College Student Mental Health Is Stable Across College Career, but Declining Over Time.

Introduction: The effect of time in college on student mental health is not as well-explored as cohort effects. The present study used 7 years of longitudinal mental health data to disentangle the effect of time in college from broader cohort-based effects.

Methods: 8585 emerging adult students from two US colleges (mean age 19.

The protective role of community cohesion across rural and urban contexts: implications for youth mental health.

Background: Exposure to adversity (e.g., negative life events) and socioeconomic disadvantage can increase the risk for internalizing and externalizing symptoms, but many youth demonstrate resilience.

Contribution of dual-tasking to social participation in persons with multiple sclerosis: A structural equation modeling approach.

Introduction: This study aimed to explore the patterns of association between dual-tasking, cognition, ambulation disability, fatigue, and self-efficacy and their pathways in predicting social participation in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods: Adults with MS (n = 1162) completed an online survey. Social participation was assessed by the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders.

Declines in social-emotional skills in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The present study investigated whether social-emotional skills in first year college students differed before and after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdowns.

Methods: Participants ( = 1,685) consisted of first year college students (mean age 18.53 years) selected from a broader cohort enrolled in a longitudinal study on college mental health at liberal arts colleges in the United States.

Change in Seasonal Beliefs Mediates the Durability Advantage of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Over Light Therapy for Winter Depression.

In treating an acute episode of winter depression, cognitive-behavioral therapy for seasonal affective disorder (CBT-SAD) and light therapy are comparably efficacious, with improvement in depression symptoms during CBT-SAD mediated by reduced seasonal beliefs (i.e., maladaptive thoughts about the seasons, light availability, and weather).

Development and Validation of the Smoker Self-Stigma Questionnaire.

Introduction: Researchers have become increasingly concerned with the stigmatizing impact that regulations and policies aimed to curve down cigarette smoking may have on smokers. Given the lack of psychometrically validated tools available to assess smoking stigma, we developed and evaluated the Smoker Self-Stigma Questionnaire (SSSQ).

Aims And Methods: A total of 592 smokers recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) completed an online, Qualtrics survey that included 45 items developed and vetted by tobacco-research experts.

Latent Classes of Perceived Addictiveness Predict Marijuana, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use in Youth and Young Adults.

Mass media substance use prevention efforts target addiction perceptions in young people. This study examined youth and young adults' (YAs) perceived addictiveness across several substances and the associations between addiction perceptions and substance use. Data were collected in 2019 in an online cohort study of Vermonters aged 12-25.

An examination of the heterogeneity of the relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder, self-compassion and gratitude.

Previous research has found both self-compassion and gratitude to be protective against overall posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. PTSD is a highly heterogeneous disorder; however, it is unclear if these protective constructs are differentially associated with each cluster of PTSD. The present study examined differences in the association of self-compassion and gratitude with the four clusters of PTSD as indicated by the DSM-5.

Applying experimental therapeutics to examine cognitive and chronological vulnerabilities as mediators of acute outcomes in cognitive-behavioral therapy and light therapy for winter depression.

Objective: We applied the experimental therapeutics approach to test whether acute treatment outcomes for winter seasonal affective disorder (SAD) are mediated by a cognitive mechanism in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT-SAD) versus a chronobiologic mechanism in light therapy (LT).

Method: Currently depressed adults with major depression, recurrent with seasonal pattern (N = 177; 83.6% female, 92.

Structural brain correlates of adolescent resilience.

Background: Despite calls for integration of neurobiological methods into research on youth resilience (high competence despite high adversity), we know little about structural brain correlates of resilient functioning. The aim of the current study was to test for brain regions uniquely associated with positive functioning in the context of adversity, using detailed phenotypic classification.

Methods: 1,870 European adolescents (M  = 14.

Exploration of the Factor Structure of ADHD in Adolescence through Self, Parent, and Teacher Reports of Symptomatology.

Factor analytic studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults have shown that second-order and bifactor models better represent ADHD symptoms than two- or three-factor models, yet there is far less evidence for a bestfitting model of ADHD in adolescence. Thus, the current study examined the factor structure of ADHD in adolescence and further evaluated the external validity of the best fitting model. Participants were 588 adolescents (22 % female; 366 with a childhood ADHD diagnosis; mean age 15.

Is parenting the mediator of change in behavioral parent training for externalizing problems of youth?

Change in parenting behavior is theorized to be the mediator accounting for change in child and adolescent externalizing problems in behavioral parent training (BPT). The purpose of this review is to examine this assumption in BPT prevention and intervention programs. Eight intervention and 17 prevention studies were identified as meeting all criteria or all but one criterion for testing mediation.

A test of the DSM-5 severity scale for alcohol use disorder.

Background: For the DSM-5-defined alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis, a tri-categorized scale that designates mild, moderate, and severe AUD was selected over a fully dimensional scale to represent AUD severity. The purpose of this study was to test whether the DSM-5-defined AUD severity measure was as proficient a predictor of alcohol use following a brief intervention, compared to a fully dimensional scale.

Methods: Heavy drinking primary care patients (N=246) received a physician-delivered brief intervention (BI), and then reported daily alcohol consumption for six months using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

Moderating Effects of Coping on Associations between Autonomic Arousal and Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Problems.

Few published studies have looked at the moderating role of coping styles on the association between stress reactivity and internalizing/externalizing problems despite theory suggesting that particular constellations of stress reactivity and coping may be uniquely problematic. The present study aimed to test the interactive effects of coping and psychophysiology on self- and parent-report broad-spectrum problems in a normative adolescent sample. Sixty-six late adolescents (ages 16-17; 60% female, 13% ethnic minority) completed questionnaires on coping, stressful life events, and behavioral/emotional problems, with parents also providing data on problems.

Comparison of categorical alcohol dependence versus a dimensional measure for predicting weekly alcohol use in heavy drinkers.

Background: The DSM specifies categorical criteria for psychiatric disorders. In contrast, a dimensional approach considers variability in symptom severity and can significantly improve statistical power. The current study tested whether a categorical, DSM-defined diagnosis of Alcohol Dependence (AD) was a better fit than a dimensional dependence measure for predicting change in alcohol consumption among heavy drinkers following a brief alcohol intervention (BI).

Molecular-genetic correlates of infant attachment: a cautionary tale.

This paper advises caution in relation to the increasing interest in molecular-genetic association studies in developmental psychology based on a set of empirical examples from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD) that highlight the fragility of effects reported in the literature on the molecular-genetic correlates of infant attachment. Specifically, this paper updates and provides three extensions to results reported in Luijk et al. (2011), which recently failed to replicate evidence from smaller-sample studies that a set of dopaminergic, serotonergic, and oxytonergic markers are significantly associated with infant attachment security or disorganization.

In search of security: the latent structure of the Adult Attachment Interview revisited.

Building on Roisman, Fraley, and Belsky, who produced evidence for two modestly correlated dimensions (i.e., dismissing and preoccupied states of mind) underlying individual differences in attachment as assessed by the Adult Attachment Interview using the Main and Goldwyn classification system, this report replicates and extends relevant evidence in a large sample of adults (N = 842) who completed the Adult Attachment Interview coded using Kobak's Adult Attachment Interview Q-Sort.

Resilience in the transition to adulthood.

The emerging adulthood years, commonly defined as the late teens and twenties, represent a period of significant variability and change for much of the population. Thus, it is important for the field to consider pathways of at-risk youth as they move through this key window of development. We review research on positive outcomes in the transition to adulthood following a history of experienced adversity, including both investigations focused on resilience in diverse specific populations as well as broader longitudinal studies.

Competence and psychopathology: cascade effects in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.

Existing longitudinal research on the interplay between externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and academic and social competence has documented "cascading" effects from early aggressive/disruptive behavior through impairments in competence, leading to symptoms of depression and anxiety. The primary aim of the current study was to replicate such work using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development while also extending the developmental window of investigation of cascades back into early childhood. Participating families (N = 1,160) completed questionnaire measures of externalizing, internalizing, and social competence (maternal report), as well as individual assessment of academic achievement, spanning five time points from age 54 months through age 15 years.

Testing a dual cascade model linking competence and symptoms over 20 years from childhood to adulthood.

This study examined the unique longitudinal effects linking academic competence, social competence, and internalizing symptoms from childhood to adulthood. A multimethod and multi-informant approach was used to assess psychopathology and competence in 205 participants during four developmental periods. Social competence in childhood had a cascading effect on internalizing symptoms in adolescence, whereas social and academic competence in emerging adulthood had dual cascading effects on internalizing in young adulthood.

Intergenerational continuity in parenting quality: the mediating role of social competence.

Prospective studies of intergenerational continuity in parenting quality remain scarce, with little attention given to the potential role of social competence as a mediator of continuity. This study examined social competence as a mediator in the pathway from 1st generation (G1) to 2nd generation (G2) parenting quality. A normative sample of children and their parents were assessed in childhood, and again 10 and 20 years later.

The interplay of social competence and psychopathology over 20 years: testing transactional and cascade models.

Associations among internalizing, externalizing, and social competence were examined in a longitudinal cohort (N = 205) of 8- to 12-year-old children reassessed after 7, 10, and 20 years. Theoretically informed nested structural equation models tested interconnections among broad multi-informant constructs across four developmental periods. Follow-up analyses examined gender invariance, measurement and age effects, and putative common causes.

Pathways of adaptation from adolescence to young adulthood: antecedents and correlates.

This study examines longitudinal change using a person-centered approach to differentiate patterns of adaptive functioning from adolescence to adulthood. Data are drawn from a 20-year longitudinal study of competence and resilience in the lives of 205 school children (29% minority). Results indicate five distinct pathways of adaptation: (1) low-declining, (2) low-improving, (3) middle-improving, (4) middle-declining, and (5) consistently high.

Developmental cascades: linking academic achievement and externalizing and internalizing symptoms over 20 years.

A developmental cascade model linking competence and symptoms was tested in a study of a normative, urban school sample of 205 children (initially 8 to 12 years old). Internalizing and externalizing symptoms and academic competence were assessed by multiple methods at the study outset and after 7, 10, and 20 years. A series of nested cascade models was tested through structural equation modeling.

Mediating links between maternal depression and offspring psychopathology: the importance of independent data.

Background: Research examining intergenerational transmission of psychopathology is often limited by reliance on the same individuals for information on multiple constructs of interest. To counteract this limitation, data from a prospective, longitudinal study of at-risk youth were analyzed to test the hypothesis that parenting and family environmental factors mediate the association between maternal depressive symptoms and offspring psychopathology in late adolescence.

Method: Data were taken from 184 families of the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.