Background: Exposure to multiple stressors and lack of access to resources place rural children at high risk for adverse consequences. Family Stress Model guided this study to examine relations between two stressors--food insecurity and maternal depressive symptoms, and behavior problems among younger and older rural children. Objective: To test…

During pregnancy, low-income women are at high risk for depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but they are unlikely to receive mental health services. As a follow-up to Narayan et al. (2017), we provide a detailed picture of pregnant women's mental health service (MHS) need versus utilization. Results suggested that the majority of…

Dynamic systems methods offer invaluable insight into the nuances of the early parent-child relationship. This prospective study aimed to highlight the characteristics of mother-infant dyadic behavior at 12?weeks post-partum using state space grid analysis (total n?=?322). We also examined whether maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and…

Purpose: Peer crowds are macro-level subcultures that share similarities across geographic areas. Over the past decade, dozens of studies have explored the association between adolescent peer crowds and risk behaviors, and how they can inform public health efforts. However, despite the interest, researchers have not yet reported on crowd size and…

Identifying mechanisms that explain the relationship between anxiety and depression are needed. The Tripartite Model is one model that has been proposed to help explain the association between these two problems, positing a shared component called negative affect. The objective of the present study was to examine the role of loneliness in relation…

Depression has been linked to food security, particularly among low-income mothers. However, less is known about the relationship between CHAOS (Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale), a measure of family functioning such as timeliness and order, and varying levels food security. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the relationship between…

This brief explores whether the geographic location of the early care and education (ECE) workforce might be associated with variations in well-being. Child Trends examined differences in Arkansas's ECE workforce by region and by urbanicity. Measures of well-being were derived from a comprehensive statewide ECE workforce survey. For this study,…

This comparative study explored the rates of depression and psychosocial correlates for 369 collegiate White and Black females. Women between the ages of 18 and 25 were recruited to participate in this anonymous online survey. Black females reported significantly greater amounts of depressive symptomatology (M = 24.61) in comparison to the White…

Background: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and depression are common among adolescents, frequently comorbid, and resistant to change. Prevention programs for adolescent SAD are scant, and depression prevention programs do not fully address peer-risk factors. One critical peer-risk factor for SAD and depression is peer victimization. We describe the…

Providing treatment to survivors of human trafficking requires mental health professionals to understand complex layers of multiple traumas. These layers include an understanding of how trafficking occurs; what gender, ages, sexual orientations, life circumstances, and ethnicities are most at risk to be trafficked; the lasting impact of…

Objectives: The objectives of this study are to: (1) document prevalence of food insecurity among pregnant adolescents; (2) determine if food insecurity is associated with adverse birth outcomes (i.e., lower birth weight, earlier gestational age) among their newborns; and (3) examine whether depressive symptoms, anxiety, nutrition and/or weight…

The goal of the current investigation was to test emotion dysregulation as a mechanism explaining the longitudinal association between peer rejection and depressive symptoms across 1 school year in middle childhood and to determine whether this process differed based on gender and grade. Youth in Grades 3 through 6 (N = 131; 71 girls) and their…

Children of adolescent mothers are at risk for developmental delays. Less is known about the heterogeneity in these children's developmental trajectories, and factors associated with different patterns of development. This longitudinal study used latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to identify distinct trajectories in children of Mexican-origin…

Background: Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a serious and relatively prevalent problem in adolescence. Although several studies have identified risk factors for the aetiology and maintenance of NSSI, little is known about the impact of individual and contextual variables in such pervasive behaviors among adolescents. Objective: This paper aims…

Learning disabilities are associated with mental health, behavioural and social difficulties. Developmental dyslexia is a particularly salient example of a learning disability that is associated with social and emotional consequences that are not considered primary features of the disorder. These issues can remain and, in some cases, escalate in…