Cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS), formerly known as sluggish cognitive tempo, is characterized by hypo-activity or slowed behavior, mental fogginess or confusion, excessive sleepiness, and daydreaming. CDS and the predominantly inattentive (IN) presentation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are frequently co-occurring though separable constructs, each associated with unique constellations of functional impairments. The current study aims to identify their shared and divergent neurobiological correlates.

We often talk with children and adolescents about hope as a way to instill a sense of future. Yet, for those who survived a traumatic brain injury, hearing someone speak the hope word may not always bring the optimism needed to thrive in the years and decades to come. I know because I was one of the estimated 2.3 million children who was diagnosed with a brain injury. On January 20th, I became a 44-year pediatric survivor of a severe cerebral contusion who went on to complete two master degrees and establish a 30-year career as a social worker and a research scientist.

If you have flown into the same city more than once, you have probably seen the car parks and facilities illuminated at night. When construction is happening, the view from a thousand feet gives a clear view of what is well lit, showing details of individual parts as well as how they are organized into a larger whole.

Immigrant youth are a large population in the U.S, yet there are limited studies characterizing mental health and unique individual-level risk and protective factors in early adolescent immigrants. Previous studies reveal variable associations between immigration and psychopathology. We aimed to characterize minority stressors, protective factors, and mental health among adolescent immigrants.

For many products, generic markets are very mature, with aggressive competition driving down the price of products for manufacturers. Under these conditions, manufacturers may not have an ability to invest in high-quality manufacturing processes.

The concept of Enduring Mental Health (EMH) describes a long-term state in which an individual does not experience mental disorders. As most people encounter mental health issues at some point, this study investigates the prevalence, predictors, and genetic architecture of EMH across childhood.

To truly support a child’s development, we must look beyond what is visible—beyond academic performance, behavior, or clinical symptoms—and attune ourselves to the intricate emotional world within. This inner world, rich with imagination, vulnerability, and unspoken needs, is explored through different lenses in Understanding Mental Health Across Educational Contexts: Promoting Wellness in Classrooms (Lindsey Jaber) and The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry). The former provides a research-based framework for fostering mental well-being in schools, emphasizing the role of relationships, emotional safety, and systemic support in shaping a child’s psychological health. The latter, a beloved literary classic, offers a poetic interpretation of childhood, loneliness, and the essential nature of human connection, reminding us that what is most important is often unseen. Although one book is grounded in educational psychology and the other in allegorical storytelling, both books highlight a shared truth: children thrive when they feel understood, valued, and emotionally safe. As child psychiatrists, educators, and caregivers, embracing both scientific insight and the wisdom of storytelling can deepen our ability to nurture the inner lives of the children in our care.

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) is one of the most widely read children’s stories in the world. It is a staple for young children, siblings, parents, teachers, child psychiatrists, therapists, and others in health care professions. However, it is not only a story for children, as it addresses adult issues including attachment and loss.

This book, edited by Lindsey Jaber, explores mental health in education through 15 chapters covering topics such as the impact of colonization on Indigenous communities, inclusion for marginalized students, antiracist approaches, and the mental health of educators. It addresses neuropsychology, mental health disorders in schools, trauma-informed education, and the effects of technology on student well-being. The book also highlights resilience, growth mindset, inclusive career development, neurodiversity, and social and emotional learning (SEL).

Early life adversity alters the structure and function of higher-order brain networks that subserve executive function (EF). The extent that prenatal exposure to adversity and neonatal white matter (WM) microstructure and resting-state functional connectivity (rs-fc) underlie problems in emerging EF remains unclear.

JAACAP welcomes original artwork by children, adolescents, and young adults. The art may be an expression of mental health challenges, fun images, comics, or scenes from everyday life. Please review our Guide for Authors for more information on how to submit your artwork, or email support@jaacap.org.

Psychiatric disorders are highly prevalent in adults with childhood-onset attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Currently, little is known about childhood predictors for these outcomes.

Understanding how genetic risk unfolds across development will be important for using genetics to inform prevention and early intervention. The current study leverages information from 5 large datasets to characterize behavioral manifestations of a genetic liability toward externalizing from ages 6 months to 26 years.

To test whether changes in children’s and adolescents’ mental health symptoms predict changes in their access to unlocked guns at home.

Antipsychotic medications are widely prescribed, including during pregnancy, and pregnant individuals worry about the potential sequelae for the child. While antipsychotics do not seem to be teratogenic, the long-term neurodevelopmental impact of prenatal exposure remains unclear. A systematic review was conducted to determine if intrauterine antipsychotic exposure increases the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.

The conceptualization of psychopathology has begun to shift from a proliferation of discrete categorical diagnoses to a parsimonious set of hierarchically organized dimensions, such as in the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP).1 This shift is driven by mounting evidence of substantial within-diagnosis heterogeneity and rampant cross-diagnosis comorbidity.2 This hierarchical structural approach represents a progression of increasing breadth and generality from individual symptoms to symptom dimensions to lower-order factors to higher-order psychopathology dimensions or spectra. These spectra include thought disorder, neurodevelopmental disorders, internalizing, and externalizing, all of which have received considerable support for their reliability and validity.3-6 These spectra are thought to encompass a range from normative personality traits and cognitive functions to the maladaptive extremes of psychopathology. Indeed, this continuity is critical for conceptualizing these higher-order dimensions as spectra.

To evaluate the association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and atypical sensory processing patterns.

Exposure to childhood maltreatment increases risk for mental health difficulties across generations, affecting the development of offspring. In particular, maternal exposure to childhood maltreatment can shape the neurobiological development of their offspring, especially in brain regions implicated in emotional health. However, relevant studies are cross-sectional, limiting our understanding of how maternal childhood maltreatment might affect offspring neurodevelopment.

Depression and anxiety are prevalent and rising in children and adolescents, prompting interest in exercise as a potential therapeutic intervention. The aim of this systematic umbrella review and meta-meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of exercise on depression and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents and to identify the most promising exercise-based approaches.

Racial discrimination drives health disparities among racial/ethnic minority youth, creating chronic stress that affects brain development and contributes to mental and behavioral health issues. This study analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study to examine the neurobiological mechanisms linking discrimination to mental and behavioral health outcomes.

Psychiatric symptoms such as depressed mood, feelings of worthlessness, and anxiety can be exacerbated in adolescents by online content that mirrors their negative emotions.1,2 In the authors' experience working on an inpatient unit, adolescents cite social media as a source of distress precipitating hospitalization. Moreover, screen time often becomes a point of family conflict, particularly during safety planning for discharge. Even when families agree on the need to address problematic mobile device use, algorithms driven by artificial intelligence (AI) are designed to hook users and curate content that feeds off negative emotional states and makes it challenging to break the cycle.3,4 We describe an intervention for interested families in our adolescent inpatient unit to support sustained change post discharge.

To investigate the dose of incarceration and subsequent psychiatric and psychosocial functioning in justice-involved youth 16 years after detention (median age 32).