Brendan F Andrade

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Verified

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• PhD
• Senior Scientist at Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Introduction Promoting youth mental health and well-being is a global concern. Administering social-emotional learning programs in contexts that are familiar to youth have the potential to increase mental well-being by helping youth develop fundamental coping skills that may contribute to their resilience. Implementing social-emotional learning pro...

Objectives Children with externalizing disorders commonly show emotion dysregulation and callous–unemotional (CU) traits. However, it is unclear whether emotion dysregulation and CU traits share underlying neurobiology that can be predictive of psychosocial treatment outcomes. In this preliminary study, we examined neural correlates of externalizin...

Background This practice paper exemplifies a systematic approach used to learn about existing mental well‐being programs for youth 11–14 years to inform curriculum development for after‐school settings. Methods We reviewed 3389 mental well‐being programs from publicly accessed databases and conducted a content analysis using inductive and deductiv...

Greater treatment readiness has been associated with better treatment outcomes and lower levels of premature dropout. Understanding factors contributing to youth and caregiver’s readiness for mental health treatment is needed to minimize dropouts and potentially improve well-being. Parent and youth readiness to engage in mental health treatment to...

Objectives School-based health centres (SBHCs) provide developmental and mental health care to children with socioeconomic disparities. We piloted a validated behavioural intervention called Coping Power (CP) for children with disruptive behaviour through our SBHC program. The objective of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility of CP in th...

Externalizing psychopathology in childhood is a predictor of poor outcomes across the lifespan. Children exhibiting elevated externalizing symptoms also commonly show emotion dysregulation and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Examining cross-sectional and longitudinal neural correlates across dimensions linked to externalizing psychopathology durin...

Background: Early neurodevelopmental risks, compounded with traumatic medical experiences, contribute to emotional and behavioral challenges in as many as 1 in 2 children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Parents report a strong need for supports; yet, there remains a lack of accessible, evidence-based behavioral interventions available for chil...

Out‐of‐school programs are an accessible option to bolster the mental well‐being of youth, who may be at risk of developing further emotional and behavioural concerns. Developing a more nuanced understanding of the tools and methods available to understand youth mental health needs, in the context of out‐of‐school programs is needed to provide rele...

The onset of mental health issues frequently starts during adolescence, where one third of adolescents who are 14 years and younger receive a mental health diagnosis. The state of youth mental health is a major public health concern. The EMPOWER project was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to address youth mental health. The EMPOWER project i...

BACKGROUND Early neurodevelopmental risks, compounded with traumatic medical experiences, contribute to emotional and behavioural challenges in as many as 1 in 2 children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Parents report a strong need for supports; yet, there remains a lack of accessible, evidence-based behavioural interventions available for CHD...

Background Early neurodevelopmental risks, compounded with traumatic medical experiences, contribute to emotional and behavioral challenges in as many as 1 in 2 children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Parents report a strong need for supports; yet, there remains a lack of accessible, evidence-based behavioral interventions available for child...

Early-life adversity is associated with the development of internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Despite this, there is a need to understand the mechanisms linking these experiences to psychopathology, especially in clinical samples. This cross-sectional study tested emotion dysregulation as a mechanism linking early-life threat to...

Neurodevelopmental conditions can be associated with decreased health-related quality of life; however, the predictors of these outcomes remain largely unknown. We characterized the predictors of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a sample of neurodiverse children and youth. We used a cross-sectional subsample from the Province of Ontario Ne...

Introduction Our group developed an Integrated Care Pathway to facilitate the delivery of evidence-based care for adolescents experiencing depression called CARIBOU-2 (Care for Adolescents who Receive Information ‘Bout OUtcomes, 2nd iteration). The core pathway components are assessment, psychoeducation, psychotherapy options, medication options, c...

Externalizing psychopathology in childhood is a predictor of poor outcomes across the lifespan. Children exhibiting elevated externalizing psychopathology also commonly show emotion dysregulation and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Examining cross-sectional and longitudinal neural correlates across dimensions linked to externalizing psychopatholog...

Parent and family characteristics are important considerations in the etiology and treatment of childhood disruptive behavior problems. The current study investigated the psychometric properties of the General Functioning (GF) scale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD) in families referred for treatment of childhood disruptive behavior di...

Health-related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a multi-faceted construct influenced by a myriad of environmental, demographic, and individual characteristics. Our understanding of these influencers remains highly limited in neurodevelopmental conditions. Existing research in this area is sparse, highly siloed by diagnosis labels, and focused on symptoms...

Parent engagement is critically important to the success of psychological treatments for children with disruptive behavior. Most studies on parental readiness for treatment have focused on mothers. Thus, many investigations do not fully capture clinical services that often involve assessment with multiple parents (e.g., mothers and fathers) simulta...

Best practice clinical assessment of externalizing problems often necessitates collection of information from parents, youth themselves, and teachers. The present study tested the predictive validity of a psychometrically-driven scoring procedure to integrate multi-informant, dimensional ratings of externalizing problems. Participants were 2264 cli...

Background Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide prevalence of maternal depression has risen sharply; it is now estimated that one quarter of mothers experience clinically significant depression symptoms. Exposure to maternal depression during early childhood increases the risk for the development of childhood mental illness (MI)...

Background: Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the worldwide prevalence of maternal depression has risen sharply; it is now estimated that one-quarter of mothers experience clinically significant depression symptoms. Exposure to maternal depression during early childhood increases the risk for the development of childhood mental illness (MI)...

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a stepped-care parenting program implemented during COVID-19 among families of behaviorally at-risk children with neurological or neurodevelopmental disorders aged 3-9 years. Methods: Stepped-care I-InTERACT-North increased psychological support across 3 steps, ma...

Extant research on physiological dysregulation in children has focused on point-in-time measures and absolute mean levels of physiology. However, these methods do not capture dynamic fluctuations in physiology that characterize dysregulation. In the present work, we aimed to assess whether physiological dysregulation as captured by fluctuations rat...

Children and adolescents with externalizing disorders are at risk for suicidal ideation or behavior. Factors that put them at risk could be symptoms related or facilitated by their environment. We evaluated the links of symptoms profiles with suicidality, and the effects of family relationship characteristics on these links. Latent profile analysis...

Parenting can protect against the development of, or increase risk for, child psychopathology; however, it is unclear if parenting is related to psychopathology symptoms in a specific domain, or to broad liability for psychopathology. Parenting differs between and within families, and both overall family-level parenting and the child-specific paren...

Objectives Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) show emotion dysregulation and underdeveloped inhibitory control associated with impairment in social, academic, and family functioning. The present study investigated whether inhibitory control mediates the association between emotion d...

Lower autonomic arousal is associated with higher externalizing behavior in childhood but the mechanisms explaining this link are still debated. One possibility is that lower autonomic arousal makes it difficult for children to anticipate or express social emotions, such as ethical guilt rooted in concern for others, thereby increasing their likeli...

Parenting can protect against the development of, or increase risk for, child psychopathology; however, it is unclear if parenting is related to psychopathology symptoms in a specific domain, or to broad liability for psychopathology. Parenting differs between and within families, and both overall family-level parenting and the specific parenting a...

Purpose of review: There are a wide range of psychosocial treatment options, delivered in different modalities, for children with disruptive behaviour. However, clinicians face many challenges in ensuring the empirically supported treatments (ESTs) they select will be effective for their patient. This has prompted studies to generate knowledge on...

Introduction Mental disorders affect 1 in 5 children having consequences for both the child and their family. Indeed, the siblings of these children are not insulated from these consequences and may experience elevated levels of psychological distress, placing them at increased risk for developing mental disorders. This protocol describes the metho...

The ability to recognize emotions evident in people’s faces contributes to social functioning and might be affected by ADHD and irritability. Given their high co-occurrence, we examined the relative contribution of ADHD and irritability to facial emotion recognition (FER). We hypothesized that irritability but not ADHD traits would predict increase...

Importance: Understanding the longitudinal, bidirectional associations between disturbed sleep and depression in childhood and adolescence is crucial for the development of prevention and intervention programs. Objective: To test for bidirectional associations and cascade processes between disturbed sleep and depressive symptoms covering both ch...

Executive function task (EF) deficits are hypothesized to underlie difficulties with self-regulation. However, tasks assessing EF impairments have only been weakly correlated with rating scales that index self-regulation difficulties. A community sample of children and youth aged between 8 and 20 years old were assessed longitudinally. Growth curve...

Objectives Research interest in mindfulness, the capacity for present-oriented, nonjudgmental attention and awareness, and its relation to parenting has been growing in recent years. However, factors facilitating the association between mindfulness and parenting are not yet well understood. In the present study, we examined whether parents’ biased...

To adapt an existing virtual family-based mental health intervention learning platform (I-InTERACT-North), using participatory action research design, to meet the needs of parents and children with congenital, neonatal, and neurodevelopmental conditions that impact development. A purposive sample of parent knowledge users recruited from a large ped...

Compared children with CP/ADHD, CPCU/ADHD, ADHD-only, and controls on two measures of inhibitory control: a Simon/flanker task that measured response selection and a stop signal task that measured response inhibition. Results showed: (a) ADHD was associated with both measures of inhibitory control; (b) control children had better overall performanc...

Global access to practitioner training in the clinical engagement of fathers in family-based interventions is limited. The current study evaluated the feasibility of training practitioners in Canada and UK using online training developed in Australia by examining improvements in practitioner confidence and competence in father engagement, training...

There is growing evidence of diverse etiological pathways to the development of callous-unemotional (CU) traits, known as primary and secondary CU variants. The purpose of the present study was to extend previous cross-sectional research and examine theoretical predictors of CU variants prospectively from childhood to adolescence. Participants incl...

Background Biased parental attributions, or biased thinking about the cause of children’s behavior, are linked to harsh and negative parenting in parents of children with disruptive behavior disorders. However, little is known about moderators of this link.Objective The current study explored whether child callous-unemotional (CU) traits may be a m...

Parental lifetime mental disorder symptoms were investigated as a moderator of the association between readiness for treatment and severity of child externalizing behaviors (EB) among 165 parents of clinic-referred children. Readiness and parental mental disorder symptoms were positively associated with greater child EB severity. Mental disorder sy...

Objective Maladaptive parental attributions for their children’s behavior have been linked to poorer parenting skills, heightened child internalizing and externalizing difficulties, and parents’ less willingness to engage in treatment. Although most parental attributions research has been focused on White or European-origin parents, attention has r...

Parents’ interpretations of the cause of their children’s behavior, i.e., parental attributions, are linked to parenting behavior and child development. However, it is not yet known whether parental attributions are systematically associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms and behavior or psychosocial treatment engagement a...

Disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs)—which can include or be comorbid with disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder—are commonly seen in paediatric practice. Given increases in the prescribing of atypical antipsychotics for children and yo...

Transdiagnostic models of psychopathology suggest that disorders may share common features that could influence their severity. Attention problems and psychomotor restlessness are included in the diagnostic criteria for several disorders, including disorders on the internalizing spectrum, but their transdiagnostic significance has received little a...

Importance Disturbed sleep represents a potentially modifiable risk factor for depression in children and youths that can be targeted in prevention programs. Objective To evaluate the association between disturbed sleep and depression in children and youths using meta-analytic methods. Data Sources Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Scienc...

Children with disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) experience high rates of comorbid psychopathology, including internalizing disorders. According to the dual pathway model, comorbid internalizing symptoms may be associated with less (buffer hypothesis) or more (multiple problems) severe clinical presentations among children with DBDs. We examined...

Objective: This study investigated confidence accuracy associations for emotion recognition (ER) in children with ADHD and typically developing children (TD). Method: Thirty-nine children with ADHD and 42 TD (M = 9 years, 11 months, SD = 14.92 months, 26 females) completed an ER task. Intelligence and executive function task performance were also m...

Youth with externalizing disorders are a heterogeneous group with varied, severe, and persistent emotional, social, and behavioral challenges. Effective psychotherapy to prevent and reduce the morbidity and societal costs associated with externalizing disorders is imperative. Psychotherapies for youth with externalizing disorders include those comp...

Objective: We examined feasibility and acceptability of an adapted telepsychological parent-child intervention to improve parenting skills and reduce emotional and behavioural difficulties in Canadian families of children at-risk for poor neurodevelopment given congenital or neonatal conditions. Preliminary program efficacy outcomes are also descri...

Background: Comparing the efficacy of psychotherapy services for different family needs is critical for advancing more personalized treatment approaches. We examined maternal internalizing mental health problems as a predictor of treatment response for individualized treatment for mothers and their child, versus Coping Power (CP), a manualized grou...

Parents’ causal interpretations for their children’s behavior, termed parental attributions, influence parents’ participation in parent-directed treatments for children with disruptive behavior. However, it is not well known whether subtypes of attributions, such as parent-causal or child-responsible attributions, are associated with parent readine...

Introduction Disturbed sleep represents a potentially important modifiable risk factor for the development of depression in children and youth. This protocol for a systematic review proposes to investigate whether insomnia and/or sleep disturbances predict child and youth depression in community and clinical-based samples. Methods and analysis The...

Childhood Disruptive Behaviors (DBs) are a robust predictor of delinquency, academic failure, social difficulties, and persistent mental health disorders and one of the most frequent reasons for referral to children's mental health services. Although high prevalence and referral rates and negative outcomes signal great need, current treatment appro...

Research on children’s social information processing (SIP) has mainly focused on negative attributions in peer provocation and rejection situations. The potential of balanced attributions—attributing both positive and negative intent—and of positive attributions has not been explored. We conducted a series of regressions to examine balanced, positi...

This study examined the influence of executive functions on the association between callous-unemotional traits and severity and type of childhood disruptive behavior. Eighty one children aged 8–12 years and their parents participated in the study. We assessed children’s callous-unemotional traits, executive functions, and two indices of disruptive...

The Parent Cognition Scale (PCS; Snarr, Slep, & Grande, 2009) is a self-report measure of parental attributions of child behavior that has demonstrated validity in community samples. However, its psychometric properties have not been examined in a clinical sample of parents of children with disruptive behavior. Examining the psychometric properties...

Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) provide a framework for evidence-based practice; however, few studies have assessed the methodological quality of CPGs relevant to child and youth mental health. This study was a systematic review of CPGs for the assessment, prevention and treatment of disruptive behavior, including attention-deficit hyperactivity...

The current longitudinal study examined academic outcomes of children diagnosed with secondary attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (S-ADHD) following stroke in comparison to children with stroke-only and children with developmental ADHD (D-ADHD), and explored potential predictors of progress in these groups. We followed 55 children (n = 17 S-A...

In press, Journal of Affective Disorders Background: Children who are severely dysregulated experience a range of concurrent and long-term impairments and psychopathology and are particularly at-risk for mood and anxiety disorders. The Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP) may be useful inidentifying children who are highly dysre...

Background: Children who are severely dysregulated experience a range of concurrent and long-term impairments and psychopathology and are particularly at-risk for mood and anxiety disorders. The Child Behavior Checklist Dysregulation Profile (CBCL-DP) may be useful in identifying children who are highly dysregulated, which could facilitate early i...

Objective: The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the decisional needs of parents of children with ADHD and disruptive and aggressive behaviour to inform the creation of a patient decision aid. Method: A one-day meeting of researchers, community advocacy partners, and 11 parents of children (age range eight to 21) with aggressive and d...

Objective: Executive functions (EFs) have been assessed with performance-based measures and rating scales. Research has shown a lack of association between these two methods. One factor that might contribute to this difference is the structure provided on performance-based measures that is not provided on rating scales. This study examined the role...

This study examined the effects of comorbid ADHD symptoms, internalizing psychopathology, Callous-Unemotional (CU) Traits, and conduct problem severity on children's response to an evidence-based psychosocial intervention. Clinic-referred children with DBD ages 8-12 years (N = 76) participated in a 15-week multi-component intervention. Parents prov...

Objective This study examined cross-informant evidence for a general factor of psychopathology (“P”), and a narrower, clinically-oriented dysregulation general factor based on the Dysregulation Profile (“DP”) in a large clinical sample of children and adolescents. We also compared the magnitude of P and DP general factor associations with self-harm...

The purpose of this study was to examine whether callous-unemotional (CU) traits moderated the effects of intensive behavior therapy in elementary school age children with varying levels of conduct problems (CP). Both treatment response (magnitude of change between pre- and post-treatment) and treatment outcomes (likelihood of normalization from tr...

This study compared the multicomponent Coping Power (group) program to individualized parent-child treatment with respect to changing the parenting efficacy and satisfaction of parents of children with conduct problems. One hundred fourteen parents of 9-12-year-old children with conduct problems were randomized to Coping Power or individualized tre...

This study examined associations between parenting behaviors and school performance in children oversampled for externalizing behavior problems. Participants were 147 mothers (Mage = 36.46 years, SD = 5.66) and 110 fathers (Mage = 39.31 SD = 6.26) of 148 children (Mage = 9.64 years, SD = 1.59). The majority of children (83.7%) met diagnostic criter...

Children with disruptive behavior (DB) are a heterogeneous group who exhibit several characteristics that may contribute to poor social functioning. The present study identified profiles of reactive aggression, proactive aggression, callous-unemotional (CU) traits, and prosocial behavior in a sample of children with DB. Associations with social fun...

Parent Training (PT) is not as effective for parents with histories of internalizing symptoms as it is for other parents. This study aimed to determine which dimensions of parenting, notably parenting efficacy, positive parenting, inconsistent discipline, and poor supervision, mediate the association between parent lifetime internalizing symptoms a...

Objective: This study identified profiles of clinic-referred children with disruptive behavior and determined the association between identified profiles and children's aggression, peer problems, and prosocial skills. Method: Parents and teachers of 208 children (163 boys) aged 6 to 12 years (Mage = 8.80, SD = 1.75) completed measures to assess...

This article outlines challenges that emerge during the clinical assessment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. The importance of person-context interactions is highlighted, especially when attempting to formulate the factors that promote and maintain poor psychosocial functioning in children with ADHD. Additionally, a v...

This practice note details the synchronous implementation and developmental evaluation of a novel model of care that integrates an evidence-based treatment of children with disruptive behaviour within a community-based children's mental health centre in Canada. Te overall objective of the project was to evaluate the impact and viability of the inte...

Objective Parent management training programs for parents of children with disruptive behaviors are efficacious treatments; however, in order to maximize efficiency it is necessary to develop approaches to understand which parents are most likely to participate in treatment. Accordingly, the present study used a person-centered methodology to deter...

This practice note details the synchronous implementation and developmental evaluation of a novel model of care that integrates an evidence-based treatment of children with disruptive behaviour within a community-based children’s mental health centre in Canada. The overall objective of the project was to evaluate the impact and viability of the int...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 5.9% to 7.1% of children and is characterized by persistent difficulties with attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that contribute to difficulties in daily functioning (Willcutt, 2012). In addition to these core symptoms, many children with ADHD experience co-occurring problems with behav...

This study identified clinical profiles of referred children based on the severity of callous-unemotional (CU) traits, emotional difficulties, and conduct problems. Parents of 166 children (132 males) aged 6-12 years referred to a hospital clinic because of disruptive behavior completed measures to assess these key indicators, and person-centered a...

Abstract This study validated the factor structure of the Parent Readiness for Change Scale (PRFCS) using a clinical sample of parents presenting for assessment and treatment because of their children’s disruptive behaviors to an urban children’s mental health program in Canada. Parents or guardians of 138 children (21.7 % female) aged six to twelv...

This study tested whether inattentive–impulsive–overactive (I/O) and oppositional-defiant (O/D) behaviors were associated with peer problems and whether these associations were moderated by callous–unemotional (CU) traits in clinically referred children with disruptive behaviors. Parents of 135 children aged 6–12 years (M = 9.09, SD = 1.62) complet...

Children with disruptive behavior disorders experience substantial social challenges; however, the factors that account for (i.e., mediate), or influence (i.e., moderate), peer problems are not well understood. This study tested whether symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder were associated with peer impairment and whether p...

Objective: This study tested whether children’s symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity were associated with peer problems and whether these associations were mediated by conduct problems and prosocial behaviors. Method: A community sample of 500 children, including 245 boys and 255 girls, who ranged in age from 6 to 9 years (M = 7.6,...

This prospective 2-year longitudinal study tested whether inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive symptom dimensions predicted future peer problems, when accounting for concurrent conduct problems and prosocial skills. A community sample of 492 children (49 % female) who ranged in age from 6 to 10 years (M = 8.6, SD = .93) was recruited. Teacher repo...

Objective This study examined social information processing (SIP) of events with varied outcomes in children with ADHD and conduct problems (CPs; defined as oppositional defiant disorder [ODD] or conduct disorder [CD]) and controls. Method Participants were 64 children (46 boys, 18 girls) aged 6 to 12, including 39 with ADHD and 25 controls. Vigne...

This article describes the conceptual framework for the Coping Power program that has focused on proximal risk factors that can actively alter preadolescent children's aggressive behavior. The results of initial controlled efficacy trials are summarized. However, consistent with the theme of this special section, some clinicians and workshop partic...

The current study examines the role of callous/unemotional (CU) traits in response to treatment among children with conduct problems (CP) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Fifty-four children with CP/ADHD and 16 controls (age = 9.48, SD = 1.58) took part in a summer treatment and research program. Simple correlations showed that...

Examined social information processing (SIP) in medicated and unmedicated children with ADHD and in controls. Participants were 75 children (56 boys, 19 girls) aged 6-12 years, including 41 children with ADHD and 34 controls. Children were randomized into medication conditions such that 20 children with ADHD participated after receiving placebo and...

Objective: Investigated the relationship between selective and sustained attention and social behavior in children with different degrees of attentional disturbance. Method: Participants were 101 6- to 12-year-old children, including 18 who were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), 61 who were clinically referred for att...

This study examined whether response to behavior modification with and without methylphenidate differed for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct problems (CP) depending on the presence of callous/unemotional (CU) traits. Participants were 37 children ages 7 to 12, including 19 with ADHD/CP-only and 18 with ADHD/...

This study examined the association between social problem solving, conduct problems (CP), and callous-unemotional (CU) traits in elementary age children. Participants were 53 children (40 boys and 13 girls) aged 7-12 years. Social problem solving was evaluated using the Social Problem Solving Test-Revised, which requires children to produce soluti...