Search

The 6-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6; Kessler et al., 2002) is a screener for psychological distress that has robust psychometric properties among adults. Given that a significant proportion of adolescents experience mental illness, there is a need for measures that accurately and reliably screen for mental disorders in this age group. This study examined the psychometric properties of the K6 in a large general population sample of adolescents (N = 4,434; mean age = 13.5 years; 44.6% male). Factor analyses were conducted to examine the dimensionality of the K6 in adolescents and to investigate sex-based measurement invariance. This study also evaluated the K6 as a predictor of scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 1997). The K6 demonstrated high levels of internal consistency, with the 6 items loading primarily on 1 factor. Consistent with previous research, females reported higher mean levels of psychological distress when compared with males. The identification of sex-based measurement noninvariance in the item thresholds indicated that these mean differences most likely represented reporting bias in the K6 items rather than true differences in the underlying psychological distress construct. The K6 was a fair to good predictor of abnormal scores on the SDQ, but predictive utility was relatively low among males. Future research needs to focus on refining and augmenting the K6 scale to maximize its utility in adolescents. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).)

Background: Anxiety, depressive and substance use disorders account for three quarters of the disability attributed to mental disorders and frequently co-occur. While programs for the prevention and reduction of symptoms associated with (i) substance use and (ii) mental health disorders exist, research is yet to determine if a combined approach is more effective. This paper describes the study protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the CLIMATE Schools Combined intervention, a universal approach to preventing substance use and mental health problems among adolescents., Methods/design: Participants will consist of approximately 8400 students aged 13 to 14-years-old from 84 secondary schools in New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland, Australia. The schools will be cluster randomised to one of four groups; (i) CLIMATE Schools Combined intervention; (ii) CLIMATE Schools - Substance Use; (iii) CLIMATE Schools - Mental Health, or (iv) Control (Health and Physical Education as usual). The primary outcomes of the trial will be the uptake and harmful use of alcohol and other drugs, mental health symptomatology and anxiety, depression and substance use knowledge. Secondary outcomes include substance use related harms, self-efficacy to resist peer pressure, general disability, and truancy. The link between personality and substance use will also be examined., Discussion: Compared to students who receive the universal CLIMATE Schools - Substance Use, or CLIMATE Schools - Mental Health or the Control condition (who received usual Health and Physical Education), we expect students who receive the CLIMATE Schools Combined intervention to show greater delays to the initiation of substance use, reductions in substance use and mental health symptoms, and increased substance use and mental health knowledge., Trial Registration: This trial is registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials registry, ACTRN12613000723785.

Background:   The Family Life Questionnaire (FLQ) is a new measure of family functioning, which acknowledges that the experience of the family unit may vary between different children. This study examined the reliability and sensitivity to change of the FLQ in a clinical population., Method:   The FLQ was administered to 91 parents attending the first session of the Incredible Years parenting programmes in Devon during 2009, 71 of them completed it on a second occasion a week later and 55 on a third occasion at the end of the programme. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability and sensitivity to change were calculated., Results:   Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the scales varied between moderate and very good, except for the discipline and special allowances items which had poor internal consistency when grouped as a scale. The measures showed promising evidence of sensitivity to change., Conclusions:   The FLQ is a reliable measure of family function that seems sensitive to change. There is some evidence of validity but a lack of suitable comparators limited this part of the study. The study sample was too small to explore the scale structure., (© 2011 The Authors. Child and Adolescent Mental Health © 2011 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

In the femoral marrow of three adult marmosets, two male Callithrix jacchus and one female Leontocebus rosalia, a number of opposite-sexed metaphases were found. It is inferred that this chimeric state resulted from intrauterine placental anastomoses between heterosexual twins. The lack of the freemartin effect in connection with this chimerism is discussed, and the structural nature of the Y chromosome in the Callithricidae is described.