Early Behavioral Problems Predict Adolescent Mental Health Problems

A significant proportion of adolescent mental health and behavioral disorders can be predicted years before they occur, new studies show.

A study by scholars at the Royal Holloway at the University of Cambridge and the University of London found that children with specific experiences Behavioral challengesMental health is more likely to decline in adolescence, such as hyperactivity disorder and anxiety. Emotional difficulties..

We also found that children with behavioral problems are more likely to experience problems in adolescence if they are not wealthy or come from an unfavorable background.

Level Adolescence Behavioral and mental health problems are growing. As healthcare systems around the world struggle to meet growing demand, there is an urgent need to predict which adolescents are most likely to need additional support as soon as possible.

Researcher used Historical data From more than 6,700 people gathered at both ages 10 and 16. This allows us to plot previously undocumented relationships between a wide range of childhood problems, such as hyperactivity disorder and anxiety, and related but different behavioral problems that occur in adolescence. It came to be.

They combined this information with details about the participants’ social and economic background.Children in a wealthier or more resource-rich environment were more likely to overcome Behavioral problems Conversely, people with poor backgrounds are more likely to develop various difficulties during their teens.

Dr. Duncan Astle of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge said: “Currently, adolescent behavioral and mental health problems are treated only when problems occur. This overwhelmed mental health services. Our job is for some young people, perhaps many. It shows how to anticipate adolescents’ difficulties and start developing ways to intervene faster. “

Professor Anna Vignoles, who co-authored the research based in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, said: “This kind of information is essential when we need a behavior or a more proactive and preventative model for processing the behavior. Mental health issues For young people. The more important predictors you have, the more you can target support. “

Historical data came from a British cohort study, an ongoing project that tracks the lives of people in the same group born during the week of April 1970. Contains details about behavioral issues that participants have shown at both ages 10 and 16.Information about their socio-economic situation, as well as Family income, And their parent’s education level. Few other sources provide such a wealth of data on that scale. This is essential to a solid assessment of how behavioral problems change in a person’s life.

Researchers described each participant in the study in both 10 and 16 using six broad categories of potential behavioral problems: behavioral problems, hyperactivity and impulsivity, inattention, Emotional control problems, anxiety, motor problems.

We then used a technique called hybrid hierarchical clustering to collect groups of similar profiles in a way designed to provide the most meaningful interpretation of the data possible. Children were often classified in the “no problem” group. Some have shown one particular problem. Others showed a combination pattern of difficulty (for example, one group of children showed a similar pattern of combinations of exercise, hyperactivity and emotional problems).

The profile groups that emerged were very different at the two stages of development. Hyperactivity, motor control and behavioral problems were prominent in childhood. Adolescents, on the other hand, were more likely to exhibit problems related to emotional control, anxiety, and inattention.

Dr. Joe Battert, a lecturer at the Royal Holloway University of London, said:

Next, researchers looked for cases where more children than expected moved from one subgroup of 10 years to another subgroup of 16 years.

Of those who experienced behavioral problems as a child, 55% did not show problems in adolescence. However, there were some cases where there was a clear link between specific clusters in childhood and adolescent problems. The main patterns that have emerged are:

• An unexpectedly high percentage (22%) of children with anxiety disorders developed emotional problems in adolescence.
• About a quarter (24%) of children with behavioral problems exhibited a “series of problems” with anxiety, emotions, and carelessness in adolescence.
• Approximately 17% of children with a combination of emotional, motor and hyperactivity problems developed inattention problems in adolescence.

Combining this data with the demographic context of participants, researchers also found that 55% of children with behavioral problems who had no problems by their mid-teens came from wealthier families. More educated parents have found that they tend to have higher prestige work. They also tended to have higher cognitive abilities, pointing to better educational achievement.

In addition, the data show that children who have developed emotional control problem In adolescence, the background was poor, usually with many siblings, and it was very likely that parents had a low prestige job.

“Wealthy families have a lot of free resources and may be able to ask for help. Children Similarly, growing up in an unstable environment is an important predictor of the development of behavioral disorders in adolescence, which may be reflected here.

Researchers want to carry out further research comparing the patterns they record with data collected from more recent generations. “It would be really interesting to re-run this analysis in a millennium cohort study of people born in 2000,” Astle said. “It’s important to keep in mind that the meaning of becoming adolescent has changed significantly over time and will probably continue to do so.”

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