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Building a secure attachment with your childSecure attachments help children build resilience, self-worth, emotion regulation skills and healthy relationships.
Research
Web-Based Self-Compassion Training to Improve the Well-Being of Youth With Chronic Medical Conditions: Randomized Controlled TrialUp to one-third of young people live with chronic physical conditions (eg, diabetes, asthma, and autoimmune disease) that frequently involve recurrent pain, fatigue, activity limitations, stigma, and isolation.
Research
Associations between the human immune system and gut microbiome with neurodevelopment in the first 5 years of life: A systematic scoping reviewThe aim of this review was to map the literature assessing associations between maternal or infant immune or gut microbiome biomarkers and child neurodevelopmental outcomes within the first 5 years of life. We conducted a PRISMA-ScR compliant review of peer-reviewed, English-language journal articles.
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Well-being and Distress in University Students with ADHD Traits: the Mediating Roles of Self-Compassion and Emotion Regulation DifficultiesTertiary education is particularly demanding for students with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who often struggle with emotion regulation and are at greater risk of internalising disorders compared to their peers. Self-compassion is a skill associated with positive mental health and adaptive emotion regulation that might support students in managing the emotional challenges of studying with ADHD.
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Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Early Irritability as a Transdiagnostic Neurodevelopmental Vulnerability to Later Mental Health ProblemsIrritability is a transdiagnostic indicator of child and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems that is measurable from early life. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the strength of the association between irritability measured from 0 to 5 years and later internalizing and externalizing problems, to identify mediators and moderators of these relationships, and to explore whether the strength of the association varied according to irritability operationalization.
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Intention to Engage in Alcohol Use during Pregnancy: The Role of Attitudes and PrototypesThere is no known risk-free level of alcohol use in pregnancy. Despite this, many still believe that occasional drinking is safe. To-date, there is limited evidence of the influences on women's decisions about low to moderate alcohol use in pregnancy.
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The effectiveness of a day hospital mentalization-based therapy programme for adolescents with borderline personality traits: Findings from Touchstone—Child and Adolescent Mental Health ServiceIndividuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at a substantial risk of harm to themselves and others, experience high levels of functional impairment and typically are high users of tertiary healthcare to address their mental health concerns. As indicators for BPD typically emerge in adolescence, a day therapy service in Bentley, Western Australia, Touchstone Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), was developed as an intensive intervention for adolescents with indicators for BPD and its associated symptomology.
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Mental health profiles and academic achievement in Australian school studentsThis study explored mental health profiles in Australian school students using indicators of well-being (i.e., optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness) and psychological distress (i.e., sadness and worries). The sample included 75,757 students (ages 8-18 years) who completed the 2019 South Australian Wellbeing and Engagement Collection.
Research
Perceptions of two different alcohol use behaviours in pregnancy: an application of the prototype/willingness modelThis study explored whether exposure to either an ‘ambiguous consumption’ prototype (no amount of alcohol specified) or a ‘small consumption’ prototype (‘small’ amount of alcohol specified) had an impact on prototype perceptions of, and willingness to use, small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy.
Research
Time-out for well-being: A mixed methods evaluation of attitudes and likelihood to engage in different types of online emotional well-being programmes in the perinatal periodPositive maternal mental health during the perinatal period contributes to general well-being and positive emotional bonds with the child, encouraging an optimal developmental trajectory. Online interventions to enhance maternal well-being and develop coping skills, such as meditation-based interventions, can be a low-cost way to improve mother and child outcomes.