Commentary: Taking steps to reduce school exclusions: child and adolescent mental health trajectories in relation to exclusion from school from The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) – a commentary on Tejerina‐Arreal et al. (2020)

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 224-227
Author(s):  
Rona Tutt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
Health Trajectories ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Avon Longitudinal Study

scholarly journals The association of alcohol polygenic risk scores with mental health outcomes: A multi-generational analysis in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kayleigh E Easey ◽  
Robyn E Wootton ◽  
Hannah M Sallis ◽  
Elis Haan ◽  
Laura Schellhas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Intellectual Ability ◽  
Polygenic Risk Score ◽  
Polygenic Risk ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Avon Longitudinal Study

AbstractBackgroundIncreased alcohol consumption often co-occurs with mental health problems; however, we do not currently fully understand whether this is due to confounding, shared biological mechanisms, or causal effects.DesignWe analysed a polygenic risk score (PRS) composed of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) reliably associated with patterns of adult alcohol consumption to test: 1) if this PRS is associated with consumption during pregnancy and adolescence, 2) if child alcohol PRS is associated with mental health phenotypes, and 3) if maternal alcohol PRS is associated with offspring alcohol phenotypes and mental health. We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Additional substance abuse behaviours and mental health/behavioural outcomes were also investigated at different life stages across both generations (alcohol phenotypes n =22; health phenotypes n = 91). The availability of data from early life on the same participants (pre-alcohol use around ages 7-10 years) provided a negative control, in contrast to that in ages of alcohol use (13-24 years).FindingsThe adult alcohol PRS was associated with consumption phenotypes during pregnancy (strongest signal for alcohol frequency at 18 weeks’ gestation: p=1.01×10-5) but offspring alcohol PRS did not predict offspring alcohol consumption at age 13-24 years. We found evidence for an association of maternal PRS with own perinatal depression (p=0.02) and decreased offspring intellectual ability (p=0.016).ConclusionsAn alcohol PRS derived from GWAS of alcohol use in the general population was shown to be associated with frequency and amount of alcohol consumed during pregnancy, and maternal depression at 32 weeks gestation. The associations between alcohol PRS with mother’s depression and offspring intellectual ability are consistent with previous studies, adding to the validity of using this alcohol PRS in future aetiological studies.

The Christchurch Health and Development Study: Review of Findings on Child and Adolescent Mental Health

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Fergusson ◽  
John L. Horwood
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Adolescent Mental Health ◽  
Child And Adolescent ◽  
Urban Region ◽  
Family Adversity ◽  
Development Study ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Health And Development

Objective: This paper provides an overview of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS) and a summary of findings relating to child and adolescent mental health. Method: The CHDS is a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 children born in the Christchurch (New Zealand) urban region during mid 1977. This cohort has now been studied from birth to age 21. Results: The paper examines the ways in which the study has been able to examine a wide range of issues. Key issues examined include: (i) measurement of disorder (respondent effects; dimensionality; scales vs categories); (ii) prevalence and treatment of disorder; (iii) stability and continuity of disorders; (iv) the contribution of risk and aetiological factors (e.g. lead exposure, parental divorce, child abuse, family adversity, sexual orientation) to psychosocial adjustment; and (v) the psychosocial consequences of mental health problems in adolescence. Conclusions: The study findings illustrate the many advantages of a longitudinal study, such as the CHDS, in providing methodologically sound, theoretically relevant and cost effective research that caters for the interests of multiple end-users including the scientific community, clinicians and applied policy makers.

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