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A new study published in the Journal of Neurology looked at the association between peer victimization, gender diversity, mental health, and recurrent headaches in adolescents. “In this study, we wanted to try and understand if bullying and being gender diverse are associated with frequent headaches in teens,” study author Serena L. Orr told us. “Although some past studies have looked at the relationship between bullying and headaches, they have not adequately controlled for other risk factors associated with both of these, including mental health, age, and sex." [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Youth and Society looked at the influence of the neighborhood environment on stress among Black American adolescents. “My study uses this scoping review method to explore what is known about various aspects of the neighborhood environment and how these aspects contribute to stress among Black children and youth aged 10-18 years old. We were hoping to identify specific characteristics of the neighborhood environment and home in on how these characteristics have contributed to stressors among Black children and youth – with the goal of brainstorming some strategies for resolving this relationship," study author Dr. Melissa L. Villodas told us. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Nature Mental Health looked at plasma proteomics discovery of mental health risk biomarkers in adolescents. “Our study primarily focused on discovering plasma protein-based susceptibility biomarkers that could indicate adolescents at risk of developing mental health issues,” study authors Katja M. Kanninen and Alexey Afonin from the University of Eastern Finland told us. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at moral reasoning about gang violence by children and adolescents exposed to maras in Honduras and not exposed in Nicaragua. “My interest in child moral development and community violence involving gangs comes from my own personal experiences growing up,” study author Franklin Moreno told us. “My study is about how children and adolescents morally evaluate and reason about acts of physical violence associated with gangs that impact the communities they live in. [More]

A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal looked at household food insecurity and health service use for mental and substance use disorders among children and adolescents in Ontario, Canada. “There have been other studies that have shown that food insecurity can lead to behavioural issues among children and adolescents, as well as symptoms of mental health problems,” study author Kelly Anderson told us. “We wanted to examine whether these behaviours and symptoms are translating to clinically significant mental health problems that require contact with the health care system.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Psychological Medicine looked at early-initiated childhood reading for pleasure and its associations with better cognitive performance, mental well-being and brain structure in early teens. “I and my co-authors wanted to understand the effects of reading for pleasure in young children on brain structure, cognition, school academic achievement and mental health,” study author Barbara J. Shakahian told us. “Some of the previously published literature suggested that there should be beneficial effects on cognition, but there had not been a very large scale study, with over 10,000 adolescents before on all these measures together.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine compared the burden of sleep disorders among a cohort of US transgender and cisgender youth. “We were looking for any differences in sleep disorders between cisgender and transgender youth and between transgender people using and those not using gender-affirming therapy,” study author Dr. Ronald Gavidia, M.S., M.S. told us. [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Depression and Anxiety looked at the association of early exposure to flame retardants to anxiety symptoms in adolescents. “The study focuses on how exposure to certain chemicals found in the environment during pregnancy affects individuals later in life,” study author Dr. Jeffrey Strawn, MD, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience in UC’s College of Medicine. “We were specifically interested in how in utero exposure to these chemicals impacts the development of anxiety later in life.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Child Development looked at perceived parental social support and psychological control and how it can predict depressive symptoms for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning youth in the United States. “The purpose of our study was to test how parent support and parent control relate to symptoms of depression for LGBTQ youth,” study author Amy McCurdy of the University of Texas at Austin told us. “We were hoping to establish that general parenting practices matter for LGBTQ youth, which seems obvious, but in fact little research has done this.” [More]

A new study published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry looked at how the experience of corporal punishment might shape how the adolescent brain responds to mistakes and receiving rewards. “One of the co-authors, Alexandria Meyer, has repeatedly shown that harsh parenting is associated with increased neural responses to making mistakes,” study author Kreshnik Burani told us. [More]