Early developmental risk for subsequent childhood mental disorders in an Australian population cohort

Abstract

Objective: We examined associations between developmental vulnerability profiles determined at the age of 5 years and subsequent childhood mental illness between ages 6 and 13 years in an Australian population cohort. Methods: Intergenerational records from New South Wales (NSW) Government Departments of Health and Child Protection spanning pre-birth to 13 years of age were linked with the 2009 Australian Early Development Census records for 86,668 children. Mental illness indices for children were extracted from health records between 2009 and 2016 (child's age of 6-13 years). Associations between mental disorder diagnoses and membership of early childhood risk groups, including those with established 'special needs' (3777, 4.3%) at school entry, or putative risk classes delineated via latent class analysis of Australian Early Development Census subdomains-referred to as 'pervasive risk' (N = 3479; 4.0%), 'misconduct risk' (N = 5773; 6.7%) or 'mild generalised risk' (N = 9542; 11%)-were estimated using multinomial logistic regression, relative to children showing 'no risk' (N = 64,097; 74%). Poisson regression models estimated the relative risk of a greater number of days recorded with mental health service contacts among children in each Australian Early Development Census risk group. Adjusted models included child's sex, socioeconomic disadvantage, child protection contacts and parental mental illness as covariates. Results: The crude odds of any mental disorder among children aged 6-13 years was increased approximately threefold in children showing pervasive risk or misconduct risk profiles at the age of 5 years, and approximately sevenfold in children with special needs, relative to children showing no risk; patterns of association largely remained after adjusting for covariates. Children with special needs and the misconduct risk class used mental health services over a greater number of days than the no risk class. Conclusion: Patterns of early childhood developmental vulnerability are associated with subsequent onset of mental disorders and have the potential to inform interventions to mitigate the risk for mental disorders in later childhood and adolescence.

Associations between School Readiness and Student Wellbeing: A Six-Year Follow Up Study

“…Given this increased focus on student wellbeing as an important school outcome, it would be helpful to further understand the association between different aspects of school readiness and later student wellbeing, to help guide interventions programs that support school readiness, mental health and wellbeing in early childhood settings and schools. Previous studies have demonstrated an association between school readiness, including internalising/ externalising behaviours, fine and gross motor skills and language abilities in early childhood, and measures of student wellbeing in later childhood (Bart et al 2007;Chow and Wehby 2018;Green et al 2019), however few studies measure multiple aspects of school readiness and student wellbeing in a single study. The aim of this paper is to explore the association between school readiness on entry into elementary/ primary school across five developmental domains (physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication and general knowledge) and student wellbeing (life satisfaction, optimism, sadness and worries) measured 6 years later.…”

Forecasting childhood adversities from conditions of birth

“…12,13 However, there has been less focus on the value of pre-empting an early developmental period marred by early childhood adversities by using information known about the family at birth; there has also been relatively less attention paid to the combined impact of birth risk exposures on socio-emotional and cognitive competencies in childhood, or other potentially important adverse experiences such as early contact with criminal justice or child protection services, known to contribute to adult underemployment, criminality and health problems. 26,29 The range of childhood outcomes examined in this study each represents a potential intermediate step on the pathway/s to adult health and social burden; namely, early developmental vulnerability, 30 educational underachievement, 31,32 childhood-onset mental disorders, 33 childhood maltreatment 25,32 and police contacts as a victim or a person of interest. 5 The capacity to predict these individual or cumulative adverse childhood outcomes from birth circumstances was afforded by linked intergenerational data available for an Australian population cohort of ~72,000 children 34,35 from pre-birth up to the age of 13-14 years.…”

“…The range of childhood outcomes examined in this study each represents a potential intermediate step on the pathway/s to adult health and social burden; namely, early developmental vulnerability , 30 educational underachievement , 31,32 childhood ‐ onset mental disorders , 33 childhood maltreatment 25,32 and police contacts as a victim or a person of interest 5 . The capacity to predict these individual or cumulative adverse childhood outcomes from birth circumstances was afforded by linked intergenerational data available for an Australian population cohort of ~72,000 children 34,35 from pre‐birth up to the age of 13–14 years.…”

Experiences of people with mental ill-health involved in family court or child protection processes : A rapid evidence review

“…One of these issues is poorly treated parental mental illness. For example, using the NSW Child Development Study (NSW-CDS) a population longitudinal cohort study of child mental health and wellbeing, Green et al (2019) identified that maternal mental health disorder is one of six risk factors for entering out-of-home care in NSW.…”