This project is linked to dataset B2857

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common childhood neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by impaired levels of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Meta-analyses estimate the global pooled prevalence of ADHD to be 7.2% in children and adolescents (Thomas et al., 2015) and 3.4% in adults (Fayyad et al., 2007). Cross-sectional studies have shown anxiety disorders are more prevalent in individuals with ADHD compared to the general population (Van Ameringen, Mancini, Simpson, & Patterson, 2010) and the rates increase with age; up to 30% of young people and 50% of adults (Kooji et al., 2012) with ADHD meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder.
Although anxiety is highly prevalent in those with ADHD, much of the longitudinal research focuses on whether ADHD is associated with subsequent behaviour disorders and substance misuse. A 2008 systematic review by Jarret and Ollendick specifically identified a lack of longitudinal research on ADHD and subsequent anxiety; this finding still applies today. Longitudinal research on the matter is of importance to see whether ADHD symptoms predispose an individual to the development of anxiety. A recent study examined the association between co-occurring ADHD and anxiety from early to late adolescence and identified a bidirectional relationship between ADHD symptoms and anxiety (Murray et al., 2020) however, no study has examined longitudinal associations between childhood ADHD symptoms and anxiety in adolescence. This would provide a fuller picture of the association between ADHD and anxiety considering the onset of ADHD is often in childhood.

This project is linked to B2857.

Around 40% of the EU population suffers from a mental disorder. Healthy development can be derailed by excessive or prolonged activation of stress response systems in the body and brain during fetal life. Such toxic stress exposure can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and mental health across the lifespan. Our ERA-NET consortium (Project EMBED) focuses on two cohorts (offspring of obese or stressed mothers), aiming to address specific questions on mental health risk factors. This might be then used in the clinic for disease prevention and health promotion during pregnancy.

Our hypothesis is that maternal obesity and inadequate nutrition during prenatal life can trigger similar responses to maternal stress, altering developmental trajectories and increasing the risk for mental health in adulthood. These adverse experiences can increase the likelihood of developmental delays and later health problems.

Our consortium analyzes epigenetic modifications from the abovementioned cohorts, assessing whether common biological signals characterize early exposure to metabolic and psychological stress, affecting the long-lasting expression and methylation of genes involved in depression, obesity, and immune-metabolic function. We propose to use the ALSPAC data to compare and validate the findings from our consortium-generated data, in a larger/complementary context.

There is some evidence that girls who experience an earlier onset of menarche than their peers are at greater risk of engaging in a range of risky behaviours in adolescence such as: early initiation of sexual activity; substance use, and antisocial behaviour. Early maturing girls' more mature physical appearance and tendency to affiliate with older peer groups could expose them to increased opportunities for risk taking. It is unclear, however, if the relationship between early timing of menarche and increased risky behaviours persists into later adolescence and early adulthood.

We conducted a quantitative analysis of ALSPAC participants to investigate patterns of multiple cancer risk behaviours across adolescence (11-18 years) and their associations with future cancer risk behaviours in early adulthood (24 years). We found there was a very strong association between adolescent and young adult behaviours. While there has been some quantitative work examining the association between adolescent risk profiles and early adult risk, there has been little in the way of qualitative work to explore how young people and/or early adults themselves understand this relationship. Researchers have called for young people to have a stronger voice as key to improving adolescent health, and means being sensitive to young people’s construction of risk behaviour. As such, this qualitative study attempts to address this gap in the literature.

We urgently need better evidence about how our experiences before birth might influence our long-term health. Most research in this area has focused on the diets and lifestyles of pregnant mothers, but the evidence is patchy and health advice offered to pregnant women can be confusing and inconsistent. More recent research suggests that a father's diet and behaviour can influence the health of his unborn children, but very little public health advice is currently offered to fathers-to-be.

Some studies have found that children born to mothers who adhere to a Mediterranean diet (typified by a high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits and nuts, unrefined cereals, fish and olive oil) during pregnancy have better health than their peers. But does this represent a causal effect of Mediterranean diet on offspring health or is it merely correlated due to confounding factors? And what about fathers? Can their adherence to a Mediterranean diet affect their child’s health?

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood such as experiencing abuse or neglect; witnessing violence at home; or having a family member incarcerated or addicted to substances such as drugs or alcohol. In the UK, 50% of Welsh adults (Public Health Wales 2018) and 47% of English adults (Bellis et al., 2014) have experienced at least one ACE during childhood. The cumulative effect of multiple, overlapping ACEs, have been shown to increase the risk and severity of chronic conditions including cancer, heart disease and chronic pain including musculoskeletal conditions in adults but we do not know what the effects are more immediately, within childhood and adolescence.

One such consequence of early adversity is chronic and persistent pain and significantly impacts quality of life and well-being (Fisher et al., 2016; Caes et al., 2015; IASP ICD 2016). The strongest evidence for an association comes from Groenewald and colleagues (2020) who investigated in a nationally representative sample of over 48,000 American children and found that those with a history of ACEs had an increased risk of chronic pain. The association increased in a dose-dependent manner and was driven by parental substance misuse ACEs and poverty ACEs.

There has been little attention within longitudinal population-based birth cohort studies, such as ALSPAC, exploring the relationship between comprehensively assessed ACEs and pain in children (Nelson et al., 2017). It would be more clinically relevant to identify the specific ACE types that most contribute to pain outcomes. We could use this to better inform intervention strategies for pain management with meaningful clinical and empirical value in children and adolescents with persistent pain conditions.

Our original proposal, B2492, is about the joint development of health, skills and education. From the start, this involved studying the role of genetic and early-life environmental factors in shaping individuals’ health and education trajectories.

This proposal fits directly within our aim to study the “interactions between genes and family composition”, focussing on the effects of “interactions between genes and family composition on children’s test scores and health behaviours”. Indeed, parental separation implies a drastic change in the family structure and composition, less time investment, as well as mental and financial distress. This has been shown to have a number of consequences for child mental health outcomes. In this paper, we will quantify the extent to which the effects of father absence on child outcomes are modified by children’s genetic predisposition.

Background: Parent separation has been shown to have a number of consequences for the child mental health outcomes. On the other hand there are a number of studies on the effects of father involvement and paternity leave policy on children. In this paper, we would like to contribute to the literature by showing how the effects of father absence on child outcomes are modified by children’s genetic predisposition for such health outcomes as BMI and depression.

Research Questions: What happens to children’s education and health outcomes after fathers leave family? Does it harm more those with higher genetic risk for mental health issues and risky health behaviours? Are children with higher genetic predisposition for education more resilient to the absence of a father?

The Covid-19 lockdown has underscored the role that neighbourhoods play in mental health and wellbeing. Neighbourhood characteristics like overcrowding, greenspace, deprivation, and social fragmentation create very different lockdown experiences, even between neighbours living streets apart. This project will investigate the role of neighbourhood conditions in mental health during the covid-19 lockdown. First, we will examine associations of urbanicity, greenspace, deprivation, and social fragmentation with participants’ symptoms of anxiety and depression during and after lockdown. Second, we will control analyses comprehensively for confounds such as poverty using propensity score matching. Third, we will examine the interplay between neighbourhood conditions and individual-level factors including age, housing, household composition and garden access in terms of mental health responses to lockdown.