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

英国青年的心理健康问题正在稳步增加。家庭关系的经验和父母的心理健康症状已被确定为因素，可能是儿童的精神病理学症状的个体差异的基础。然而，问题仍然是家庭层面的影响儿童的心理健康问题的相对作用，以及可能介导和/或缓和这些协会的因素。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学症状之间相互作用的理解（例如，抑郁症，行为问题）。这些数据集包括美国出生时收养的纵向样本（N>500），英国通过体外受精（IVF，N>1000）怀孕的儿童样本，英国有抑郁症家族风险的青少年儿童纵向样本（N>300），以及从出生到现在年龄38岁以上的儿童队列纵向研究（N>900，居住在新西兰）。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，并确定介导和调节途径的因素，（2）推行导师模式，协助发展世界级的教学方法和知识-转移技能，这将促进未来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，以促进知识转让和落实调查结果，下一代干预和预防方案，目标是改善联合王国（和国际）儿童和家庭的成果。总的来说，拟议研究方案的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，培训将针对促进技能发展，促进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。在这些领域的指导，培训和支持将使申请人在国际上竞争，在未来的新兴知识和技能在这一领域，也有助于在英国的先进多元统计领域公认的技能赤字的发展，从而提高在这一领域的知识基础，并增加知识转移的前景未来英国社会科学家。校长导师支持将由戈登·哈罗德教授（苏塞克斯大学）在心理学学院和陆克文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，利用大规模的数据资源，其明确的目的是为制定干预预防方案提供以证据为主导的知识，并与英国和国际上的实践和政策机构合作。总的来说，拟议的研究计划，导师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，这是一个公认的关键社会，临床和政策相关性的领域。

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.