Anorexia nervosa has the potential to affect fetal neurodevelopment. We examined the association between maternal anorexia nervosa and mental, substance-related, and neurodevelopmental morbidity in offspring.

The present study aimed to analyze associations between device-measured physical activity and sedentary time during childhood with mental health-related outcomes throughout adolescence.

Body image and eating behaviours are common areas of concern for early adolescents. Artificial Intelligence (AI) interactions are becoming commonplace, including with chatbots that provide human-like communication. Adolescents may prefer using chatbots to anonymously ask sensitive questions, rather than approaching trusted adults or peers. It is unclear how chatbots answer such questions. We explored how chatbots would respond to eating, weight or appearance-related queries from adolescents.

Neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and ADHD may disrupt family and child functioning. Although well-established psychosocial treatment programs exist, access to these interventions remains limited for many families. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) primarily evaluates the effectiveness of an online psychosocial program (INPSYD) in improving parental domains (stress, coping, and social support). The secondary aim is to assess its effects on children's domains, including behavior, executive functioning, sleep, and family dynamics.

Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in adolescents globally. Post-primary school-based suicide prevention (PSSP) interventions are an evidence-based suicide prevention strategy. However, adolescents' experiences with PSSP interventions are not well understood but are arguably critical to ensuring PSSP interventions have their intended impacts on adolescent mental health. No known review synthesising adolescents' PSSP intervention experiences exists. The objective of the meta-ethnography review is to explore the perspectives and experiences of adolescents engaging with PSSP interventions, as participants/end-users, intervention advisors, facilitators, co-designers and co-researchers.

Artificial intelligence may be able to improve the efficiency, accuracy and predictiveness of mental health assessments, and public perspectives are crucial to ensuring these tools are implemented with fairness and accountability. We developed an artificial intelligence-driven tool to automatically analyse parents' speech data, which if successful could be implemented in children and young people's mental health assessments. To engage stakeholders with this project, we worked with a science fiction writer to produce two stories about possible futures of our tool, which we discussed in workshops with young people and parents. Here, we summarise key themes arising from this novel method of engaging the public in mental health research, and highlight considerations for clinicians and researchers creating novel technologies for children and young people's mental healthcare.

The journal's recent debate series ('are we overpathologising young people's mental health?') featured compelling articles regarding the pathologisation of emotional distress in young people. Much of the concern over overpathologising is that young people are overpathologising their own mental health (i.e. identifying as having mental illnesses when they are actually experiencing normative, non-clinical levels of emotional distress; Foulkes & Andrews, New Ideas Psychol., 69, 2023, 101010). I wish to briefly share a relevant finding from a recent study (on mental illness self-labelling in late adolescence) and highlight ways that new empirical work can move this debate forward.

Youth is a transitional period from 15 to 24 years involving developmental milestones that may be adversely affected by mental health (MH) concerns. Clinical interventions tend to focus on the reduction or cure of illness-based psychiatric symptoms. However, national and international mental policy focuses on promoting well-being and self-management through personal recovery. The leading framework of personal recovery in adults is CHIME, an acronym used to denote five key processes - Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning and Empowerment. The extent to which CHIME reflects the experience of personal recovery in youth is under-researched, yet the framework often underpins youth mental health services.

Amidst a rapid growth in youth participation initiatives globally, such as government-initiated advisory councils and youth-led activism groups, it is important to understand how being involved in youth participation roles can affect youth mental health and well-being. This global systematic scoping review comprehensively synthesises existing literature on the mental health and well-being outcomes associated with a broad range of youth participation activities; identifies key components of participation that lead to enhanced or diminished outcomes; and establishes knowledge gaps.

At its core, pathologising is choosing the language of pathology to describe suffering. In youth mental health, the prevailing choice is to use diagnostic labels such as ADHD and autism when describing the problems young people face. A key, yet poorly visible risk of such diagnostic labelling is disorderism - a relative neglect of context introduced by the tendency to interpret peoples struggles through the lens of disorders of the individual. At the same time, diagnostic labels serve important functions. Among others, they help families access care and find information, allow researchers to compare findings, and aid policymakers organise funding. Put simply, the functions are too valuable to outright discard, yet the risks too great to ignore. We find ourselves stuck - locked inside our own language. We argue that a path forward lies in recognising the primary way diagnostic labels may cause harm: by sidelining other forms of understanding. Rather than reimagining the labels entirely, a way out of the deadlock could involve profound epistemic humility. If we deflate the labels - removing weight and certainty - we create space for other kinds of understanding.

As frontline health professionals working across paediatrics, psychiatry, psychology and general practice in the United Kingdom, we are witnessing an alarming and growing mental health crisis among children and adolescents, which we believe is exacerbated by social media use. Drawing upon clinical experience and supported by a growing body of research, we present evidence that social media contributes to a spectrum of adverse mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, self-harm and suicidality. Particularly vulnerable populations, including neurodivergent children and those facing socioeconomic disadvantage, are disproportionately affected. Despite academic suggestions of some benefits, our real-world experience of the preponderance of clinical cases indicates an urgent need for preventive action. We argue that current regulatory frameworks are insufficient and propose a precautionary public health approach: an immediate statutory ban on social media use for all children under 16, placing the burden of proof on technology companies to demonstrate safety before allowing access. We further advocate for the strengthening of age verification systems, public health campaigns, parental guidance interventions and routine clinical screening for problematic social media use. This paper reflects the collective voice of our health professionals on the frontline of child and adolescent care, calling for decisive policy action to address a preventable and escalating threat to youth mental health.

Our CAMH journal has gone from strength to strength with increased submissions. However, we recognise that globally there is a battle for science integrity, and some issues, such as gender dysphoria and autism, have become highly politicised. Scientific expertise is not always valued and has been actively attacked. It is therefore timely to discuss how we aim to continue to push for the highest standards of publication in CAMH. This editorial discusses how we can increase scientific integrity through using the principles of open science, including greater transparency, particularly when academics collaborate with industry. The editorial discusses the importance of academic discourse, particularly when evidence is limited or unclear, and highlights the debate on banning social media in adolescents.

Recent legislation in Australia banning social media accounts for children under 16, alongside similar proposals worldwide, has ignited debate about whether age-based restrictions are an effective way to protect young people's mental health. While the intent of such bans is to reduce exposure to harmful content, their feasibility and effectiveness remain unclear. Enforcement requires robust age verification, often relying on sensitive data such as government-issued identification or facial scans, which raises privacy concerns and can be circumvented through the use of VPNs. Moreover, social media use is diverse. Although it can intensify harms such as bullying, it also provides vital opportunities for connection and support, particularly for marginalised adolescents. Removing access to accounts may limit risks within platforms, but does not prevent exposure to harmful content elsewhere, nor does it guarantee increased offline engagement. Importantly, blanket bans fail to address unsafe design features embedded within social media or to equip adolescents with the skills needed to navigate online environments. More targeted, evidence-based regulation that promotes safer platform design and accountability may provide a more effective pathway to protecting young people's well-being.

Despite the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on adolescents' mental health, there is a lack of studies comparing it pre- and postpandemic using consistent designs and measurements. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze changes in adolescent psychopathology, deliberate self-harm behavior, substance use, and help-seeking behavior pre- and post-COVID-19, with an identical study design.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) can reveal naturalistic within-person changes in symptoms and behaviors, essential for examining psychotherapy's effectiveness. However, no prior study has leveraged EMA to assess real-time, naturalistic changes of clinical symptoms during psychotherapy in youth with clinically impairing irritability. The present study uses EMA to assess changes in both child-reported irritability symptoms and caregiver-reported parental behaviors over the course of treatment, as well as to explore real-time associations between changes in parental behaviors and youth symptoms.

This article highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in understanding the environmental impacts on children's mental health, emphasizing the integration of longitudinal designs, genetic methodologies, and cross-cultural validation. Longitudinal research is essential to identify temporal relationships and sensitive developmental periods, while methods such as Mendelian randomization can help disentangle environmental effects from unmeasured genetic and social confounding factors. Cross-cultural validation is also crucial to ensure the global relevance of findings and to support equitable public health policies. This article advocates for more comprehensive research to better understand modifiable environmental factors that promote children's mental well-being.

Imposter participants are dishonest participants who fake their identities or exaggerate their experiences to participate in research. This appears to be a rising problem in quantitative and qualitative research as well as lived experience groups for child and adolescent mental health research. Imposters in research present great challenges for young people's safety, privacy, and well-being, and the data integrity of affected research studies. Although strategies have been suggested to identify and address this challenge, they come with limitations. Also, there are no evidence-based guidelines or frameworks about imposter data. We discuss key issues and considerations and propose actionable steps for researchers and practitioners working with young people. We also make a call for action for robust research to improve how we prevent, identify, and address imposters in child and adolescent mental health research.

The association between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and gender dysphoria (GD) in youth has been suggested. Recent research among academic medical centers and the military health system has found a positive association, while not yet being sufficiently explored in a civilian, nonacademic community setting.

Although post-disaster interventions can reduce mental health problems in children and adolescents, no systematic review and meta-analysis has synthesized the effects of school-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs).