Serving Families Where They Live: Supporting Multigenerational Health During Infancy and Early Childhood Through Community-centered Approaches.

This article underscores the critical importance of addressing mental health during infancy and early childhood through a multigenerational, multicultural, community-centered approach. It highlights the unique vulnerability of this period to environmental factors and emphasizes the interconnectedness of caregiver and child mental health. The article advocates for interventions that extend beyond clinical settings, recognizing the value of community involvement and the need to address social determinants of health. It also discusses innovative strategies, such as mental health consultation in early childhood education centers and collaborative care models, to bridge gaps in access to care.

Immigration, Prenatal Stress and Autistic Traits in Offspring: Examining the Role of Discrimination.

Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus's poem, The New Colossus,1 helped shape the image of the United States as a country compassionate toward the needs of those who emigrated to its shores. The United States has more immigrants than any other country in the world, estimated at more than 40 million people.2 Roughly 18 million children in the United States have at least 1 immigrant parent.2 Most immigrants in the United States arrive with the hope of better educational and economic opportunities.3 Although moving to a new country can offer new opportunities, stability, and safety, there are also challenges. Immigrants experience unique stressors that lead to potentially negative mental health outcomes. After being pushed out of their home country because of stressful circumstances such as violence, severe poverty, and armed conflicts, many individuals then encounter additional stressors after migrating-including discrimination.3.

The Crisis in Children's Mental Health: What About the Babies?

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Children's Hospital Association (CHA) declared a national emergency in children's mental health.1 Much of the reporting has focused on children and teens, particularly with regard to increased emergency department visits and suicide attempts. Very little has been publicized about children between birth and 5 years of age, who may be among the most vulnerable to the psychosocial impacts of COVID-19. This commentary will outline some of the impacts of COVID-19 on very young children and their families and highlight activities of members of the Infant and Preschool Committee to address these impacts.

Editorial: The Hidden Costs of Being A Black Student.

Ideally, schools are learning environments that promote intellectual growth while nurturing healthy social and emotional development. Schools are also a microcosm of the bigger world in which students live, mirroring the best and worst of our society, including the debility of systemic racism. One way in which this inequity is perpetuated within schools is through exclusionary discipline practices, and the disproportionate impact these practices have on Black and multiracial Black children, as well as on single-parent families.

Where Do We Go from Here? Additional Opportunities to Address Well-Being in Child Psychiatry Clinical Practice and Advocacy for Children and Families.

Child psychiatrists should play an active role in helping parents and children to develop healthy media use habits and can introduce uses of technology including mobile applications and telepsychiatry to enhance clinical care. Strength-based approaches in clinical assessment and treatment build patient and family engagement and enhance outcomes in child psychiatry. Focusing on supporting youths' strengths and enhancing emotional and behavioral well-being are critical strategies for child psychiatrists working in consultation with schools and other community settings, and in advocating for optimal environments for children and families.

Assisting the School in Responding to a Suicide Death: What Every Psychiatrist Should Know.

When a child or adolescent dies by suicide, many individuals are affected, most of whom are attending school. Child and adolescent psychiatrists can be called on during the wake of such tragic events in order to help schools navigate the difficult tasks following a student suicide. Being familiar with suicide postvention guidelines is crucial for anyone involved in managing the events following a student suicide. By understanding the tenets of suicide postvention and resources that are available to schools and clinicians, the tragedy of suicide can also be an opportunity to improve school mental health and suicide prevention.

Toddler anxiety disorders: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: This research examined the validity of criteria for diagnosing social phobia (SOC) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), where the DSM-IV criteria were modified to better identify toddlers who could have these disorders. METHOD: Diagnoses were made with a semistructured clinical interview that included child observations. Parents and caregivers completed child behavior, temperament, and socioemotional functioning questionnaires to test convergent and discriminant validity. RESULTS: Of 72 children, 18 months to 5 years old, 19 met modified SOC criteria (8 met DSM-IV criteria SOC also), 29 met modified GAD criteria (5 met DSM-IV criteria GAD also), and 35 met no anxiety disorder criteria. Children with modified SOC were more likely than nonanxious children to display higher levels of anxiety symptoms and shyness/inhibition and to have anxious parents. Modified SOC did not relate to the nonanxiety constructs (cuddling, imaginary play, fine motor). Children with modified GAD did not consistently demonstrate higher levels of anxiety symptoms, did not have more anxious parents than nonanxious children, and did not have higher mean scores on the nonanxiety constructs. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides initial evidence supporting convergent and discriminant validity for the modified SOC criteria but not the modified GAD criteria.

Maternal panic disorder: infant temperament, neurophysiology, and parenting behaviors.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether 4- and 14-month-old infants of mothers with panic disorder (PD) would be more likely to show differences in temperament, neurophysiology (salivary cortisol and sleep), and relationships with their mothers than controls. METHOD: Two cohorts were recruited: 4-month-old infants with PD mothers (n = 25) and 4-month-old controls (n = 24), and 14-month-old infants with PD mothers (n = 27) and 14-month-old controls (n = 18). Mothers completed diagnostic interviews and questionnaires concerning infant temperament, sleep, and parenting. Infant salivary cortisol samples and standard observational procedures to measure infant temperament, sleep, attachment, and parenting were also used. RESULTS: Infants with PD mothers did not show more high reactivity, behavioral inhibition, or ambivalent/resistant attachment but did demonstrate different neurophysiology (higher salivary cortisol and more disturbed sleep) than controls. PD mothers also displayed less sensitivity toward their infants and reported parenting behaviors concerning infant sleep and discipline that have been associated with child problems. CONCLUSIONS: While infants with PD mothers did not show early behavioral differences from controls, they did display neurophysiological divergences consistent with higher arousal/arousability. Such neurophysiological divergences (elevated salivary cortisol and disturbed sleep) might be important early indicators of risk. Helping PD mothers parent their more highly aroused/arousable infants could reduce the development of psychopathology.