The integrated motivational–volitional (IMV) model of suicidal behaviour has received growing empirical support, yet few studies have tested its core pathways (defeat → entrapment → suicidal ideation → suicide attempts) in clinical psychiatric adolescent populations. Evidence on volitional moderators influencing the transition from ideation to action remains limited.

This study aimed to (a) test the core pathways of the IMV model and (b) examine whether volitional moderators differentiate between adolescents with suicidal ideation and those who have attempted suicide.

In this cross-sectional study, 203 Danish adolescents aged 13–19 years were recruited from an out-patient child and adolescent psychiatry department, including patients in treatment or referred for initial assessment. Participants completed validated measures assessing IMV constructs. Path analysis tested the core pathways and multinomial logistic regression examined associations between volitional moderators and group membership (no suicidal behaviour, suicidal ideation only and suicide attempt), with Wald tests comparing effects across outcomes.

Findings supported the core IMV pathway, with the entrapment–ideation pathway being weakest. Volitional moderators were more strongly associated with suicide attempts than suicidal ideation, with significant differences confirmed by Wald tests. A dose–response pattern showed increasing likelihood of suicide attempts with greater exposure to volitional moderators; effect sizes differed significantly between ideation (odds ratio 2.21) and attempts (odds ratio 3.94).

Results support the IMV model and highlight the role of volitional moderators in differentiating between suicidal ideation and attempts. These findings support a shift towards theory-informed psychosocial assessment in clinical adolescent populations.

Child video game playing (“gaming”) may lead to decreased child academic motivation. Conversely, children with low academic motivation may seek fulfillment through gaming. We examined bidirectional associations between child gaming and academic motivation across middle childhood.

Our analyses are based on 1,631 children (boys = 785) followed in the context of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Data on gaming and academic motivation were collected repeatedly at ages 7, 8, and 10. Measures of child gaming were parent-reported and reflect daily video game playing time. Measures of academic motivation were child self-reported and reflect enjoyment in learning mathematics, reading, and writing. To disentangle the directionality of associations, we estimated a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model to estimate bidirectional, within-person associations between gaming and academic motivation in a cohort of school-aged Canadian children.

Our results revealed unidirectional associations whereby more frequent gaming by boys at age 7 years predicted lower academic motivation at age 8 years (β = −.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −.22 to −.01), and similarly, gaming by boys at age 8 years predicted lower academic motivation at age 10 years (β = −.10, 95% CI: −.19 to −.01). Changes in boys’ academic motivation did not contribute to subsequent changes in gaming. There were no associations between gaming and academic motivation for girls.

More time devoted to gaming among school-aged boys is associated with reduced academic motivation during a critical developmental period for the development of academic skills. Fostering healthy gaming habits may help promote academic motivation and success.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women's mental health. However, most evidence has focused on mental illbeing outcomes, and there is little evidence on the mechanisms underlying this unequal impact.

To investigate gender differences in the long-term trajectories of life satisfaction, how these were affected during the pandemic and the role of time-use differences in explaining gender inequalities.

We used data from 6766 (56.2% women) members of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). Life satisfaction was prospectively assessed between the ages of 26 (1996) and 51 (2021) years, using a single question with responses ranging from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). We analysed life satisfaction trajectories with piecewise latent growth curve models, and investigated whether gender differences in the change in the life satisfaction trajectories with the pandemic were explained by self-reported time spent doing different paid and unpaid activities.

Women had consistently higher life satisfaction than men before the pandemic (Δintercept,unadjusted = 0.213, 95% CI 0.087–0.340; P = 0.001) and experienced a more accelerated decline with the pandemic onset (Δquad2,unadjusted = −0.018, 95% CI −0.026 to −0.011; P < 0.001). Time-use differences did not account for the more accelerated decrease in women's life satisfaction levels with the pandemic (Δquad2,adjusted = −0.016, 95% CI −0.031 to −0.001; P = 0.035).

Our study shows pronounced gender inequalities in the impact of the pandemic on the long-term life satisfaction trajectories of adults in their 50s, with women losing their pre-pandemic advantage over men. Self-reported time-use differences did not account for these inequalities. More research is needed to tackle gender inequalities in population mental health.

There is substantial variation in patient symptoms following psychological therapy for depression and anxiety. However, reliance on endpoint outcomes ignores additional interindividual variation during therapy. Knowing a patient's likely symptom trajectories could guide clinical decisions. We aimed to identify latent classes of patients with similar symptom trajectories over the course of psychological therapy and explore associations between baseline variables and trajectory class.

Patients received high-intensity psychological treatment for common mental health problems at National Health Service Improving Access to Psychological Therapies services in South London (N = 16 258). To identify trajectories, we performed growth mixture modelling of depression and anxiety symptoms over 11 sessions. We then ran multinomial regressions to identify baseline variables associated with trajectory class membership.

Trajectories of depression and anxiety symptoms were highly similar and best modelled by four classes. Three classes started with moderate-severe symptoms and showed (1) no change, (2) gradual improvement, and (3) fast improvement. A final class (4) showed initially mild symptoms and minimal improvement. Within the moderate-severe baseline symptom classes, patients in the two showing improvement as opposed to no change tended not to be prescribed psychotropic medication or report a disability and were in employment. Patients showing fast improvement additionally reported lower baseline functional impairment on average.

Multiple trajectory classes of depression and anxiety symptoms were associated with baseline characteristics. Identifying the most likely trajectory for a patient at the start of treatment could inform decisions about the suitability and continuation of therapy, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Low self-esteem (LSE) has been associated with several psychiatric disorders, and is presumably influenced by transdiagnostic factors. Our study was based both on investigations of the relationship between depression and LSE (vulnerability, scar, reciprocal models) and on theories of cognitive factors contributing to the development and maintenance of LSE, such as Melanie Fennell’s model, the catalyst model and the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model.

Based on the theories above, in our cross-sectional study we aimed at understanding more specifically the transdiagnostic factors that can maintain LSE in a heterogeneous clinical sample.

Six hundred and eleven out-patients were assessed by SCID-I and self-report questionnaires. The model was tested by structural equation modelling.

Based on the fit indices, the hypothesis model did not fit the data; therefore, a modified transdiagnostic model was emerged. This model made a good fit to the data [χ2 (12, n=611)=76.471, p<.001; RMSEA=.080, CFI=.950, TLI=.913] with a strong explanatory power (adj R2=.636). Severe stressful life events and depressive symptoms lead to LSE indirectly. Self-blame, perfectionism, seeking love and hopelessness have been identified as mediating factors in the relationship between depressive symptoms and LSE. Although there was a significant correlation between state-anxiety and LSE, as well as LSE and rumination, these two factors did not fit into the model.

The new transdiagnostic model of LSE has great potential in the treatment of various mental conditions and may serve as a guide to developing more focused and more effective therapeutic interventions.

Psychological models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) make predictions about the role of unhelpful coping strategies in maintaining difficulties by blocking self-correction of negative appraisals and memory integration following stressful life events like bereavement. However, few studies have tested these predictions directly.

We used counterfactually based causal mediation to assess whether unhelpful coping strategies mediated the relationship between (1) loss-related memory characteristics and/or (2) negative grief-related appraisals and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression using a three-wave longitudinal sample (N = 275). Appraisals and memory characteristics were measured at time point 1, unhelpful coping strategies at T2, and symptom variables at T3. Additionally, multiple mediation analyses within a structural equation modelling (SEM) framework assessed which types of coping strategies differentially mediated symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression.

Coping strategies mediated the relationship between negative appraisals and memory characteristics and symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression after adjusting for demographics and loss characteristics. Sensitivity analyses suggested that these results were most robust for PGD, followed by PTSD and then depression. Multiple mediation analyses suggested that all four subscales (avoidance, proximity seeking, loss rumination and injustice rumination) individually mediated the effect of memory characteristics and appraisals on PGD.

These results suggest that core predictions of the cognitive model for PTSD and the cognitive behavioural model of PGD are useful in predicting symptoms of post-loss mental health problems in the first 12–18 months after loss. Targeting unhelpful coping strategies is likely to reduce symptoms of PGD, PTSD and depression.

To determine the temporal directionality of the association between food insecurity and maternal depression.

Food insecurity was measured at two time points using the eighteen-item USDA Food Security Scale. Maternal depression was measured at two time points using the fifteen-item Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Short Form. Two structural equation models were utilised to evaluate the impact of food insecurity on maternal depression (model 1) and the impact of maternal depression on food insecurity (model 2). Both models controlled for socio-demographic and parenting characteristics and child behaviour problems, along with prior measures of the dependent variable and concurrent measures of the independent variable.

Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing (FFCW) study, twenty cities across the USA.

4897 mothers who participated in two waves of the FFCW study.

On average, 17 % (time 1) and 15 % (time 2) of mothers experienced food insecurity and 21 % (time 1) and 17 % (time 2) of mothers experienced depression over time. Maternal depression at time 1 was associated with 53 % increased odds (OR = 1·53; B = 0·43; P < 0·001) of food insecurity at time 2, controlling for time 1 food insecurity, concurrent depression and covariates. Food insecurity at time 1 was associated with 36 % increased odds (OR = 1·36; B = 0·31; P < 0·001) of maternal depression at time 2, controlling for time 1 depression, concurrent food insecurity and covariates.

We found a bidirectional relationship between food insecurity and maternal depression. A holistic approach that combines food assistance and mental health services may be an efficacious approach to reducing both depressive symptoms and food insecurity among low-income mothers.

Few studies are focused on sugar consumption around the first 1000 d of life. Thus, this work modelled the pathways linking the consumption of sugary drinks in pregnancy and maternal pre-gestational BMI to early child’s exposure to products with high sugar content and to BMI z-score in the second year of life.

BRISA cohort, São Luís, Brazil was used from the baseline to the follow-up at the second year of life.

A theoretical model was constructed to analyse associations between variables from prenatal period (socio-economic status, age, frequency of sugary drinks consumption during pregnancy and pre-gestational BMI), birth weight, exclusive breast-feeding and two outcomes: higher calories from products with added sugar as a percentage of the total daily energy intake and BMI z-score at follow-up at the first 2 years of life, using structural equation modelling.

Data of pregnant women (n 1136) and their offspring.

Higher pre-gestational BMI (standardised coefficient (SC) = 0·100; P = 0·008) and higher frequency of sugary drinks consumption during pregnancy (SC = 0·134; P < 0·001) resulted in high percentage of daily calories from products with added sugar in the second year of child, although no yet effect was observed on offspring weight at that time.

Maternal obesity and sugary drinks consumption in pregnancy increased the risk of early exposure (before to 2 years) and high exposure of child to added sugar, showing perpetuation of the unhealthy dietary behaviours in the first 1000 d of life.

The quality of life (QOL) of patients with schizophrenia has been found to be positively correlated with the social network and empowerment, and negatively correlated with stigma and depression. However, little is known about the way these variables impact on the QOL. The study aims to test the hypothesis that the social network, stigma and empowerment directly and indirectly by contributing to depression influence the QOL in patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders.

Data were collected on demographic and clinical variables, internalized stigma, perceived devaluation and discrimination, empowerment, control convictions, depression and QOL. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to examine the impact of the above-mentioned constructs on QOL.

The influences of the social network, stigma, empowerment and depression on QOL were supported by the SEM. A poor social network contributed to a lack of empowerment and stigma, which resulted in depression and, in turn, in poor QOL. Interestingly, however, the social network and stigma did not show a direct effect on QOL.

Following a recovery approach in mental health services by focusing on the improvement of the social network, stigma reduction and especially on the development of personal strength has the potential to reduce depression in patients with psychosis and improving their QOL.