Children who grow up in unpredictable environments may face elevated risks for depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and other mental health challenges, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, Chapman University and Rady Children's Hospital Orange County, formerly called Children's Hospital of Orange County.
Published in Nature Mental Health, the study examined nearly 30,000 children receiving care through CHOC's pediatric clinic network and found that a child's experience of unpredictability—inconsistent routines, changing household conditions and uncertainty about what comes next—can provide important clues about mental health risk beyond those captured by traditional measures of childhood adversity.
In addition, the work highlights the power of cross-institutional collaboration to translate discoveries about brain development into clinical practice.
Unpredictability adds a missing signal
UC Irvine researchers partnered with Laura M. Glynn, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Chapman University; Dr. Michael Weiss, pediatrician, vice president of population health and Clavis Foundation Chair for Wellness at Rady Children's Health; and Dr. Charles Golden, pediatrician, vice president and assistant chief medical officer at Rady Children's Health, to evaluate how a neuroscience-informed measure of childhood unpredictability could help pediatricians better identify children at risk for mental health challenges.
