Flocking together and thinking apart: Gendered friendships and decision-making in adolescence

This study explored if adolescents’ style of decision-making is related to the sex composition of their friendship groups. Using data on 13,413 members of the Millennium Cohort Study at ages 11 and 14 years, we explored reciprocal associations between decision-making, measured with the Cambridge Gambling Task, and own-sex and other- or mixed-sex companionship. Cross-lagged models showed that girls whose friends at 11 were mainly girls showed better quality of decision-making, more risk adjustment, shorter deliberation time and less delay aversion at age 14, compared to girls in mixed-sex or other-sex friendship groups at 11. For boys, having predominantly male friends was associated only with more risk adjustment. Conversely, decision-making style at age 11 did little to predict keeping own-sex company at age 14. It appears that same-sex friendships may help develop better decision-making in adolescence, but only for girls

Ability-grouping and problem behavior trajectories in childhood and adolescence: Results from a U.K. population-based sample

Ability-grouping has been studied extensively in relation to children's academic, but not emotional and behavioral outcomes. The sample comprised 7259 U.K. children (50% male) with data on between-class and within-class ability-grouping at age 7. Peer, emotional, hyperactivity, and conduct problems were measured at ages 7, 11, and 14 years. Children in low within-class ability groups showed more hyperactivity and emotional problems across the study period compared to non-grouped children, after adjustments for the different types of ability grouping and confounding. Additionally, children in the middle within-class ability groups showed more, and those in the top within-class groups less, hyperactivity compared to non-grouped children, after adjustment. Children in lower within-class groups should be monitored closely to ensure that their well-being is not compromised

The Role of Primary School Composition in the Trajectories of Internalising and Externalising Problems across Childhood and Adolescence

There is little research on the role of school and its composition in explaining individual children's psychological outcomes. This study examined for the first time the role of several primary-school compositional characteristics, and their interactions with individual level characteristics, in the development of two such outcomes, internalising and externalising problems, at ages 7, 11 and 14 years in 4794 children in England participating in the Millennium Cohort Study. Using hierarchical (multilevel) linear models, we found that, even after adjusting for individual and family characteristics, children in schools with higher proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals had more externalising problems. In general, children with special educational needs, lower academic performance, more distressed mothers, and those in non-intact families had more internalising and externalising problems. Our results underline the importance of targeting schools with less affluent overall intakes, but also highlight the key role of individual and family characteristics in the development of their pupils' psychological functioning

Early adolescent outcomes of joint developmental trajectories of problem behavior and IQ in childhood

General cognitive ability (IQ) and problem behavior (externalizing and internalizing problems) are variable and inter-related in children. However, it is unknown how they co-develop in the general child population and how their patterns of co-development may be related to later outcomes. We carried out this study to explore this. Using data from 16,844 Millennium Cohort Study children, we fitted three-parallel-process growth mixture models to identify joint developmental trajectories of internalizing, externalizing and IQ scores at ages 3-11 years. We then examined their associations with age 11 outcomes. We identified a typically developing group (83%) and three atypical groups, all with worse behavior and ability: children with improving behavior and low (but improving in males) ability (6%); children with persistently high levels of problems and low ability (5%); and children with worsening behavior and low ability (6%). Compared to typically developing children, the latter two groups were more likely to show poor decision-making, be bullies or bully victims, engage in antisocial behaviors, skip and dislike school, be unhappy and have low self-esteem. By contrast, children (especially males) in the improver group had outcomes that were similar to, or even better than, those of their typically developing peers. These findings encourage the development of interventions to target children with both cognitive and behavioral difficulties

Clozapine use in childhood and adolescent schizophrenia: A nationwide population-based study

Early onset schizophrenia (EOS) begins in childhood or adolescence. EOS is associated with poor treatment response and may benefit from timely use of clozapine. This study aimed to identify the predictors of clozapine use in EOS and characterize the clinical profile and outcome of clozapine-treated youths with schizophrenia. We conducted a nationwide population-based study using linked data from Danish medical registries. We examined all incident cases of EOS (i.e., cases diagnosed prior to their 18th birthday) between December 31st 1994 and December 31st 2006 and characterized their demographic, clinical and treatment profiles. We then used multivariable cox proportional hazard models to identify predictors of clozapine treatment in this patient population. We identified 662 EOS cases (1.9% of all schizophrenia cases), of whom 108 (17.6%) had commenced clozapine by December 31st 2008. Patients had on average 3 antipsychotic trials prior to clozapine initiation. The mean interval between first antipsychotic treatment and clozapine initiation was 3.2 (2.9) years. Older age at diagnosis of schizophrenia [HR=1.2, 95% CI (1.05-1.4), p=0.01], family history of schizophrenia [HR=2.1, 95% CI (1.1-3.04), p=0.02] and attempted suicide [HR=1.8, 95% CI (1.1-3.04), p=0.02] emerged as significant predictors of clozapine use. The majority of patients (n=96, 88.8%) prescribed clozapine appeared to have a favorable clinical response as indicated by continued prescription redemption and improved occupational outcomes. Our findings support current recommendations for the timely use of clozapine in EOS

The ELPAT Living Organ Donor Psychosocial Assessment Tool (EPAT): from 'What' to 'How' of Psychosocial Screening - a Pilot Study

Thorough psychosocial screening of donor candidates is required in order to minimize potential negative consequences and to strive for optimal safety within living donation programmes. We aimed to develop an evidence-based tool to standardize the psychosocial screening process. Key concepts of psychosocial screening were used to structure our tool: motivation and decision-making, personal resources, psychopathology, social resources, ethical and legal factors and information and risk processing. We (i) discussed how each item per concept could be measured, (ii) reviewed and rated available validated tools, (iii) where necessary developed new items, (iv) assessed content validity and (v) pilot-tested the new items. The resulting ELPAT living organ donor Psychosocial Assessment Tool (EPAT) consists of a selection of validated questionnaires (28 items in total), a semi-structured interview (43 questions) and a Red Flag Checklist. We outline optimal procedures and conditions for implementing this tool. The EPAT and user manual are available from the authors. Use of this tool will standardize the psychosocial screening procedure ensuring that no psychosocial issues are overlooked and ensure that comparable selection criteria are used and facilitate generation of comparable psychosocial data on living donor candidates.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Haptic Robot-Assisted System for Femur Fracture Surgery

In the face of challenges encountered during femur fracture surgery, such as the high rates of malalignment and X-ray exposure to operating personnel, robot-assisted surgery has emerged as an alternative to conventional state-of-the-art surgical methods. This paper introduces the development of Robossis, a haptic system for robot-assisted femur fracture surgery. Robossis comprises a 7-DOF haptic controller and a 6-DOF surgical robot. A unilateral control architecture is developed to address the kinematic mismatch and the motion transfer between the haptic controller and the Robossis surgical robot. A real-time motion control pipeline is designed to address the motion transfer and evaluated through experimental testing. The analysis illustrates that the Robossis surgical robot can adhere to the desired trajectory from the haptic controller with an average translational error of 0.32 mm and a rotational error of 0.07 deg. Additionally, a haptic rendering pipeline is developed to resolve the kinematic mismatch by constraining the haptic controller (user hand) movement within the permissible joint limits of the Robossis surgical robot. Lastly, in a cadaveric lab test, the Robossis system assisted surgeons during a mock femur fracture surgery. The result shows that Robossis can provide an intuitive solution for surgeons to perform femur fracture surgery.Comment: This paper is to be submitted to an IEEE journa