A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

A novel behavioural screening questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), was administered along with Rutter questionnaires to parents and teachers of 403 children drawn from dental and psychiatric clinics. Scores derived from the SDQ and Rutter questionnaires were highly correlated; parent-teacher correlations for the two sets of measures were comparable or favoured the SDQ. The two sets of measures did not differ in their ability to discriminate between psychiatric and dental clinic attenders. These preliminary findings suggest that the SDQ functions as well as the Rutter questionnaires while offering the following additional advantages: a focus on strengths as well as difficulties; better coverage of inattention, peer relationships, and prosocial behaviour; a shorter format; and a single form suitable for both parents and teachers, perhaps thereby increasing parent-teacher correlations.

https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01545.x

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note

Background Little is known about the general population prevalence or severity of DSM-IV mental disorders. Objective To estimate 12-month prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, impulse control, and substance disorders in the recently completed US National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Design and Setting Nationally representative face-to-face household survey conducted between February 2001 and April 2003 using a fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Participants Nine thousand two hundred eighty-two English-speaking respondents 18 years and older. Main Outcome Measures Twelve-month DSM-IV disorders. Results Twelve-month prevalence estimates were anxiety, 18.1%; mood, 9.5%; impulse control, 8.9%; substance, 3.8%; and any disorder, 26.2%. Of 12-month cases, 22.3% were classified as serious; 37.3%, moderate; and 40.4%, mild. Fifty-five percent carried only a single diagnosis; 22%, 2 diagnoses; and 23%, 3 or more diagnoses. Latent class analysis detected 7 multivariate disorder classes, including 3 highly comorbid classes representing 7% of the population. Conclusion Although mental disorders are widespread, serious cases are concentrated among a relatively small proportion of cases with high comorbidity.

/pdf/prevalence-severity-and-comorbidity-of-12-month-dsm-iv-54fahxwd1s.pdf

Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication

So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

This chapter suggests that delinquency conceals two distinct categories of individuals, each with a unique natural history and etiology: A small group engages in antisocial behavior of one sort or another at every life stage, whereas a larger group is antisocial only during adolescence. According to the theory of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior, children's neuropsychological problems interact cumulatively with their criminogenic environments across development, culminating m a pathological personality. According to the theory of adolescence-limited antisocial behavior, a contemporary maturity gap encourages teens to mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and adjustive. There are marked individual differences in the stability of antisocial behavior. The chapter reviews the mysterious relationship between age and antisocial behavior. Some youths who refrain from antisocial behavior may, for some reason, not sense the maturity gap and therefore lack the hypothesized motivation for experimenting with crime.

/pdf/adolescence-limited-and-life-course-persistent-antisocial-52vil00qlw.pdf

Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy.

Biology of environmental effects

Objective: As use of standard depression questionnaires in clinical practice increases, clinicians will frequently encounter patients reporting thoughts of death or suicide. This study examined whether responses to the Patient Health Questionnaire for depression (PHQ-9) predict subsequent suicide attempt or suicide death. Methods: Electronic records from a large integrated health system were used to link PHQ-9 responses from outpatient visits to subsequent suicide attempts and suicide deaths. A total of 84,418 outpatients age ‡13 completed 207,265 questionnaires between 2007 and 2011. Electronic medical records, insurance claims, and death certificate data documented 709 subsequent suicide attempts and 46 suicide deaths in this sample. Results: Cumulative risk of suicide attempt over one year increased from .4% among outpatients reporting thoughts of death or self-harm “not at all” to 4% among those reporting thoughts of death or self-harm “nearly every day.” After adjustment for age, sex, treatment history, and overall depression severity, responses to item 9 of the PHQ-9 remained a strong predictor of suicide attempt. Cumulative risk of suicide death over one year increased from .03% among those reporting thoughts of death or self-harm ideation “not at all” to .3% among those reporting such thoughts “nearly every day.” Response to item 9 remained a moderate predictor of subsequent suicide death after the same factor adjustments. Conclusions: Response to item 9 of the PHQ-9 for depression identified outpatients at increased risk of suicide attempt or death. This excess risk emerged over several days and continued to grow for several months, indicating that suicidal ideation was an enduring vulnerability rather than a short-term crisis. (Psychiatric Services 64:1195–1202, 2013; doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.201200587)

https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/appi.ps.201200587

DoesResponseonthePHQ-9Depression QuestionnairePredictSubsequent SuicideAttemptorSuicideDeath?

The bringing together of clinical and developmental research perspectives that is intrinsic to the concept of developmental psychopathology has been one of the most important recent advances in the field of child and adolescent psychopathology. Accordingly, I approached this book with a high level

/pdf/risks-and-outcomes-in-developmental-psychopathology-107qlp61vg.pdf

Risks and Outcomes in Developmental Psychopathology

The modern understanding of genetic influences, of environmental effects, of mental disorder, and of heritabilities is noted. The practical utility of finding susceptibility genes with a very small effect is questioned. The empirical findings and implications of developmental perturbations, epigenetics, gene– environment correlations and interactions are then discussed. It is noted that the genes involved in gene–environment interactions may be concerned with susceptibility to all environments and not just adverse ones.

Michael Rutter

Papers

Biology of environmental effects

DoesResponseonthePHQ-9Depression QuestionnairePredictSubsequent SuicideAttemptorSuicideDeath?

Risks and Outcomes in Developmental Psychopathology

Discussion Paper Gene-environment interdependence

Review of Loss: Sadness and depression—Attachment and loss, vol. III.