Francesca Zecchinato
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fzecchinato.bsky.social
Francesca Zecchinato
@fzecchinato.bsky.social
51 followers 94 following 9 posts
NIHR ARC Wessex Research Fellow at the University of Southampton (UK) | Interested in intervention and prevention targets for young people mental illness and mental health care provision
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
lucyfoulkes.bsky.social
New paper from my group, led by Carolina Guzman Holst

This is a secondary analysis of data from the high-quality MYRIAD trial, a universal school-based mindfulness intervention

Summary below (🧵)

acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Adolescents' trajectories of mental health in the MYRIAD trial Abstract Background This study explored adolescent's mental health trajectories over the course of a school-based mindfulness-based intervention trial (MYRIAD). It examined whether intervention condition (mindfulness vs. teaching-as-usual), individual-level and contextual-level factors were associated with different trajectories. Methods This pre-registered study used data from 11- to 14-year-olds who participated in the MYRIAD trial. We used growth mixture models to examine distinct trajectories in risk for depression, social-emotional-behavioural functioning, and wellbeing (co-primary outcomes), and anxiety (secondary outcome), across pre-intervention, post-intervention and 12-month follow up (ns = 7198–7727). We then used multinomial and binomial logistic regression models to examine factors associated with individual trajectory membership. Results Distinct trajectories emerged for each outcome: A five-trajectory model best explained the changes in risk for depression, whilst four-trajectory models best explained changes in social-emotional-behavioural functioning, wellbeing, and anxiety. While 69%–80% of adolescents followed stable low-problem trajectories for each outcome, 11%–23% experienced stable high-problem trajectories, 2%–16% experienced increasing-problem trajectories and 1%–5% experienced decreasing-problem trajectories. Receiving the mindfulness intervention was not associated with any mental health trajectory in models adjusted for confounders. Several individual-level factors, including executive functioning difficulties and risk of mental health problems at baseline, and school-level factors, such as school climate, predicted adolescents' classification into different trajectories, but they did not vary according to intervention group. Conclusions Individual differences in mental health trajectories emerged over the course of a 1-year mindfulness-based intervention, with most adolescents experiencing low-stable problem trajectories for each outcome. However, the intervention itself had no impact on individual trajectory membership, mirroring null results found in the main trial. Our findings suggest that universal interventions may not be sensitive enough to address the diverse needs of all students, however, tailoring interventions to address a range of different individual and contextual factors might maximise their impact.
October 10, 2025 at 3:36 PM
fzecchinato.bsky.social
🔹NEW PUBLICATION🔹in Development and Psychopathology, with Jana Kreppner and Pete Lawrence!

📄 Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

🧵summary thread below:
The impact of perinatal exposure to paternal anxiety on offspring: A prospective study using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort | Development and Psychopathology | Cambridge Co...
The impact of perinatal exposure to paternal anxiety on offspring: A prospective study using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort
www.cambridge.org
June 6, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
acamh.bsky.social
Prevention of mental illness in children of parents with depression

10-min talk from Belinda Platt describing evidence-based interventions to prevent youth mental illness with a focus on an family-and group-based intervention.

acamhlearn.org/Learning/Pre...

#ACMHlearn
Prevention of mental illness in children of parents with depression
acamhlearn.org
May 30, 2025 at 8:51 AM
fzecchinato.bsky.social
Really glad I got to blog about this important work 💡

Preventing mental health difficulties in young people should be a priority and parental anxious behaviours can be an effective target for interventions 🎯
thementalelf.bsky.social The Mental Elf @thementalelf.bsky.social · May 27
Preventing the intergenerational transmission of anxiety: encouraging insights from new online RCT buff.ly/lUPjNNq

🧵 THREAD

#Anxiety #ParentalAnxiety #Parenting #Parents #RCT #PreventingMentalIllness
May 27, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
karenjbateson.bsky.social
New research in Nature finds perinatal mental health screening in NICU's helps identify parents who need mental health support.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Implementation of perinatal mental health screening for parents of infants in a level IV neonatal intensive care unit: A quality improvement initiative - Journal of Perinatology
Journal of Perinatology - Implementation of perinatal mental health screening for parents of infants in a level IV neonatal intensive care unit: A quality improvement initiative
www.nature.com
May 8, 2025 at 3:04 PM
fzecchinato.bsky.social
A very thought provoking discussion on young people's mental health and social media 💡
cognitations.bsky.social The Cognitations podcast @cognitations.bsky.social · Mar 28
🎙️ EP #14

What are the multiple ways in which social media 'might' affect mental health? What can parents do, given the messy state of the scientific literature? @adigitaltanay.bsky.social discusses this & much more with @orbenamy.bsky.social

tinyurl.com/5eum2vxm

[Jon Haidt Easter Egg in 🧵 below]
EP #14 | How can Social Media Affect Mental Health? | Amy Orben
Cognitations · Episode
tinyurl.com
April 2, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
lucyfoulkes.bsky.social
Overdiagnosis of mental disorders is making headlines again, this time thanks to Wes Streeting. But it is true?

(thread)

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Wes Streeting: there is overdiagnosis of mental health conditions
Health secretary says too many people are being ‘written off’ and that is driving ministers’ changes to welfare
www.theguardian.com
March 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
sjblakemore.bsky.social
There's a lot of evidence of the harms of smacking children.

There's also evidence that children and young people learn more from rewards than from punishment, including this computational study by @stepalminteri.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
March 6, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Francesca Zecchinato
sciencex.bsky.social
Researchers are investigating perinatal intrusions—intense thoughts during and after pregnancy—to understand their causes and develop treatments, aiming to improve maternal and infant mental health. doi.org/g869wc
Dark thoughts before and after giving birth are almost universal—now psychologists want to find out why
Researchers aim to investigate the causes and potential treatments for perinatal intrusions—intense and vivid thoughts that impact most people during and after pregnancy.
medicalxpress.com
March 6, 2025 at 5:33 PM