Climate change affects the mental and behavioral health of children, requiring preparation and response from clinicians. This article provides an overview of the varying impacts of climate on pediatric mental and behavioral health including heat and air pollution influences on development and violence, extreme weather event disruptions and de novo mental health conditions, and emotional responses to climate change: ecoanxiety and solastalgia. We emphasize how minoritized populations often experience increased effects of climate change, including mental health effects, due to historic structural disparities. Clinical adaptations include implementation of routine screenings, clinical familiarity with existing community resources, and participation in advocacy.
BACKGROUND: Diarrhoeal disease remains a critical public health concern, and a leading cause of death among children under the age of five. Increasingly, studies are also showing a relationship between child diarrhoea and maternal exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). This study assessed the relationship between maternal experience of different forms of IPV and child diarrhoea prevalence and treatment-seeking in Nepal. METHODS: Study participants included children under five years whose mothers were asked about IPV exposure in the 2022 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (n = 1,959). The main outcomes were: (1) Diarrhoea prevalence in the last two weeks, and (2) Diarrhoea treatment. Main exposures assessed were last twelve months maternal experience of physical, sexual, emotional IPV, and controlling behaviours. Multivariable Poisson regression with robust standard errors were used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios and 95% CI. RESULTS: Diarrhoea prevalence was 8.9%, with treatment sought for 56.6% of cases. Children whose mothers were exposed to sexual IPV (aPR: 1.94 95% CI: 1.17–3.21), emotional IPV (aPR: 1.87; 95% CI: 1.17-3.00), controlling behaviour (aPR: 1.64; 95% CI: 1.14–2.35), or any form of IPV (aPR: 1.71; 95% CI: 1.19–2.45) had higher diarrhoea prevalence in the last 2 weeks. Maternal exposure to emotional IPV (aPR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.15–0.70) was associated with lower prevalence of seeking treatment. In sex-stratified analyses, male children whose mothers experienced emotional IPV (aPR: 1.91; 95% CI: 1.01–3.63) or controlling behaviour (aPR: 1.68; 95% CI: 1.08–2.62), and female children whose mothers experienced any form of IPV (aPR: 1.68; 95% CI: 1.06–2.66) had significantly higher diarrhoea prevalence. Conversely, maternal exposure to emotional IPV was associated with significantly lower treatment-seeking among female children only (aPR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02–0.35). CONCLUSION: Maternal exposure to IPV was associated with a higher prevalence of diarrhoea and lower treatment-seeking behaviour, with key differences by child sex, underscoring the need for gender-sensitive, integrated maternal and child health interventions that address IPV.
Background Community and youth violence are pervasive and have devastating health, economic, and social consequences. Violence too often impacts people of color and the life trajectories of youth in the United States, especially among people living in urban settings. Objective In response, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel Community Resiliency Collective Efficacy Intervention (CRCEI), which seeks to increase individual and neighborhood levels of collective efficacy, and reduce youth and community violence. The CRCEI has three phases: (1) community organizing and mobilization (engaging and working with diverse community members and collaborators to build capacity, plan, and recruit); (2) collective efficacy training (learning, discussing, and practicing relationship building, and facilitating thriving, resiliency, and strategies for organizing and intervening); and (3) community-based prevention projects (based on what participants learn in the training). Methods The study was set in 8 urban, high-violence, racially segregated, and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Community partners and researchers selected 4 intervention sites based on perceived need and appropriateness. We then used participatory propensity score matching to select 4 comparison sites, which receive health education sessions in lieu of the CRCEI. The study assesses the impact of the CRCEI on participant-level collective efficacy and exposure to community violence (aim 1), community-level collective efficacy, and incidence of community violence (aim 2) via several data sources, including pre- and postsurveys with participants and community members, quantitative and qualitative data from observations and interviews, and secondary neighborhood-level data (eg, violence incidents and poverty rate). Data for aim 1 were collected from February 2023 to January 2025, and data for aim 2 were collected from September 2022 to May 2025. We complemented this impact analysis with an ethnographic process evaluation, which tracks fidelity and costs, describes implementation, and identifies facilitators and barriers across the intervention sites (aim 3). Results We hypothesize that the CRCEI will provide a concrete, action-focused strategy to increase resiliency and reduce community and youth violence, with impact demonstrated by increased reports of collective efficacy and decreased exposure to violence at the individual (aim 1) and community levels (aim 2). Conclusions Innovations of this project include testing a community-oriented and collective efficacy-oriented violence reduction intervention (vs criminal-legal and punishment-oriented strategies), implementation in participatorily identified and asset-mapped local settings (eg, neighborhoods for inclusion and community partners to host the intervention identified by community members as trustworthy), a capacity-building approach (eg, training facilitators from focal neighborhoods), and community member integration into collaborative team science. In this manuscript, we outline the rationale and design for the evaluation of this collective efficacy intervention.
This study aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a multi-level violence prevention initiative codesigned with the community in Bessemer, Alabama. Guided by a community-based participatory research approach, we developed "Building a Better Bessemer," a holistic intervention targeting violent crime at the socio-ecological levels (individual, relational, community, and societal levels) through intervention mapping. The intervention included youth social-emotional learning, mentoring, parental support, police engagement, and community improvement projects. Evaluation included pre-post surveys and focus groups. Among youth self-reported outcomes, significant improvements were seen in social cohesion (p = 0.009) and decreases in conduct problems (p < 0.001) and total difficulties (p < 0.003). Focus group results reported strong support for the program's content and delivery. Community-driven, multi-level violence prevention interventions are feasible and effective in communities with high crime and show promising outcomes in youth behavior and community safety.
This interdisciplinary study integrates criminological theory with geospatial methods to analyse large, multi-format datasets using geostatistical techniques. The aim is to predict where Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) is likely to cluster, based on the spatial convergence of contextual risk factors. Drawing on insights from General Strain Theory (GST) and prior research on CCE, this study integrated seven open-source datasets capturing educational attainment, age demographics, violent crime, deprivation, and paramilitary-related violence. These variables were operationalised to construct a proxy measure for strain. Spatial analysis was conducted using ArcGIS Pro, including the Data Interoperability extension, to enable efficient integration and interrogation of multi-format geospatial data. Geospatial analysis demonstrated that contextual risk factors for CCE are spatially clustered. Using four search parameters, a small subset of wards with elevated risk were identified. This resulted in a reduction in ward locations by 85-99%, land area under investigation from 14.45% to 0.84%, and affected population from 17.91% to 1.41%, enabling more targeted and efficient resource allocation. As understanding of the contextual factors contributing to CCE improves, this methodological approach offers scalable and data-driven means of identifying high-risk areas. By integrating geospatial analysis with criminological theory, the model supports more effective safeguarding strategies and prioritisation of limited public resources. This study is limited by the absence of multi-agency datasets, which were beyond its scope. Future research aims to incorporate cross-sector data to validate and refine the model through ground-truthing, enhancing its predictive accuracy and practical applicability.
University academics are central to advancing higher education through teaching, research, and community engagement. However, mental-health challenges in this population have risen in recent years, partially driven by systemic pressures such as hypercompetition, heavy workloads, job insecurity, and escalating expectations for research productivity and publication output. This national survey included 1,380 academics (37.1% men, 62.7% women; M = 40.09 years) from 32 of Indonesia's 38 provinces, representing both public and private institutions and all academic ranks from lecturer to full professor. The findings showed that nearly half of the participants (40.5%) reported working more than 40 hours per week, exceeding the standard legal working hours in Indonesia, with work often extending into evenings, weekends, and holidays. Most participants reported low/minimal anxiety (63.1%) and moderate stress (63.8%), while depression was mostly low/minimal (43.3%) or mild (36.3%). Female, younger age, academics without children, and those in lower ranks with lower income were the groups most vulnerable to poorer mental health outcomes. Across the risk and protective factors examined, higher publication stress and greater experience of unwanted behavior at the workplace were consistently associated with lower levels of well-being and higher psychological distress (β = -.19 to.20 and -.15 to.16, respectively; all ps < .001). In contrast, higher personal mastery was consistently associated with better mental-health (β = .39), greater work satisfaction (β = .33), higher happiness at work (β = .37), and lower stress (β = -.50), anxiety (β = -.40), depression (β = -.41), and emotional exhaustion (β = -.31) (all ps < .001). These findings suggest that academic mental health is shaped by intersecting individual capacities, institutional climates, and global publication pressures. Interventions should therefore move beyond individual-focused strategies and include institutional policies that prevent and address unwanted behavior in the workplace, reduce publication stress, and promote healthier work practices.
Introduction Currently, risk assessment instruments are only valid for people who have already been convicted of a criminal offense. These tools are not applicable in the case of people who present themselves in a therapeutic context and with concerns about reusing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but without court order. This raises the question of how professionals can appropriately assess the risk of recidivism for this group of people. Following an exploratory approach, this study aims to identify key variables for the future development of a risk assessment instrument specifically designed for CSAM users in nonmandated, prevention-oriented settings. Methods The study examined 131 male persons from two sites of the Do Not Offend (DNO) network (German translation: Kein Täter werden), who had used CSAM in their history. The instruments STATIC-C and CPORT/CASIC were applied exclusively based on the Information provided by the participants at the time of admission and in part retrospectively. The evaluation period was examined with regard to the self-reported CSAM recidivism. Results Only the CASIC was able to predict the criterion, while there was no significant relationship with the STATIC-C and the CPORT without the CASIC. Using the external criterion-related strategy of scale construction, the items No children (not having children of one's own) and Previous undetected use of CSAM as well as the CASIC items Never married, Interest in child pornography spanned two or more years and Possessed child pornography videos and the CPORT item Admission or diagnosis of sexual interest in children (clinical diagnosis) were identified as promising for future scale construction. Discussion The results are discussed with regard to their clinical significance and the validity of a new instrument.
Childhood maltreatment and young motherhood both increase the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV). Young mothers with a history of childhood trauma express a desire to protect and parent differently with their own children, but parenting children in the context of IPV is incredibly difficult. Little is known specifically about how young, maltreated Black mothers parent and cultivate family in the wake of challenges. To address this literature gap, we used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to examine how three mothers aged 20 to 22 who had experienced childhood maltreatment and IPV experienced parenting young children in the context of IPV. All the mothers had one child, had a history of foster care, and self-identified as Black or African American. IPA results yielded a rich depiction of how mothers are navigating complex circumstances and relationships to cultivate safe and reliable homes for their children, with analysis revealing four themes: the transformative nature of motherhood, feeling alone, coping through challenges, and building community. Mothers shared the complicated position of needing to rely on their abusive partners and families, while also expressing the desire to model healthy relationships and support their children. Ultimately, mothers were faced with the challenge of creating support networks and communities of care, which commonly consisted of peers. As young parents with childhood maltreatment transition into adulthood, intervening to protect them against further violence is of paramount importance. Promising strategies include building a robust social support structure and ensuring mothers can secure housing, food, education, and childcare without being reliant on their abusive partners or family members.
Background Domestic violence mechanisms are frequently transmitted across generations, representing a global issue demanding particular attention. This study investigates the intergenerational transmission of intimate partner violence (IPV) and parent-to-child violence (PCV) and whether participating in a multilevel preventive intervention (Fast Track) breaks this transmission. Methods In high-risk elementary schools located in the United States, children considered at high risk for aggressive behavior based on teachers' and parents' screen scores were assigned to either a 10-year intervention or a control group based on their school. The Fast Track trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01653535) and was focused on parenting practices and children's intrapersonal, interpersonal, and academic skills. From the original 891 children, 374 participants with children aged less than 18 years (n = 191 intervention group, n = 183 control group) reported at age 34 their experience with domestic violence and their children's psychological adjustment. Results The intergenerational mediating pathway from high IPV in the first generation to high PCV in the second generation to greater total mental health difficulties in the third generation was statistically significant in the control group but not in the intervention group. Conclusions IPV was intergenerationally transmitted by influencing PCV, with a negative effect on the third generation's mental health. Nevertheless, participation in the Fast Track intervention disrupted this cycle. These findings suggest the importance of policies to support preventive childhood interventions.
In the field of child sexual abuse prevention, secondary prevention services seek to engage with people concerned about their sexual interest and behaviours towards children prior to the onset of offending. There is a lack of robust information to inform program development and to seek to engage earlier with people concerned about their risk to children. Accordingly, this paper reports on the findings of a survey of 4,918 men, drawn from representative samples in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The paper described the proportion of men in the survey with a sexual interest in children (n = 642), and the factors that distinguish between men who wanted help for that interest and men who did not want help. Study findings indicate that offending behaviour is a key motivator for help-seeking amongst men with a sexual interest in children. Men who wanted help were significantly more likely to be married or living with a partner and working with children, and they reported closer social bonds, compared to men with sexual feelings who did not want help, which suggests that their help-seeking may be motivated by concern about the impact of their offending on their close relationships, social ties, and reputation. This group also displayed heightened rates of other forms of sexual deviancy, such as arousal to animal pornography, as well as the use of encrypted social media apps, potentially to camouflage or hide their offending activity. These findings may be useful for secondary prevention services in order to build motivation to seek help amongst men with a sexual interest in children.
