OCMH Senior Research Analyst Amy Marsman spotlights recent articles, resources, and research findings impacting youth mental health.
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Study Forecasts Impact of Federal Assault Weapons Ban
Research suggests that banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines could significantly reduce mass shootings and deaths. Study authors estimated the impact of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (FAWB) on the number of public mass shooting events in the United States. This study provides an updated assessment with three additional years of firearm surveillance data to characterize the longer-term effects. FAWB prevented up to five public mass shootings while the ban was active. A continuation of the FAWB and large-capacity magazine ban would have prevented up to 38 public mass shootings. As described in the OCMH Fact Sheet on School Shootings, survivors of shootings are at risk for significant mental health challenges.
Trauma and Mass Shootings
About 70% of K-12 mass shooters have experienced some form of trauma. And more than 80% of mass shooters are found to be in emotional duress prior to an incident, the Violence Prevention Project found. Those who carried out violence suffered from symptoms such as depression, mood swings, and isolation right before an attack. The vast majority of K-12 school shooters (88%) and college/university shooters (89%) have a connection to the school they’re targeting, the Violence Project data states.
60% of Foiled School Attacks Were Thwarted by Students
The U.S. Secret Service found that nearly two-thirds of foiled plots to carry out a school shooting were known to the plotters’ friends, classmates, or peers who then reported the threat. Having tiplines, public reporting, a school culture that empowers help-seeking, and emphasizes trusting relationships with adults in the school are key to preventing school violence. In nearly all cases (94%), the plotters shared their intentions of carrying out a school shooting – either through in-person or online communications. In the aftermath of the recent Madison school shooting, there was a surge in tips to Wisconsin’s SUSO tipline. Most tips to SUSO relate to bullying.
Office of School Safety Releases Updated Comprehensive School Safety Framework
School safety is complex. The Wisconsin Office of School Safety helps schools by offering a variety of training, tools, and resources. Their newly released Comprehensive School Safety Framework provides research, best practices, and resources in a one-stop accessible guide. This new edition covers school mental health, school climate, bullying prevention, digital threat assessment, child abuse and neglect as well as violence prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
K-12 Behavioral Threat Assessment Efficacy and Implementation Evaluation Research: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief
In September 2024 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on K-12 Behavioral Threat Assessment Efficacy and Implementation Evaluation Research sponsored by the U.S. Secret Service's National Threat Assessment Center. The workshop was designed to explore existing literature on behavioral threat assessment, examine best practices and challenges to implementation, and identify future research needs. Their publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop, including addressing mental health of students, and specifically addresses considerations for students with disabilities and students with autism.
School-Based Interventions and Preventing Depression
Investigating whether school-based depression prevention programs support youth, the HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice at the University of Oregon conducted a systematic review and meta-analyses of studies that examined whether school-based strategies lowered depression and internalizing behaviors. Their results show that on average, students in depression prevention programs had a 33% reduced risk of depression compared to students in control groups. The researchers also provided estimated probability that students would benefit from depression prevention programs. The study provides an overview of a number of depression prevention programs.
Evidence-Based Guide: Suicide Prevention Strategies for Underserved Youth
SAMHSA’s new evidence-based guide provides suicide prevention strategies and insights specific to at-risk groups, including underserved youth. The guide highlights existing research; discusses barriers that hinder youths’ access to prevention and intervention services; and offers guidance on selecting, implementing, and evaluating evidence-based prevention programs. It also highlights programs that are making strides in addressing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young people from underserved communities.
Early Adolescence: A Window of Opportunity for Educators to Support Positive Mental Health
The National Scientific Council on Adolescence released a Research Brief covering research-based recommendations that promote positive mental health for early adolescents. Early adolescence, generally ages 10-13, is a prime period to focus on fostering four practices that aid youth mental health: independence, exploration, and learning; emotion and behavior regulation; building strong relationships; and prioritizing sleep.
Listening to children can improve their quality of life and mental health
This study revealed that being both asked about thoughts and feelings regarding the pandemic and having them considered (‘being heard’) was associated with a better quality of life for 5th and 8th grade children, emphasizing the importance of being listened to by family and teachers. The study findings underscore the importance of proactively soliciting and encouraging children’s input rather than passively receiving their thoughts and feelings.
The vital association between being heard and self-esteem is not only attributed to neurologically protective impacts of children’s sense of safety and being cared about but also to how this fosters a child’s sense of agency and autonomy whereby children develop a positive self-image and a sense of control over their lives. Adults can support children’s autonomy by acknowledging their perspectives, providing choices, and explaining decisions.
School suspensions and expulsions can lead to a lifetime of depression, study finds
Past research has established that adults who were exposed to stress during childhood often face physical or mental health challenges. But most of that research has focused on difficult childhood experiences at home, such as physical abuse or substance abuse by parents.
Now researchers at the University of Arkansas have found that students who are suspended or expelled report higher rates of depression during their teen years that stretch into adulthood. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health — an ongoing study of 20,000 people who were teens in the mid-1990s — the Arkansas researchers were able to track how often students who were suspended or expelled reported depression later in life. Suspended or expelled adolescents showed significantly higher depressive symptoms — with rates of depression decreasing in their late teens and early 20s, and then rising again in their early 30s, according to the study. See related policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics that was recently updated.
Breaking the Algorithm: Redesigning social media for youth well-being
Breaking the Algorithm, a new report from Mental Health America, dives deep into how social media is impacting young people’s mental health, relationships, and daily lives, is a unique project in that it was led and co-created by young people. From designing the research questions to conducting surveys and focus groups, to analyzing and synthesizing final findings, youth voices were at the center of the work. This report brings together insights from over 900 survey respondents, focus groups with young people, and conversations with the youth co-researchers to explore:
- The dual nature of social media as both a connector and a source of harm.
- How algorithms shape youth experiences, often without their full understanding or consent.
- Why it’s critical to empower young people with tools, education, and a voice in the systems that shape their digital worlds.
This report amplifies youth insights and provides actionable recommendations for policymakers, educators, and platforms to create healthier and more empowering online spaces.
Trends in Mental, Behavioral, and Developmental Disorders Among Youth
From 2016 through 2021, childhood mental, behavioral, and developmental disorders (MBDD) prevalence among children ages 3 to 17 increased from 25.3% to 27.7%; increases were specific to anxiety, depression, learning disability, developmental delay, and speech or language disorder. Unmet health care needs increased annually by an average of approximately 5% among children with MBDDs. The parents of children with MBDD were about twice as likely to report economic stress as parents without a child with MBDD. The study authors conclude that these findings highlight the need for improved pediatric mental health training for health care providers, for prevention and intervention efforts, and for policies addressing economic stability and equitable access to mental health services.
Healthy Children in Body and Mind
The recent issue of Contemporary Pediatrics includes practical and timely tips on how primary care pediatric providers (PCPs) can play a role in addressing the youth mental health crisis. There is an increased need for pediatric mental health care but a lack of specialized workforce to care for these children and adolescents. Therefore, mental health care must be integrated into the pediatric primary care setting. Pediatric PCPs have a long-term rapport with families, making them ideal to initiate mental health care. All pediatric health care providers should discuss health promotion and mental health awareness with patients and caregivers at each clinic visit. Childhood and adolescent screening tools for anxiety, depression, and risky behaviors can be completed during any clinic visit.
A holistic approach is also discussed including focusing on the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, social connections, stress management, and reducing risky behaviors. Chronic disease has been shown to decrease by as much as 80% when lifestyle measures are implemented in infancy.
Child Health Care at a Crossroads
A recent letter in JAMA explains that child and adolescent health care in the US is built on a legacy system designed primarily around adult care focused on diagnosis and treatment and framed by Medicare and commercial payers. The authors highlight a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that focuses on the health care system, laying out an ambitious agenda for transforming child health care to address, in part, the uniquely American problem of remarkably poor child outcomes, low investment in child well-being, and uneven access to high-performing pediatric health care in the world’s richest country.
The report documents key roles for community and governmental partners in the health of children, especially those in public health and education. Schools play critical roles in health care and prevention, from direct clinical care to programs that enhance social and emotional learning and mental health, although variable funding streams create highly inequitable systems. The report calls for expanding school health care programs.
Peer Crisis Survey Results – Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS)
In 2023, the Division of Care and Treatment Services at DHS created a survey to learn more about peer support in Wisconsin, specifically peer support in crisis services. The Peers in Crisis Services: Results of a 2023 State Survey report has been published. It covers peer identity, overall peer work experience, and peer crisis services experience. Nearly 600 people with lived experience of mental health and substance use concerns participated in this survey. The data collected from this survey is supporting ongoing work to expand the use of peers in crisis services across Wisconsin.
Racism in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
In an early released article in Pediatrics, researchers found the treatment that Black families experienced while their infant was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was blatantly racist and discriminatory in many aspects. Black parents reported common themes including distrust and fear of the medical setting, hypervigilance and trauma trajectory formation, the myth of “Black hardiness,” policing and surveillance, and undermining of Black parenting. Recommendations for NICU staff to earn rather than assume trust, respect family concerns, improve mental health support, provide compassionate care, and support the parenting role. Specifically:
- Engaging parents in parenting and teaching them skills to improve their baby’s health
- Offering more mental health services and making them more accessible
- Increasing staff diversity and cultural awareness
- Respecting families’ concerns and engaging in shared decision-making
- Purposefully assuring consistent rule enforcement to prevent biased treatment
Structural Racism Linked to Disparities in Adolescent Brain Development
Harvard Medical School researchers published a study demonstrating an association between race-based adversity in childhood and structural differences in brain development. Assessing surveys from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, Census data, and MRI scans of 1,786 Black children and 7,350 white children, the team found small variations in gray matter volume in stress-related brain regions. The researchers concluded that a significant portion of the differences between groups can be attributed to adversities experienced during childhood. Specifically, they found the likelihood of experiencing poverty, traumatic events, and family conflict may affect differential development of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. The researchers also observed that Black children experienced higher severity of PTSD symptoms, and “symptom severity was further predicted by adversity,” according to the study.
Generation Z youth are less likely to be disconnected from both work and school than Millennials were at the same age
Data reveal that fewer youth ages 16 to 24 are disconnected from work and school compared to millennials of the same age a decade ago, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center. That is, 11% of Gen Z youth and young adults (about 4.3 million) were not working or in school in 2022, an improvement from 14% (or 5.6 million) for millennials in 2012. However, the 2022 figure still represents more than 4 million members of Gen Z who are detached from work and education and need support reengaging in these settings.
Milwaukee Neighborhood Change Over Time Reports
The Neighborhood Change Over Time Reports, a project of Data You Can Use and partners, use data from the American Community Survey (ACS) to create a series of tables describing the population, households, and housing in Milwaukee neighborhoods. The framework is based on input and advice from community organizers working in the neighborhoods who expressed a desire to see how their neighborhoods were changing. The reports were made using data from the 2008-2012, 2013-2017, and 2018 – 2022 ACS five-year estimates data, which are the most up-to-date available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
New Interactive Disability Dashboard Offers Crucial Data about Parents with Disabilities
Many professionals who work with disabled people do not recognize that people with disabilities are parents or can become parents. Additionally, information about disabled parents can unfortunately be hard to find and understand, leading to further confusion and lack of awareness. These new dashboards show data about disabled parents in engaging and easy-to-use ways. People with disabilities, program providers, child welfare professionals, researchers, policymakers, advocates, and practitioners can use these data sets to learn about parents with disabilities and expand their outreach and advocacy efforts in support of them and their families.
Caregiver Stress and Children’s Mental Health
Commentary released in Pediatric Research discusses the need to address parent well-being in order to help children’s well-being. Stress and mental health disorders among parents and caregivers in the U.S. have been rising at an alarming rate. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the pressing mental health needs of caregivers, who faced heightened financial and childcare pressures, and revealed deep-seated inequities in access to healthcare, disproportionately affecting racial, ethnic, and economically marginalized groups due to structural racism and discrimination. This compounded the existing disparities in caregiver stress faced by marginalized and under-resourced communities. Caregiver stress and mental health disorders have profound effects on children’s health, socioemotional development, and represent an important adverse childhood experience. Recently, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report highlighting the critical need to address stress in caregivers and to support caregiver well-being. Significant work remains to ensure comprehensive mental health support for caregivers in the prenatal and postnatal periods.
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OCMH Research and Data Resources
Key Facts in Youth Mental Health: https://children.wi.gov/Pages/ResearchData/KeyFacts.aspx
Fact Sheets: https://children.wi.gov/Pages/ResearchData/FactSheets.aspx
Data Sources: https://children.wi.gov/Pages/Resources/DataSources.aspx
Research News in Youth Mental Health: https://children.wi.gov/Pages/OCMHNewsletters.aspx
Youth Mental Health Initiatives: https://children.wi.gov/Pages/Resources/ChildrensInitiatives.aspx
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