Using network analysis, this study investigated how family communication patterns (Conversation and Conformity) were related to and predictive of adolescent overall depression severity and specific symptoms. A community sample of adolescents (10-17 years, n = 1327) completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Family Communication Pattern Instrument. Depressive symptoms were also re-assessed 6 months later. Results showed that Conversation orientation protected against, whereas Conformity orientation increased the risk of adolescent depression. Family communication particularly influenced the child's feeling of being unloved, and feeling unloved was the only symptom prospectively predicted by two communication orientations at baseline. These findings revealed the path linking family factors to adolescent depression and may have implications for future family-based interventions.

Mental health conditions are difficult to diagnose, requiring expert clinicians and subjective judgements. There has been interest in finding quantitative biomarkers using resting state electroencephalogram (EEG) data. Here, we focus on resting state EEG biomarkers of autism. Although many previous reports have pointed to differences between autistic and neurotypical participants, results have often failed to replicate and sample sizes have typically been small. Taking a big-data, open-science approach, we combined data from 5 studies to create a large sample of autistic and neurotypical individuals (n=776) and used high-power computing to extract 942 variables from each participant’s data. Using a systematic, preregistered analysis pipeline, we failed to identify even a single EEG-based variable that could serve as a practically useful biomarker of autism clinical diagnosis. Our results highlight that a biomarker for autism drawn from EEG data is an elusive construct that may not exist.

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The Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale measures state anhedonia in multiple domains, such as hobbies, food and drink, social activities, and sensory experience, and it has good reliability and validity in adult samples. However, no study has examined the psychometrical properties of this scale in adolescents. The present study examined its reliability and validity in adolescents with and without depression. In Study 1, 988 high‐school students completed the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale; 915 completed the second‐round survey 3 months later. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine the factor structure. Additionally, internal consistency and test–retest reliability, and concurrent, convergent, and divergent validity were assessed in typical adolescents. In Study 2, the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale was administrated to 108 patients with major depressive disorder, 108 adolescents with subthreshold depression, and 108 healthy controls. Factor structure and convergent validity were assessed in the clinical and subclinical groups. Finally, a one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to examine the effect of depression severity on the scale scores. The results of Study 1 indicated that a four‐factor model (i.e., hobbies, food and drink, social activities, and sensory experience) best fit the data. Meanwhile, the scale also yielded good concurrent, convergent, and divergent validity, as well as high internal consistency and test–retest reliability, in typical adolescents. In Study 2, goodness‐of‐fit statistics also suggested a good fit for the four‐factor model in the two depressed groups. The one‐way ANOVA revealed significant group differences in the total and factor scores, whereby the major depressive disorder group had lower scores than the subthreshold depression group, whose scores were lower than the healthy controls, indicating excellent eligibility of the scale in depressed adolescents. The Chinese version of the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale is a reliable and valid instrument to comprehensively measure state anhedonia in Chinese typical and depressed adolescents.