Search

Introduction: Dysmenorrhoea affects many adolescents with significant impacts on education and well-being. In the UK, most of the adolescents who seek care (and many never do), will do so through general practice (primary care). Knowing how best to care for adolescents reporting menstrual pain is an area where UK general practitioners would like better guidance and resources. Methods: This mixed-methods narrative synthesis collates community and specialist evidence from 320 papers about adolescent dysmenorrhoea, with a UK general practice community health perspective. Results: We report a narrative summary of symptoms, cause, consequences and treatments for adolescent dysmenorrhoea. We highlight areas of tension or conflicted evidence relevant to primary care alongside areas of uncertainty and research gaps identified through this synthesis with input from lived experience advisers. Discussion: There is little evidence about primary care management of adolescent dysmenorrhoea or specific resources to support shared-decision making in general practice, although there are evidence-based treatments to offer. Primary care encounters also represent potential opportunities to consider whether the possibility of underlying or associated health conditions contributing to symptoms of dysmenorrhoea, but there is little epidemiological evidence about prevalence from within community health settings to inform this. The areas where there is little or uncertain evidence along the care journey for adolescent dysmenorrhoea, including at the interface between experience and expression of symptoms and potential underlying contributory causes warrant further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper presents insight into the scale of mental health concerns for families who have a child or young person with a diagnosis of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) living in any of the four nations of the United Kingdom (UK). The study's objective is to share the current experiences of those that responded to a charity survey and consider future work to improve mental health support. Methods: This work was initiated and led by five UK charity partner organisations working with families affected by JIA. Parents/carers of a child or young person with JIA, and young people with JIA, submitted self-completion online questionnaires. The questionnaire asked 19 core questions, with a focus on the mental health impact of having and living with a JIA diagnosis. Questionnaires were delivered via charity partner UK-wide mailing lists and social media. Results: Questionnaire were completed by 291 participants over a 3-week period in February 2022. The majority of respondents were parents (229, 79%), 103 children had been diagnosed for over six years (35%), and 131 (45%) received shared care between paediatric rheumatology centres. In total, 168 (59%) children and young people with JIA had received, were currently receiving or were waiting for mental health support. Parents reported that their child's diagnosis impacted their own mental health (218, 82%). Children and young people reported never being offered mental health support during appointments for JIA (157, 54%), and 71 (50%) of these had never received support. Conclusion: Children and young people with JIA have significant mental health sequelae from their diagnosis. Our findings found that nearly 60% of our respondents have had or are requiring mental health support, with significant numbers of parents/carers reporting difficulties in accessing care for their child's mental health or their own mental health, due to their child's diagnosis. This unique collaborative charity-led study, illustrates the importance of timely and accessible mental health support. Further work is needed to understand why best practice guidance for mental health support is not being met consistently and to identify how to embed it into standard rheumatology care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) affects between 0.5% and 5.2% of adolescents and is progressive in two-thirds of cases. Bracing is an effective non-operative treatment for AIS and has been shown to prevent up to 72% of curves from requiring surgery. This paper explores the presentation of AIS in the UK and identifies who would be suitable for bracing, as per guidelines published by the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) and British Scoliosis Society (BSS), through curve severity and skeletal maturity at presentation. There were 526 patients with AIS eligible for inclusion across three tertiary referral centres in the UK. The study period was individualised to each centre, between January 2012 and December 2021. Only 10% were appropriate for bracing via either SRS or BSS criteria. The rest were either too old, skeletally mature or had a curve size too large to benefit. By the end of data collection, 38% had undergone surgery for their scoliosis. In the UK, bracing for AIS is only suitable for a small number at presentation. Future efforts to minimise delays in specialist review and intervention will increase the number of those with AIS suitable for bracing and reduce the number and burden of operative interventions for AIS in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the results of the Improving Mood with Psychoanalytic and Cognitive Therapies (IMPACT) study and its implications for psychological treatment of adolescents with moderate to severe unipolar major depression. IMPACT was a pragmatic, superiority, randomized controlled trial conducted in the United Kingdom, which compared the clinical and cost-effectiveness of short-term psychoanalytic therapy (STPP), cognitive−behavioral therapy (CBT), and a brief psychosocial intervention (BPI) in reducing depression symptoms in 465 adolescents with unipolar major depression, aged 11 to 17 years. Although this was a clinically heterogeneous group of adolescents, some symptoms (eg, sleep and concentration difficulties, irritability/anger) were common and disabling. The trial reported no significant difference among the 3 treatments in reducing depression symptoms. One year after treatment, 84% of participants showed improvement in depressive symptoms (<50% of baseline symptoms) and improved psychosocial functioning, achieving this through different symptom reduction trajectories. Although participants attended fewer treatment sessions than planned, the 3 treatments were delivered with fidelity to their respective models. Ending treatment without therapist agreement occurred in 37% of cases. This was not associated with outcomes by treatment group. Adolescents emphasized the importance of the therapeutic relationship in all 3 treatments. Results suggest that although most adolescents respond to time-limited, structured psychological therapy, subgroups of depressed adolescents are likely to need additional treatment or support. These include adolescents who live in complex circumstances and/or who believe that their needs are not met in therapy, some who stop treatment early, and the 16% to 18% of adolescents who do not respond to treatment. Improving Mood and Preventing Relapse With Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy; https://www.isrctn.com ; ISRCTN83033550. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Teenagers represent a small proportion of patients on paediatric intensive care units (PICU) in the United Kingdom. During a time when their development is rapidly changing, an admission to PICU causes additional disruption. The impact of critical illness on psychological health after discharge has not been widely reported within this population. Aim and objectives: To measure anxiety that teenagers report 48‐96 hours and 4 weeks after discharge from PICU. To explore teenagers' experiences of being admitted onto PICU. Design: Two‐phase mixed methods, explanatory sequential design. Methods: This single‐site study was conducted between February and July 2018. An NHS Ethics committee approved the study. Teenagers were screened if they were aged 13‐18 years old and had an elective or emergency admission to PICU for longer than 24 hours. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Anxiety subscale (HADS‐A) was administered on paper and completed with the researcher present. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted in‐person and over the telephone, audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Nine of eighteen participants (50%) obtained scores indicating levels of anxiety which were mild (n = 3; 17%), moderate (n = 2; 11%), or severe (n = 4; 22%) 48‐96 hours after PICU discharge. Four weeks later, all participants scored below the clinically significant cut‐off level for the HADS‐A‐1 Teenagers described their experiences on PICU within three themes:Memories of treatments, side effects, and the PICU environmentLosing a sense of selfFeeling cared for Conclusions: Measured levels of anxiety had resolved in this small sample, 4 weeks after PICU discharge. This finding was not consistent with qualitative data that indicated that many experiences shared by participants were anxiety provoking. Relevance to clinical practice: Support for teenagers after PICU discharge should be available to meet individual needs; screening teenagers to identify support needs would be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to describe the goals, activities, and methods of EUMOVE project in developing a set of resources targeting both primary and secondary schools that allow the entire educational community to promote healthy lifestyles (HL). The EUMOVE project is an Erasmus+ program based in the Creating Active Schools (CAS) framework. The project lasted 3 years and was developed by 14 academic and non-governmental institutions from Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and the UK. EUMOVE was divided into three phases. In the first phase, several work packages were carried out aimed to ensure the coordination/management of the project activities. In the second phase, seven educational resources strengthened by rigorous scientific research were developed to promote HL from schools. During the last phase, all the resources were disseminated through scientific seminars, workshops with families and teachers, and the online promotion by the non-governmental institutions of each country. The EUMOVE project developed and promoted a smartphone APP, video/activity repository of physically active lessons, active break virtual platform, learning units, and parent/teachers/school-leaders' guidelines to promote physical activity, active commuting, active school playgrounds, healthy diet, and sleep habits. To our knowledge, EUMOVE is the first European project to provide a set of practical tools based on scientific evidence to help schools or future school-wide interventions implement a paradigm shift based on the CAS framework for the promotion of HL. Future research will need to investigate the implementation, effectiveness, and scalability of this proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Youth mental health is a growing concern in research, practice, and policy. Practice standards, guidelines, or strategies provide an invisible infrastructure that fosters equity, quality, and safety, potentially addressing inconsistencies and more effectively attending to the mental wellness of Black youth as a particular population of concern. This scoping review aimed to address the following question: What standards exist for the delivery of mental health services to Black youth in community, primary care, and educational settings? Due to a limited initial search yield on publications about standards for the delivery of mental health services for Black youth population, our goal was then to identify and map mental health standards, recommendations, or guidelines for the delivery of mental health services using the same settings to all youth. Methods: Searches were conducted in various databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, SocINDEX, CINAHL, Gender Studies Database, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Screening was independently conducted by two reviewers, with disagreements resolved by a third. Information extraction was performed by two independent reviewers. Results: Out of the 2,701 screened publications, 54 were included in this scoping review. Among them, 38.9% were published between 2020 and 2023, with 40.7% originating from the United States of America, 20.4% from the United Kingdom, and 13% from Canada. Concerning the settings, 25.9% of the publications focused on primary care, 24.1% on health care services, 20.4% on educational settings, and 3.7% on the community. Additionally, 25.9% were classified as general because recommendations were applicable to various settings. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (11.1%) was the most frequently considered specific condition, followed by autism spectrum disorder (9.3%) and depression (9.3%). However, 31.5% of the included references addressed mental health in general. Only three references provided specific recommendations for the Black population. Conclusions: Recommendations, guidelines, or standards for Black youth mental health services in community, primary care, or educational settings are scarce and limited to North American countries. This scoping review emphasizes the need to consider ethnicity when developing guidelines or standards to improve racial equity and reduce disparities in access to mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) have long been considered important to good research practice. There is growing, yet diverse, evidence in support of PPIE with children and young people (CYP). We must now understand the various approaches to involvement of CYP in research. Aims: This rapid umbrella review aimed to provide an overview of when, how and to what extent CYP are involved in the conduct of health research, as well as the reported benefits, challenges, and facilitators of involvement. Methods: We searched OVID Medline, Embase and PubMed. Published reviews were included if they reported meaningful involvement of CYP in the conduct of health research. Extracted data were synthesised using thematic analysis. Results: The 26 reviews included were predominately systematic and scoping reviews, published within the last decade, and originating from North America and the United Kingdom. CYPs were involved in all stages of research across the literature, most commonly during research design and data collection, and rarely during research funding or data sharing and access. Researchers mostly engaged CYP using focus groups, interviews, advisory panels, questionnaires, and to a lesser extent arts‐based approaches such as photovoice and drawing. Visual and active creative methods were more commonly used with children ≤12 years. The evidence showed a shared understanding of the benefits, challenges, and facilitators for involvement of CYP, such as time and resource commitment and building partnership. Conclusion: Overall, the review identified consistency in the range of methods and approaches used, and stages of research with which CYP are commonly involved. There is a need for more consistent reporting of PPIE in the literature, both in terminology and detail used. Furthermore, the impact of approaches to CYP involvement on research and community outcomes must be better evaluated. Patient/Public Contribution: This review forms part of broader research initiatives being led by the authors. Together, these projects aim to support embedding of child voices in research practice and to explore the desirability and suitability of Young Persons Advisory Groups within birth cohort studies. The findings from this review, alongside public and stakeholder consultation, will inform development of resources such as practice recommendations to guide future involvement of CYP in health research undertaken at the author's respective institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: As children with long‐term conditions (LTCs) mature, they are usually expected to assume responsibility from their parents for self‐management of their condition. Little is known about what supports families with this handover of responsibility, including the role of healthcare professionals (HCPs). This study aimed to explore what supports young people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to assume self‐management responsibility and parents to relinquish control. Methods: A qualitative study, using a grounded theory approach was conducted. Individual and dyadic interviews and focus groups were carried out with 16 young people aged 13–17 years old with CKD, 13 parents, and 20 HCPs. Participants were recruited from two UK children's renal units. Findings: Building and maintaining trust, fostering positivity, learning from mistakes, forming partnerships and individualized support, facilitated the transfer of self‐management responsibility. However, HCPs' focus on developing partnerships with young people meant some parents felt excluded, highlighting uncertainty around whether support should be child‐ or family‐centred. Although tailored support was identified as critical, aspects of local service provision appeared to impact on HCPs' capacity to implement individualized approaches. Conclusion: This study has identified what supports the handover of responsibility, and, importantly, HCPs' current, and potential role in helping young people to assume responsibility for managing their LTC. Further research is needed to explore how HCPs' involvement balances child‐ and family‐centred care, and how HCPs can adopt personalized, strengths‐based approaches to help ensure the support that families receive is tailored to their individual needs. Patient or Public Contribution: Patient and public involvement was integrated throughout the study, with young adults with CKD and parents who had a child with CKD actively involved in the study's design and delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that there are increased pregnancy-related complications for a woman who conceives through assisted reproductive treatment (ART). Furthermore, it is known that the risk to the child born is greater, believed to be related to prematurity and growth restriction. Studies have also reported epigenetic changes in the DNA of offspring conceived through ART. In addition, it is believed that they have a greater risk of congenital malformations, although some of these risks may relate to underlying infertility, rather than the ART treatment per se. As a result, it may be expected that there is a greater risk to the longer-term health of the child who is born from ART; however, evidence about the long-term health of children conceived through ART is reassuring. Even though, it is recognised that many of the studies in this field come with limitations. Low numbers of participants is one of the major limitations, which makes subgroup analyses for diverse types of ART, or diverse types of infertility, not feasible. Furthermore, studies are often limited by short follow-up periods because of the difficulty and costs involved in longitudinal study designs. In addition, the rapid changes over time in ART limit the generalisability and significance of long-term findings. Well-designed studies investigating the long-term health outcomes of ART-conceived offspring and the potential influences of various aspects of the ART procedure, as well as studies of the potential underlying epigenetic mechanisms, are imperative. Furthermore, conclusions from childhood hospitalisation data from the United Kingdom, the long-term follow-up and quality of life study from researchers in Melbourne, and the data published from the Western Australian Growing Up Healthy Study will go a long way to help reassure current and prospective parents who may require ART to conceive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The voices of children and adolescents have historically been substituted by the perspective of adults. There is growing recognition that children (<18 years old) are able to participate in research and appreciate the opportunity to participate in studies. Aim: To share the strategies employed by two research teams from USA and UK, who have successfully recruited children living with parental life-limiting illness as research participants. Findings: The researchers overcame common challenges when negotiating ethics committees by anticipating the IRB/REC concerns, providing the committees with detailed applications including distress protocols, and offering resources to their ethics committee to learn about conducting research with this population. The researchers navigated recruitment and gatekeeping by clinicians and parents by partnering with clinical agencies and nurturing relationships with practitioners who are supportive of the research, offering to present the findings of the study with continuing education credits, and developing children's, adolescents' and parents' project advisory groups to support recruitment, data collection and analysis. Conclusions: Simple strategies can be used to overcome barriers to recruitment, providing opportunities for children to be research participants and for their unique perspectives to be heard in palliative care research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses globally and a leading cause of disability. It is often established by late adolescence and thus identifying which adolescents are most at risk is crucial to enable early intervention to prevent depression onset. We have previously developed a risk calculator to stratify which adolescents are at high risk of developing depression and in this study explore the views of stakeholders to ascertain the acceptability and feasibility of implementing such a tool in the UK. Methods: Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 60 UK‐based stakeholders (12 healthcare workers, 12 social workers, 12 school workers, 12 policymakers and 12 parents). Interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analysed drawing on framework analysis techniques in NVivo 12. Results: Six overarching themes were identified: facilitators of acceptability; barriers to acceptability; role of stakeholders in implementing risk screening; feasibility of delivering the risk calculator in practice; barriers to implementation; and policy and system implications of using it in the current UK health and social care climate. The implementation of a depression risk calculator in the UK was seen as largely acceptable and feasible by most respondents. There was a strong emphasis on the utility of schools to implement this risk calculator, although it was recognized that training and support would be essential. Conclusions: Stakeholders were generally positive about utilizing a tool to screen for risk of future depression among adolescents in the UK but raised important concerns which should be taken into account before implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Healthcare professionals report challenges in supporting dying patients who have dependent children. These parents are often uncertain how to meet the needs of their children and require appropriate support from professionals. There is limited evidence based guidance for professionals around this issue, which is informed by the views and experiences of children themselves. Aim: To develop an understanding of the perspective of children on living with parental life-limiting illness and inform recommendations for healthcare professionals. Design: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted, with thematic analysis of the data. Setting/participants: A diverse sample of 32 children aged 6–17, whose parent was living with life-limiting illness, were recruited from across the United Kingdom. Results: Despite the challenges of living with a parent with a life-limiting illness, the children display agency in their response. The children: feel a responsibility to look after their family; negotiate a relationship with healthcare; employ strategies to maintain some normality; and ensure that the inevitable sadness does not become overwhelming. Conclusions: Five recommendations for healthcare professionals were developed from the findings. Clinicians should encourage dying parents to: (1) acknowledge the agency of children; (2) recognise children's caregiving roles; (3) engender children's trust in healthcare; (4) maintain some normality; and (5) discuss emotions with their children. Implementing these recommendations will assist parents with a life-limiting illness to provide evidence-based support to their dependent children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the UK, around 93,000 (0.8%) children and young people (CYP) are experiencing specific phobias that have a substantial impact on daily life. The current gold-standard treatment—multi-session cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – is effective at reducing specific phobia severity; however, CBT is time consuming, requires specialist CBT therapists, and is often at great cost and limited availability. A briefer variant of CBT called one session treatment (OST) has been found to offer similar clinical effectiveness for specific phobia as multi-session CBT. The aim of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of OST compared to multi-session CBT for CYP with specific phobias through the Alleviating Specific Phobias Experienced by Children Trial (ASPECT), a two-arm, pragmatic, multi-centre, non-inferiority randomised controlled trial. Methods: CYP aged seven to 16 years with specific phobias were recruited nationally via Health and Social Care pathways, remotely randomised to the intervention group (OST) or the control group (CBT-based therapies) and analysed (n = 267). Resource use based on NHS and personal social services perspective and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) measured by EQ-5D-Y were collected at baseline and at six-month follow-up. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated, and non-parametric bootstrapping was conducted to capture the uncertainty around the ICER estimates. The results were presented on a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve (CEAC). A set of sensitivity analyses (including taking a societal perspective) were conducted to assess the robustness of the primary findings. Results: After adjustment and bootstrapping, on average CYP in the OST group incurred less costs (incremental cost was -£302.96 (95% CI -£598.86 to -£28.61)) and maintained similar improvement in QALYs (QALYs gained 0.002 (95% CI − 0.004 to 0.008)). The CEAC shows that the probability of OST being cost-effective was over 95% across all the WTP thresholds. Results of a set of sensitivity analyses were consistent with the primary outcomes. Conclusion: Compared to CBT, OST produced a reduction in costs and maintained similar improvement in QALYs. Results from both primary and sensitivity analyses suggested that OST was highly likely to be cost saving. Trial registration: ISRCTN19883421 (30/11/2016). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Online activity has been linked to poor mental health in children and young people, particularly those with existing vulnerability who may inadvertently or otherwise access harmful content. It is suggested health and social care practitioners should address online activity during mental health consultations, but guidance about acceptable or effective ways to do this is lacking. This study sought to derive good practice guidance to support mental health practitioners to engage young people in conversations about their online activities and impact on mental health. Methods: A mixed-methods Delphi (consensus) study was conducted with a panel of mental health practitioners (n = 21) and a panel of young people (n = 22). Practitioners worked with children or young adults in the UK, mostly in statutory services (80.9%), in varied clinical roles, with 2 – 30 years of experience and most were female (87.5%). Young people were mostly female (77.3%), 13—22 years old, reported varied mental health diagnoses and had sought help from services. Across 3 rounds, panellists completed questionnaires which involved rating agreement with statements and answering open-ended questions. Iterative analysis informed subsequent questionnaire content. The percentage of participants rating their level of agreement with each statement was calculated. The threshold for inclusion as a good practice indicator (GPI) was 75% across both panels. Thematic analysis was used for free-text data. Results: Twenty-seven GPIs emerged covering 'who' (which young people) should be asked about online activities, 'when', 'what' should be discussed, and with what 'outcome'. Panels agreed conversations should be initiated with all young people from first meeting and regularly thereafter, with 'red flags' indicating a conversation may be pertinent. Core topics were identified with additional areas for patients presenting with disordered eating or self-harm. Panels emphasised conversations should be fluid, normalised, and encourage reflection and self-awareness. Conclusions: Mental health practitioners could empower young people to exercise agency in relation to online safety and capitalise on positive features. Findings also identify training needs for practitioners. Further research should explore real-world application of the GPIs and transferability to underrepresented groups within our panels, such as males and younger children. Ethnicity and deprivation were not recorded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pain is a highly complex sensory and emotional experience. When a child suffers acute pain through illness or injury, they are often transported to hospital by ambulance. Pre-hospital pain management in children is poor, with 61% of children receiving suboptimal pain management. Consequences of poor pain management include the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and altered pain perception. We aimed to identify clinicians' perceptions of barriers, facilitators and potential improvements for the management of pre-hospital acute pain in children.Methods: Qualitative face to face semi-structured recorded interviews were performed in one large UK ambulance service. Audio files were transcribed verbatim with thematic analysis used to generate themes. NVivo 12 was used to support data analysis. Findings were combined with existing evidence to generate a driver diagram.Results: Twelve ambulance clinicians participated, including 9 registered paramedics and 3 emergency medical technicians. Median (IQR) age was 43.50 (41.50, 45.75) years, 58% were male, median (IQR) experience was 12 (4.25, 15.50) years and 58% were parents. Several themes relating to barriers and facilitators were identified, including physical, emotional, social, organisational, environmental, management, knowledge and experience. Improvement themes were identified relating to management, organisation and education. These data were combined to create a driver diagram; the three primary drivers were 1) explore methods to increase rates of analgesic administration, including utilising intranasal or inhaled routes; 2) reduce fear and anxiety in children, by using child friendly uniform, additional non-pharmacological techniques and more public interaction and 3) reduce fear and anxiety in clinicians, by enhancing training and optimising crew mix.Conclusions: The quality of care that children receive for acute pain in the ambulance service may be improved by increasing rates of analgesic administration and reducing the fear and anxiety experienced by children and clinicians. Future research involving children and parents would be useful to determine the most important outcome measures and facilitate intervention development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Test anxiety can have a deleterious impact on academic achievement and adversely affect adolescent well‐being, both concurrently and in later life. The current study explored the use of compassionate mind training (CMT) as a school‐based intervention for test anxiety among adolescents. Participants were 47 adolescents, aged 16–17 years, attending a post‐primary school in the UK and enrolled to take qualifications beyond compulsory education. Participants were quasi‐randomly allocated on the basis of timetable availability into an intervention group that received eight sessions of CMT (n = 22) or a control group (n = 25). Participants in both groups completed pre‐ and post‐intervention measures of test anxiety, general anxiety and self‐compassion. Attendance and retention rates were used as an index of intervention feasibility. The findings indicated that CMT was a feasible and effective intervention. Adolescents receiving CMT showed significant reductions in test anxiety and general anxiety, as well as a significant improvement in self‐compassion following the intervention compared with the control group. The findings highlight the potential value of CMT in supporting young people suffering from test anxiety in schools. The implications for counselling practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: National clinical guidelines emphasise the need for good communication of information by clinicians to young people and their parent/carers about what to expect during transition into adult services. Recent research indicates that of young people in need of transition for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), only a minority experience continuity of care into adulthood, with additional concerns about quality of transition. This qualitative analysis explored the role that information plays in the transition from child to adult mental health services for young people with ADHD, from the perspectives of clinicians working in children's services. Methods: Participants were recruited from National Health Service (NHS) Trusts located across the United Kingdom (UK), with varying service configurations. Twenty-two qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 paediatricians and seven psychiatrists working in child services and supporting young people with ADHD. The Framework Method was used to complete a thematic analysis of data related to the role of information in transitional care. Results: Two themes were identified in relation to the role of information in supporting transition and promoting continuity of care. Information for clinicians; about adult mental health services, the young person and their ADHD, and exchanged between services. Sharing information with young people; about transition processes, self-management, to support service engagement, and tailored to be accessible to young people with ADHD. Clinicians in children's services reported variable access to information. Clear protocols and being able to communicate about ADHD as a long-term condition, were described as having a positive impact on the transition process. Conclusions: These findings illustrate that clear information on the transition process, and communication of evidence based and up-to-date information on ADHD as a long-term condition are essential components for clinicians supporting transition into adult services. Information exchange can be supported through transition discussions with young people, and joint meetings between services Discussions should be accompanied by accessible resources for young people and parents/carers such as leaflets and websites. Further efforts should be focussed on enabling clinicians to provide timely and appropriate information to young people with ADHD to support transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescents who participate as peer leaders can benefit and acquire competencies from their peer leadership experience. Objectives: To identify the competencies gained by adolescents who participated as peer leaders in a healthy lifestyle study and to determine whether the training characteristics were related to improvement in competencies. Design: The present study was part of the European Youth Tackling Obesity (EYTO) project, a multicentre social marketing intervention involving four European countries. Setting and Participants: Eighteen peer leaders (aged 13–15 years, three or five leaders per country) from disadvantaged neighbourhoods received training in designing and implementing activities for their peers. Measures: The peer leaders' confidence, experience and interest in 11 tasks related to lifelong learning competencies were assessed with questions rated on a colour scale at baseline and at the end of the study. Results: The peer leaders demonstrated improvements in experience, confidence and interest in different tasks, such as research, website or logo design, oral presentations, social media use and collaboration with people from other countries. They increased their confidence in management tasks (p = 0.03) and their confidence and experience in communication tasks (p = 0.01). The peer leaders from Spain and Portugal had greater improvements than those from the other countries. Conclusion: The peer leaders improved their confidence in management tasks and their confidence and experience in communication tasks. Slight differences were detected in improvement in competencies by country, likely due to the differences in the peer training applied. Recommendations for peer leader training are proposed, although these results should be verified with larger sample size. Patient or Public Contribution: The peer leaders contributed to the design and implementation of the training and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) on Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) with cancer is important to inform care. Online survey of 16–24 year olds receiving cancer treatment at eight cancer centres in the UK. We measured: self-perceived increased anxiety since COVID-19, impact of COVID-19 on treatment, life and relationships, PHQ-8, GAD and the two-item Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). 112 AYA participated. 59.8% had previous mental health difficulties. 78.6% reported COVID-19 having a significant impact on life. 79% reported experiencing increased anxiety since COVID-19.43.4% had moderate-severe PHQ-8 scores and 37.1% GADS-7 scores. Impact on life was associated with moderate-severe PHQ-8 scores (OR 5.23, 95% CI 1.65–16.56, p < 0.01), impact on relationships with moderate-severe GADS-7 and PHQ-8 score (OR 2.89, 95% CI 1.11–7.54, p = 0,03; OR 3.54, 95% CI 2.32–15.17, p < 0.01; OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.11–5.25, p =0.03). Greater resilience was associated with lower mod-severe GADS-7and PHQ-8 scores (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.41–0.81, p < 0.01; OR 0.55 95% CI 0.4–0.72, p < 0.01; OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.38–0.69, p < 0.01). We found high levels of psychological distress. Perceived impact of COVID-19 on relationships and life was predictive of poorer mental health, with resilience a protective factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic has significantly changed the lives of children and adolescents, forcing them into periods of prolonged social isolation and time away from school. Understanding the psychological consequences of the UK's lockdown for children and adolescents, the associated risk factors, and how trajectories may vary for children and adolescents in different circumstances is essential so that the most vulnerable children and adolescents can be identified, and appropriate support can be implemented. Methods: Participants were a convenience sample of parents and carers (n = 2,988) in the UK with children and adolescents aged between 4 and 16 years who completed an online survey about their child's mental health. Growth curve analysis was used to examine the changes in conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and emotional symptoms between the end of March/beginning of April and July using data from monthly assessments over four months. Additionally, growth mixture modelling identified mental health trajectories for conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and emotional symptoms separately, and subsequent regression models were used to estimate predictors of mental health trajectory membership. Results: Overall levels of hyperactivity and conduct problems increased over time, whereas emotional symptoms remained relatively stable, though declined somewhat between June and July. Change over time varied according to child age, the presence of siblings, and with Special Educational Needs (SEN)/Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ND). Subsequent growth mixture modelling identified three, four, and five trajectories for hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, and emotional symptoms, respectively. Though many children maintained 'stable low' symptoms, others experienced elevated symptoms by July. These children were more likely to have a parent/carer with higher levels of psychological distress, to have SEN/ND, or to be younger in age. Conclusions: The findings support previous literature and highlight that certain risk factors were associated with poorer mental health trajectories for children and adolescents during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To have population-level impact, physical activity (PA) interventions must be effectively implemented and sustained under real-world conditions. Adequate Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) is integral to children being able to actively participate in play, games, and sports. Yet, few FMS interventions have been implemented at scale, nor sustained in routine practice, and thus it is important to understand the influences on sustained implementation. The study's aim was to use Collective Intelligence (CI)—an applied systems science approach—with stakeholder groups to understand barriers to the implementation of FMS interventions, interdependencies between these barriers, and options to overcome the system of barriers identified. Methods: Three CI sessions were conducted with three separate groups of experienced FMS intervention researchers/practitioners (N = 22) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Participants generated and ranked barriers they perceive most critical in implementing FMS interventions. Each group developed a structural model describing how highly ranked barriers are interrelated in a system. Participants then conducted action mapping to solve the problem based on the logical relations between barriers reflected in the model. Results: The top ranked barriers (of 76) are those related to policy, physical education curriculum, and stakeholders' knowledge and appreciation. As reflected in the structural model, these barriers have influences over stakeholders' efficacy in delivering and evaluating interventions. According to this logical structure, 38 solutions were created as a roadmap to inform policy, practice, and research. Collectively, solutions suggest that efforts in implementation and sustainability need to be coordinated (i.e., building interrelationship with multiple stakeholders), and a policy or local infrastructure that supports these efforts is needed. Conclusions: The current study is the first to describe the complexity of barriers to implementing and sustaining FMS interventions and provide a roadmap of actions that help navigate through the complexity. By directing attention to the ecological context of FMS intervention research and participation, the study provides researchers, policy makers, and practitioners with a framework of critical components and players that need to be considered when designing and operationalising future projects in more systemic and relational terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debate persists around the risk–benefit balance of vaccinating adolescents and children against COVID-19. Central to this debate is quantifying the contribution of adolescents and children to the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and the potential impact of vaccinating these age groups. In this study, we present a novel SEIR mathematical disease transmission model that quantifies the impact of different vaccination strategies on population-level SARS-CoV-2 infections and clinical outcomes. The model employs both age- and time-dependent social mixing patterns to capture the impact of changes in restrictions. The model was used to assess the impact of vaccinating adolescents and children on the natural history of the COVID-19 pandemic across all age groups, using the UK as an example. The base case model demonstrates significant increases in COVID-19 disease burden in the UK following a relaxation of restrictions, if vaccines are limited to those ≥18 years and vulnerable adolescents (≥12 years). Including adolescents and children in the vaccination program could reduce overall COVID-related mortality by 57%, and reduce cases of long COVID by 75%. This study demonstrates that vaccinating adolescents and children has the potential to play a vital role in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections, and subsequent COVID-19 morbidity and mortality, across all ages. Our results have major global public health implications and provide valuable information to inform a potential pandemic exit strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]