Child Trends- New Research: How Adolescent Depression Impacts Young Adult Relationships

April 11, 2013 E-News                                             New Research: How Adolescent Depression Impacts Young Adult Relationships Depressive or suicidal symptoms during adolescence might do more than temporary harm. Researchers at Child Trends have found that young adults who had reported those symptoms as adolescents were more likely to be in unhealthy relationships, characterized by violence or infidelity. Because they knew it might be tempting to attribute this to demographic differences, researchers controlled for age, gender, parent education, family structure, income and race/ethnicity. In their brief, "Measuring the Associations Between Symptoms of Depression and Suicide in Adolescence and Unhealthy Romantic Relationships in Young Adulthood," they report that the findings remained true across all of these potential divides. In addition to their call for identifying and intervening with adolescents with (or at risk of) depressive or suicidal symptoms, study authors recommend that researchers explore specific factors (such as poor problem-solving or communications skills, or past victimization) that impact relationship outcomes for this population, and that practitioners use the results of that research to target their interventions.   Trend Lines Blog: Early Childcare and Adolescent Mental Health Who's Teaching our Toddlers? Between infancy and toddlerhood, disparities between children from low-income families and their higher-income peers nearly double. Quality early childhood care is one intervention that could help more children succeed, but there hasn't been across-the-board investment in or research about the workforce providing this care. Nicole Forry, a senior research scientist at Child Trends, lays out what we already know about this workforce, and its implications for child development, in her latest blog post. Examining President Obama's Proposed Funding for Adolescent Mental Health: President Obama announced plans for more than $200 million in mental health spending, primarily for programs in schools. See how that might impact the nation's adolescents in this post by Child Trends' David Murphey. Research to Action Carol Emig, Child Trends' president, gave opening remarks about research on low-income children at a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill this week, in her capacity as a board member for Reach Out and Read. Noting that one in five U.S. children under age five is living in poverty, she pointed out that children from low-income families start out behind their peers in cognitive, health and behavioral measures, and that the gap only widens as they age. Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based literacy intervention program for children ages five and under. Pediatricians give a new book to children during routine visits, and talk to parents about the importance of reading to their children.   Child Trends on the Road Next week, Child Trends' Karin Malm and Avis Thompson will present their research on the efficacy of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's Wendy's Wonderful Kids recruitment program at the Child Welfare League of America's national conference.                                                                                                                             Subscribe to Trend Lines, Child Trends' blog, and read our latest post, Who's Teaching our Toddlers?                                                                                                                              | DataBank| Resources | What Works | Employment Opportunities |    _____________________________________________________ www.childtrends.org 240-223-9200

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