Prevalence and Correlates of Mental Health Problems among Chinese Adolescents with Frequent Peer Victimization Experiences

The hidden curves of risk: a nonlinear model of cumulative risk and school bullying victimization among adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

BACKGROUND

School bullying victimization (SBV) occurs more frequently in students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in general education than in special classes, and there is a cumulative risk effect on SBV exposure among young people with ASD reported by their parents and teachers. However, SBV is a personal experience, the predictive patterns of cumulative risk on SBV reported by themselves and its psychological mechanism remain unclear. This study aims to explore the relationship between cumulative risk and SBV based on self-report, and to test whether internalizing problems mediates this relationship among adolescents with ASD placed in regular classes.

METHODS

This study used data from the Taiwan Special Needs Education Longitudinal Study (SNELS) in 2011. The analysis included 508 adolescents with ASD who were in regular classes across Taiwan. The primary variables under study were the quality of friendship interactions, teacher-student relationship, school connection, perceived stigma, the impact caused by the disabilities, internalizing problem, and whether the participants had experienced SBV over the past semester, while control variables were adaptability and social-emotional skills. Established risk factors were summed to form a cumulative risk score.

RESULTS

The cumulative risk was positively associated with SBV. The relationship was characterized by the nonlinear pattern of the quadratic function (negative acceleration model) between cumulative risk and SBV. Internalizing problem played a partial mediating role in the effect of cumulative risk on SBV.

CONCLUSIONS

Intervention measures to reduce SBV should include the strategies to reduce the number of risks to which adolescents with ASD in regular classes are exposed, comprehensive prevention targeting each risk factor is needed specially when the number of risks is one or two, and more attention needs to be given to their internalizing problem in various ways.

Psychometric properties of the Youth Self-rated Insomnia Scale (YSIS) in adolescent psychiatric patients

The 8-item Youth Self-rated Insomnia Scale (YSIS) was developed to assess insomnia severity in the past month among youths. The YSIS has satisfactory psychometric properties in the general adolescent population. This study examined psychometric properties of the YSIS in a large sample of adolescent psychiatric patients. A total of 536 patients aged 10-19 years were consecutively recruited from the outpatient department of Shandong Mental Health Center between December 2021 and March 2022. Patients completed a structured questionnaire consisting of the YSIS scale and questions about sleep duration, nightmares, psychiatric history, depression, psychiatric and sleep medications, and demographics. Patients were diagnosed following the ICD-10 criteria. Of the participants, the mean age was 15.30 years (SD = 1.95), 61.0% were female, 60.9% were diagnosed with mood disorders, 65.7% were on antidepressants, and 49.0% were on anxiolytics or hypnotics. The mean YSIS score was 22.6 (SD = 8.07). Coefficient omega was 0.84. Exploratory factor analysis revealed one factor and two correlated residuals. The YSIS scores were significantly correlated with depression scores (r = 0.68) and significantly increased with sleep onset latency, short sleep duration, nightmare frequency, and sleep medication use. The YSIS demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and criteria-related validity in adolescent psychiatric patients. The YSIS appears to be a reliable and valid scale for measuring insomnia severity in adolescent psychiatric patients.