E. B. Brownlie

Long-Term Consistency in Speech/Language Profiles: II. Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Outcomes

OBJECTIVE This study examined the 7-year behavioral, emotional, and social outcome of speech/language-impaired and control children selected from a community sample. METHOD Speech/language and psychosocial measures were administered to the children at ages 5 and 12.5 years. Using childrens age 5 speech/language test results, a cluster analysis was performed to ascertain whether specific linguistic subgroups would emerge. The association between speech/language cluster at age 5 and psychosocial functioning at age 12.5 was examined. RESULTS Children with receptive and pervasive speech/language problems at age 5 demonstrated greater behavioral disturbance than children without such impairment. Controlling for initial behavioral status, early childhood language profile was still associated with behavioral and social competence ratings, 7 years later. Children without receptive language problems showed superior social adjustment. CONCLUSIONS Empirically supported speech/language classifications identified as early as age 5 were associated with behavioral disturbance in late childhood. Receptive and pervasive speech/language impairment in early childhood was associated with the greatest risk at follow-up. Early auditory comprehension problems may be a specific risk factor for later aggressive and hyperactive symptoms. These findings identify the need for effective intervention with speech/language-impaired children.

Long-Term Consistency in Speech/Language Profiles: I. Developmental and Academic Outcomes

OBJECTIVE This study examined the 7-year developmental and academic outcome of speech/language-impaired and control children selected from a community sample. METHOD Speech/language and psychiatric measures were administered to the children at ages 5 and 12.5 years. Using childrens age 5 speech/language test results, a cluster analysis was performed to ascertain whether specific linguistic subgroups would emerge. The long-term consistency of these subgroups was explored. The association between time 1 speech/language clusters and linguistic, cognitive and academic measures at time 2 were examined. RESULTS Four groups were identified in the cluster analysis: high overall, poor articulation, poor comprehension, and low overall. Children with pervasive language problems continued to perform poorly on linguistic, cognitive, and academic measures, while those with comprehension problems fared slightly better but still had more difficulties than those with normal language. The poor articulation cluster had few articulation errors at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Empirically supported speech/language classifications identified as early as age 5 continued to be relevant into late childhood. Pervasive speech/language impairment in early childhood was associated with increased risk of poor linguistic and academic outcome at follow-up, while isolated articulatory problems improved over time. These findings reveal the urgent need for early intervention among children with pervasive speech/language impairment.

Emerging adult outcomes of adolescent psychiatric and substance use disorders

This study investigates the age 25 outcomes of late adolescent mental health and substance use disorders. A hierarchical cluster analysis of age 19 DSM-III-R mental health and substance diagnoses placed participants into one of 9 clusters: Anxious, Depressed, Antisocial, Drug Abuser, Problem Drinker, Anxious Drinker, Depressed Drug Abuser and Antisocial Drinker, and No Diagnosis. Diagnoses were generated from the University of Michigan Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance revealed distinct trajectories of improvement and decline among the 9 clusters. Clusters with co-occurring substance and mental health disorders improved over adolescent levels, but continued to have higher levels of depression symptoms, poorer global functioning, and higher levels of substance use than the No Diagnosis cluster. Members of the The Problem Drinkers cluster, who tended to have alcohol use disorders only at age 19, did not differ from their peers with no diagnoses. Drug use disorders in adolescence, with or without a co-occurring mental health disorders, were associated with a poor prognosis in emerging adulthood. Clinical interventions should distinguish among these diverse clinical presentations.

Cumulative Risk, Cumulative Outcome: A 20-Year Longitudinal Study

Cumulative risk (CR) models provide some of the most robust findings in the developmental literature, predicting numerous and varied outcomes. Typically, however, these outcomes are predicted one at a time, across different samples, using concurrent designs, longitudinal designs of short duration, or retrospective designs. We predicted that a single CR index, applied within a single sample, would prospectively predict diverse outcomes, i.e., depression, intelligence, school dropout, arrest, smoking, and physical disease from childhood to adulthood. Further, we predicted that number of risk factors would predict number of adverse outcomes (cumulative outcome; CO). We also predicted that early CR (assessed at age 5/6) explains variance in CO above and beyond that explained by subsequent risk (assessed at ages 12/13 and 19/20). The sample consisted of 284 individuals, 48% of whom were diagnosed with a speech/language disorder. Cumulative risk, assessed at 5/6-, 12/13-, and 19/20-years-old, predicted aforementioned outcomes at age 25/26 in every instance. Furthermore, number of risk factors was positively associated with number of negative outcomes. Finally, early risk accounted for variance beyond that explained by later risk in the prediction of CO. We discuss these findings in terms of five criteria posed by these data, positing a “mediated net of adversity” model, suggesting that CR may increase some central integrative factor, simultaneously augmenting risk across cognitive, quality of life, psychiatric and physical health outcomes.

Collaborating with community-based services to promote evidence-based practice: Process description of a national initiative to improve services for youth with mental health and substance use problems.

Many youth with significant mental health (MH) and/or substance use (SU) difficulties do not receive specialized services. Collaboration between service providers, researchers, and other stakeholders is essential to improve youth service system capacity to provide evidence-based services to meet the complex array of needs of youth. Facilitators and barriers of implementing evidence-based practice have been identified, but few studies provide examples of the processes of collaboration and implementation for youth MH services. This study explicates the design features and implementation processes of a project to improve screening activities in youth services. These processes supported the building of 16 collaborative networks of service providers from diverse youth-serving sectors (e.g., MH, youth justice, child welfare) in urban, rural, suburban, and remote Canadian communities. These cross-sectoral networks implemented an evidence-based practice (screening youth aged 12–24 years for MH and SU problems using the Global Assessment of Individual Needs—Short Screener [GAIN-SS]) across their services. Materials and resources were provided by a centralized research team. Core project components were standardized and adherence to these components was monitored. Over 800 service providers participated in cross-sectoral networks, capacity-building events, joint data analysis, or interpretation and recommendation sessions. Across the 89 participating agencies, service providers for 84% of participating youth implemented the evidence-based practice accurately in accordance with project protocols, with 98% of positive screens reviewed and addressed according to organizational protocols. Service provider feedback is reported. Facilitators, barriers, and implications of promoting implementation of evidence-based practices across sites and sectors are discussed.

Childhood Language Disorder and Social Anxiety in Early Adulthood

Language disorder is associated with anxiety and with social problems in childhood and adolescence. However, the relation between language disorder and adult social anxiety is not well known. This study examines social anxiety in early adulthood in a 26-year prospective longitudinal study following individuals identified with a communication disorder at age 5 and a control group. Social anxiety diagnoses and subthreshold symptoms were examined at ages 19, 25, and 31 using a structured diagnostic interview; social anxiety symptoms related to social interaction and social performance were also assessed dimensionally at age 31. Multiple imputation was used to address attrition. Compared to controls, participants with childhood language disorder had higher rates of subthreshold social phobia at ages 19 and 25 and endorsed higher levels of social interaction anxiety symptoms at age 31, with particular difficulty talking to others and asserting their perspectives. Childhood language disorder is a specific risk factor for a circumscribed set of social anxiety symptoms in adulthood, which are likely associated with communication challenges.

Language disorder and retrospectively reported sexual abuse of girls: severity and disclosure

BACKGROUND Despite emerging evidence for an association between communication disorders and maltreatment, little research has examined sexual abuse characteristics or disclosure experiences among individuals with language disorder (LD). Given that communication difficulties may constitute a barrier to disclosure, the disclosure experiences among individuals with and without communication difficulties may also differ. METHODS Five-year-old children identified with a language and/or speech disorder from a nonclinical community sample and a control group were followed to adulthood in a prospective longitudinal study. At age 31, participants completed a behaviorally specific questionnaire on experiences of sexual abuse and questionnaires on disclosure experiences and social reactions to disclosure. Due to low endorsement of sexual victimization among male participants and low sample size, results are reported for women only and exclude nine participants with speech disorder without LD. Participation rates were 28 of 40 in the LD cohort and 45 of 51 controls. Sexual victimization severity was defined using an index combining five indicators (duration, invasiveness, relationship to perpetrator, coercive tactics used, and number of perpetrators). Subthreshold sexual victimization was defined as a single, noncontact incident with a perpetrator unknown to the child; experiences with greater severity were classified as child sexual abuse. RESULTS Among women who reported sexual victimization by age 18, invasiveness and overall severity were greater in the LD cohort than in the control cohort. Women in the LD cohort (43%) were more likely than controls (16%) to report child sexual abuse, excluding subthreshold experiences. There were no differences between cohorts in probability of disclosure, latency to disclosure, or social reactions. CONCLUSIONS Women with a history of child LD in a nonclinical sample reported substantial child sexual abuse experiences. Implications for understanding associations between LD and mental health and for prevention and early intervention are discussed.

Early Adolescent Substance Use and Mental Health Problems and Service Utilisation in a School-based Sample:

Objective: This paper reports on substance use, mental health problems, and mental health service utilisation in an early adolescent school-based sample. Method: Participants were 1,360 grade 7 and 8 students from 4 regions of Ontario, Canada. Students completed an in-class survey on mental health and substance use. The sampling strategy and survey items on demographics, substance use, service utilisation, and distress were adapted from the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey. Internalising and externalising mental health problems were assessed using the Global Assessment of Individual Needs – Short Screener. Distress was defined as fair or poor self-rated mental health. Results: Rates of internalising and/or externalising problems above the threshold exceeded 30%; yet, fewer than half had received mental health services in the past 12 mo. Substance use was associated with increased odds of internalising and externalising problems above the threshold and distress. Youth using cannabis had 10-times the odds of exceeding the threshold for internalising or externalising problems. The use of substances other than alcohol or cannabis was associated with increased odds of fair or poor self-rated mental health among grade 8 students. Of the youth who confirmed at least a substance use problem, most also reported mental health problems; this association was stronger among girls than boys. Conclusions: Early adolescent substance use was associated with concurrent self-reported mental health problems in a non-clinical sample. The low levels of service utilisation reported highlight the need for improved access to early identification and intervention to prevent the development of concurrent disorders.

Enhancing prevention and intervention for youth concurrent mental health and substance use disorders: The Research and Action for Teens study

Concurrent mental health and substance use disorders among youth are associated with functional impairment in developmentally salient domains, yet research on prevention and intervention for this vulnerable population is sparse. This paper describes the rationale and design of the Research and Action for Teens study, an initiative designed to strengthen the evidence base for prevention, screening, treatment and service delivery for youth concurrent mental health and substance use concerns.