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Biomedical subjects

A Pickles

Publications and source records attributed to A Pickles.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1998

A comparative study of Greek children in long-term residential group care and in two-parent families: I. Social, emotional, and behavioural differences.

The social, behavioural, and school adjustment of 41 9-year-old children in long-term residential group care in Greece was compared with that of children of the same sex and age brought up in two-parent families. Observational, interview, and questionnaire measures were employed. Observations in school classrooms showed that compared with their classmates, the group care children were more inattentive, participated less often in the classroom activities, were more likely to be passive, and tended to be involved in alternative and nonproductive activities. In the playground, they rarely interacted with non-institutional children. On both parent and teacher scales the group care children showed significantly more overall disturbance. The boys showed poor task involvement in the classroom and more emotional difficulties, conduct problems, and hyperactivity, whereas the between-group differences for girls were statistically significant only for emotional disturbance and poor task involvement in the classroom. Both boys and girls in long-term residential care showed less harmonious, confiding relationships with peers than those reared in families, and were more affection-seeking with teachers.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1998

A comparative study of Greek children in long-term residential group care and in two-parent families: II. Possible mediating mechanisms.

Forty-one children reared in group care were compared with 41 age- and sex-matched family care children according to interview, questionnaire, and observation measures of behavioural and scholastic functioning. Individual differences in outcome within the group care sample were examined in relation to a range of possible risk/protective indicators. The strongest predictor of outcome proved to be the reason for admission into residential care, with the implication that the outcome was best for children who had experienced stable, harmonious family relationships in their early years. The risk and protective effects applied to both the children's behaviour and scholastic attainments but, although the two were intercorrelated, neither accounted for the other. All subgroups of children in institutional care failed to show a lack of confiding peer relationships, with the pattern of findings suggesting that this stemmed from some aspect of experiences (possibly involving peer relationships) during residential care, as well as from discontinuity in caregiving during the early years.

Affective Symptoms↗
PubMed1998

School achievement and adult qualifications among adoptees: a longitudinal study.

Data from the National Child Development study (NCDS) were used to examine predictors of attainment among adoptees, nonadopted children from similar birth circumstances, and other members of this national birth cohort. Adoptees performed more positively than nonadopted children from similar birth circumstances on childhood tests of reading, mathematics, and general ability, and retained this advantage in school-leaving and later adult qualifications. In addition to family SES and material circumstances, measures of the educational environment of the home and of parental interest in education emerged as central predictors of these variations. Further analyses suggested possible differences in the mode of operation of these variables between boys and girls, and at different stages of young people's educational careers.

Achievement↗
PubMed1998

Short normal children and environmental disadvantage: a longitudinal study of growth and cognitive development from 4 to 11 years.

The aim of this investigation was to follow up a sample of exceptionally short but medically healthy children, and a normal comparison group, previously studied at 4 years of age. They lived in an inner-city area which was, on objective criteria, seriously disadvantaged in socioeconomic terms. When first seen at 4 years, cases were significantly impaired in cognitive abilities relative to comparisons, although firstborns were much less severely affected. Of the original 46 cases, 45 were assessed again at 11 years. Most continued to live in the same geographical area. Case children remained exceptionally short, even when parental stature was taken into account, although a degree of catch-up had occurred. One third had special educational needs, and a similar proportion had been referred for speech therapy. Verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills of both case and comparison children had, on the whole, changed little and group differences persisted. In conclusion, short normal children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are at high risk of educational failure at elementary school.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1998

Genetic and environmental influences on subtypes of conduct disorder behavior in boys.

Oppositional and conduct disorders are a heterogeneous collection of disruptive behaviors associated with diverse risk factors and varying outcomes. Data from males in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development (VTSABD) are used to explore the relative importance of genetic and environmental influences on four previously described disruptive subtypes: property violations, status violations, oppositional behavior, and aggression. Striking differences between results according to mother and child ratings are found, indicating the need to consider carefully the origin of rater differences. Child ratings indicate support for a general genetic liability, with greatest influence on property violations, oppositional behavior and aggression. Maternal ratings suggest that the genetic factors influencing conduct disorder behavior are more specific to the behavioral area, with the stronger genetic influence on property violations and aggression.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

The Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development. Influences of age, sex, and impairment on rates of disorder.

BACKGROUND: The Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development is a cohort-longitudinal epidemiological study that uses the genetic twin design to study the development and maintenance of child psychiatric disorders. We determined the rates of DSM-III-R disorders, disorders with impairment, and age, sex, and comorbidity effects. METHODS: Families of 2762 white twins aged 8 to 16 years participated. Twins and their parents were asked systematically about risk factors and current psychiatric symptoms by means of investigator-based psychiatric interviews and questionnaires. The DSM-III-R diagnoses were made for major depressive disorder, separation anxiety, overanxious disorder, simple phobia, social phobia, agoraphobia, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. RESULTS: The 3-month point prevalence for any DSM-III-R disorders was 413 per 1000, and that for disorders with associated impairment was 142 per 1000. Emotional disorders with impairment occurred in 89 per 1000, with girls being more commonly affected; behavioral disorders had a prevalence of 71 per 1000, with boys being more frequently affected. The proportion with disorder who also had functional impairment varied across disorders; anxiety and phobic disorders were particularly likely not to be accompanied by impairment. Rates of emotional and behavioral disorders increased over the age range. There was extensive comorbidity among disorders. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence rates and patterns of findings from this study of twins are consistent with those of other epidemiological studies, supporting previous findings of few differences in rates of psychiatric disorder between twins and singletons. The importance of including measures of functional impairment is evident by its effect on rates of disorder and patterns of comorbidity.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Psychiatric disorders in the relatives of depressed probands. I. Comparison of prepubertal, adolescent and early adult onset cases.

Research with adults suggests that early onset of depression is associated with increased rates of depression among relatives. This paper presents results, of a family study that tested the hypothesis that prepubertal depression was associated with a greater familial loading of depression than the postpubertal form, which in turn had a greater familial loading than adult onset depression. Probands were from a child to adult longitudinal study. Psychiatric disorders among relatives were assessed with family interview and family history methods 'blind' to all findings regarding the proband. Contrary to expectation, familial rates of depression did not differ significantly between the groups. However, manic disorders tended to be more common among the relatives of postpubertal depressed cases than among the relatives of adult onset cases. Moreover, relatives of prepubertal depressed subjects had higher rates of criminality and family discord than postpubertal subjects. Prepubertal onset depressive disorders appear to be relatively distinct from postpubertal forms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Psychiatric disorders in the relatives of depressed probands. II. Familial loading for comorbid non-depressive disorders based upon proband age of onset.

This study examined familial loading for non-depressive disorders in first-degree relatives (FDRs) of early-(< 20 years of age) and adult-onset (> or = 20 years of age) depressed probands. Our previous work, which demonstrated that FDRs of early-onset probands have higher rates of major depression as compared to FDRs of adult-onset probands, has not yet examined risk for non-depressive disorders in FDRs. In this paper, we focus on best-estimate diagnoses of anxiety disorders, alcoholism, and antisocial personality conducted on 639 first-degree relatives. The FDRs of early-onset probands had significantly higher rates of comorbid transmission of alcoholism and depression, and antisocial personality and depression, respectively. Significant co-transmission of anxiety disorders and depression was found in the FDRs of both early- and adult-onset probands. Future genetic studies of depression, especially early-onset depression, should hence broaden their definitions of phenotypes to include comorbid disorders when searching for the etiology of this complex disorder.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Integrating nature and nurture: implications of person-environment correlations and interactions for developmental psychopathology.

The developmental interplay between nature and nurture is discussed, with particular reference to implications for research in developmental psychopathology. The general principles include individual differences in reactivity to the environment, two-way interplay between intraindividual biology and environmental influences, and the need to consider broader social contextual features. Individuals actively process their experiences; they also act on their environment to shape and select their experiences, and individual characteristics change over time. Key findings on genetic effects include their ubiquitous influence, the multifactorial origin of most psychopathology, the involvement of several genes in most mental disorders, some genetic effects operate through dimensional risk features rather than directly on disorder, some genetic effects are dependent on gene-environment correlations and interactions, and genetic effects increase with age. Key findings on environmental effects include their ubiquitous influence, the genetic mediation of some supposed environmental effects, the importance of passive gene-environment correlations, the paucity of evidence regarding environmental effects on lifetime liability to psychopathology, the lack of understanding of environmental effects on the organism, and the importance of nonshared environmental effects. Research strategies to investigate environmental risk mediation include the range of genetically sensitive designs, migration studies, secular trend investigations, studies of nonfamilial environments, and examination of intraindividual change in relation to measured environmental alterations. Proximal processes involved in person-environment interplay are discussed in relation to person-environment interactions and evocative and active person-environment correlations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Genetic and environmental influences on child reports of manifest anxiety and symptoms of separation anxiety and overanxious disorders: a community-based twin study.

Genetic and environmental influences in the determination of individual differences in self-reported symptoms of separation anxiety (SAD), overanxious disorder (OAD), and manifest anxiety (MANX) were evaluated in children and adolescents for three age groups (8-10, 11-13, and 14-16). Symptom counts for SAD and OAD were assessed for 1,412 twin pairs using the children's version of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment, and MANX scores were based on child report from the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scales. Despite significant age and gender differences in thresholds of liability for child reports of symptoms of SAD and OAD, additive genetic and environmental effects could be set equal across age and gender for these variables. For MANX, however, the best-fitting model was a common effects sex-limitation model with estimates of heritability varying dependent upon age and gender. Parameter estimates from the ACE models of OAD and SAD showed that additive genetic variation was a necessary component in the explanation of individual differences in child-reported symptoms of OAD (h2 = .37) across gender, but does not appear to be a major contributor to the explanation of individual differences in symptoms of SAD reported by children. Shared environmental effects (c2 = .40) were found to play a moderate role for SAD but could be dropped from the model for OAD and from all of the age groups for MANX, although the parameter approached significance among 11 yr to 13-year-old males.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Diagnosing autism: analyses of data from the Autism Diagnostic Interview.

Results from ROC curves of items from two scales, the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI) and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), operationalizing DSM-IV criteria for autism are presented for 319 autistic and 113 other subjects from 8 international autism centers. Analyses indicate that multiple items were necessary to attain adequate sensitivity and specificity if samples with varying levels of language were considered separately. Although considering only current behavior was generally sufficient when a combination cutoff and additive model was employed, predictive power was highest when history was taken into account. A single set of criteria, as operationalized by individually structured questions in the ADI/ADI-R, was effective in differentiating autism from mental handicap and language impairment in subjects with a range of chronological ages and developmental levels.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Obstetric complications in autism: consequences or causes of the condition?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether and why obstetric complications are associated with autism. METHOD: Obstetric histories, obtained at maternal interview and coded as an optimality score (OS), were compared in two groups: 78 families containing an autistic proband (ICD-10 criteria) and 27 families containing a down syndrome (DS) proband. The OS was examined in relation to offspring diagnosis, proband characteristics, and familial loading for autism and its phenotypic variants. RESULTS: Autistic and DS probands had a significantly elevated OS compared with unaffected siblings, regardless of birth order position. The elevation was mainly due to an increase in mild as opposed to severe obstetric adversities. In autistic probands, the OS was best predicted by familial loading for autism and its phenotypic variants, but in the absence of this measure by the number of autistic symptoms. Among siblings of autistic probands affected with autism or its variants, the OS was best predicted by the probands' OS, and in its absence, by the measure of familial loading. In DS probands and siblings the OS was associated with increased maternal age, although this did not account for the OS elevation in DS probands. CONCLUSIONS: Rather than playing any principal etiological role, the obstetric adversities associated with autism either represent an epiphenomenon of the condition or derive from some shared risk factor(s).

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Genetics and developmental psychopathology: 1. Phenotypic assessment in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development.

We introduce an overlapping cohort sequential longitudinal study of behavioral development and psychopathology in a representative sample of 1412 pairs of twins aged 8 through 16 years. Multiple phenotypic assessments involve a full psychiatric interview with each child and each parent, and supplementary parental, teacher, and child interview material and questionnaires. For the first wave of assessments, the numbers of reported DSM-III-R symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), Separation Anxiety Disorder (SAD), Overanxious Disorder (OAD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), assessed through interviews, confirm patterns of age and sex trends found in other epidemiological samples, but underscore their dependence on whether the child or the parent is the informant. Correlations across domains for symptoms reported by the same informant are often as large as correlations across informants for the same domain of symptoms. Factor analyses of these symptom counts, taking account of informant view and unreliability of assessment, show the high degree of correlation between SAD and OAD, between MDD and OAD, and between CD and ODD. ADHD symptoms are relatively independent of the other domains, but show moderate correlations with CD, ODD, and MDD. Factorially derived dimensional questionnaire scales, based on child, parental, and teacher reports, show patterns of relationship to symptom counts consistent with both convergent and discriminant validity as indices of liability to clinical symptoms. Across informants, questionnaire scales provide as good a prediction of symptoms as do clinical interviews. Multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis reveals the patterns of relationship between symptoms of psychiatric disorder in children taking due account of informant and unique sources of variance. Gender differences are consistent within the correlated clusters of ODD/CD and MDD/SAD/OAD, although there are disorder-specific age trends. There are large informant-specific influences on the reporting of symptoms in clinical interviews. Dimensional questionnaire scales provide a useful source of additional information. In subsequent analyses of genetic and environmental etiology of childhood psychopathology we must expect that results may differ by informant and method of assessment. Multivariate and developmental analyses that explore the sources of these differences will shed new light on the relationship between genetic and environmentally influenced vulnerability and the manifestation of psychopathology in specific circumstances.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Genetics and developmental psychopathology: 2. The main effects of genes and environment on behavioral problems in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development.

Little is known about the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to risk for juvenile psychopathology. The Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioral Development allows these contributions to be estimated. A population-based, unselected sample of 1412 Caucasian twin pairs aged 8-16 years was ascertained through Virginia schools. Assessment of the children involved semi-structured face-to-face interviews with both twins and both parents using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). Self-report questionnaires were also completed by parents, children, and teachers. Measures assessed DSM-III-R symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Overanxious Disorder, Separation Anxiety, and Depressive Disorder. Factorially derived questionnaire scales were also extracted. Scores were normalized and standardized by age and sex. Maximum likelihood methods were used to estimate contributions of additive and nonadditive genetic effects, the shared and unique environment, and sibling imitation or contrast effects. Estimates were tested for heterogeneity over sexes. Generally, monozygotic (MZ) twins correlated more highly than dizygotic (DZ) twins, parental ratings more than child ratings, and questionnaire scales more highly than interviews. DZ correlations were very low for measures of ADHD and DZ variances were greater than MZ variances for these variables. Correlations sometimes differed between sexes but those for boy-girl pairs were usually similar to those for like-sex pairs. Most of the measures showed small to moderate additive genetic effects and moderate to large effects of the unique individual environment. Measures of ADHD and related constructs showed marked sibling contrast effects. Some measures of oppositional behavior and conduct disorder showed shared environmental effects. There were marked sex differences in the genetic contribution to separation anxiety, otherwise similar genetic effects appear to be expressed in boys and girls. Effects of rater biases on the genetic analysis are considered. The study supports a widespread influence of genetic factors on risk to adolescent psychopathology and suggests that the contribution of different types of social influence may vary consistently across domains of measurement.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Maternal depressive symptoms and ratings of emotional disorder symptoms in children and adolescents.

This study uses information collected on two occasions from a probability sample of families with 8- to 12-year-old children (N = 718) participating in a general population study in 1983 and follow-up in 1987. It focuses on the association between maternal depressive symptoms and emotional disorder in children and adolescents, taking into consideration the influences of informant rating errors, contextual variables (economic disadvantage and family dysfunction), and child gender. Covariance structure analysis revealed a strong association between maternal depressive symptoms in girls (beta = .59 in 1983 and beta = .39 in 1987) but not in boys. This association is independent of the impact of contextual variables and the treatment of teacher rating errors. Among adolescent boys, maternal depressive symptoms are correlated with mother rating errors, suggesting the possible presence of maternal bias.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Heterogeneity among juvenile antisocial behaviours: findings from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioural Development.

The examination of heterogeneity in antisocial behaviour was accomplished by applying latent class analytic methods to multivariate categorical data on 389 same-sex male twins, aged 11 to 16 from the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavioural Development (VTSABD). The data included multiple measures of oppositional and conduct disorder, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, impulsivity, reading disability and anxiety from mother, teacher, and child report from both questionnaire and interview (child and adult psychiatric assessment; CAPA). A latent four-class model provided a good fit to the data and yielded four phenotypically and aetiologically distinct latent classes: (1) a non-symptomatic class influenced by both additive genetic and shared environmental factors; (2) a hyperactivity-conduct disturbance class accounted for by both additive and non-additive genetic effects; (3) a 'pure' conduct disturbance class with a very strong shared environmental component; and (4) a multisymptomatic class explained entirely by the additive effect of the genes. Further characterization of these four latent classes by age of the child and parental psychiatric history is also shown.

Adolescent↗