Search

The transition from primary to secondary schooling is challenging and involves a degree of apprehension. The extent to which pre-existing mental health difficulties, as well as pupil, parent, and teacher concerns and expectations about secondary school predict adaptation to secondary school, is unclear. In a three-wave, prospective longitudinal study, we examined associations between pre-transition concerns and expectations about moving to secondary school with mental health difficulties and demographic factors. We then evaluated whether these constructs predicted multiple indicators of adaptive pupil functioning at the end of the first year of secondary school (academic attainment, classmate behaviour rating, school liking and loneliness at school). We found children's concerns reduced across the transition period. Concurrent associations were identified between both concerns about secondary school and lower parent and teacher expectations that children would settle in well at secondary school, with mental health difficulties and special educational needs. Investigating associations with multiple indicators of adaptive functioning at secondary school, multivariable regression analyses controlling for a range of baseline factors (e.g. special educational needs), found children's concerns about secondary school to be specifically associated with loneliness. In contrast, children's mental health difficulties and both parent and teacher expectations of how well children would settle into secondary school were associated with a wider range of indicators of adaptive functioning at secondary school. When examining all predictors simultaneously, primary school teacher expectations showed longitudinal association with a wide range of indicators of successful transition. These findings suggest that assessing primary school teacher expectations may be useful for monitoring and supporting pupils through this transition period and could usefully inform school-based interventions to support transition and mental health.

Background: Friendships have been linked to mental health and school attainment in children. The effects of friendlessness and friendship quality have been well researched, but less is known about the role of friendship stability (i.e., maintaining the same friend over time), an aspect of friendship which is often interrupted by the transition between phases of schooling. Many children report concerns about the secondary school transition which introduces a number of new social and academic challenges for children. Aims: To explore rates of friendship stability and whether maintaining a stable best friend across the primary to secondary school transition provided benefits to children's adjustment during this period. Sample: Data were from 593 children (M age = 11 years 2 months). Methods: This study used longitudinal data from children transitioning into 10 UK secondary schools and explored the association between self-reported friendship stability and three outcomes: academic attainment, emotional problems and conduct problems. Analyses controlled for friendship quality and pre-transition psychological adjustment or attainment as appropriate. Results: Rates of friendship stability were relatively low during this period. Children who kept the same best friend had higher academic attainment and lower levels of conduct problems. Exploratory analyses indicated that secondary school policies that group children based on friendships may support friendship stability. Conclusions: Helping maintain children's best friendships during the transition to secondary school may contribute to higher academic performance and better mental health.

There is little research to date on the academic implications of teaching twins in the same or different classroom. Consequently, it is not clear whether twin classroom separation is associated with positive or negative educational outcomes. As a result, parents and teachers have insufficient evidence to make a well-informed decision when twins start school. This study addresses two research questions: Are there average positive or negative effects of classroom separation? Are twins taught in different classes more different from each other than twins taught in the same class? Twin pairs from two large representative samples from Quebec (Canada) and the United Kingdom were evaluated across a large age range (7 to 16 years) on academic achievement, several cognitive abilities and motivational measures. Our results show almost no sizable positive or negative average effect of classroom separation on twins' achievement, cognitive ability and motivation. Twin pairs at age 12 (Quebec, Canada) and at age 16 (United Kingdom) were slightly more similar on achievement if placed in the same classroom, with slightly greater similarity among monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins. However, the few effects found were weak, and it remains unclear whether they result from classroom separation or other factors. These results suggest that in terms of educational outcomes, policymakers should not impose rigid guidelines to separate twin pairs during their education. The choice of whether to educate twin pairs together or separately should be up to parents, twins and teachers, in response to twins' individual needs.

Background: Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems in young people. Currently, clinicians are advised to wait before initiating treatment for young people with these disorders as many spontaneously remit. However, others develop recurrent disorder but this subgroup cannot be identified at the outset. We examined whether psychiatric polygenic scores (PGS) could help inform stratification efforts to predict those at higher risk of recurrence. Methods: Probable emotional disorder was examined in two UK population cohorts using the emotional symptoms subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Those with emotional disorder at two or more time points between ages 5 and 25 years were classed as 'recurrent emotional disorder' (n = 1,643) and those with emotional disorder at one time point as having 'single episode emotional disorder' (n = 1,435, controls n = 8,715). We first examined the relationship between psychiatric PGS and emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence. Second, we tested whether psychiatric PGS added to predictor variables of known association with emotional disorder (neurodevelopmental comorbidity, special educational needs, family history of depression and socioeconomic status) when discriminating between single‐episode and recurrent emotional disorder. Analyses were conducted separately in individuals of European and South Asian ancestry. Results: Probable emotional disorder was associated with higher PGS for major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety, broad depression, ADHD and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in those of European ancestry. Higher MDD and broad depression PGS were associated with emotional disorder in people of South Asian ancestry. Recurrent, compared to single‐episode, emotional disorder was associated with ASD and parental psychiatric history. PGS were not associated with episode recurrence, and PGS did not improve discrimination of recurrence when combined with clinical predictors. Conclusions: Our findings do not support the use of PGS as a tool to assess the likelihood of recurrence in young people experiencing their first episode of emotional disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Neurocognitive impairments are associated with child and adult ADHD in clinical settings. However, it is unknown whether adult ADHD symptoms in the general population are associated with the same pattern of cognitive impairment. We examined this using a prospective, population-based cohort spanning birth to age 25 years. Methods: We examined associations between self-reported adult ADHD symptoms and cognitive task performance (attention and response inhibition) in adulthood and childhood. Results: Self-rated ADHD symptoms at age 25 were associated with poorer performance in age 25 cognitive tasks capturing ADHD-related functioning (attention B = −0.03, 95% CI [0.05, −0.01], p =.005; response inhibition B = −0.03, 95% CI [−0.05, −0.01], p =.002). Conclusions: Neurocognitive impairments linked to adult ADHD symptoms in the general population, are similar to those found in people with childhood ADHD symptoms and are consistent with findings in adult ADHD clinical samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal study of adolescents in the first year of secondary school, examined the relationship between psychological functioning at the beginning of year 7 (mean age 11.25 years) with attainment at the end of year 7 (mean age 11.78 years). Depressive symptoms, school liking and conduct problems predicted lower attainment across time having controlled for the temporal stability in psychological functioning and attainment. School concerns predicted lower attainment for boys only, and the effects of depressive symptoms on later attainment were significantly stronger for boys compared to girls. School liking--and school concerns for boys--remained significant predictors of attainment when controlling for conduct problems. The transition to secondary school may represent a window of opportunity for developing interventions aimed at improving both pupil psychological functioning and attainment. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)