Ruth Roberts

University College London | UCL

Parenting children with conduct problems (CP) is challenging, yet very little is known about the impact of the child’s behaviour on family functioning or how parents of children with CP perceive their child. The aim of this research was to examine whether families with children with CP and high vs. low levels of callous–unemotional traits (HCU vs....

Children with conduct problems (CP) and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) have been found to have an intact ability to represent other minds, however, they behave in ways that indicate a reduced propensity to consider other people's thoughts and feelings. Here we report findings from three tasks assessing different aspects of menta...

Background Parental well-being during pregnancy and early parenthood is critical for child development. Environmental stressors can significantly challenge parental well-being. Aims To investigate how COVID-19 and associated restrictions influence mood and parenting confidence of expectant parents and those in early parenthood, identifying barrier...

BACKGROUND: Adolescents with conduct problems (CP) are characterised by difficulties with social relationships and display atypical social cognition, such as when interpreting emotional expressions or engaging in social problem-solving. One important aspect of social cognition that warrants investigation is the degree to which these adolescents fac...

Background In youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis, cortisol elevations predict transition to psychosis, but it is unclear whether cortisol alterations are evident at an earlier clinical stage. We investigated whether cortisol levels and stressors in childhood were associated with later attenuated psychotic (AP) symptoms. Methods A sample of...

Background In youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis, elevated cortisol levels predict subsequent onset of psychotic disorder. However, it is unclear whether cortisol alterations are evident at an earlier clinical stage and promote progression of psychosis expression. The present study aimed to address this issue by investigating whether cortiso...

Background: Parents’ well-being during pregnancy and early parenthood is critical for children’s development. Environmental stressors can significantly challenge parents’ well-being.Aims: To investigate how COVID-19 and associated restrictions influence mood and parenting confidence of expectant parents and those in early parenthood, identifying ba...

Background Mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a amplitude reductions are robust abnormalities of sensory information processing in schizophrenia, but are variably present in different profiles of risk (family history vs. clinical high-risk) for the disorder. This study aimed to determine whether these abnormalities characterize children presenting rep...

Background: Parents’ well-being during pregnancy and early parenthood is crucial for healthy parent-infant relationships and children’s development. We examined how COVID-19 and associated restrictions influence mood and parenting confidence of expectant parents and those in early parenthood, identifying barriers and facilitators. Methods: We use...

Premorbid motor dysfunction is one of the earliest of developmental antecedents identified among individuals who develop schizophrenia in adulthood. However, among individuals with schizophrenia, premorbid motor dysfunction is not apparent at all stages of childhood development and may reduce with increasing age. Currently, little is known about th...

Background Among adults with schizophrenia, evidence suggests that premorbid deficits in different cognitive domains follow distinct developmental courses during childhood and adolescence. The aim of this study was to delineate trajectories of adolescent cognitive functions prospectively among different groups of youth at‐risk for schizophrenia, re...

Data S1. Summary Data for Each Participant (Information on Group Membership, Parameter Estimates for Regions of Interest, and Behavioral Ratings), Related to STAR Methods Data are provided for each participant for (1) group membership (i.e., typically developing, disruptive/high callous-unemotional traits, disruptive/low callous-unemotional traits...

Humans are intrinsically social animals, forming enduring affiliative bonds [1]. However, a striking minority with psychopathic traits, who present with violent and antisocial behaviors, tend to value other people only insofar as they contribute to their own advancement [2, 3]. Extant research has addressed the neurocognitive processes associated w...

Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), a non-specific biomarker of systemic bodily inflammation, has been associated with more pronounced cognitive impairments in adults with psychiatric disorders, particularly in the domains of memory and executive function. Whether this association is present in early life (i.e., the time at which the cognitive impai...

Information about thresholds Uploaded as ‘Supplementary material - thresholds.doc’; details breakdown of item thresholds by gender (as part of gender invariance analysis)

During adolescence, social interactions are a potent source of reward. However, no measure of social reward value exists for this age group. In this study, we adapted the adult Social Reward Questionnaire, which we had previously developed and validated, for use with adolescents. Participants aged 11–16 (n = 568; 50% male) completed the Social Rewa...

Pituitary volume enlargements have been observed among individuals with first-episode psychosis. These abnormalities are suggestive of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyperactivity, which may contribute to the development of psychosis. However, the extent to which these abnormalities characterize individuals at elevated risk for schizophr...

Aims Many children and adolescents experiencing mental health problems do not receive appropriate care. Strategies to encourage appropriate access to services might be improved by a more detailed understanding of service use determinants within this group. In view of caregivers’ key role in young people’s pathways to care, this study aimed to advan...

Abnormal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function, as indexed by elevated diurnal cortisol levels and/or a blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR), has been observed among patients with first episode psychosis and associated with neurocognitive deficits in this population. However, the extent to which these features precede illness onse...

Psychological stress is implicated in the development of schizophrenia, but little is known about experiences of stress among children at elevated risk for the disorder. To examine stressor exposure and reactivity in children with different vulnerability profiles for schizophrenia: (a) children presenting multiple antecedents of schizophrenia (ASz...