Denis Ribeaud

University of Zurich | UZH · Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development

Abstract Background Little comparative data on substance use (SU) between sexual minority youth (SMY) and heterosexual youth (HET) is available. This study compares the prevalence of SU in an urban cohort between SMY and HET and evaluates demographic and psychosocial predictors of SU. Methods Data came from a prospective-longitudinal cohort study i...

Random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) are increasingly used to investigate research questions focusing on how one variable at one time point affects another variable at the subsequent time point. Due to the implied temporal sequence of events in such research designs, interpretations of RI-CLPMs primarily focus on longitudinal cross...

Objective: Epidemiological studies increasingly use hair samples to assess people’s cumulative exposure to steroid hormones, but how the use of different psychoactive substances may affect steroid hormone levels in hair is, so far, largely unknown. The current study addresses this gap by establishing the substance exposure correlates of cortisol, c...

Experiences of dating violence are widespread among adolescents. Therefore, increasing the understanding on the developmental antecedents is crucial. However, most existing studies involve cross-sectional designs, which poses a challenge in better understanding the developmental precursors of dating violence victimization. To address this, we exami...

Emotion dysregulation is increasingly implicated as a transdiagnostic risk factor in the etiology of mental health problems. This project aimed to explore the links between emotion regulation, negative parenting and student–teacher relationships using longitudinal and ecologically valid data. A sample of n = 209 young people enrolled in the ‘Decade...

We examined early adolescent predictors of later distress and adaptive coping in early adulthood, using data from a prospective longitudinal cohort study ( n = 786). In early adolescence (age 13), we assessed indicators of mental health (internalizing symptoms), stressor exposure (cumulative stressful life events), and family socialization (support...

Mental disorders are among the leading causes of global disease burden. To respond effectively, a strong understanding of the structure of psychopathology is critical. We empirically compared two competing frameworks, dynamic-mutualism theory and common-cause theory, that vie to explain the development of psychopathology. We formalized these theori...

Objectives: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has seen an explosion in popularity in recent years; however, an improved understanding of how to minimise (selective) non-adherence is needed. Methods: We examined a range of respondent characteristics predictors of adherence (defined as the number of EMA surveys completed) in the D2M EMA study....

Excessive screen time among adolescents is discussed as a significant public health concern. Identifying adolescent longitudinal patterns of time spent on regularly-used media screens and understanding their young adulthood mental health and behavioral issue correlates may help inform strategies for improving these outcomes. This study aimed to cha...

Unlabelled: Historic declines in young people's mental health began to emerge before the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of this youth mental health crisis, the pandemic constituted a naturalistic stressor paradigm that came with the potential to uncover new knowledge for the science of risk and resilience. Surprisingly, approximately 19-35% of peo...

Background: Given the strong tendency for different mental health symptoms to co-occur, there is considerable interest in identifying trans-diagnostic predictors of mental health that can be targets for intervention to efficiently prevent and treat issues across a range of domains. Emotion regulation difficulties have been identified as a correlate...

Background: Predominant explanations of the victim-offender overlap tend to focus on shared causes, such as (low) self-control or risky lifestyles. Such explanations bypass the possibility of a causal link between victimization and offending. We draw on evolutionary developmental psychology and criminological research to propose and test the hypoth...

This study examined longitudinal links between several dimensions of parent–child relationship and adolescent substance use, and tested the role of self-control in mediating these. Data came from the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood. Validated questionnaires were used to measure parent–child domains at age 11, se...

The relation between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and aggression is well documented; however, the processes that account for higher levels of aggression associated with ADHD in the course of daily life are little understood. The current study used ecological momentary assessment to explore how ADHD traits relate to indiv...

Purpose: Reading has been proposed to be a protective factor in mental health; however, testing this is made challenging by the vulnerability of the reading-mental health association to confounding. Methods: We used two complementary approaches to address this: propensity score matching and random intercepts cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) in...

Traditionally attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been conceptualised as a childhood condition; however, there is growing recognition that ADHD symptoms also commonly impact adults. Research has also highlighted considerable individual differences in ADHD symptom trajectories from childhood to adulthood. To better illuminate the lif...

Objective: Large-scale epidemiological research often uses self-reports to determine the prevalence of illicit substance use. Self-reports may suffer from inaccurate reporting but can be verified with objective measures. This study examined the following: the prevalence of illicit and non-medical substance use with self-reports and hair toxicology,...

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodologies are commonly used to illuminate the predictors and impacts of experiencing subjective stress in the course of daily life. The validity of inferences from this research is contingent on the availability of measures of perceived momentary stress that can provide valid and reliable momentary stress s...

Reading has been proposed to be a protective factor in mental health; however, testing this is made challenging by the vulnerability of the reading-mental health association to confounding. In this study, we used two complementary approaches to address this: propensity score matching and random intercepts cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) in a la...

Research has shown that violent ideations (VIs) may play a key role in aggression and violence. However, there is no tool to measure this construct adapted to the Spanish language so far. The current study aims to translate and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Violent Ideations Scale (VIS) in European Spanish. This study counts with a co...

Hair concentrations of cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone are non-invasive measures of cumulative steroid hormone levels. Use of contraceptives co-varies with levels of cortisol and cortisone in women's hair. It is unclear, however, how different contraceptive methods (i.e., that differ in their steroid hormone composition) affect corticosteroid...

Background Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has become a popular method of gathering information about participants as they go about their daily lives. However, participant non-compliance, especially non-random compliance, in EMA is a concern. Better knowledge of the moment-to-moment factors that predict prompt non-response can inform the desi...

Prior research has found evidence for a positive effect of student-teacher bonds on children’s behavior. However, little research has investigated these relations following a transactional model of child development. This study investigated the bidirectional associations between student-teacher relationships and oppositional behaviors towards teach...

Previous research has identified harsh parenting practices, such as corporal punishment, as a predictor of adolescent behaviour problems such as increased aggression. However, not all children who experience childhood corporal punishment develop increased aggression, making the illumination of factors moderating this link an important question for...

English factsheet on the main results of the report on the Zurich Youth Surveys 1999-2021 which is only available in German (https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-219687)

The question of whether youth violence in Switzerland is increasing or decreasing has attracted public and media attention ever since the 1990s. To shed light on this issue, we have been conducting the "Zurich Youth Surveys" on the basis of representative samples of students in the canton of Zurich since 1999. These methodologically identical self-...

Previous research has suggested that bullying victimization is associated with higher suicidal risk among young people; however, the mechanisms underlying this relation have not been well examined. The current study aimed to illuminate the developmental links between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation by examining the mediating roles of d...

The distal relationship between risk factors in childhood and subsequent dating violence in late adolescence has not often been explored using longitudinal data. This study aims to shed light on the problem of dating violence by examining children’s backgrounds at age 7 and the link to the future involvement in dating violence at age 17 using the f...

A subset of youth show an escalation of delinquency in adolescence and there is considerable potential value in identifying early life markers that could be used to help target preventive interventions for those at risk. Within a dual systems framework, this study examined childhood predictors of adolescent escalations of delinquency in the normati...

BACKGROUND Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is widely used in health research to capture individuals’ experiences in the flow of daily life. The majority of EMA studies; however, rely on non-probability sampling approaches, leaving open the possibility of non-random participation with respect to the individual characteristics of interest in EM...

Background Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is widely used in health research to capture individuals’ experiences in the flow of daily life. The majority of EMA studies, however, rely on nonprobability sampling approaches, leaving open the possibility of nonrandom participation concerning the individual characteristics of interest in EMA resea...

Introduction: We investigated the longitudinal course of self-, other-, and dual-harm in adolescents, focusing on the infliction of physical injury on oneself, another person, or both parties, respectively. We examined the within-person transitions between these types of harm and whether relationships with peers and teachers predict individual har...

Excessive screen time among adolescents is discussed as a significant public health concern. Identifying adolescent longitudinal patterns of time spent on regularly-used media screens and understanding their adulthood mental health and behavioural issue correlates can help inform interventions for these later-life outcomes. This study aimed to char...

A maladaptive response to stress in individuals with high ADHD traits may be a key factor explaining co-occurring ADHD symptoms and internalising problems. The current study investigates whether between-person differences in ADHD traits are associated with differences in the within-person moment-to-moment coupling of stress and negative affect; and...

Introduction: Negative affectivity, emotional inertia, and emotional lability are distinct aspects of emotional dysregulation, increasingly implicated as transdiagnostic risk factors in the aetiology of psychopathology. Adverse parenting has shown to be associated with emotion regulation difficulties in early adulthood and it has been suggested tha...

Lack of future time perspective is correlated with a wide range of mental health issues, indicating that future time perspective could serve as a transdiagnostic protective factor across such issues. Random intercepts cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPMs) were fitted to analyse how future time perspective and mental health issues (ADHD symptoms, ext...

Most ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies rely on non-random and non-probability sampling approaches, leaving open the possibility that the samples in this area are selective with respect to the individual characteristics of interest in EMA research. Knowledge of the factors that predict participation in EMA research is required to evaluat...

Connections between prosocial and antisocial behaviours have been recognised; however, little research has studied their developmental links. This is important to illuminate during early adolescence as a sensitive period for social development in which prosocial behaviours could protect against the development of antisocial behaviours. This study i...

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has become a popular method of gathering information about participants as they go about their daily lives. However, participant non-compliance, especially non-random compliance, in EMA is a concern. Better knowledge of the moment-to-moment factors that predict prompt non-response can inform the design of strat...

Previous research has suggested that bullying victimization is associated with higher suicidal risk among young people; however, the mechanisms underlying this relation have not been well examined. The current study aimed to illuminate the developmental links between bullying victimization and suicidal ideation by examining the mediating roles of d...

Introduction: Debates about the legalization of illegal substances (e.g., cannabis) continue around the globe. A key consideration in these debates is the adequate protection of young people, which could be informed by current prevalence and age-of-onset patterns. For Switzerland, such information is limited, which is particularly true for women,...

Previous studies have offered evidence for peer problems and academic achievement as mediators in developmental cascades from externalising to internalising problems, and from ADHD symptoms to both internalising and externalising problems. However, these mediators have not been found to fully account for these cascades, indicating that there may be...

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodologies are commonly used to illuminate the predictors and impacts of experiencing subjective stress in the course of daily life. The validity of inferences from this research is contingent on the availability of measures of perceived momentary stress that can provide valid and reliable momentary stress s...

Within developmental science, there is a gap between our understanding of long-term ‘developmental’ processes, investigated via traditional longitudinal cohort designs, and our understanding of short-term ‘momentary’ processes, investigated via lab-based studies or, increasingly, via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods. To bridge this gap...

Background Little is known about the childhood antecedents and adult correlates of adolescent dual-harm (i.e. co-occurring self- and other-harm). We examine the longitudinal associations between (a) social and psychological risk factors in childhood and adolescent dual-harm and (b) adolescent dual-harm and social and mental health impairments in ea...

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) has seen an explosion in popularity in recent years; however, knowledge of the respondent characteristics that predict compliance lags behind. This knowledge can be valuable for informing strategies to improve compliance and minimise bias due to non-random non-response with respect to participant characteristic...

Background Adolescent suicidality, suicidal ideation (SUI) and self-harming behaviour (SI) are major public health issues. One group of adolescents known to be particularly prone to suicidality and mental health problems is lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) youth. Although the social acceptance of the LGB community has increased in recent years, LGB...

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used (N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, time...

This study examined early external childcare in relation to development from age 7 to 20. A Swiss sample was used ( N = 1,225; 52% male). Development included multi-informant-reported externalizing behavior, internalizing problems, prosocial behavior, delinquency, and substance use. Growth curve models revealed that, dependent on the informant, tim...

A previous study developed and validated a multi-item instrument for the assessment of violent ideations, the “Violent Ideations Scale” (VIS). However, the final 12-item scale contained no items relating to sexual violence and was thus lacking an important dimension of violence. The current study explores an expansion of the original VIS to include...

The Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso) began in 2004 in response to the need for a better evidence base to support optimal child social development and prevent crime and violence. Since then, the study has tracked the development of a diverse sample of youths ( N = 1,675 in the target sample; ~50% female)...

The relation between ADHD symptoms and aggression has been well documented; however, the processes that account for higher levels of aggression associated with ADHD ‘in the moment’ in the course of daily life interactions have been little researched. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to explore how ADHD traits might relat...

Cross-informant discrepancies (CIDs) in youth behavior are common. Given that these same behaviors often show or are perceived to show gender differences, it is important to understand how informant perceptions and their discrepancies are affected by gender. In n = 1,048 (51% male) Grade 5 (age 11) Swiss youth, self- versus teacher (n = 261) CIDs w...

Existing research has shown that the quality of the relationship between teacher and child is associated with more positive perceptions of school authorities. There has been relatively less attention to the processes that connect attitudes towards different sources of authority, such as between teachers and police. The current study uses a counterf...

Polysubstance use (i.e., simultaneous or sequential use of different psychoactive substances) is associated with increases in the risk of severe health problems and social impairments. The present study leverages community-representative, long-term longitudinal data from an urban cohort to assess: (a) the prevalence and continuation of polysubstanc...

Developmental trajectories of mental health issues can often be usefully summarised in a small number of clinically meaningful subtypes. Given the high levels of heterotypic and homotypic comorbidity in child and adolescent mental health symptoms, we explored whether it was possible to identify clinically meaningful developmental subtypes of multip...

Objective: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent childhood disorders, affecting around 3.4% of children worldwide. A common and impairing correlate of ADHD is aggressive behaviour. ADHD symptoms and aggression are both heterogeneous and it has been speculated that certain symptoms of ADHD might be more import...

A maladaptive response to stress in individuals with high ADHD traits may be a key factor that explains the co-occurrence between ADHD symptoms and internalising problems. The current study investigates whether between-person differences in ADHD traits are associated with differences in the within-person moment-to-moment coupling of stress and nega...

Background: Bullying, suicide, and self-injury are significant issues among young people. Extensive research has documented bullying victimization associations with suicidal ideation and self-injury; however, the modeling approaches used have mostly not addressed the relations between these constructs at the within-person level, and it is these li...

Although dating violence poses a serious threat to adolescents’ health and well-being around the globe, little evidence is available for Europe in general and Switzerland in particular. Also, evidence on the role of cognitive predictors related to a more general justification of aggressive behavior and gender-based violence is lacking. Therefore, t...

Background: Amidst cannabis legalization efforts and laws, we do not fully understand how the youngest frequent cannabis users fare during young adulthood. This study aims to 1) examine the prevalence of cannabis use during adolescence, and 2) investigate links of frequent (i.e., weekly or daily) teenage cannabis use with psychopathology and funct...

The Zurich Project on Social Development from Childhood to Adulthood (z-proso) began in 2004 in response to the need for a better evidence base to support optimal child social development and prevent crime and violence. Since then, the study has tracked the development of a diverse sample of youths (N = 1,675 in the target sample; ~50% female) from...

The companions in crime hypothesis suggests that co-offending moderates the link between peer delinquency and adolescent delinquency. However, this hypothesis has rarely been investigated longitudinally. Hence, this study investigated the co-development of friends’ delinquency and adolescents’ delinquency, as well as the co-development of friends’...

ADHD and internalising problems commonly co-occur with up to 50% of children diagnosed with ADHD also suffering from anxiety or depression. However, their developmental relations are currently not well understood. Longitudinal symptom level analyses can provide valuable insights into how difficulties in these areas of psychosocial functioning affec...

Objectives The current study seeks to explain changes in support for violent extremism during the transition to early adulthood. This period during the life course could increase uncertainty and vulnerability to radicalization, or alternatively lead to maturation, prosocial bonds, and consequently less support for violent extremism. In the absence...

Mental disorders are highly prevalent, and among the leading causes of global disease burden. To respond in a timely and effective manner, a strong understanding of the structure of psychopathology and its development is critical. We compared the ability of two competing frameworks, the dynamic mutualism theory and the common cause theory, to expla...

Dual systems theories of adolescent risk-taking propose that the socioemotional and self-regulation systems develop at different rates, resulting in a peak in sensation-seeking in adolescence at a time when self-regulation abilities are not yet fully mature. This “developmental imbalance” between bottom-up drives for reward and top-down control is...

We examined the longitudinal course of, and pre‐ and during‐pandemic risk factors for, self‐injury and domestic physical violence perpetration in young adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data came from a Swiss longitudinal study (N = 786, age ~22 in 2020), with one prepandemic (2018) and four during‐pandemic assessments (2020). The prevalence of...