Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Retention strategies in longitudinal cohort studies: a systematic review and meta-analysis
    Teague, S ; Youssef, GJ ; Macdonald, JA ; Sciberras, E ; Shatte, A ; Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M ; Greenwood, C ; McIntosh, J ; Olsson, CA ; Hutchinson, D (BMC, 2018-11-26)
    BACKGROUND: Participant retention strategies that minimise attrition in longitudinal cohort studies have evolved considerably in recent years. This study aimed to assess, via systematic review and meta-analysis, the effectiveness of both traditional strategies and contemporary innovations for retention adopted by longitudinal cohort studies in the past decade. METHODS: Health research databases were searched for retention strategies used within longitudinal cohort studies published in the 10-years prior, with 143 eligible longitudinal cohort studies identified (141 articles; sample size range: 30 to 61,895). Details on retention strategies and rates, research designs, and participant demographics were extracted. Meta-analyses of retained proportions were performed to examine the association between cohort retention rate and individual and thematically grouped retention strategies. RESULTS: Results identified 95 retention strategies, broadly classed as either: barrier-reduction, community-building, follow-up/reminder, or tracing strategies. Forty-four of these strategies had not been identified in previous reviews. Meta-regressions indicated that studies using barrier-reduction strategies retained 10% more of their sample (95%CI [0.13 to 1.08]; p = .01); however, studies using follow-up/reminder strategies lost an additional 10% of their sample (95%CI [- 1.19 to - 0.21]; p = .02). The overall number of strategies employed was not associated with retention. CONCLUSIONS: Employing a larger number of retention strategies may not be associated with improved retention in longitudinal cohort studies, contrary to earlier narrative reviews. Results suggest that strategies that aim to reduce participant burden (e.g., flexibility in data collection methods) might be most effective in maximising cohort retention.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The Structural Stability of Positive Development Across Young Adulthood: Longitudinal Findings From the Australian Temperament Project
    Hawkins, MT ; Letcher, P ; O'Connor, M ; Bant, S ; Deery, A ; Sanson, A ; Toumbourou, JW ; Olsson, CA (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2017-10)
    The purpose of this study was to examine the structural stability of positive development across the 20s using data from one of Australia’s oldest population-based studies of social–emotional development. Positive development was indicated by civic action and engagement, trust and tolerance of others, trust in authorities and organizations, social competence, and life satisfaction. Results extend an earlier published model spanning 19–20 and 23–24 years by incorporating a new wave of data collected at 27–28 years. The age 27–28 latent model was gender invariant and a robust replication of our earlier model. Associations between the latent constructs in the mid- to late 20s were stronger than those in emerging adulthood. This work provides evidence of a cohesive higher order construct of positive development from late adolescence to the late 20s and has the potential to inform measurement of strength-based research and prevention programs in the emerging and young adult periods.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The effect of low parental warmth and low monitoring on disordered eating in mid-adolescence: Findings from the Australian Temperament Project
    Krug, I ; King, RM ; Youssef, GJ ; Sorabji, A ; Wertheim, EH ; Le Grange, D ; Hughes, EK ; Letcher, P ; Olsson, CA (ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2016-10-01)
    OBJECTIVE: To investigate the interactions between low parental warmth and monitoring at age 13-14 years and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours at age 15-16 years. METHOD: Data on 1300 (667 females) adolescents and their parents were drawn from The Australian Temperament Project (ATP), a 30 year (15 wave) population based longitudinal study of social-emotional development. Parent participants completed surveys on parenting practices in late childhood, and adolescent participants reported disordered eating using the drive for thinness and bulimia subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) and an additional body dissatisfaction scale. Interaction was examined on the additive scale by estimating super-additive risk; i.e., risk in excess of the sum of individual risks. RESULTS: For boys, neither parental warmth or monitoring, nor their interaction, was related to disordered eating. For girls, low parental warmth (alone) was associated with bulimic behaviours. In contrast, exposure to both low monitoring and warmth was associated with ∼3½-fold, ∼4-fold and ∼5-fold increases in the odds of reporting body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness and bulimia, respectively. For body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness, risk associated with joint exposure exceeded the sum of individual risks, suggesting an additive interaction between parenting styles. CONCLUSION: Further investment in family-level interventions that focus on promoting parental monitoring behaviour and a warm parent-child relationship remain important strategies for preventing a range of disordered eating behaviours in adolescents.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    The natural history of internalizing behaviours from adolescence to emerging adulthood: findings from the Australian Temperament Project
    Betts, KS ; Baker, P ; Alati, R ; McIntosh, JE ; Macdonald, JA ; Letcher, P ; Olsson, CA (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2016-10)
    BACKGROUND: The aims of the study were to describe the patterning and persistence of anxiety and depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood and to examine long-term developmental relationships with earlier patterns of internalizing behaviours in childhood. METHOD: We used parallel processes latent growth curve modelling to build trajectories of internalizing from adolescence to adulthood, using seven waves of follow-ups (ages 11-27 years) from 1406 participants of the Australian Temperament Project. We then used latent factors to capture the stability of maternal reported child internalizing symptoms across three waves of early childhood follow-ups (ages 5, 7 and 9 years), and examined relationships among these patterns of symptoms across the three developmental periods, adjusting for gender and socio-economic status. RESULTS: We observed strong continuity in depressive symptoms from adolescence to young adulthood. In contrast, adolescent anxiety was not persistent across the same period, nor was it related to later depressive symptoms. Anxiety was, however, related to non-specific stress in young adulthood, but only moderately so. Although childhood internalizing was related to adolescent and adult profiles, the associations were weak and indirect by adulthood, suggesting that other factors are important in the development of internalizing symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Once established, adolescent depressive symptoms are not only strongly persistent, but also have the potential to differentiate into anxiety in young adulthood. Relationships with childhood internalizing symptoms are weak, suggesting that early adolescence may be an important period for targeted intervention, but also that further research into the childhood origins of internalizing behaviours is needed.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Negative reactivity and parental warmth in early adolescence and depressive symptoms in emerging adulthood
    Lloyd, B ; Macdonald, JA ; Youssef, GJ ; Knight, T ; Letcher, P ; Sanson, A ; Olsson, CA (WILEY, 2017-06)