ACAMH’s blogs bring together timely, evidence-based insights on child and adolescent mental health, written by leading researchers, clinicians, and those with lived experience. They are designed to translate cutting-edge research into accessible, practical guidance that supports better outcomes for children, young people, and families.
Blog
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Enhancing Motivation in Adolescents With ADHD: Long-Term Insights From the STAND Trial
ADHD is a long-term condition that often continues into adulthood, bringing academic, social, and health challenges. A new community trial tested Supporting Teens’ Autonomy Daily (STAND), a programme that combines motivational interviewing with parent–teen collaboration and training in organisation, time management, and planning skills. The study found that STAND improved outcomes when delivered by licensed therapists, highlighting both promise and implementation challenges.
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Unlocking Children’s Internal Worlds: 25 Years of the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP)
Dr Saul Hillman – For more than 25 years, we have been training professionals in the use of the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP), a powerful and nuanced tool designed to help us understand the internal worlds of children aged 4 to 10 years old.
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Families and Children in Wartime Ukraine: Prelude to an Online Course on Families in Context of War and Social Conflict Through the Lens of Attachment
For practitioners and policymakers, it is important to realise that the extraordinarily high levels of parental burnout signal serious mental health challenges ahead, even well beyond the end of the war.
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Social Fears in Children: The Roles of Parental Communication and Child Temperament
A recent longitudinal study by Zeytinoglu and colleagues (2025) provides insights into how parental verbal communication and child characteristics contribute to the transmission of social fears. The study shows the impact of both positive and negative maternal statements about ambiguous social situations, finding that positive comments were linked to reductions in children’s social fear beliefs, while negative comments predicted increases, especially among children who were behaviourally inhibited or had high anxiety.
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Thank you to all our 2024 Reviewers
ACAMH wants to express our gratitude to every single reviewer from 2024 for their invaluable contributions to the JCPP, the CAMH journal and JCPP Advances, and the wider academic community as a whole. We are deeply appreciative of the time and effort required to provide detailed, thoughtful reviews. Reviews serve a vital function in the production of fascinating papers and exciting progress in the field of child and adolescent mental health.
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Understanding How Parenting Programs Work: Key Behaviour Changes and Individual Differences in Outcomes
A 2025 study by Sigurðardóttir and colleagues brings together findings from 14 European randomized controlled trials with 3,252 families, all evaluating social learning-based parenting programmes. The study examined in detail how these programmes can support the reduction of disruptive behaviours in children.
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ACAMH Awards 2025 Shortlist – Recognising Advancements in CAMH Research and Practice
It is our pleasure to announce the shortlist of nominees for the 2025 ACAMH Awards.
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Children and Adolescents with Single and Multiple Traumas Response to PTSD Therapy: New Insights from a Major Meta-Analysis
A 2023 meta-analysis led by Hoppen and colleagues examined whether children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) benefit equally from psychological interventions, regardless of whether they have experienced a single traumatic event or multiple traumas (Hoppen et al., 2023).
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Adolescence at Risk: Online Misogyny, Mental Health, and the Urgent Need for Action
What is online misogyny? How do adolescent boys engage with the Manosphere? What are the implications for policy and practice? Dr. Arianda Albajara Saenz explores it’s impact on youth mental health.
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Insights from Two Decades of Statewide Data on the Diagnostic Rates among Autistic Females
A 2024 study by Harrop and colleagues reflects how the landscape of autism diagnosis for females has evolved. Drawing on more than 10,000 diagnostic records from the TEACCH Autism Program in North Carolina, spanning the years 2000 to 2021, the study reveals a steady increase in the proportion of females identified as autistic. While diagnostic pathways are becoming more inclusive, late recognition remains a concern, highlighting the ongoing need for approaches that acknowledge the diversity of autistic experience.
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