Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, Australia.
University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2020 Dec;29(12):1659-1670. doi: 10.1007/s00787-020-01475-x. Epub 2020 Feb 4.
Adult psychosocial difficulties, including psychiatric disorders, are often preceded by childhood psychosocial vulnerabilities, presenting critical windows of opportunity for preventative intervention. The present study aimed to identify longitudinal patterns (representing transitions between profiles) of childhood socio-emotional and cognitive vulnerability in the general population from early to middle childhood, in relation to key risk factors (e.g. parental mental illness and offending). Data were drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study, which combines intergenerational multi-agency administrative records with cross-sectional assessments using data linkage methods. We analysed data from childhood assessments of socio-emotional and cognitive functioning at two time points (ages 5-6 and 10-11 years) that were linked with administrative data from government departments of health, child protection, and education for 19,087 children and their parents. Latent profile analyses were used to identify socio-emotional and cognitive profiles at each time point, and latent transition analyses were used to determine the probability and potential moderators of transition between profiles at each age. Three developmental profiles were identified in early childhood, reflecting typically developing, emotionally vulnerable, and cognitively vulnerable children, respectively; two profiles were identified in middle childhood, reflecting typically developing and vulnerable children. Child's sex, child protection services contact, parental mental illness, and parental offending influenced children's transitions between different vulnerability profiles, with the strongest effects for parental mental illness and child protection contact. Early detection of vulnerable children and factors promoting resilience are important steps in directing future health and social policy, and service planning for vulnerable children.
成人心理社会困难，包括精神障碍，通常在儿童心理社会脆弱性之前出现，为预防干预提供了关键的机会窗口。本研究旨在确定从早期到中期一般人群中儿童社会情感和认知脆弱性的纵向模式（代表特征之间的转变），与关键风险因素（例如父母的精神疾病和犯罪行为）有关。数据来自新南威尔士州儿童发展研究，该研究将代际多机构行政记录与使用数据链接方法进行的横断面评估相结合。我们分析了两个时间点（5-6 岁和 10-11 岁）儿童社会情感和认知功能的儿童评估数据，这些数据与来自卫生、儿童保护和教育政府部门的行政数据相关联，涉及 19,087 名儿童及其父母。潜在剖面分析用于确定每个时间点的社会情感和认知特征，潜在转移分析用于确定每个年龄组特征之间转移的可能性和潜在调节因素。在早期儿童中确定了三个发展特征，分别反映了典型发育、情感脆弱和认知脆弱的儿童；在中期儿童中确定了两个特征，分别反映了典型发育和脆弱的儿童。儿童的性别、儿童保护服务接触、父母的精神疾病和父母的犯罪行为影响了儿童在不同脆弱性特征之间的转变，其中父母的精神疾病和儿童保护接触的影响最大。早期发现脆弱儿童和促进恢复力的因素是指导未来健康和社会政策以及脆弱儿童服务规划的重要步骤。
