Co-occurring emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) frequently exist in young autistic children. There is evidence based on parental report that parenting interventions reduce child EBPs. More objective measures of child EBPs should supplement parent reported outcomes in trials. We describe the development of a new measure of child and parenting…

Background: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) are at higher risk of poorer mental health compared with children without DLD. There are, however, considerable individual differences that need to be interpreted, including the identification of protective factors. Aims: Pathways from the early language and communication environment…

Parent-mediated interventions can reduce behavioral and emotional problems in children with ASD. This report discusses the development of the first group parent intervention targeting behaviors "and" anxiety in children with ASD, across the spectrum of cognitive and language ability. 'Predictive Parenting' was developed from the clinical…

Autistic young people experience high levels of co-occurring mental health difficulties, including anxiety, depression and behavioural difficulties, across their lifespan. Understanding the neuropsychological mechanisms which underlie these difficulties is vital in developing personalised supports and interventions. Cognitive inflexibility is one…

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have often been reported to have associated behavioral, emotional and social difficulties. Most previous studies involve observations at a single time point, or cross sectional designs, and longitudinal evidence of the developmental trajectories of particular difficulties is limited. The Strengths…

Background: Psychiatric problems are common in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but the reasons are poorly understood. We use a longitudinal population-representative cohort to examine for the first time the persistence of psychiatric problems and to identify risk factors for their occurrence and stability. Methods: Eighty-one 16-year olds (75…

Introduction: Severe mood dysregulation and problems (SMP) in otherwise typically developing youth are recognized as an important mental health problem with a distinct set of clinical features, family history and neurocognitive characteristics. SMP in people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have not previously been explored. Method: We…

Background: While there is considerable evidence of income gradients in child and adolescent behaviour problems, evidence relating to children and young people's emotional difficulties is more mixed. Older studies reported no income differentials, while recent reports suggest that adolescents from low-income families are more likely to experience…

Background: Evidence about trends in adolescent emotional problems (depression and anxiety) is inconclusive, because few studies have used comparable measures and samples at different points in time. We compared rates of adolescent emotional problems in two nationally representative English samples of youth 20 years apart using identical symptom…

Background: Assessments of child psychopathology commonly rely on multiple informants, e.g., parents, teachers and children. Informants often disagree about the presence or absence of symptoms, reflecting reporter bias, situation-specific behaviour, or random variation in measurement. However, few studies have systematically tested how far…

Background: Existing evidence points to a substantial rise in psychosocial disorders affecting young people over the past 50 years (Rutter & Smith, 1995). However, there are major methodological challenges in providing conclusive answers about secular changes in disorder. Comparisons of rates of disorder at different time points are often…