You might have participated in our BLT-ID study, if so you might be interested in our recent publication. 

In this paper we aimed to examine the prevalence and severity of psychological distress of women with asthma in both the prenatal and postnatal periods, and to determine whether asthmatic women with and without mental health problems differ in self-management, medications knowledge, and asthma symptoms. We included data from 120 women with information about prenatal depression data obtained from medical records and through self report at 6 weeks postpartum. We found that twenty percent of our sample reported having a current mental health diagnosis, 14% reported currently receiving mental health care, while 47% reported having received mental health care in the past (and may/may not have received a diagnosis). More specifically, we found that overall women in our sample were more likely to score higher than expected on aggression, avoidant personality and attention deficit/hyperactivity scales. Poorer self-reported postnatal asthma control was strongly correlated with elevated somatic complaints, externalizing problems, antisocial personality problems, and greater withdrawal. However, prenatal spirometry or asthma severity and control were largely not associated with measures of psychopathology. These findings indicate that pregnant women with asthma frequently report issues with psychopathology during the prenatal and postnatal periods, and that the subjective perception of asthma control may be more related to psychopathology than objective asthma measures. However, due to sample bias, these findings are likely to be understated.

If you are interested in reading more about our research information processing information processing, click on Whalen, OM., Campbell, LE., Murphy VE., Lane, AE., gibson, PG., Mattew, J., Collison, A., Mallise, CA., Woolard, A., Karayanidis, F/. (2019) Observational study of mental health in asthmatic women during the prenatal and postnatal periods published in the Journal of Asthma.

Being a new parent can be difficult. Psychoeducation has been shown to significantly benefit parents in the transition to parenthood. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of game-based learning using an interactive m-health game. M-health is the use of mobile phones in health-based communication and games. The ‘Choose Your Own Parenting Experience’ is a fun, interactive, game-based experience modelled on the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ format designed to be played on your mobile phone. It is designed to equip parents with parenting tips and knowledge to help them on their parenting journey. 
This study is being conducted by Dr Linda Campbell, Ms Jaime Wroe and Ms Miranda Cashin from the University of Newcastle.
Who can participate?New parents can participate in the study, if they:

• Have access to the internet on a mobile phone
• Have a typically developing infant aged 1 to 13 months
• Are over 18 years

Listen to Miranda talk about the study on ABC radio (Central Coast), 7/8/2018

If you are interested in participating in the study or have any questions, please email findlab@newcastle.edu.au or go to the study website by clicking on this link).

Codie Atherton was just awarded a Master of Clinical Psychology degree after completing her thesis titled “Developing a Brief Measure of Coparenting Competence: The Coparenting Competence Scale” under the supervision of Dr Linda Campbell and Dr Chris May (Family Action Centre).
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Within the family, one of the most significant relationships that occurs is the coparenting relationship. This is the one that parents share in the raising of children. Recent research by May, St George, Fletcher, Dempsey, and Newman (2017) has developed the concept of coparenting competence, which is the sense of collective parenting efficacy that parents experience in raising children, that is generated in the coparenting relationship and only exists in association with that partnership. The concept of coparenting competence bridges a gap between family systems thinking and efficacy theory wherein research has previously focused on the self-efficacy of one or either parent and not the collective efficacy within the parenting partnership.

In order to learn more about how well parents think they parent together and to enable studies in which coparenting competence is measured - in the current study - we developed a self-adminstered measure of coparenting competence – the Coparenting Competence Scale. The measure was designed by experts in collaboration with parents. The reliability and validity of the measure was tested by asking 302 participants, who were currently living together with their child and had at least one child aged 17 years or younger, to complete the measure online. The current study found support for the reliability and validity of the scale and also found that coparenting competence, assessed by the scale, is distinct from factors previously used to represent coparenting quality in multivariate measures. The current study makes an important contribution to coparenting research with the development of a reliable and valid measure of coparenting competence. The development of the scale adds to the literature by demonstrating that this newly described construct is distinct from factors previously used to represent coparenting quality in multivariate measures. The scale adds to the field of coparenting research as a standalone measure, focused on efficacy, or as another assessable factor in multivariate evaluation of coparenting quality.   

Codie’s thesis will be made available on Nova – The University of Newcastle’s digital repository. We are also currently writing up the findings for publication. We will keep you posted.

Kristie Austin completed her Master in Clinical Psychology at the University of Newcastle back in 2015. Sometimes publications of data can take a long time but finally, we have published the findings in the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research.

The study explored the transition to adulthood is a major developmental milestone; a time of self-discovery and increased independence. For young adults (YA) with intellectual disabilities (ID), however, this period is especially challenging. The increased incidence of mental health disorders in this population, such as depression and anxiety, make this transition even more difficult, increasing caregiver burden at a time when the young adult would traditionally be gaining independence. It is not clear, however, why YA with ID are more susceptible and what factors may predict mental health symptoms.
The study found that the level of insight young people had was the strongest predictor of anxiety (with gender in the controls), with increased insight predicting fewer anxiety symptoms. However, YA with ID had significantly less insight than their aged-matched counterparts and significantly higher levels of anxiety. They were also less likely to have achieved traditional adulthood milestones. Maladaptive coping was the strongest predictor of depression for YA with ID. In comparison, both maladaptive coping and insight predicted depression in controls. More maladaptive coping predicted increased depressive symptoms in both populations, whilst increased insight predicted fewer depressive symptoms in controls.
Therefore, insight and maladaptive coping are potential targets in the treatment of anxiety and depression among YA with ID. Longitudinal intervention studies exploring the efficacy of such targeted programmes in reducing mental health symptoms and improving the transition to adulthood for these young people are recommended.

To read the full paper, click on the link below;
Austin, K. L., et al. "Depression and anxiety symptoms during the transition to early adulthood for people with intellectual disabilities." Journal of Intellectual Disability Research (2018).

This week the most recent paper from our group got published in Journal of Asthma. 

The article was a systematic review of the literature exploring the relationship between asthma during pregnancy and child development. Over the years, it has been well established that maternal asthma during pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of negative perinatal outcomes. However, little is known about the direct effects of maternal asthma on infant cognitive development.

We found ten articles that explored this question. When reviewing the articles, we found that some studies reported that maternal asthma is associated with increased risk for autism and intellectual disability in children. However, the effects were small and were often eliminated when controlling for confounding variables. Other studies found no association. The only prospective study found that well-managed asthma during pregnancy was not associated with negative developmental outcomes in children. We concluded that the evidence suggesting a relationship between maternal asthma during pregnancy and poor developmental and behavioral outcomes of children were weak.

However, in order to fully explore and understand the impact of asthma during pregnancy, we need to follow children for a long time after birth. This is what we are doing with are Breathing for Life - Infant Development study (click here to learn more about our study). There has also been some interesting Australian research reported in the media recently highlighting a link between maternal immune system functioning, including asthma, during pregnancy and child outcomes. See here 'Allergies and flu in pregnancy linked to child developmental disorders, like autism and ADHD' and 'Pregnant mothers' asthma and allergies linked to more severe autism in their children'.

Citation: Olivia M. Whalen, Frini Karayanidis, Vanessa E. Murphy, Alison E. Lane, Carly A. Mallise & Linda E. Campbell (2018) The effects of maternal asthma during pregnancy on child cognitive and behavioral development: A systematic review, Journal of Asthma, DOI: 10.1080/02770903.2018.1437174

One of our FindLab alumni, Dr Jane Goodwin, has recently presented her PhD research at the 22q11 Europe 2nd Alliance Meeting at Trinity College, Dublin. Here is her account of the exciting experience:
 'On 7th October 2017, I presented my PhD research at the 22q11 Europe 2nd Alliance Meeting at Trinity College, Dublin. I focused on the positive psychological aspect of the experience of raising a child with 22q11. I spoke about a survey of parents of children with developmental disability. Our research found that:

• Communication between professionals in healthcare services is important for parents’ psychological health
• Health professionals should provide realistic expectations for parents, both positive and negative
• There is a need to bridge the gap between parents’ ideal and actual social support
• Interventions to promote specific adaptive coping mechanisms may be useful to promote parental psychological well-being

I also spoke about interviews that were conducted with parents who have a child with 22q11. We found that:

• The 22q11 diagnosis can be both positive and negative
• Parents felt stigma from healthcare services that invalidated them on their search for a diagnosis
• Parents of a child with 22q11 simultaneously experience conflicting negative and positive emotions
• Working to find meaning in their challenges allowed parents to experience psychological growth despite distress

It was wonderful to catch up with Anne Lawlor (Chairperson of 22q11 Ireland Support Group), who has been so supportive of FINDLab research. It was also great to meet other researchers and families living with 22q11. It was particularly inspiring to hear from the 22q Young Experts by Experience Panel, who shared the highs and lows of living with 22q11'.

You can find Jane's slides from the presentation here. 

It's been a busy week in the Find Lab! On Sunday (5/11/17) we had our hugely successful stall at the Central Coast Kids Day Out. It was a brilliant day, full of fun activities for the whole family. We'd like to say a huge thank you to all the families who braved the weather to come and say hi! 

We also had some of our honours students from the lab finish the last part of their degree this Monday (6/11/17). They presented their findings from this year, and did a wonderful job. Taylah looked at infant-directed speech and infant attention this year, supervised by Dr Linda Campbell, and Brooke looked at infant executive function and eye-tracking this year, supervised by A/Prof Frini Karayanidis. We are sad to see you both leave, but we can't wait to see what the future holds for you both!
Congratulations Taylah and Brooke!