Browsing by Subject "adolescents"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Children and Depression
    (2009-05-04) Goulet, Bridgette
    Studies have shown that children and adolescents with depression who are treated with antidepressants show a significant improvement in their depressive symptoms. In addition, although the FDA found that children have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts when treated with antidepressants, this article found no difference in the amount of suicidal thoughts/attempts between children treated with antidepressant medication and children treated with placebo. This indicates that the benefits of antidepressants in children outweigh the risks in most cases.
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    Children Receiving Services at a Community Child Advocacy Center: A Mixed-Method Examination of Early Maladaptive Schemas and Coping Responses
    (2022-05) Zheng, Linda
    Schemas are core emotional and cognitive themes regarding oneself and one’s environment. Early maladaptive schemas (EMS) are themes originating from childhood and are associated with unmet emotional needs and adverse experiences, such as those that occur in caregiver-child relationships. EMS are maintained throughout life by unhelpful coping responses. However, it is unclear when children develop EMS and how the relationship between EMS and coping responses presents in children. Objective: The present study examined: (1) the prevalence of EMS and coping responses in children who have experienced maltreatment, (2) the relationship between EMS and coping responses, (3) how qualitative data compare to previous theoretical structures found in quantitative studies, and (4) how personal factors (e.g., age, gender) and abuse factors (e.g., frequency, type) are related to EMS and coping responses. Participants: Data were collected in collaboration with a child advocacy center through forensic interviews in which a child reported primary and/or secondary abuse. Measures: EMS were assessed using the Dusseldorf Illustrated Schema Questionnaire for Children (excluding illustrations). Coping responses were assessed using the COPE Inventory. Information about individual and abuse factors were gathered from case reports. Procedure: Staff at the child advocacy center completed the measures based on information obtained during forensic interviews. Results: All EMS were present in this sample. Excessive responsibility/standards was positively associated with self-sufficient coping and negatively associated with avoidant coping. Children of color, older children, and children who experienced multiple forms of abuse also reported higher levels of disconnection/rejection. Children who reported multiple forms of abuse also reported higher levels of impaired autonomy/performance. Conclusion: Early interventions should address EMS and reinforce more helpful coping responses for children with such adverse experiences.
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    Dual X-Ray Absorptiometry as a Measure of Leg Length in Children and Adolescents
    (2024-06) Dooley, Jack
    INTRODUCTION: Leg length has been found to be a reliable and useful means for determining adolescent risk factors of metabolic disease (MetD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Dual X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is often used to measure body composition in both adults and children and might provide another, accurate method to determine leg length in children than current methods utilized. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between DXA-derived leg length (DXA-LL) and traditionally-derived leg length. Also, to determine the relationship between DXA-LL and measures of cardiometabolic health, heart rate variability (HRV), arterial stiffness, and bone mineral density (BMD) when interacting with subject group status.METHODS: A total of 84 children and adolescents (n = 44 females, 40 males; age: 12.7±2.8 yrs.) had their leg length determined using the standard method of measuring seated height and then subtracting this from standing height. Subjects were scanned on a GE Healthcare Lunar iDXA and analyzed using enCore software version 16.2. The DXA-LL was determined by creating a custom region of interest (ROI) line drawn vertically from the greater trochanter of the femur to the calcaneus. In all participants supine blood pressure and pulse wave analysis (PWA) were determined using an automated blood pressure cuff, pulse wave velocity (PWV) was determined using an automated blood pressure cuff alongside an application tonometer, HRV measures were recording using an electrocardiogram (ECG), and fasting blood samples were collected for the determination of blood biomarkers of MD and T2D risk. The homeostatic model of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated from measurements of glucose and insulin. Paired T-test assessed similarity between DXA-LL and traditionally measured leg length. Pearson’s correlation coefficients fit to determine correlation between variables of interest. Linear regression analyses were performed to determine associations between the DXA-LL with blood biomarkers, HRV metrics, and BMD measures. RESULTS: DXA-LL was not significantly different than traditionally-derived leg length (86.05±5.31 vs 87.21±10.24 cm, p=0.26). There was a significant correlation between DXA-LL with group status (r2 = -0.26, p<0.05), total cholesterol (r2 = -0.25, p<0.01), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (r2 = -0.25, p<0.05), and pulse pressure (PP) (r2 = 0.36, p<0.01), as well as significant associations between cholesterol (Estimate = -1.50, 95% confidence interval= [-2.60, -0.39], p<0.01) and HDL (-0.85 [-1.43, -0.26], p<0.01) with DXA-LL, but not when interacting with group status. Glucose was significantly associated (-1.03 [-1.64, -0.41], p<0.01) with DXA-LL when interacting with group status. PP was found to be significantly associated with DXA-LL alone (0.55 [0.02, 0.45], p < 0.01) as well as when interacting with group status (1.01 [0.36, 1.67], p=0.01). There were significant correlations (r2=0.27-0.47, p<0.05) between total body bone mineral density (BMD), regional BMD, and individual leg BMD and DXA-LL. There were significant associations between all BMD measures (Total BMD: 0.01 [0.001, 0.011], Regional BMD: 0.01 [0.006, 0.018], right leg BMD: 0.01 {0.005, 0.016], left leg BMD: 0.01 {0.008, 0.019], p<0.01 for all) and DXA-LL alone, but not when interacting with group status. CONCLUSION: DXA-LL was not significantly different than traditionally-derived leg length. Therefore, DXA-LL can be used as an accurate and reliable way to measure leg length. In addition, DXA-LL was correlated with total cholesterol, HDL, PP and all measures of BMD. However, no significant association was found when interacting with group status and adjusting for covariates, suggesting that while there may be a connection between DXA-LL and these variables of interest, this sub-analysis did not reveal the predictive nature of this relationship.
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    Examining the Role of Aggression and Victimization in the Development of Psychopathology in Ugandan Adolescents
    (2015-06) Hecht, Kathryn
    Positive peer relationships play an important role in child development, serving not only as protective factors during and after exposure to adversity such as war or armed conflict, but also providing a training ground to develop the wide range of social skills and behaviors necessary for effective functioning within any given cultural context. Alternately, negative peer experiences such as relational and physical aggression and victimization can serve as powerful risk factors for later psychopathology; in particular, research supports a link between depression and forms of aggression as well as victimization. However, this relation has primarily been explored in North American and European contexts. Further, child aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms both appear to be more prevalent in contexts where children have been exposed to armed conflict. Little information is available on how different forms of aggression and victimization relate to depression in youth in more diverse cultural contexts, particularly in war-affected populations. The present study addresses this gap through examinations exploring the prevalence and gender differences of different forms of aggression as well as the relationship between relational and overt forms aggression/victimization and depression in a sub-Saharan, war-affected setting. Participants include a cross-sectional sample of 258 adolescents (M=16.26 years of age) to examine prevalence and gender differences in forms of aggression and victimization, as well as 96 adolescents (M=15.71 years of age) studied longitudinally over one calendar year to examine the relation between aggression, victimization and depression. Findings indicate that self-reported relational aggression as well as overt aggression each uniquely predicts depression symptoms, controlling for the alternate form of aggression. Relational victimization also uniquely predicts depression symptoms after controlling for overt victimization. Overt victimization did not significantly predict depression after controlling for the contribution of relational victimization. Implications of findings, limitations and future directions are discussed.
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    Gender Differences in Buffering Stress Responses in Same-Sex Friend Dyads
    (2015-12-14) Pauling, Sydney N.; Doom, Jenalee R.; Gunnar, Megan R.
    Social buffering is the ability of an individual to lower or block a close social partner’s physiological response to stress. It is unknown whether friends can buffer children and adolescents’ responses to stress both before and after puberty, and whether buffering by friends differs in boys and girls. The current study will examine these questions using a study of 30 9-10 year old boys and girls and 30 15-16 year old boys and girls asked to prepare for a stressful task with a friend. This task, called the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) involves a public speaking task and a math task conducted in front of judges, which consistently provokes increases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol (Yim, Quas, Cahill & Hayakawa, 2010). Friends assist the participant with speech preparation immediately before the speech, and a variety of behaviors were coded, including: validation, humor, distraction, and sensitivity. In addition, participants provided saliva samples for cortisol assay before speech preparation and every 10 minutes thereafter. After analyses were conducted, this study presented both age and sex differences in a variety of friendship behaviors: positive support, peer/participant anxiety, and humor/distraction. Statistically marginal effects indicate that larger samples were needed in each age/sex group to adequately test our predictions. In addition, peer support did not correlate with cortisol responses; although peer/participant anxiety did. Other measures of stress might have been more sensitive to peer support and should be examined. Considering the pivotal role that peers play in development, especially during the stressful period of adolescence, this is an essential area of future developmental research. Furthermore, taking age and gender into account will deepen the understanding of peer relationships across development.
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    Intergenerational Relationships across the Life Course: Links with Adolescent Well-Being
    (2015-08) Doty, Jennifer
    Grounded in the life course perspective, the author used data from three generations of the Youth Development Study (YDS) to conduct two studies on intergenerational relationships between parents and children. Using growth mixture modeling, Study 1 identified prospective patterns of perceived closeness with fathers (n = 913) and mothers (n = 966) from adolescence into adulthood over 24 years in the first generation (G1 -- G2). Analyses identified a continuous, slightly increasing pattern of perceived closeness with fathers. Three quadratic, latent class patterns of perceived closeness with mothers fit the data best: high closeness over time, average but decreased closeness in adulthood, and low but increased closeness in adulthood. Demographic and family correlates are discussed. In a subset of second generation, parent-adolescent dyads (n =262), Study 2 examined the relationship between G1- G2 patterns of perceived closeness and G3 well-being and perceived closeness with parents in adolescence. The mean trajectory of G2 perceived closeness with grandfathers did not predict perceived closeness with parents, depression, or well-being in G3 adolescents; nor did patterns of G2 perceived closeness with grandmothers differentiate levels of depressed mood, self-esteem, or closeness with mother in G3 adolescents. A marginal difference in G3 closeness with fathers was found by G2 patterns of closeness with mothers, such that those in families with G2 low but increased closeness reported lower closeness with fathers compared to those in families with high G2 closeness over time.
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    The Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide and Associated Family Factors in Clinically Suicidal and Depressed Adolescents
    (2018-06) Hunt, Quintin
    Suicide is a leading cause of death in adolescence. The mechanisms of adolescent suicidality, however, are not fully understood. Although the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide, as assessed by the Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire-15 (INQ), may be a promising framework, systematic study of its utility during adolescence is lacking. To this end, I utilized factor analyses and hierarchical regression analyses to test the factor structure, correlates, and predictive validity of the INQ in a sample of clinically depressed and suicidal adolescents (N=120, aged 12-18, 81.9% female). Contrary to studies including adult samples in which a two-factor solution is identified, results within this sample indicated three factors: perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and perceived isolation. Perceived burdensomeness and the interaction between perceived burdensomeness and perceived isolation predicted suicide ideation above and beyond depression, but thwarted belongingness and perceived isolation did not. Perceived burdensomeness appears to play a role in adolescent suicidality and may be a point of intervention, yet the notable deviation from previous findings and relative weakness of two of the factors warrant further study
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    Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting as an Adjunctive Intervention for Posttraumatic Stress Among Adolescents in Residential Treatment
    (2024-05) Lee, Elizabeth Kathleen
    There is little research on the effects of weightlifting as an adjunctive embodiment-based intervention on posttraumatic stress symptoms among adolescents with complex trauma histories. Therefore, the present study sought to explore how a newly developed adjunctive embodiment-based intervention, Trauma-Informed Weight Lifting (TIWL), influenced participants’ self-reported posttraumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms. Twelve adolescents from two residential facilities participated in the current study. Seven participants engaged in a weekly, eight-week TIWL intervention. Following a participant preference approach, participants without a preference for engaging in TIWL were assigned to the treatment as usual (TAU) comparison condition (n = 5). Those who engaged in TIWL were compared to those in the TAU group. Posttraumatic stress and associated symptoms were measured with six validated self-report measures. Symptoms were assessed before participants started TIWL, mid-way through the intervention, at the end, at 4-week post-intervention follow-up. Posttraumatic stress symptoms and interoception were assessed weekly. Overall, TIWL appeared feasible and acceptable in an adolescent residential treatment setting based on participants’ attendance rate (87.5%) and ratings of helpfulness (Ms = 75.71–94.71). Although effects were not maintained at follow-up and demonstrated some mixed findings between the weekly and monthly outcomes, the present study provided overall evidence for the efficacy of TIWL in lowered posttraumatic stress (Mi-j = -3.39, t = -2.08, p = .04, dRM, pooled = 3.20), depression (F(4, 5.25) = 6.73, p = .03, dRM, pooled = 0.59), and stress symptoms (F(4, 5.04) = 9.76, p = .01, dRM, pooled = 0.05) and higher levels of interoception (Mi-j = 0.45, t = 0.73, p = .47, dRM, pooled = 0.18) at the last TIWL session compared to baseline. There was also a large difference (~1.32 SD) in arousal and reactivity symptom levels between the TIWL condition and the comparison condition, with greater differences in Week 1 to Week 8 scores for the TIWL condition. From baseline to the four-week post-intervention follow-up self-reported avoidance (Mi-j = 0.67, t = -0.50, p = .25, dRM, pooled = -0.39), arousal and reactivity (Mi-j = 3.21, t = 1.16, p = .15, dRM, pooled = -0.27) and derealization (Mi-j = 0.69, t = 1.01, p = .15, dRM, pooled = -0.30) posttraumatic stress symptoms were higher in the TIWL condition. Given that two of the seven TIWL participants dropped out after two sessions, posthoc exploratory analyses were conducted with them removed. These analyses showed lower posttraumatic stress (Mi-j = -11.28, t = -1.39, p = .11, dRM, pooled = 0.94), depression (Mi-j = -3.88, t = -1.27, p = .13, dRM, pooled = 0.64), anxiety (Mi-j = -2.24, t = -1.26, p = .12, dRM, pooled = 1.17) and stress (Mi-j = -4.45, t = -1.68, p = .08, dRM, pooled = 0.63) symptoms from baseline to follow-up. Therefore, the participants who received a minimum of seven sessions of TIWL reported improvements in their posttraumatic stress and associated mental health symptoms from baseline to follow-up with large effects. Researching the effects of TIWL and extending beyond the present pilot study (e.g., multiple trials starting at different time points, larger sample sizes, different doses, comparing TIWL to a standard weightlifting group) are warranted given the potential confounds that could not be controlled for here.