1
|
Yang Y(S, Law M, Vaghri Z. New Brunswick's mental health action plan: A quantitative exploration of program efficacy in children and youth using the Canadian Community Health Survey. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0301008. [PMID: 38848408 PMCID: PMC11161078 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0301008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2023] [Accepted: 03/09/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024] Open
Abstract
In 2011, the New Brunswick government released the New Brunswick Mental Health Action Plan 2011-2018 (Action Plan). Following the release of the Action Plan in 2011, two progress reports were released in 2013 and 2015, highlighting the implementation status of the Action Plan. While vague in their language, these reports indicated considerable progress in implementing the Action Plan, as various initiatives were undertaken to raise awareness and provide additional resources to facilitate early prevention and intervention in children and youth. However, whether these initiatives have yielded measurable improvements in population-level mental health outcomes in children and youth remains unclear. The current study explored the impact of the Action Plan by visualizing the trend in psychosocial outcomes and service utilization of vulnerable populations in New Brunswick before and after the implementation of the Action Plan using multiple datasets from the Canadian Community Health Survey. Survey-weighted ordinary least square regression analyses were performed to investigate measurable improvements in available mental health outcomes. The result revealed a declining trend in the mental wellness of vulnerable youth despite them consistently reporting higher frequencies of mental health service use. This study highlights the need for a concerted effort in providing effective mental health services to New Brunswick youth and, more broadly, Canadian youth, as well as ensuring rigorous routine outcome monitoring and evaluation plans are consistently implemented for future mental health strategies at the time of their initiation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Yuzhi (Stanford) Yang
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, Applied Science, and Engineering, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
| | - Moira Law
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science, St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
| | - Ziba Vaghri
- Global Child Program, Integrated Health Initiative, Faculty of Business, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Voronin I, Ouellet‐Morin I, Petitclerc A, Morneau‐Vaillancourt G, Brendgen M, Dione G, Vitaro F, Boivin M. Intergenerational transmission of genetic risk for hyperactivity and inattention. Direct genetic transmission or genetic nurture? JCPP ADVANCES 2024; 4:e12222. [PMID: 38827976 PMCID: PMC11143957 DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Background Hyperactivity and inattention, the symptoms of ADHD, are marked by high levels of heritability and intergenerational transmission. Two distinct pathways of genetic intergenerational transmission are distinguished: direct genetic transmission when parental genetic variants are passed to the child's genome and genetic nurture when the parental genetic background contributes to the child's outcomes through rearing environment. This study assessed genetic contributions to hyperactivity and inattention in childhood through these transmission pathways. Methods The sample included 415 families from the Quebec Newborn Twin Study. Twins' hyperactivity and inattention were assessed in early childhood by parents and in primary school by teachers. The polygenic scores for ADHD (ADHD-PGS) and educational attainment (EA-PGS) were computed from twins' and parents' genotypes. A model of intergenerational transmission was developed to estimate (1) the contributions of parents' and children's PGS to the twins' ADHD symptoms and (2) whether these variances were explained by genetic transmission and/or genetic nurture. Results ADHD-PGS explained up to 1.6% of the variance of hyperactivity and inattention in early childhood and primary school. EA-PGS predicted ADHD symptoms at both ages, explaining up to 1.6% of the variance in early childhood and up to 5.5% in primary school. Genetic transmission was the only significant transmission pathway of both PGS. The genetic nurture channeled through EA-PGS explained up to 3.2% of the variance of inattention in primary school but this association was non-significant. Conclusions Genetic propensities to ADHD and education predicted ADHD symptoms in childhood, especially in primary school. Its intergenerational transmission was driven primarily by genetic variants passed to the child, rather than by environmentally mediated parental genetic effects. The model developed in this study can be leveraged in future research to investigate genetic transmission and genetic nurture while accounting for parental assortative mating.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ivan Voronin
- École de psychologieUniversité LavalQuébecQuebecCanada
| | - Isabelle Ouellet‐Morin
- School of CriminologyUniversity of MontrealThe Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute and the Research Group on Child MaladjustmentMontréalQuebecCanada
| | | | - Geneviève Morneau‐Vaillancourt
- Social, Genetic & Developmental Psychiatry CentreInstitute of Psychiatry, Psychology & NeuroscienceKing's College LondonLondonUK
| | - Mara Brendgen
- Département de PsychologieUniversité du Québec à MontréalMontréalQuebecCanada
| | - Ginette Dione
- École de psychologieUniversité LavalQuébecQuebecCanada
| | - Frank Vitaro
- École de PsychoéducationUniversité de MontréalMontréalQuebecCanada
| | - Michel Boivin
- École de psychologieUniversité LavalQuébecQuebecCanada
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Frach L, Barkhuizen W, Allegrini AG, Ask H, Hannigan LJ, Corfield EC, Andreassen OA, Dudbridge F, Ystrom E, Havdahl A, Pingault JB. Examining intergenerational risk factors for conduct problems using polygenic scores in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study. Mol Psychiatry 2024; 29:951-961. [PMID: 38225381 PMCID: PMC11176059 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-023-02383-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Revised: 12/07/2023] [Accepted: 12/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/17/2024]
Abstract
The aetiology of conduct problems involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors, many of which are inherently linked to parental characteristics given parents' central role in children's lives across development. It is important to disentangle to what extent links between parental heritable characteristics and children's behaviour are due to transmission of genetic risk or due to parental indirect genetic influences via the environment (i.e., genetic nurture). We used 31,290 genotyped mother-father-child trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), testing genetic transmission and genetic nurture effects on conduct problems using 13 polygenic scores (PGS) spanning psychiatric conditions, substance use, education-related factors, and other risk factors. Maternal or self-reports of conduct problems at ages 8 and 14 years were available for up to 15,477 children. We found significant genetic transmission effects on conduct problems for 12 out of 13 PGS at age 8 years (strongest association: PGS for smoking, β = 0.07, 95% confidence interval = [0.05, 0.08]) and for 4 out of 13 PGS at age 14 years (strongest association: PGS for externalising problems, β = 0.08, 95% confidence interval = [0.05, 0.11]). Conversely, we did not find genetic nurture effects for conduct problems using our selection of PGS. Our findings provide evidence for genetic transmission in the association between parental characteristics and child conduct problems. Our results may also indicate that genetic nurture via traits indexed by our polygenic scores is of limited aetiological importance for conduct problems-though effects of small magnitude or effects via parental traits not captured by the included PGS remain a possibility.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leonard Frach
- Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
| | - Wikus Barkhuizen
- Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, UK
| | - Andrea G Allegrini
- Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, UK
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Helga Ask
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Laurie J Hannigan
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Elizabeth C Corfield
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Ole A Andreassen
- NORMENT Centre, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital & Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- KG Jebsen Centre for Neurodevelopmental disorders, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Frank Dudbridge
- Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
- NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
| | - Eivind Ystrom
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Alexandra Havdahl
- Center for Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway
- PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Nic Waals Institute, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jean-Baptiste Pingault
- Department of Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology, Division of Psychology & Language Sciences, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, London, UK
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK
| |
Collapse
|