Adolescents, Volume 2, Issue 4 (December 2022) – 9 articles

Adolescents and children (aged 6 to 17+ years) admitted to inpatient psychiatry or intensive out-of-home mental health programs (formerly called residential mental health treatment centres) are among those with the most severe psychiatric illnesses. Moreover, these children also have very poor behavioural and biopsychosocial health including sleep deprivation, difficult relationships, problematic use of electronic devices, academic difficulty, poor school engagement, insufficient exercise and poor diets; all of these were noted before the pandemic. The pandemic has only increased the social isolation, poor health behaviours and mental health challenges for many children and adolescents. The poor behavioural and psychosocial health of those in their youth with psychiatric illnesses can exacerbate symptoms and can interfere with academic performance, development and good decision making; these biopsychosocial health behaviours are modifiable. All child and family practitioners including pediatricians, family physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists and psychotherapists have an important role in fostering the behavioural and biopsychosocial health (i.e., sleep, positive relationships, electronic device use, exercise and diet) of all family members and especially children with psychiatric illness. Enacting biopsychosocial lifestyle interventions before or during childhood and adolescence may reduce the burden of mental illness. Full article

The research shows that children’s and adolescents’ attachments with pets play an important role in their social and emotional lives. However, little research exists on how children and adolescents show compassion toward themselves and others and how this caring ability relates to their attachment with pets. This study explored the relations among children’s and adolescents’ compassion, empathy, and attachment to their pets. Sixty-one Canadian youths aged 7–15.9 years (M = 11.35) participated in this study (n = 38 g, 23 b) and completed self-report questionnaires including the Lexington Attachment to Pets scale, subscale of Dispositional Positive Emotions, Self-compassion scale for children, and Bryant’s Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (IECA). The results showed older adolescents were more likely than younger children to score high on cognitive and emotional dimensions of empathy and be less likely to feel alone and isolated. High levels of emotional pet attachment related to high levels of the ability to feel sad when witnessing others in distress and high levels of mindful, compassionate, and self-responding feelings of compassion for others. The results also showed that those participants who experienced intensified emotional attachment toward their pets (either current or in the past), were less likely to judge themselves in negative ways. Overall, our findings suggest that children’s emotional attachments with pets relate to their ability to respond to themselves and others in kind and compassionate ways and not necessarily their ability to understand another person’s emotions. Full article

Background: Studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by girls and women have found self-defense is a common motivation. Current items—namely the abbreviated items from the Conflicts Tactics Scale (CTS)—used to measure IPV perpetration may be counting these girls/women as perpetrators when they are victims of IPV. The purpose of this study was to assess adolescent girls’ IPV perpetration, including (a) motivations and (b) factors associated with reports of adolescent girls’ perpetration of IPV using standard abbreviated CTS measures. Methods: This study utilized cross-sectional survey data collected from 159 participants in an urban Southern California clinic in 2016–2018. Demographic variables—age, ethnicity, current school enrollment, living situation and born in the U.S.—were analyzed with chi-square or independent t-tests. Frequency analyses were used to quantify motivations for IPV perpetration. Crude and adjusted logistic regression models assessed key variables associated with female adolescents’ IPV perpetration: victimization, drug use, alcohol day, binge drinking, depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation. A final multivariate model further adjusted for IPV victimization. Results: The average age of participants was 17 years old, and the majority of participants were Hispanic. Primary motivations for adolescent girls’ IPV perpetration included self-defense. Adolescent girls who reported IPV perpetration had significantly greater odds of victimization [95% CI = 4.31–32.07], drug use [95% CI = 1.14–6.99], binge drinking [95% CI = 1.08–6.87], and suicide ideation [95% CI = 1.13–10.62]. These findings remained significant in models adjusted for significant demographics. In the final multivariate regression model adjusted for IPV victimization, none of these factors remained significantly related to adolescent girls’ IPV perpetration. Conclusions: Findings establish a connection between victimization, self-defense, and adolescent girls’ IPV perpetration. These findings add to existing literature suggesting that the CTS measures of perpetration may encompass both IPV victimization and perpetration when used with populations of girls and women. Full article

In 2014, 13.33% of youths aged 5–19 years worldwide had at least one type of behavioral problem. In China, children may be more likely to have internal and external behavioral problems, given that China has a high number of “left-behind children” and “only child of the family”. In this study, we explore the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES), social relations, and childhood behavioral problems in China. Data from 2151 children aged 10–15 years were collected from the 2018 wave of the China Family Panel Studies. We conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) using Amos (version 26) to test a theoretical model. The results showed that SES was significantly related to childhood behavioral problems, and that social relations mediated the relationship between SES and childhood behavioral problems. On the basis of these findings, we discuss relevant theoretical and practical implications. Full article

Many significant psychosocial problems may go undetected and untreated in adolescents. We aim to determine the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among Malaysian adolescents. Retrospective data analysis was performed using data from the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2017 report. The dataset included 27,497 responses from adolescents aged 13 to 17 years old from five established topographic zones: northern peninsular, east coast peninsular, southern peninsular, central, and east Malaysia. The strength of associations between selected high-risk behaviors and different topographical zones were performed using logistic regression analysis. Adolescents from the northern peninsular reported the highest prevalence of suicidal attempt (27.1%) and active drug user (30.1%). The same region reported the highest prevalence of those who ever had sexual intercourse (SI) (27.2%), with 32.5% who had their first SI before 14 years old, while east Malaysia reported the highest prevalence of current smokers (26.1%) and current alcohol consumers (30.6%). Overall poor lifestyle choices were evident in the northern peninsular region. Hence, specific districts breakdown may enable targeted interventional lifestyle strategies for adolescents at risk. Full article

Driving evaluations aim to ensure adequate skills; however, feedback beyond pass/fail is needed for improvement. Therefore, the goal of this study was to inform driving feedback report design to ensure ease of use and understandability while motivating improvements. Participants ages 18–25 years (n = 521) were recruited from CloudResearch Prime Panels to rate one of nine report design conditions with various combinations of five key features: performance summary presence, action plan (AP) length, AP order, AP grading system, and peer comparison presence; they then completed questionnaires. Participants were more motivated to improve when a summary was present (p = 0.02); they rated reports easier to use if they had a long AP (p = 0.01), a short AP paired with a summary (p = 0.007), or an AP with a number grade (p = 0.016); and they rated reports easier to understand if they had a short AP (p = 0.002) or an AP ordered by worst-to-best performance (p = 0.05). These results suggest that feedback reports designed with a performance summary and short, targeted action plan starting with the biggest area for improvement are likely to motivate action to improve driving skills while being easy to use and understand. Future research should evaluate the effect of such a redesigned report on driving outcomes among young drivers. Full article

This study compared internalized stigmatization levels of adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with those of their parents. The study’s data were collected from 107 adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and their parents between July 2020 and March 2021. The adolescents were followed up in the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient clinic of a university hospital in western Turkey. The information forms for adolescents and parents, the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale—Adolescent Form (ISMI-AF) and the Parental Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale (PISMI), were used to collect the data. There was no statistically significant difference between the total scores of internalized stigma and subscale mean scores of the adolescents and their parents (p > 0.05); only the subscale scores for stereotype endorsement were found to be significantly different (p < 0.05). PISMI scores affected ISMI-AF scores, which can be interpreted as parents’ perspectives and attitudes toward stigmatization affecting adolescents. For ADHD, whose frequency is increasing daily, intervention studies should be conducted to reduce adolescents’ and parents’ internalized stigma and to enhance the educational outcomes of adolescents. Full article

The high rate of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) among individuals involved in the justice system represents a significant public health concern, as individuals with ASPD are more likely to reoffend after incarceration and to engage in longer-term offending behavior patterns over the lifespan. Research suggests that traumatic event exposure in childhood and adolescence may be one factor that contributes to the heightened risk for ASPD in adulthood, though findings are mixed depending on the operationalization of trauma exposure and demographics of study samples. The present study examined the impact of early and varied exposure to violence on the development of ASPD features in young adulthood. In addition, given evidence for gender differences in how youth respond to trauma, as well as disparate prevalence rates of ASPD among males and females, a secondary aim was to assess the impact of gender on the relationship between early trauma and antisocial personality outcomes. The study sample consisted of 1354 adolescents (86% male) who participated in a longitudinal research study of serious juvenile offenders. A series of linear regression analyses revealed that the magnitude of violence exposure participants endorsed at baseline significantly predicted antisocial personality features at six-year follow-up. Participants’ gender was not found to moderate the relationship between violence exposure and antisocial outcomes. Results suggest that targeting maladaptive cognitions and behaviors resulting from chronic exposure to early trauma may be a crucial component of treatment for justice-involved individuals exhibiting ASPD features. Full article

The adolescent brain is an open window on the environment, which is vulnerable to perturbations and the traumatic experiences occurring before or during this period have an increased saliency in affecting cognitive, emotional, and social levels. During adolescence, trauma-related effects causing significant impairment or suffering could be manifest in internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The present mini review aimed to clarify trauma effects on adolescence by examining the neurobiological correlates associated with an increased risk of externalizing/internalizing conducts, as well as the transformative effects of multiple and multimodal therapeutic interventions. Full article