Poverty, Maternal Depression, Family Status and Children's Cognitive and Behavioural Development in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

Improving children's lives is high on the UK policy agenda. In this study for a recent birth cohort of UK children we examine how three aspects of parental resources - income, mother's mental well-being and family status - in early childhood enhance or compromise their children's cognitive and behavioural development. As well as examining how these three aspects of parental resources separately and jointly affect children's well-being, we also enquire whether persistent poverty or persistent maternal depression are more deleterious for children's current well-being than periodic episodes of poverty and depression. We find strong associations between poverty and young children's intellectual and behavioural development, and persistent poverty was found to be particularly important in relation to children's cognitive development. Maternal depression (net of other factors) was more weakly related to cognitive development but strongly related to whether children were exhibiting behaviour problems, and persistent depression amplified the situation. Family status, net of other factors (most noticeably poverty), was only weakly associated with children's development

A longitudinal study of risk and protective factors associated with successful transition to secondary school in youth with ADHD: prospective cohort study protocol

BACKGROUND: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has a significant impact on child and adolescent development, especially in relation to school functioning and academic outcomes. Despite the transition to high school being a potentially critical period for children with ADHD, most research in this period has focused on academic outcomes. This study aims to extend previous research by describing academic, school engagement, behaviour and social-emotional outcomes for young people with ADHD in the first and third years of high school and to identify risk and protective factors predictive of differing outcomes across these four domains. METHODS AND DESIGN: The Moving Up study is a longitudinal, prospective cohort study of children with ADHD as they transition and adjust to high school (age 12-15 years). Data are collected through direct assessment and child, parent and teacher surveys. The primary outcome is academic achievement, obtained by linking to standardised test results. Secondary outcomes include measures of behaviour, ADHD symptoms, school engagement (attitudes and attendance), and social and emotional functioning, including depressive symptoms. The mean performance of the study cohort on each outcome measure will be compared to the population mean for same aged children, using t-tests. Risk and protective factors to be examined using multiple regression include a child, family and school factors know to impact academic and school functioning. DISCUSSION: The Moving up study is the first Australian study prospectively designed to measure a broad range of student outcomes for children with ADHD during the high school transition period. Examining both current (cross sectional) and earlier childhood (longitudinal) factors gives us the potential to learn more about risk and protective factors associated with school functioning in young people with ADHD. The richness and depth of this information could lead to more targeted and effective interventions that may alter academic and wellbeing trajectories for young people at risk of poor outcomes.<br /

Can improving working memory prevent academic difficulties? a school based randomised controlled trial

Background: Low academic achievement is common and is associated with adverse outcomes such as grade repetition, behavioural disorders and unemployment. The ability to accurately identify these children and intervene before they experience academic failure would be a major advance over the current &lsquo;wait to fail&rsquo; model. Recent research suggests that a possible modifiable factor for low academic achievement is working memory, the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information in a &lsquo;mental workspace&rsquo;. Children with working memory difficulties are at high risk of academic failure. It has recently been demonstrated that working memory can be improved with adaptive training tasks that encourage improvements in working memory capacity. Our trial will determine whether the intervention is efficacious as a selective prevention strategy for young children at risk of academic difficulties and is cost-effective.Methods/Design: This randomised controlled trial aims to recruit 440 children with low working memory after a school-based screening of 2880 children in Grade one. We will approach caregivers of all children from 48 participating primary schools in metropolitan Melbourne for consent. Children with low working memory will be randomised to usual care or the intervention. The intervention will consist of 25 computerised working memory training sessions, which take approximately 35 minutes each to complete. Follow-up of children will be conducted at 6, 12 and 24 months post-randomisation through child face-to-face assessment, parent and teacher surveys and data from government authorities. The primary outcome is academic achievement at 12 and 24 months, and other outcomes include child behaviour, attention, health-related quality of life, working memory, and health and educational serviceutilisation.Discussion: A successful start to formal learning in school sets the stage for future academic, psychological and economic well-being. If this preventive intervention can be shown to be efficacious, then we will have the potential to prevent academic underachievement in large numbers of at-risk children, to offer a ready-to-use intervention to the Australian school system and to build international research partnerships along the health education interface, in order to carry our further studies of effectiveness and generalisability.<br /

Socioeconomic status in childhood and C reactive protein in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Inflammation plays a central role in cardio-metabolic disease and may represent a mechanism linking low socioeconomic status (SES) in early life and adverse cardio-metabolic health outcomes in later life. Accumulating evidence suggests an association between childhood SES and adult inflammation, but findings have been inconsistent

The agreement between parent-reported and directly measured child language and parenting behaviors

Parenting behaviors are commonly targeted in early interventions to improve children\u27s language development. Accurate measurement of both parenting behaviors and children\u27s language outcomes is thus crucial for sensitive assessment of intervention outcomes. To date, only a small number of studies have compared parent-reported and directly measured behaviors, and these have been hampered by small sample sizes and inaccurate statistical techniques, such as correlations. The Bland-Altman Method and Reduced Major Axis regression represent more reliable alternatives because they allow us to quantify fixed and proportional bias between measures. In this study, we draw on data from two Australian early childhood cohorts (N = 201 parents and slow-to-talk toddlers aged 24 months; and N = 218 parents and children aged 6-36 months experiencing social adversity) to (1) examine agreement and quantify bias between parent-reported and direct measures, and (2) to determine socio-demographic predictors of the differences between parent-reported and direct measures. Measures of child language and parenting behaviors were collected from parents and their children. Our findings support the utility of the Bland-Altman Method and Reduced Major Axis regression in comparing measurement methods. Results indicated stronger agreement between parent-reported and directly measured child language, and poorer agreement between measures of parenting behaviors. Child age was associated with difference scores for child language; however, the direction varied for each cohort. Parents who rated their child\u27s temperament as more difficult tended to report lower language scores on the parent questionnaire, compared to the directly measured scores. Older parents tended to report lower parenting responsiveness on the parent questionnaire, compared to directly measured scores. Finally, speaking a language other than English was associated with less responsive parenting behaviors on the videotaped observation compared to the parent questionnaire. Variation in patterns of agreement across the distribution of scores highlighted the importance of assessing agreement comprehensively, providing strong evidence that simple correlations are grossly insufficient for method comparisons. We discuss implications for researchers and clinicians, including guidance for measurement selection, and the potential to reduce financial and time-related expenses and improve data quality. Further research is required to determine whether findings described here are reflected in more representative populations

Impact of a behavioural sleep intervention on symptoms and sleep in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and parental mental health: randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether behavioural strategies designed to improve children\u27s sleep problems could also improve the symptoms, behaviour, daily functioning, and working memory of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the mental health of their parents. DESIGN: Randomised controlled trial. SETTING: 21 general paediatric practices in Victoria, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: 244 children aged 5-12 years with ADHD attending the practices between 2010 and 2012. INTERVENTION: Sleep hygiene practices and standardised behavioural strategies delivered by trained psychologists or trainee paediatricians during two fortnightly consultations and a follow-up telephone call. Children in the control group received usual clinical care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: At three and six months after randomisation: severity of ADHD symptoms (parent and teacher ADHD rating scale IV-primary outcome), sleep problems (parent reported severity, children\u27s sleep habits questionnaire, actigraphy), behaviour (strengths and difficulties questionnaire), quality of life (pediatric quality of life inventory 4.0), daily functioning (daily parent rating of evening and morning behavior), working memory (working memory test battery for children, six months only), and parent mental health (depression anxiety stress scales). RESULTS: Intervention compared with control families reported a greater decrease in ADHD symptoms at three and six months (adjusted mean difference for change in symptom severity -2.9, 95% confidence interval -5.5 to -0.3, P=0.03, effect size -0.3, and -3.7, -6.1 to -1.2, P=0.004, effect size -0.4, respectively). Compared with control children, intervention children had fewer moderate-severe sleep problems at three months (56% v 30%; adjusted odds ratio 0.30, 95% confidence interval 0.16 to 0.59; P&lt;0.001) and six months (46% v 34%; 0.58, 0.32 to 1.0; P=0.07). At three months this equated to a reduction in absolute risk of 25.7% (95% confidence interval 14.1% to 37.3%) and an estimated number needed to treat of 3.9. At six months the number needed to treat was 7.8. Approximately a half to one third of the beneficial effect of the intervention on ADHD symptoms was mediated through improved sleep, at three and six months, respectively. Intervention families reported greater improvements in all other child and family outcomes except parental mental health. Teachers reported improved behaviour of the children at three and six months. Working memory (backwards digit recall) was higher in the intervention children compared with control children at six months. Daily sleep duration measured by actigraphy tended to be higher in the intervention children at three months (mean difference 10.9 minutes, 95% confidence interval -19.0 to 40.8 minutes, effect size 0.2) and six months (9.9 minutes, -16.3 to 36.1 minutes, effect size 0.3); however, this measure was only completed by a subset of children (n=54 at three months and n=37 at six months). CONCLUSIONS: A brief behavioural sleep intervention modestly improves the severity of ADHD symptoms in a community sample of children with ADHD, most of whom were taking stimulant medications. The intervention also improved the children\u27s sleep, behaviour, quality of life, and functioning, with most benefits sustained to six months post-intervention. The intervention may be suitable for use in primary and secondary care.Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN68819261

Acquisition of Maternal Education and its Relation to Single Word Reading in Middle Childhood: An Analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study

Maternal education captured at a single time point is commonly employed as a predictor of a child's cognitive development. In this paper we ask what bearing the acquisition of additional qualifications has upon reading performance in middle childhood. This was a secondary analysis of the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, a birth cohort of 18,000 children born in 2000. Our outcome variable was Single Word Reading from the British Abilities Scales at 7 years. Predictors included maternal age and education, relative poverty and parity. Increasing maternal education over time was associated with improved child outcomes with a 2 month developmental advantage for children whose mothers had increased education over those whose mothers had not. Parity was important but conditional on this, there was no evidence of child attainment reducing for the children of older mothers. A time-varying education level model is consistent with an input quality mechanism for language development.casl63pub4328pub

Study protocol: Generation Victoria (GenV) special care nursery registry

Introduction Newborn babies who require admission for specialist care can experience immediate and sometimes lasting impacts. For babies admitted to special care nurseries (SCN), there is no dataset comparable to that of the Australian and New Zealand Neonatal Network (ANZNN), which has helped improve the quality and consistency of neonatal intensive care through standardised data collection. Objectives We aim to establish a proof-of-concept, Victoria-wide registry of babies admitted to SCN, embedded within the whole-of-Victoria Generation Victoria (GenV) cohort. Methods This prototype registry is a depth sub-cohort nested within GenV, targeting all babies born in Victoria from Oct-2021 to Oct-2023. Infants admitted to SCN are eligible. The minimum dataset will be harmonised with ANZNN for common constructs but also include SCN-only items, and will cover maternal, antenatal, newborn, respiratory/respiratory support, cardiac, infection, nutrition, feeding, cerebral and other items. As well as the dataset, this protocol outlines the anticipated cohort, timeline for this registry, and how this will serve as a resource for longitudinal research through its integration with the GenV longitudinal cohort and linked datasets. Conclusion The registry will provide the opportunity to better understand the health and future outcomes of the large and growing cohort of children that require specialist care after birth. The data would generate translatable evidence and could lay the groundwork for a stand-alone ongoing clinical quality registry post-GenV

Economic evaluation of an Australian nurse home visiting programme : a randomised trial at 3 years

Objectives To investigate the additional programme cost and cost-effectiveness of ‘right@home’ Nurse Home Visiting (NHV) programme in relation to improving maternal and child outcomes at child age 3 years compared with usual care. Design A cost–utility analysis from a government-as-payer perspective alongside a randomised trial of NHV over 3-year period. Costs and quality-adjusted lifeyears (QALYs) were discounted at 5%. Analysis used an intention-to-treat approach with multiple imputation. Setting The right@home was implemented from 2013 in Victoria and Tasmania states of Australia, as a primary care service for pregnant women, delivered until child age 2 years. Participants 722 pregnant Australian women experiencing adversity received NHV (n=363) or usual care (clinic visits) (n=359). Primary and secondary outcome measures First, a cost–consequences analysis to compare the additional costs of NHV over usual care, accounting for any reduced costs of service use, and impacts on all maternal and child outcomes assessed at 3 years. Second, cost–utility analysis from a government-as-payer perspective compared additional costs to maternal QALYs to express cost-effectiveness in terms of additional cost per additional QALY gained. Results When compared with usual care at child age 3 years, the right@home intervention cost $A7685 extra per woman (95$A7006 to $A8364) and generated 0.01 more QALYs (95$A50 000 per QALY. Conclusions Benefits of NHV to parenting at 2 years and maternal health and well-being at 3 years translate into marginal maternal QALY gains. Like previous cost-effectiveness results for NHV programmes, right@home is not cost-effective at 3 years. Given the relatively high up-front costs of NHV, long-term follow-up is needed to assess the accrual of health and economic benefits over time