Understanding how family processes affect children's mental health: Implementing an international and interdisciplinary programme of research

英国青少年的心理健康问题正在稳步增加。家庭关系经历和父母心理健康症状已被确定为可能导致儿童精神病理症状个体差异的因素。然而，家庭层面的影响对儿童心理健康问题的相对作用以及可能调解和/或缓和这些关联的因素仍然存在问题。拟议的研究方案将采用四个互补的数据集，这些数据集将共同促进对家庭互动模式、父母心理健康问题和儿童精神病理症状（例如抑郁症、行为问题）之间相互作用的理解。这些数据集包括美国出生时收养的纵向样本（500万英镑），英国通过体外受精（IVF）怀孕的儿童样本（1000万英镑），英国有家族抑郁症风险的青少年儿童纵向样本（300万英镑），以及一项从出生到现在38岁以上的儿童纵向队列研究（900万英镑，生活在新西兰）。拟议的研究方案将推进三个核心目标：(1)实质性地提高对家庭关系过程和父母心理健康问题如何影响儿童和青少年心理健康结果的理解，并确定调解和调节途径的因素；(2)实施一种指导模式，有助于培养世界级的方法和知识转移技能，从而促进未来具有国际地位的可持续职业前景；同时也有助于促进英国社会科学的可转移技能，以及(3)促进与相关实践和政策机构的接触，以促进知识转移和实施发现，以推进下一代干预和预防计划，其目标是改善英国（和国际）儿童和家庭的结果。总的来说，拟议研究方案的一个中心目标是促进两个主要领域的高级培训。首先，在整个培训/研究金期间，将强调高级多元统计应用和纵向数据分析方面的培训。第二，培训的目的将是促进技能发展，以便与实践和政策机构就所概述的研究方案具体的传播和影响相关活动进行接触。这些领域的指导、培训和支持将使申请人能够在未来与该领域的新兴知识和技能相关的国际水平上竞争，并有助于发展英国在先进多元统计领域公认的技能赤字，从而改善该领域的知识库，并增加未来英国社会科学家知识转移的前景。主要指导支持将由Gordon Harold教授（苏塞克斯大学）在心理学院和Rudd收养研究与实践中心提供的研究环境中提供。该中心是一个新成立的卓越中心，研究家庭过程和儿童发展以及利用大规模数据资源，其明确目的是为制定干预预防方案提供循证知识，并与英国和国际上的实践和政策机构合作。总的来说，拟议的研究方案，指导模式，以及获得实践和政策合作伙伴将有助于将申请人定位为儿童和青少年心理健康领域的未来世界领导者，这是一个公认的与英国重要的社会，临床和政策相关的领域。

Mental health problems among youth in the UK are steadily on the increase. Family relationship experiences and parent mental health symptoms have been identified as factors that may underlie individual differences in children's symptoms of psychopathology. Yet questions remain as to the relative role of family level influences on children's mental health problems and the factors that may mediate and/or moderate these associations. The proposed programme of research will employ four complementary datasets that together will advance understanding of the interplay between family interaction patterns, parent mental health problems and child symptoms of psychopathology (e.g., depression, conduct problems). These datasets include a longitudinal US adoption-at-birth sample (N>500), a UK sample of children conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF, N>1000), a UK longitudinal sample of adolescent children at familial risk for depression (N>300), and a cohort longitudinal study of children followed from birth to present age 38+ years (N>900, living in New Zealand). The proposed programme of research will advance three core objectives: (1) to substantively improve understanding of how family relationship processes and parent mental health problems affect mental health outcomes for children and adolescents, and to identify factors that mediate and moderate pathways, (2) to implement a mentorship model that will help develop world-class methodological and knowledge-transfer skills that will promote prospects for a sustainable career of international standing in the future, while also contributing to the promotion of transferable skills for UK social science, and (3) to facilitate engagement with relevant practice and policy agencies to promote knowledge transfer and implementation of findings in order to advance the next generation of intervention and prevention programmes with the objective of improving outcomes for children and families in the UK (and internationally). Collectively, a central objective of the proposed programme of research is to facilitate advanced training in two primary areas. First, training in the application of advanced multivariate statistics and the analysis of longitudinal data will be emphasised throughout the training/fellowship period. Second, training will be directed toward promoting skills development that facilitate engagement with practice and policy agencies in relation to dissemination and impact related activities specific to the programme of research outlined. Mentorship, training and support in these areas will allow the applicant to compete at an international level in relation to emerging knowledge and skills in this area in the future, and also contribute to the development of a recognised skills deficit in the UK in the area of advanced multivariate statistics, thereby improving the knowledge base in this area and increasing the prospect of knowledge transfer for future UK social scientists. Principal mentorship support will be provided by Professor Gordon Harold (University of Sussex) within the research environment provided by the School of Psychology and the Rudd Centre for Adoption Research and Practice. This Centre is a newly established centre of excellence for the study of family processes and child development and the utilisation of large-scale data resources with the expressed purpose of generating evidence-led knowledge for the development of intervention-prevention programmes and working with practice and policy agencies in the UK and internationally. Collectively, the proposed programme of research, mentorship model, and access to practice and policy partners will help locate the applicant as a future world leader in the field of child and adolescent mental health, an area of recognised critical social, clinical and policy relevance to the UK.