Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with lower birth weight, but also with obesity in childhood. Findings on the direction of this association are mixed. This study investigated the relationship between weight and ADHD from birth across development.

The study by Vivanti et al. represents a significant contribution to research on autism screening. This cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT) sought to determine whether the implementation of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-Up (M-CHAT-R/F) during routine well-child check-ups could improve the early identification and referral rates for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The trial included a diverse sample of pediatric practices, randomly assigned to either an experimental group, in which the M-CHAT-R/F was systematically implemented with high fidelity, or a control group that continued with usual care practices.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder with high heritability. A total of 27 genome-wide significant loci for ADHD were previously identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs), but the identification of risk genes that confer susceptibility to ADHD has remained largely unexplored.

Although many factors predict adolescent depression, risks that operate as necessary conditions (i.e., the absence of the factor conveys the absence of the outcome) have been largely unexplored. This study aimed to evaluate which psychosocial risk factors might serve as necessary conditions for future onset of depression across adolescence.

Adolescents with disrupted rest-activity rhythms (RAR) including shorter sleep duration, later sleep timing and low physical activity levels are at a greater risk for mental and behavioral problems. However, it remains unclear whether the same associations can be observed for within-subject changes in RAR.

Emotional dysregulation is a common and debilitating problem for autistic children and their families. However, we know little about early-onset patterns of dysregulation, associated risk factors, and child and family outcomes. We aimed to characterize trajectories of emotional dysregulation in an inception cohort of autistic preschoolers.

The aim of this study was to assess the promotive and protective effects of parental and peer racial-ethnic socialization (RES) on adolescents' psychological well-being in the context of racial-ethnic discrimination. We hypothesized that RES would buffer the pernicious effects of discrimination on well-being by promoting more proactive coping (problem-solving, seeking social support) and less avoidant coping responses.

To examine the magnitude of placebo response in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of medications for Tourette's disorder.

Through the eyes of a child, owning a Betta fish is a magical experience filled with valuable lessons. From the moment the colorful fish swims into its new home, children learn about responsibility and care. They quickly understand that, just like people, fish have needs-they require clean water, proper food, and a comfortable, enriching environment of SpongeBob SquarePants decor. Beyond practical lessons, children also experience empathy, developing a bond with their fish. This is how my children feel about the newest member of our family, Sparkles. A beautiful, shiny hue of electric blue, Sparkles was an unexpected gift provided in lieu of a goody bag at a 5-year-old birthday party. My initial shock (built on a foundation of dread) transformed into the most pleasant surprise as I watched all 3 of my children cooperate, collaborate, and problem solve to keep Sparkles alive. Each child developed their specific role and purpose in Sparkles' care, from handling the tank cleaning and rearranging of aquarium plants, to providing nurturing support through whispering frequent "I love you's" and never missing a feeding. My children became little caregivers beaming with pride, ingesting the parenting Kool-Aid with reckless abandon. Witnessing this transformation was not only sweet, but wildly amusing, especially when matter-of-fact explanations of fish behavior were provided by elementary school humans.

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the established, albeit at times conceptual, standard of care, and understanding its ongoing operational evolution is critical to JAACAP readers. At the center of operationalizing the concept of EBM are the accurate tools for screening, diagnosis, and outcome measurement. Historically, these instruments relied on trained raters assessing the patient's signs and symptoms. The field has evolved over time to the perception that clinician-rated scales need to be complemented with patient- and parent-rated instruments, or patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). This development and its implications are considered from multiple perspectives.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of youth with mania are very challenging to conduct, given the low base rate of bipolar disorder (BD) and the relative rarity of mania (vs bipolar depression, which tends to be much more common). Thus, many of the RCTs are relatively small, and it may be difficult to clinically interpret results. At the same time, findings about which anti-manic medications are most effective in youth are of critical importance, both because (1) poorly treated mania can lead to substantial negative psychosocial consequences, and (2) these medications can have significant adverse effects. In this setting, network meta-analyses (NMAs) are key to summarize extremely valuable work in a way that is meaningful and relevant to clinicians.

A common theme for many of the reviews published in the Media Forum is a book, movie, TV show, or other media source that allows someone with a mental health diagnosis to tell their story. This can be an opportunity to better understand the day-to-day life and what that can feel like. It is a way to see the pain, struggles, and joy that come with mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the times that we made mistakes as a profession and how that impacted an individual or a group. There are many of these stories, and it might be hard to find what might be the best for you as a child and adolescent psychiatrist to read or watch. Hopefully, the Media Forum represents a source to find which ones fit your interest to better help you understand a patient experience or to help each of us to strive to be a better psychiatrist.

The self-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is widely used globally; hence, the validity of the intergroup comparisons is essential. This study examined the structure of the self-report SDQ in a large multinational adolescent sample, tested its measurement invariance across genders and countries, and compared youth mental health in 12 European and Asian countries.

The influence of caregivers on child and adolescent development and psychopathology risk is well documented over decades of research. However, for far too long, the focus has been squarely on mothers; it has treated fathers as indirect or secondary influences on their children's development, and paternal psychopathology, parenting practices, or attachment relationships have received relatively limited attention. This has been problematic both because it has fueled a tendency to sometimes blame mothers for the problems that children go on to have and because caregiving roles have changed markedly over the past few decades. Fathers, in particular, have tripled the time spent with their children over the past 3 decades. Moreover, these estimates do not take into account recent shifts in post-pandemic parenting, which results in even greater involvement of many fathers with their children and underscores the need to expand our view of caregiver influences on child psychopathology. The meta-analysis of 98 studies by Zecchinato and colleagues is, therefore, an important step forward, as it considers links between paternal anxiety and the risk of a child developing emotional and behavioral problems in addition to anxiety and depression. Once relegated to the periphery in our understanding of risk, fathers are now in the spotlight, and with good reason.

Although parenting programs are the most widely used approach to reduce disruptive behavior in children, there is a notable lack of understanding of the exact changes in parenting that underlie their effects. Challenges include the frequent use of composite measures of parenting behavior and insufficient power to detect mediation effects and individual differences in these in individual trials.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth are at disproportionately higher rates of being involved in the youth legal system compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Research highlights that mental health symptoms and suicidal ideation and behavior are more common among SGM legally involved youth (LIY) compared to LIY who are not SGM, which calls upon the urgent need to build research efforts with SGM LIY. Although theoretical models propose that the intersectionality between legal involvement and SGM status may exacerbate minority stress, there are considerable gaps in understanding the mechanisms driving these youth disparities. This may be, in part, due to a lack of consistent and robust data collection with SGM youth involved in the legal system. A recent commentary by Ramos and colleagues identified the need to collect sexual and gender identity information, for example, in state and federal surveys. These data would better characterize identity-related risk and protective factors that could be used in intervention and prevention programming..

In this Letter to the Editor, we examine a case of catatonia in a 37-month-old child with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody-positive acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). To our knowledge, this is one of the youngest cases of non-drug-related catatonia reported in the literature. We will discuss how this patient's symptoms of catatonia responded to pharmacologic interventions and the need to screen young children for catatonic symptoms, given the high rate of morbidity and mortality associated with the condition. The authors used CARE guidelines in writing this report (Supplement 1). The patient's family gave written consent for the publication of this article.

Offspring of mothers with depression are at increased risk for executive function (EF) deficits and later depressive symptoms, but limited studies have examined EF as an intermediary pathway. This study examined the role of EF in mediating the association between maternal and child depressive symptoms.

This study reports 3-year effects of a parent-teen cognitive/behavioral treatment for adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), blended with Motivational Interviewing (Supporting Teens' Autonomy Daily [STAND]), vs Usual Care (UC) in 4 community clinics.

We tested whether the implementation of standardized, high-fidelity screening for autism during routine well-child check-ups results in the following: increasing the number of children with suspected autism referred to diagnostic evaluation; lowering the age at which they are referred; and facilitating autism diagnosis for children across a more diverse range of demographic backgrounds and clinical presentations, including those with subtle manifestations.

Nearly 65% of youth experience trauma, and up to one-third of youth with trauma exposure face profound mental health sequelae. There remains a need to elucidate factors that contribute to psychopathology following trauma exposure, and to optimize interventions for youth who do not benefit sufficiently from existing treatments. Here, we probe safety signal learning (SSL), which is a mechanism of fear reduction that leverages learned safety to inhibit fear in the presence of threat-associated stimuli and has been shown to attenuate fear via a hippocampal-cingulate--specifically, a dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)--pathway.

Youth criminal justice systems are under growing pressure to reduce re-offending behavior and to support young people's health and developmental needs. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to synthesise evidence for 2 prominent community-based interventions for delinquent and antisocial behavior, namely, multisystemic therapy (MST) and functional family therapy (FFT).

Research and clinical application of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for adolescents with major depressive disorder has advanced slowly. Significant gaps persist in the understanding of optimized, age-specific protocols and dosing strategies. This study aimed to compare the clinical effects of 1-Hz vs 10-Hz TMS regimens and examine a biomarker-informed treatment approach with glutamatergic intracortical facilitation (ICF).

I have read with great interest the Letter to the Editor by dosReis et al. in response to my Editorial on the impact of policy on children's mental health. Though I wholeheartedly agree with the perspectives and recommendations made by the authors, I do have to offer cautionary caveats to their proposals.

The recent article by Riccioni et al. entitled "Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Reporting and Representation of Race/Ethnicity in 310 Randomized Controlled Trials of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Medications" highlights the gaps and disparities in the inclusion and reporting of racial and ethnic data in clinical research, using the example of research on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder pharmacological treatment. The authors emphasized the underreporting of data on race and ethnicity in randomized controlled trials on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications and the overrepresentation of White participants. Their thorough analysis serves as a vital call to action for enhancing representativeness and transparency in research, ensuring that findings are both comprehensive and applicable to diverse populations. However, while the intent to improve inclusivity in clinical trials is universally important, implementing this can be challenging, especially when considering the varied legal and cultural landscapes across different countries.

In 2020, we wrote to you about our dedication and vision for JAACAP "to be antiracist at every level." Over the last 4 years we have pursued initiatives "to reshape the Journal to pursue this vision." In this article, we provide an update on these goals and initiatives (Figure 1). These initiatives include both scientific journals in the JAACAP family, JAACAP and JAACAP Open. Through this work we aspire to be a leader among mental health journals in our intentional pursuit of antiracist policies and practices.

Commenting on our systematic review and meta-analysis on the reporting and representation of race/ethnicity in randomized controlled trials ADHD, Jurek and Leaune thoughtfully highlighted important legal barriers that hinder the reporting of race/ethnicity data in research in some countries, focusing on France as an example. They concluded that this situation calls for a tangible action to change the status quo. Looking ahead, the question is: how should this action be implemented effectively? Given the antiracist journey that JAACAP is proudly undertaking, AACAP and JAACAP are in an ideal position to take on the challenge highlighted by Jurek and Leaune.