 'communication skills and general knowledge' domains were fully mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood, and the relationships with early childhood 'physical health and well-being' and 'emotional maturity' domains were partially mediated. CONCLUSION: Developmental continuity from early childhood developmental vulnerabilities to schizotypy in middle childhood is mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood. While some domains of early developmental functioning showed differential relationships with distinct schizotypy profiles, these findings support a developmental pathway to schizotypy in which cognitive vulnerability operates from early childhood through to middle childhood.

Cumulative environmental risk in early life is associated with mental disorders in childhood.

BACKGROUND: No single environmental factor is a necessary or sufficient cause of mental disorder; multifactorial and transdiagnostic approaches are needed to understand the impact of the environment on the development of mental disorders across the life course. METHOD: Using linked multi-agency administrative data for 71 932 children from the New South Wales Child Developmental Study, using logistic regression, we examined associations between 16 environmental risk factors in early life (prenatal period to <6 years of age) and later diagnoses of mental disorder recorded in health service data (from age 6 to 13 years), both individually and summed as an environmental risk score (ERS). RESULTS: The ERS was associated with all types of mental disorder diagnoses in a dose-response fashion, such that 2.8% of children with no exposure to any of the environmental factors (ERS = 0), compared to 18.3% of children with an ERS of 8 or more indicating exposure to 8 or more environmental factors (ERS ⩾ 8), had been diagnosed with any type of mental disorder up to age 13-14 years. Thirteen of the 16 environmental factors measured (including prenatal factors, neighbourhood characteristics and more proximal experiences of trauma or neglect) were positively associated with at least one category of mental disorder. CONCLUSION: Exposure to cumulative environmental risk factors in early life is associated with an increased likelihood of presenting to health services in childhood for any kind of mental disorder. In many instances, these factors are preventable or capable of mitigation by appropriate public policy settings.

Self-reported mental health of children known to child protection services: an Australian population-based record linkage study.

Maltreated children are vulnerable to adverse mental health outcomes. Information about how children's mental health needs vary according to different levels of child protection contact (potentially culminating in out-of-home care [OOHC]) is valuable for the effective provision of services. This study aimed to examine associations between different levels of contact with child protection services before the age of 10 years and self-reported mental health difficulties at age 11 years. Participants (n = 26,960) were drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study, a multiagency, multigenerational, longitudinal record linkage study that combines administrative records with cross-sectional survey data. We examined associations between four levels of child protection response (non-threshold reports, unsubstantiated reports, substantiated reports, OOHC; each relative to no report) and six domains of self-reported mental health difficulties (including internalising and externalising symptoms, and psychotic-like experiences). All levels of contact with child protection services were associated with increased odds of mental health difficulties in all domains. Children who had been placed in OOHC and children with substantiated reports had the highest odds of reporting clinical levels of mental health difficulties; 48.1% of children with an OOHC placement and 45.6% of those with substantiated child protection reports showed clinical levels of mental health difficulties in at least one domain. Children with child protection reports that were unsubstantiated, or determined not to meet the threshold for risk-of-significant harm, were also at increased risk of mental health difficulties in middle childhood. These findings underscore the importance of early detection and intervention for all children at risk of maltreatment.

Cumulative Environmental Risk in Early Life: Associations With Schizotypy in Childhood.

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS: Psychotic disorders are associated with a growing number of recognized environmental exposures. Cumulative exposure to multiple environmental risk factors in childhood may contribute to the development of different patterns of schizotypy evident in early life. Hypotheses were that distinct profiles of schizotypy would have differential associations with a cumulative score of environmental risk factors. STUDY DESIGN: We prospectively examined the relationship between 19 environmental exposures (which had demonstrated replicated associations with psychosis) measured from the prenatal period through to age 11 years, and 3 profiles of schizotypy in children (mean age = 11.9 years, n = 20 599) that have been established in population data from the New South Wales-Child Development Study. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine associations between membership in each of 3 schizotypy profiles (true schizotypy, introverted schizotypy, and affective schizotypy) and exposure to a range of 19 environmental risk factors for psychosis (both individually and summed as a cumulative environmental risk score [ERS]), relative to children showing no risk. RESULTS: Almost all environmental factors were associated with at least 1 schizotypy profile. The cumulative ERS was most strongly associated with the true schizotypy profile (OR = 1.61, 95% CI = 1.52-1.70), followed by the affective (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28-1.38), and introverted (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.28-1.37) schizotypy profiles. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with the cumulative risk hypothesis, results indicate that an increased number of risk exposures is associated with an increased likelihood of membership in the 3 schizotypy profiles identified in middle childhood, relative to children with no schizotypy profile.

Profiles of Resilience from Early to Middle Childhood among Children Known to Child Protection Services.

OBJECTIVE: The processes facilitating resilience are likely to be influenced by individual, familial and contextual factors that are dynamic across the life-course. These factors have been less studied in relation to resilience profiles evident in the developmental period between early to middle childhood, relative to later periods of adolescence or adulthood. METHOD: This study examined factors associated with resilience in a cohort of 4,716 children known to child protection services by age 13 years, in the Australian State of New South Wales. Latent profile and transition analyses were used to identify multi-dimensional profiles of resilience as evident in social, emotional and cognitive functioning when assessed in early childhood (time 1 [T1], age 5-6 years) and middle childhood (time 2 [T2], age 10-11 years). Logistic regression models were used to investigate factors associated with two types of resilience identified: a transition profile of stress-resistance (i.e., represented by a typically developing profile at both T1 and T2) delineated in the largest subgroup (54%) of children, and a smaller subgroup (13%) with a profile of emergent resilience (i.e., typically developing at T2 following a vulnerable profile at T1). RESULTS: Factors associated with resilience profiles included being female, and personality characteristics of openness and extraversion; other factors associated with stress-resistance, specifically, included higher socioeconomic status, non-Indigenous background, higher perceived port at home and at school, and not having a parent with a history of criminal offending. CONCLUSIONS: Resilience processes appear to involve a complex interplay between individual, family, and community characteristics requiring interagency support.

Early childhood developmental vulnerability associated with parental mental disorder comorbidity.

OBJECTIVES: Parental mental health has a profound influence on the mental health and well-being of their offspring. With comorbid mental disorders generally the rule rather than the exception, increased knowledge of the impact of parental mental disorder comorbidity on early child development may facilitate improved targeting and delivery of early intervention for vulnerable offspring. METHODS: Participants were 66,154 children and their parents in the New South Wales Child Development Study - a prospective, longitudinal, record-linkage study of a population cohort of children born in NSW between 2002 and 2004. Early childhood developmental vulnerability was assessed at age ~5 years using the Australian Early Development Census, and information on parental mental disorders was obtained from administrative health records. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression were used to assess the relationship between parental mental disorders and early childhood developmental vulnerability on emotional and behavioural domains, as well as membership of latent developmental risk classes reflecting particular classes of vulnerability. RESULTS: Multiple diagnoses of mental disorders in mothers and fathers were associated with an increased likelihood of early childhood emotional and behavioural developmental vulnerability in offspring, relative to parents without mental disorder. The likelihood of offspring vulnerability increased with the number of parental comorbidities, particularly maternal comorbidities. CONCLUSION: Early childhood developmental vulnerability was strongly associated with parental mental ill-health, with the strength of associations increasing in line with a greater number of mental disorder diagnoses among mothers and fathers. New and expectant parents diagnosed with multiple mental disorders should be prioritised for intervention, including attention to the developmental well-being of their offspring.

Advancing understanding of oat phenology for crop adaptation.

Oat (Avena sativa) is an annual cereal grown for forage, fodder and grain. Seasonal flowering behaviour, or phenology, is a key contributor to the success of oat as a crop. As a species, oat is a vernalization-responsive long-day plant that flowers after winter as days lengthen in spring. Variation in both vernalization and daylength requirements broadens adaptation of oat and has been used to breed modern cultivars with seasonal flowering behaviours suited to different regions, sowing dates and farming practices. This review examines the importance of variation in oat phenology for crop adaptation. Strategies to advance understanding of the genetic basis of oat phenology are then outlined. These include the potential to transfer knowledge from related temperate cereals, particularly wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare), to provide insights into the potential molecular basis of variation in oat phenology. Approaches that use emerging genomic resources to directly investigate the molecular basis of oat phenology are also described, including application of high-resolution genome-wide diversity surveys to map genes linked to variation in flowering behaviour. The need to resolve the contribution of individual phenology genes to crop performance by developing oat genetic resources, such as near-isogenic lines, is emphasised. Finally, ways that deeper knowledge of oat phenology can be applied to breed improved varieties and to inform on-farm decision-making are outlined.

Early developmental vulnerabilities following exposure to domestic violence and abuse: Findings from an Australian population cohort record linkage study.

Early life exposure to Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) is associated with poor psychosocial and cognitive development in childhood. However, most prior research uses mother-reported involvement in DVA as a proxy indicator of child exposure; studies using direct measures of child exposure to DVA are scarce, especially among representative population-based samples. We address this gap by using longitudinal, population-based data from an Australian record linkage study of children to examine the associations between early life exposure to DVA and early childhood developmental vulnerability. Exposure to DVA was measured using police contact records for children involved in a DVA incident either as a victim or witness. Developmental vulnerability at school entry was measured using the Australian Early Development Census, providing indices of five broad domains of function and person-centred classes of developmental risk (referred to as 'mild generalized risk', 'misconduct risk', and 'pervasive risk', each compared to a group showing 'no risk'). Children exposed to DVA showed significantly greater odds of developmental vulnerability on all five domains and were more likely to be members of the three developmental risk classes. Girls who were victims of DVA (OR = 1.65) had significantly poorer developmental outcomes than boys who were victims (OR = 1.26) within the domain of communication skills and general knowledge (d = 0.29 [SE = 0.16], p = .04). No other sex differences were found. These preliminary findings hold important implications for policy regarding the early intervention and implementation of support services for young children exposed to DVA.

Parental and community risk factors for childhood self-harm thoughts and behaviours.

BACKGROUND: Childhood self-harm is rare but increasing in frequency. Little is known about risk factors specifically for self-harm in preteen children. METHODS: We examined self-harm thoughts and behaviours in children aged 3-14 years in association with parental and community-level risk factors, using a large general population-based record linkage sample (n = 74,479). RESULTS: Parental factors were strongly associated with childhood self-harm, with over three-quarters of children with self-harm having a parent with a history of mental disorder and/or criminal offending. Community-level factors (socioeconomic deprivation, remote or regional location, and neighbourhood crime rate) were not associated with childhood self-harm after adjustment for confounding factors. LIMITATIONS: Measures of self-harm thoughts and behaviours derived from administrative data likely underestimate the prevalence of self-harm in the population. CONCLUSIONS: Intergenerational transmission of risk factors is likely an important contributor to childhood self-harm.