19 research outputs found
Exploring the Impact of Natural Mentors on Sociopolitical Stress: Implications for Educators and Youth Workers
Aims: This study examines college students’ access to natural mentors during the contentious 2020 U.S. presidential election and considers the role of natural mentors as protective factors in relation to coping and sociopolitical stress.
Methods: Data were collected from 588 students between the ages of 18 and 29 who were enrolled at 10 institutions of higher education across the U.S. at the time of data collection. Chi-square tests of independence explored differences in access to mentors. T-tests examined differences in sociopolitical stress and coping between those with and without mentors, and multivariable regressions examined whether relationship characteristics influenced these associations.
Results: Findings indicated significant differences in access to mentors based on gender, religion, and political affiliation. Furthermore, results indicated that mentored college students reported higher levels of coping. Relationship characteristics did not affect these associations.
Conclusion: Results highlight global implications for community practitioners as they support young adults’ civic engagement in divisive sociopolitical climates, especially as elections become increasingly polarizing on a global scale
Early Negative Affect in Males and Females With Fragile X Syndrome: Implications for Anxiety and Autism
Background Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic disorder that is highly comorbid with anxiety and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Elevated negative affect in young children has been associated with increased risk for both anxiety and ASD; however, these relations remain poorly understood in FXS.
Methods The present prospective longitudinal study examined the trajectory of negative affect from infancy through preschool in males and females with FXS and typical development and its relation to anxiety and ASD.
Results Results indicate a complex association reflecting group, developmental, and sex effects. Specifically, the group with FXS displayed a trajectory of increasing negative affect across age that was distinct from the typical controls. This atypical trajectory of negative affect in FXS was driven by sex effects in that males showed lower negative affect during infancy followed by steep increases across the toddler and preschool years whereas the females displayed a flatter trajectory. Finally, elevated negative affect predicted anxiety symptoms in males, but not females, with no relationship to ASD in males or females with FXS.
Conclusions The current work addresses the importance of studying the development of psychopathology in a specific neurogenetic population. Temperamental negative affect was shown to be an important early marker for anxiety in young children with FXS, with subtle differences observed between males and females
Analysis of shared heritability in common disorders of the brain
ience, this issue p. eaap8757 Structured Abstract INTRODUCTION Brain disorders may exhibit shared symptoms and substantial epidemiological comorbidity, inciting debate about their etiologic overlap. However, detailed study of phenotypes with different ages of onset, severity, and presentation poses a considerable challenge. Recently developed heritability methods allow us to accurately measure correlation of genome-wide common variant risk between two phenotypes from pools of different individuals and assess how connected they, or at least their genetic risks, are on the genomic level. We used genome-wide association data for 265,218 patients and 784,643 control participants, as well as 17 phenotypes from a total of 1,191,588 individuals, to quantify the degree of overlap for genetic risk factors of 25 common brain disorders. RATIONALE Over the past century, the classification of brain disorders has evolved to reflect the medical and scientific communities' assessments of the presumed root causes of clinical phenomena such as behavioral change, loss of motor function, or alterations of consciousness. Directly observable phenomena (such as the presence of emboli, protein tangles, or unusual electrical activity patterns) generally define and separate neurological disorders from psychiatric disorders. Understanding the genetic underpinnings and categorical distinctions for brain disorders and related phenotypes may inform the search for their biological mechanisms. RESULTS Common variant risk for psychiatric disorders was shown to correlate significantly, especially among attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), and schizophrenia. By contrast, neurological disorders appear more distinct from one another and from the psychiatric disorders, except for migraine, which was significantly correlated to ADHD, MDD, and Tourette syndrome. We demonstrate that, in the general population, the personality trait neuroticism is significantly correlated with almost every psychiatric disorder and migraine. We also identify significant genetic sharing between disorders and early life cognitive measures (e.g., years of education and college attainment) in the general population, demonstrating positive correlation with several psychiatric disorders (e.g., anorexia nervosa and bipolar disorder) and negative correlation with several neurological phenotypes (e.g., Alzheimer's disease and ischemic stroke), even though the latter are considered to result from specific processes that occur later in life. Extensive simulations were also performed to inform how statistical power, diagnostic misclassification, and phenotypic heterogeneity influence genetic correlations. CONCLUSION The high degree of genetic correlation among many of the psychiatric disorders adds further evidence that their current clinical boundaries do not reflect distinct underlying pathogenic processes, at least on the genetic level. This suggests a deeply interconnected nature for psychiatric disorders, in contrast to neurological disorders, and underscores the need to refine psychiatric diagnostics. Genetically informed analyses may provide important "scaffolding" to support such restructuring of psychiatric nosology, which likely requires incorporating many levels of information. By contrast, we find limited evidence for widespread common genetic risk sharing among neurological disorders or across neurological and psychiatric disorders. We show that both psychiatric and neurological disorders have robust correlations with cognitive and personality measures. Further study is needed to evaluate whether overlapping genetic contributions to psychiatric pathology may influence treatment choices. Ultimately, such developments may pave the way toward reduced heterogeneity and improved diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders
Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders
Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe
Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors
Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe
Randomized Evaluation of A Transitional Mentoring Program For First Year Middle School Students
Abstrac
Expanding the Reach of Psychosocial Services for Youth: Untapped Potential of Mentor-Delivered Single Session Interventions
At present, the mental healthcare system cannot meet the demand for services, and the need-to-access gap is widest among children and adolescents. Single session interventions (SSIs) or brief, intentional, and mechanism-targeted prevention and intervention programs have shown promise in increasing the reach of effective, evidence-based services, but a wide gap still remains due to other structural barriers (e.g., workforce shortages). The present paper calls for the coupling of SSIs and mentor-delivered programs as a promising future step to further overcome the inaccessibility of youth mental health services. Indeed, capitalizing on the advantages of mentoring relationships (e.g., the associated interpersonal benefits and mentors’ pre-existence in most community settings) has the power to complement and enhance the value of SSIs, and to expand the acceptability and reach of evidence-based mental health services. In this paper, we discuss the anticipated benefits of mentor-delivered SSIs from multiple perspectives, as well as cautionary considerations related to the proposed model. To conclude, we highlight necessary implementation considerations prior to deploying any systems change
Deconstructing risk in Youth Mentoring Programs: How Environmental Stressors and Presenting Challenges Shape Mentoring Relationship Outcomes
Youth referred to mentoring programs vary considerably in the range and severity of difficulties (i.e., behavioral, internalizing, social and academic) and environmental challenges they face. However, their patterns of risk and corresponding consequences for mentoring have rarely been investigated. This study draws on data for youth participants in 30 mentoring programs (n = 2,165, 55.1% females) to examine patterns of presenting challenges. Four profiles emerged using three-step latent profile analyses. Profiles with more intensive symptoms were associated with more environmental stressors. Moreover, there were significant differences between profiles in youth-perceived relationship attributes, including closeness, youth-centeredness, growth focus and mentor-mentee relational health. The profile with the highest externalizing and social challenge indicators scored the lowest across these four relational indices. The results highlight variability of youth risk at baseline, and its differential impact on mentoring relationship outcomes. Implications for mentoring programs are discussed
Appendix – Supplemental material for Assessing Teacher Usability of Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement
<p>Supplemental material, Appendix for Assessing Teacher Usability of Written Expression
Curriculum-Based Measurement by Anita M. Payan, Milena Keller-Margulis, Andrea B.
Burridge, Samuel D. McQuillin and Kristen S. Hassett in Assessment for Effective
Intervention</p
AEI781007_Supplementary_Material_REV2 – Supplemental material for Assessing Teacher Usability of Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement
<p>Supplemental material, AEI781007_Supplementary_Material_REV2 for Assessing Teacher
Usability of Written Expression Curriculum-Based Measurement by Anita M. Payan, Milena
Keller-Margulis, Andrea B. Burridge, Samuel D. McQuillin and Kristen S. Hassett in
Assessment for Effective Intervention</p