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Background: Social withdrawal is a core neuropsychiatric phenomenon in developmental psychopathology. Its presence predicts psychopathology across many domains, including depression, psychosis, autism, anxiety, and suicide. Withdrawn behavior is highly heritable, persistent, and characteristically worsens without intervention. To date, few studies have successfully identified genetic associations with withdrawn behavior, despite the abundance of evidence of its heritability. This may be due to reliance of categorical over dimensional measures of the behaviorally inhibited phenotype. The aim of this study is to identify associations between known psychiatric candidate genes and a dimensionally derived measure of withdrawn behavior. Methods: Genetic information was collected on 20 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from a custom-designed SNP chip and TAQMAN arrays of 4 variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) genes for 551 individuals from 187 families. Linear mixed modeling was employed to examine the relationship between genotypes of interest and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Withdrawn Behavior Subscale Score (WBS) while controlling for gender and age through multiple linear regressions. Results: Withdrawn behavior was highly associated with polymorphism "rs6314" of the serotonin receptor 2A ("HTR2A") [p = 0.009, estimate = 0.310 (bootstrap 95% CI 0.155-0.448), bootstrap p = 0.001] and "rs1800544" of the alpha 2-adrenergic ("ADRA2A") [ p = 0.001, estimate = -0.310 (bootstrap 95% CI -0.479 to -0.126), bootstrap p = 0.001] genes after correction for gender and age. The association between withdrawn behavior and "ADRA2A" was stronger for younger children. Conclusions: "HTR2A" and "ADRA2A" genes are associated with withdrawn behavior. This reinforces the role of catecholaminergic genes in the heritability of withdrawn behavior.

Objective: Using a general population sample, the adult outcomes of children who presented with severe problems with self-regulation defined as being concurrently rated highly on attention problems, aggressive behavior, and anxious-depression on the Child Behavior Checklist-Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP) were examined. Method: Two thousand seventy-six children from 13 birth cohorts 4 to 16 years of age were drawn from Dutch birth registries in 1983. CBCLs were completed by parents at baseline when children from the different cohorts were 4 to 16 years of age and sampled every 2 years for the next 14 years. At year 14 the CBCL and DSM interview data were collected. Logistic regression was used to compare and contrast outcomes for children with and without dysregulation, as measured by the latent-class-defined CBCL-DP. Sex and age were covaried and concurrent DSM diagnoses were included in regression models. Results: Presence of childhood CBCL-DP at wave 1 was associated with increased rates of adult anxiety disorders, mood disorders, disruptive behavior disorders, and drug abuse 14 years later. After controlling for co-occurring disorders in adulthood, associations with anxiety and disruptive behavior disorders with the CBCL-DP remained, whereas the others were not significant. Conclusions: A child reported to be in the CBCL-DP class is at increased risk for problems with regulating affect, behavior, and cognition in adulthood. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

Disorders of self-regulatory behavior are common reasons for referral to child and adolescent clinicians. Here, the authors sought to compare 2 methods of empirically based assessment of children with problems in self-regulatory behavior. Using parental reports on 2,028 children (53% boys) from a U.S. national probability sample of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001), the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was applied to compare scores on the Posttraumatic Stress Problems Scale (PTSP) of the CBCL with the CBCL Dysregulation Profile (DP), identified using latent class analysis of the Attention Problems, Aggressive Behavior, and Anxious/Depressed scales of the CBCL. The CBCL-PTSP score demonstrated an area under the curve of between 0.88 and 0.91 for predicting membership in the CBCL-DP profile for boys and for girls. These findings suggest that the CBCL-PTSP, which others have shown does not uniquely identify children who have been traumatized, does identify the same profile of behavior as the CBCL-DP. Therefore, the authors recommend renaming the CBCL-PTSP the Dysregulation Short Scale and provide some guidelines for the use of the CBCL-DP scale and the CBCL-PTSP in clinical practice. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

Objective: To test the association between the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism and both aggressive behavior and attention problems in youth. We hypothesized that youth carrying a Met allele would have greater average aggressive behavior scores, and that youth exhibiting Val-homozygosity would have greater average attention problems scores. Method: Complete data on maternally rated Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) measures of aggressive behavior (AGG) and attention problems (AP), COMT polymorphism data, demographics, and maternal parenting quality were available for 149 youth (6 to 18 years old). Multivariable linear regression models were used to test the degree to which youth COMT Val158Met genotype was associated with AGG and AP while statistically controlling for age, gender, parental socioeconomic status (SES), and maternal parenting quality from the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. Results: Mothers of Met-carriers rated their children higher on average AGG scores when compared with mothers of Val-homozygotes (p = 0.016). Further analyses revealed that this association was even more robust for maternal ratings of direct aggression (p = 0.007). The hypothesized association between Val-homozygosity and higher average AP scores relative to average AP scores of Met-carriers did not quite reach statistical significance (p = 0.062). Conclusions: After controlling for demographics, SES, and maternal parenting quality as confounders, there remains a strong association between youth carrying a Met allele and higher average AGG scores relative to Val-homozygotes. (Contains 2 tables.)

Objective: The authors assess changes in knowledge and feeling connected to the field of child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP) after participation in a brief mentoring program held at two CAP conferences. Methods: Similar mentorship programs were implemented at two CAP conferences, one national (N=119 participants), one international (N=53). The 4-day programs were part of larger travel awards, and included daily small group meetings consisting of a mode of two mentors and six participants. The authors created a survey with 40 quantitative questions designed to measure the change in participants' perceptions related to the conference and mentoring program, and provided additional fields for narrative comments. Results: Mean participant ratings were positive for all questions on the survey. Changes in connectedness were rated higher than those in knowledge. The highest mean ratings were related to feeling more connected to the host organization, to CAP, and to other program participants. Outcomes were similar between the two conferences, except for knowledge gained on research, which was higher among participants in the international meeting. Outcomes were similar across demographic variables, except for internationally trained participants rating higher on research knowledge, connectedness, and overall knowledge. Over 75% of participants felt they made a connection with their mentor, bonded as a group, and learned new things about CAP and the host organization. A qualitative review of comments revealed several themes, including heightened importance of networking, increased awareness of the field, improved connectedness, a desire for trainee-focused events, and mixed feelings about how much structure to provide within the mentorship experience. Conclusion: A brief group-style mentoring program is logistically feasible within large conferences, and can result in broad positive impact for trainees. Future studies are warranted to determine if these programs have lasting effects on connectedness, career choice, and career development.

The study applies latent profiles analysis to a group of children and adolescents to test temperament phenotypes in order to examine their association to wellness and psychopathology. One of the results concluded that lifetime disorder was lower in the steady class as compared to moderate class.

Wellness and happiness should be considered in the clinical treatment of child and adolescent psychiatry, in addition with thinking about illness. Meanwhile, various studies on child and adolescent psychiatry,which includes an article from the "Journal of Happiness Studies," are discussed.