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Adolescence is a time when important decisions about the future are made and vulnerability to mental health problems increases. We reviewed longitudinal studies examining the reciprocal pathways between future-related thinking (hopelessness, hope, optimism/positive future expectations) and adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms. Evidence from 22 studies (N = 10,682) found that negative future-related thinking predicted subsequent depression (r = 0.27, p < .001), an effect still significant after controlling for baseline depression (r = 0.23, p < .001). Higher hopelessness (r = 0.34, p < .001), lower hope (r = 0.16, p < .001), and reduced optimism/positive future expectations (r = 0.18, p < .001) were associated with subsequently increased depressive symptoms. Negative future-related thinking also predicted later increased anxiety symptoms (r = 0.15, p = .021). Concerning the reciprocal pathway, depressive symptoms were associated with later negative future-related thinking (r = 0.32, p < .001), which remained after baseline levels of future-related thinking were controlled (r = 0.07, p = .02). There were insufficient studies to infer reciprocal links between anxiety and future-related thinking. Our analyses provided evidence of a reciprocal developmental relationship between depressive symptoms and future-related thinking, implying a negative cycle. Identifying precursors of this cycle could provide the basis for depression prevention in adolescents and promote better decision-making about the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors report no financial, non-financial interests or potential conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Structured E-parenting Support (STEPS) is a digital application (app) designed to help parents manage behaviour of their children who are referred to mental health services and are waiting for an assessment or treatment. STEPS is currently being evaluated in the Online Parent Training for the Initial Management of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder randomised controlled trial. Alongside the examination of STEPS' clinical and cost-effectiveness, we are conducting a process evaluation to better understand the contextual factors that may influence study outcomes. The purpose of this protocol is to describe the aims, objectives and methodology of the process evaluation prior to it taking place to add to the fidelity and rigour of the trial process and outcomes. Our goal is to adapt STEPS to optimise its benefits in future applications., Methods: In line with the Medical Research Council guidelines for evaluating complex interventions, the process evaluation will adopt a mixed method design using qualitative data collected from clinicians and parent interviews and app usage data from participants assigned to the intervention arm., Analysis: Qualitative data from semistructured interviews and free text box responses included in trial questionnaires will be analysed thematically using framework analysis to better understand how parents use STEPS, how it works and key factors that could aid or hinder its effective implementation in routine clinical practice., Ethics: The application for ethical approval for the study was submitted to the North West-Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee and received a favourable opinion on further information on 26 November 2021, reference number 21/NW/0319., Dissemination: The process evaluation aims to explore how a digital app might support parents in managing their child's behaviour. Implications for policy and research will be explored and the clinical implications of offering the app to a wider audience to address the lack of support to parents as highlighted in this paper. We plan to publish findings in international, peer-reviewed journals as well as present at conferences., Trial Registration Number: The trial has been prospectively registered on 18 November 2021; ISRCTN816523503. https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN16523503., Competing Interests: Competing interests: STEPS concepts and content were designed by ES-B together with other members of the OPTIMA team; David Daley, Johnny Downs, Jana Kreppner, Hanna Kovshoff and Margaret Thompson. STEPS visual design and digital implementation were completed by TOAD with funding provided to ES-B by the South London& Maudsley NHS Trust. Videos were produced by EyeWitness Productions, funded by Solent NHS Trust. ES-B has received speaker fees, consultancy or research funding from Takeda, Neurotech Solutions, QBtech and Medice. He has received royalties from the New Forest Parenting Programme. BF reports personal fees and nonfinancial support from Takeda and Medice., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Depression and anxiety are common during adolescence and could have detrimental impacts on young people's ability to make and implement plans for their future. However, to the best of our knowledge, no other study has adopted a qualitative approach in investigating these effects from the perspective of adolescents with lived experiences of depression and anxiety. We sought to understand how young people perceive and interpret the impact of mental health conditions on their thinking about the future., Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 adolescents aged 16-19 years in the UK (median age = 19, IQR = 1.5), who had a history of protracted periods of clinical or subclinical depression and/or anxiety. They were asked to reflect on how their ability to think about the future and the content of the future-related thinking was impacted during periods of poor mental health, compared with periods of feeling well. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to thematic content analysis., Results: Five domains were identified. First, the impact of mood on future thinking capability focuses on reduced ability and motivation to engage in future thinking. Second, the impact of mood on images, thoughts, and feelings about the future includes the emotional valence of future-related thoughts, their vividness, structure, and the extent to which they intimated subjective feelings of control (i.e., agency). Third, social influences focuses on social factors that might ameliorate or exacerbate future thinking. Fourth, reflections on personal worries and expectations about the future captures personal interpretations of past worries and hopes and how future thinking affected mood. Finally, personal coping refers to how young people cope with the negative emotions that come with future thinking., Conclusions: This study provided a nuanced and granular account of how depression and anxiety impacted young people's future thinking based on their lived experiences. By highlighting the different ways that variations in future thinking were experienced as a function of depression and anxiety, our analysis highlighted new factors that should be considered in studies of adolescent mental health risk, which could inform the development of new therapeutic approaches., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Objectives: We aimed to develop and validate a new scale of future thinking and adolescent mental health-the Adolescent Future Thinking Rating Scale (AFTRS)., Methods: A provisional AFTRS was developed from interviews with 19 adolescents. It was completed by three samples: exploratory (n = 161) aged 16-21 years, who also completed established measures of future thinking, cognitive risk factors, depression and anxiety; replication (n = 209) aged 16-25 years; and test-retest (n = 102) aged 17-23 years. The reliability, convergent, predictive, and discriminant validity were examined., Results: Exploratory factor analyses identified the AFTRS-18 and AFTRS-12. Both had three sub-scales: (i) Concerns about Maladaptive Future Thinking, (ii) Future Positivity, and (iii) Ability to Visualise the Future. Established future thinking measures were combined into two factors: Negative Future Emotions (Cognitive Triad Inventory-View of Future and Beck's Hopelessness Scale) and Immediacy Preference (Consideration of Future Consequences and Quick Delay Questionnaire). The AFTRS-18 and AFTRS-12 were similarly associated with both factors and with depression/anxiety. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were high., Conclusions: The AFTRS-12 and AFTRS-18 are reliable and valid measures of the three key dimensions of adolescent future thinking and mental health. The first subscale remained significant in predicting depression and anxiety after controlling for general cognitive risks., (© 2023 The Authors. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: The Structured E-Parenting Support (STEPS) app provides support for parents of children with elevated hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention, and conduct problems who are awaiting clinical assessment. STEPS will be evaluated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) within the Online Parent Training for the Initial Management of ADHD Referrals (OPTIMA) research program in the United Kingdom. Phase 1 of the OPTIMA tested the feasibility of participants' recruitment and the app's usability., Objective: This study aimed to adapt a digital routine clinical monitoring system, myHealthE, for research purposes to facilitate waitlist recruitment; test using remote methods to screen and identify participants quickly and systematically; pilot the acceptability of the recruitment and assessment protocol; and explore the usability of STEPS., Methods: myHealthE was adapted to screen patients' data. Parents' and clinicians' feedback on myHealthE was collected, and information governance reviews were conducted in clinical services planning to host the RCT. Potential participants for the observational feasibility study were identified from new referrals using myHealthE and non-myHealthE methods. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographic and outcome variables. We estimated whether the recruitment rate would meet the planned RCT sample size requirement (n=352). In addition to the feasibility study participants, another group of parents was recruited to assess the STEPS usability. They completed the adapted System Usability Scale and responded to open-ended questions about the app, which were coded using the Enlight quality construct template., Results: Overall, 124 potential participants were identified as eligible: 121 (97.6%) via myHealthE and 3 (2.4%) via non-myHealthE methods. In total, 107 parents were contacted, and 48 (44.9%) consented and were asked if, hypothetically, they would be willing to participate in the OPTIMA RCT. Of the 28 feasibility study participants who provided demographic data, 21 (75%) identified as White. Their children had an average age of 8.4 (SD 1.7) years and 65% (31/48) were male. During the primary recruitment period (June to July 2021) when 45 participants had consented, 38 (84%) participants agreed hypothetically to take part in the RCT (rate of 19/mo, 95% CI 13.5-26.1), meeting the stop-go criterion of 18 participants per month to proceed with the RCT. All parents were satisfied or very satisfied with the study procedures. Parents (n=12) recruited to assess STEPS' usability described it as easy to navigate and use and as having an attractive combination of colors and visual design. They described the content as useful, pitched at the right level, and sensitively presented. Suggested improvements included adding captions to videos or making the recorded reflections editable., Conclusions: Remote recruitment and study procedures for testing a parenting intervention app are feasible and acceptable for parents. The parents felt that STEPS was a useful and easy-to-use digital parenting support tool., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): RR2-10.1186/s40814-021-00959-0., (©Katarzyna Kostyrka-Allchorne, Petrina Chu, Claire Ballard, Nancy Lean, Blandine French, Ellen Hedstrom, Sarah Byford, Samuele Cortese, David Daley, Johnny Downs, Cristine Glazebrook, Kimberley Goldsmith, Charlotte L Hall, Hanna Kovshoff, Jana Kreppner, Kapil Sayal, James Shearer, Emily Simonoff, Margaret Thompson, Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke. Originally published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting (https://pediatrics.jmir.org), 11.09.2023.)

Background: Children's conduct and emotional problems increased during the COVID-19 pandemic., Objective: We tested whether a smartphone parenting support app, Parent Positive, developed specifically for this purpose, reversed these effects in a cost-effective way. Parent Positive includes 3 zones. Parenting Boosters (zone 1) provided content adapted from standard face-to-face parent training programs to tackle 8 specific challenges identified by parents and parenting experts as particularly relevant for parents during the pandemic. The Parenting Exchange (zone 2) was a parent-to-parent and parent-to-expert communication forum. Parenting Resources (zone 3) provided access to existing high-quality web-based resources on a range of additional topics of value to parents (eg, neurodevelopmental problems, diet, and sleep)., Methods: Supporting Parents And Kids Through Lockdown Experiences (SPARKLE), a randomized controlled trial, was embedded in the UK-wide COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics (Co-SPACE) longitudinal study on families' mental health during the pandemic. Parents of children aged 4 to 10 years were randomized 1:1 to Parent Positive or follow-up as usual (FAU) between May 19, 2021, and July 26, 2021. Parent Positive provided advice on common parenting challenges and evidence-based web-based resources and facilitated parent-to-parent and expert-to-parent support. Child conduct and emotional problems and family well-being were measured before randomization (T1) and at 1 (T2) and 2 (T3) months after randomization. Service use, costs, and adverse events were measured, along with app use and satisfaction. The primary outcome was T2 parent-reported child conduct problems, which were analyzed using linear mixed regression models., Results: A total of 320 participants were randomized to Parent Positive, and 326 were randomized to FAU. The primary outcome analysis included 79.3% (512/646) of the participants (dropout: 84/320, 26% on Parent Positive and 50/326, 15% on FAU). There were no statistically significant intervention effects on conduct problems at either T2 (standardized effect=-0.01) or T3 (secondary outcome; standardized effect=-0.09) and no moderation by baseline conduct problems. Significant intervention-related reductions in emotional problems were observed at T2 and T3 (secondary outcomes; standardized effect=-0.13 in both cases). Parent Positive, relative to FAU, was associated with more parental worries at T3 (standardized effect=0.14). Few intervention-attributable adverse events were reported. Parent Positive was cost-effective once 4 outliers with extremely high health care costs were excluded., Conclusions: Parent Positive reduced child emotional problems and was cost-effective compared with FAU once outliers were removed. Although small when considered against targeted therapeutic interventions, the size of these effects was in line with trials of nontargeted universal mental health interventions. This highlights the public health potential of Parent Positive if implemented at the community level. Nevertheless, caution is required before making such an interpretation, and the findings need to be replicated in large-scale, whole-community studies., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04786080; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04786080., (©Melanie Palmer, Nicholas Beckley-Hoelscher, James Shearer, Katarzyna Kostyrka-Allchorne, Olly Robertson, Marta Koch, Oliver Pearson, Petr Slovak, Crispin Day, Sarah Byford, Kimberley Goldsmith, Polly Waite, Cathy Creswell, Edmund J S Sonuga-Barke. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 27.07.2023.)

Separate studies with clinical and community-based samples have identified an association between symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and inhibitory control deficits and ADHD and weak effortful control. We tested whether differences in effortful control explained the associations between ADHD symptoms and inhibitory control deficits, controlling for conduct problems. In a community sample, parents rated ADHD symptoms, conduct problems, effortful control, surgency and negative affect in 77 4-7-year-olds (47 girls), who performed an inhibitory control task. ADHD symptoms, deficient inhibitory control and low effortful control were correlated. Controlling for conduct problems, path analysis showed the ADHD symptoms - inhibitory control link was mediated statistically by effortful control. This focuses attention on cognitive-energetic factors associated with ADHD-related executive deficits., (© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Background: Published systematic reviews provide evidence linking positive and negative digital experiences to adolescent mental health. However, these reviews focus on the general public rather than the digital experiences of adolescents with different pre-existing mental health conditions and so may be limited in their clinical relevance. We review publications relating to anxiety, depression, eating disorders and nonsuicidal self-injury to identify common and condition-specific digital experiences and how these may be implicated in the origins and maintenance of these mental health conditions., Methods: A systematic literature search using a combination of mental health, digital experience (including social media use), and age of the target population terms was conducted on four databases. Detailed findings from the included studies were summarised using a combination of thematic and narrative methods., Results: Five qualitative and 21 quantitative studies met the eligibility criteria for inclusion (n = 5021). Nine studies included adolescents with depression, one with eating problems, two with nonsuicidal self-injury and 14 with multiple emotional health conditions. The review identified six themes related to the target populations' digital experiences: (a) social connectivity and peer support; (b) escape and/or distraction; (c) social validation and social comparison; (d) accessing/creation of potentially harmful content; (e) cyberbullying; and (f) difficulties with self-regulation during engagement with digital media., Conclusions: Digital practices of adolescents with pre-existing clinical vulnerabilities are complex and encompass a range of positive and negative experiences, which appear to have common elements across different clinical populations. The literature is currently too limited to identify disorder-specific practices, with too few direct or indirect comparisons between conditions., (© 2022 The Authors. Child and Adolescent Mental Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Background: Children referred for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often present with a broader pattern of conduct problems including oppositionality and defiance. This combination can be extremely stressful to parents, lower parents' self-esteem and negatively impact family life. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends that families receive support as soon as possible after their referral. However, as clinical services are overstretched, and traditional in-person parenting intervention programmes are expensive, families often must wait times a long time prior to receiving this vital input. To address this, we have created a digital parenting programme called STEPS. It is delivered as a mobile phone app providing a set of tools and resources that can be easily accessed at parents' convenience. This study aims to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of STEPS in supporting parents of children with high levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity, inattention and conduct problems, who are waiting to be assessed by specialist children's clinical services., Methods: Online Parent Training for The Initial Management of ADHD referrals (OPTIMA) is a two-arm superiority parallel randomised controlled trial with an internal pilot study. We aim to recruit 352 parents and their children, who have been accepted onto a waitlist in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or similar child health services. Parents who consent will be randomised 1:1 to either the STEPS or wait-as-usual (WAU) group. The trial will be conducted remotely (online and telephone) with measures taken at baseline and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months post-randomisation. The primary objective is to evaluate whether STEPS reduces the severity of children's oppositional and defiant behaviour, as rated by parents, measured at 3 months post-randomisation compared to WAU., Discussion: Digital solutions, such as mobile phone apps, have potential for delivering psychological support for parents of children with clinical-level needs in a timely and inexpensive manner. This trial will provide data on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the STEPS app, which could support the implementation of this scalable parenting intervention programme into standard clinical care and, ultimately, improve the outcomes for families of children referred to specialist child and adolescent health services., Trial Registration: ISRCTN 16523503. Prospectively registered on 18 November 2021. https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN16523503., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: In the UK, children with high levels of hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention referred to clinical services with possible attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often wait a long time for specialist diagnostic assessment. Parent training (PT) has the potential to support parents during this difficult period, especially regarding the management of challenging and disruptive behaviours that often accompany ADHD. However, traditional face-to-face PT is costly and difficult to organise in a timely way. We have created a low-cost, easily accessible PT programme delivered via a phone app, Structured E-Parenting Support (STEPS), to address this problem. The overall OPTIMA programme will evaluate the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of STEPS as a way of helping parents manage their children behaviour while on the waitlist. To ensure the timely and efficient evaluation of STEPS in OPTIMA, we have worked with children's health services to implement a remote strategy for recruitment, screening and assessment of recently referred families. Part of this strategy is incorporated into routine clinical practice and part is OPTIMA specific. Here, we present the protocol for Phase 1 of OPTIMA-a study of the feasibility of this remote strategy, as a basis for a large-scale STEPS randomised controlled trial (RCT)., Methods: This is a single arm observational feasibility study. Participants will be parents of up to 100 children aged 5-11 years with high levels of hyperactivity/impulsivity, inattention and challenging behaviour who are waiting for assessment in one of five UK child and adolescent mental health or behavioural services. Recruitment, consenting and data collection will occur remotely. The primary outcome will be the rate at which the families, who meet inclusion criteria, agree in principle to take part in a full STEPS RCT. Secondary outcomes include acceptability of remote consenting and online data collection procedures; the feasibility of collecting teacher data remotely within the required timeframe, and technical difficulties with completing online questionnaires. All parents in the study will receive access to STEPS., Discussion: Establishing the feasibility of our remote recruitment, consenting and assessment strategy is a pre-requisite for the full trial of OPTIMA. It can also provide a model for future trials conducted remotely., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Aim: This study examined the direct and indirect associations between childhood psychopathology symptoms, screen use, media multitasking and participation in non-digital recreation., Methods: Psychopathology symptoms, media use, media multitasking, participation in sports, social clubs and reading/games were reported by 520 parents about their 3- to 11-year-old children. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling., Results: There were bidirectional negative associations between sports participation and emotional problems (β = -0.16, P < .001 and β = -0.15, P < .001); attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms were associated with reduced reading/games (β = -0.14, P = .004). A bidirectional positive association was found between media use and conduct problems (β = 0.10, P = .015 and β = 0.14, P = .015). Increased media multitasking was indirectly associated with elevated symptoms of ADHD via a reduction in reading/games (β = 0.10, P = .026). However, there was no evidence that screen use mediated the associations between psychopathology symptoms and non-digital recreation., Conclusion: Depending on the specific psychological difficulties, children are either less likely to participate in non-digital recreation or are more likely to use screen media or multitask with media. Interventions for children, who experience emotional or behavioural difficulties, are needed to improve participation in non-digital recreation., (© 2020 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Introduction: Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct problems have been associated with heightened temporal discounting of reward value resulting in a preference for immediate over delayed outcomes. We examined the cross-sectional relationship between future preference (including intertemporal choice) and prospection (the ability to bring to mind and imagine the experience of future personally-relevant events and outcomes) in adolescents with a range of ADHD symptoms and aggressive behaviour., Methods: A combination of behavioural tasks and self-reports measured intertemporal decision making, individual differences in preference for future outcomes and experience of prospection in a convenience sample of English adolescents aged 11-17 (n = 64, 43.8% males). Parents rated symptoms of ADHD and aggression., Results: & Conclusions: Factor analysis identified two factors: "Future Preference" and "Prospection". Significant negative bivariate correlations were found between ADHD and the scores of both factors and between aggression and Future Preference. A path model confirmed the independent significant association of ADHD with both factors but not with aggression. There was no evidence that Prospection was associated with Future Preference or that it reduced the associations between ADHD symptoms and Future Preference. These results provide further evidence that ADHD is associated with a tendency to prefer immediate over future outcomes. The same association with aggression seemed to be driven by the overlap with ADHD symptoms. We provide some of the first evidence that individuals with high ADHD symptoms have difficulty in prospecting about future episodes. However, this is unrelated to their preference for future outcomes., (Copyright © 2020 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Identifying low-cost and easy to implement measures of infant markers of later psychopathology may improve targeting of early intervention for prevention. Because of their early manifestation, relative stability and overlap with constructs central to affect-based dimensions of child and adolescent psychopathology, negative emotionality and self-regulation have been the focus of this research. We conducted a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies examining the prospective association between infant temperament measured with parent ratings and child/adolescent psychopathology., Methods: A systematic literature search for prospective longitudinal studies, which included measures of questionnaire-assessed infant temperament (negative emotionality, self-regulation, behavioural inhibition, surgency/extraversion, activity level) and symptoms of child or adolescent mental health (externalising, internalising) and neurodevelopmental problems (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], autism spectrum disorder [ASD]), was conducted. Standardised estimates of association were calculated and pooled in meta-analyses., Results: Twenty-five studies (n = 28,425) met inclusion criteria. Small associations were seen between psychopathology aggregated across all domains and infant negative emotionality (r = .15; p < .001) and self-regulation (r = -.19; p = .007). Effects were also significant but weaker for behavioural inhibition (r = .10; p = .027) and activity level (r = .08; p = .016). Surgency/extraversion was not significantly associated with psychopathology in general (r = -.04; p = .094); however, it was negatively associated with ASD (r = -.10, p = .015). Significant correlations were observed with some outcomes isomorphic with predictors, internalising problems and behavioural inhibition (r = .10; p = .013), ADHD symptoms and activity level (r = .19; p = .009)., Conclusion: Questionnaire-based assessments of infant negative emotionality may have transdiagnostic potential to contribute to a risk index of later childhood psychopathology. Behavioural inhibition, surgency/extraversion and activity ratings may provide more specific predictive power. More data from prospective studies are required before the potential of self-regulation and surgency/extraversion can be properly gauged., (© 2019 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Aims: What helps children learn: is it a presence of a live teacher or an interaction with the learning materials? Addressing this question, we manipulated a teacher's presence (on-screen vs. present) and activity (observing vs. doing) while teaching children about the properties of geometric shapes., Method: Five-year-olds (n = 215) completed two shape-sorting tasks in which they distinguished between typical, atypical and non-valid shapes. In between these tasks, they took part in one of four training sessions: doing teacher-present, observing teacher-present, doing teacher-on-screen and observing teacher-on-screen., Results: Although children's shape knowledge improved across all training conditions, learning showed an interaction between teacher presence and task difficulty. In a teacher's presence, children learned more about the most difficult (atypical) shapes, irrespective of activity. It may be the social interaction, associated with a teacher's presence, that enhances learning. Conversely, physically taking part in interactive touchscreen training did not result in more learning than passive screen viewing., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.)

We investigated the immediate consequences of differently paced videos on behaviour and neural activity during response inhibition. Forty 7-year-olds watched a fast- or slow-paced video and completed a go/no-go task. Compared to the slow-paced-video group, children in the fast-paced-video group made more no-go errors. There was also an interaction between pace and no-go response type (correct, wrong) for the N2 and P3 peak latencies. In the slow-paced group, both components peaked earlier for correct response withholds. This usual pattern of activation was absent in the fast-paced group. Video pace appears to affect behaviour and the neural responses involved in inhibition.

Aim: Evidence on how the pace of television and film editing affects children's behaviour and attention is inconclusive. We examined whether a fast-paced film affected how preschool-aged children interacted with toys., Methods: The study comprised 70 children (36 girls) aged two to four-and-a-half years who attended preschools in Essex, United Kingdom. The children were paired up and tested with either a fast- or a slow-paced film of a narrator reading a children's story. The fast-paced version had 102 camera cuts and 16 still images, and the slow-paced version had 22 camera cuts and four still images. Each dyad took part in two video-recorded free-play sessions, before and after they watched one of the specially edited four-minute films. The number of toys the children played with before and after the film sessions was recorded., Results: Before they watched the films, the children's behaviour did not differ between the groups. However, after watching the film, the children in the fast-paced group shifted their attention between toys more frequently than the children who watched the slow-paced film., Conclusion: Even a brief exposure to differently paced films had an immediate effect on how the children interacted with their toys., (©2017 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Aim: To explore media preferences and use among young children, as well as to obtain information about parental supervision methods and beliefs about media., Method: Ninety parents of three- to six-year-olds, recruited from a relatively economically advantaged area in the United Kingdom, completed a media opinion survey., Results: Although traditional television remains the favourite type of media platform among young children, touchscreen devices are gaining in popularity, and may promote simultaneous multi-screen use. Moreover, parents believe that the effects of media on developmental outcomes are generally positive. However, they do monitor the content of traditional and new media their children are exposed to., Conclusion: This study shows an emerging evidence of concurrent multi-screen use among very young children. More detailed examination of early media multitasking, and its relationship to cognitive and behavioural outcomes, is necessary., (©2016 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)