Kyrre Breivik

Income inequality is frequently cited as a forceful determinant of mental health and as a possible contributor to the rising trend in adolescent depressive symptoms. However, research findings often rely on low-powered cross-sectional designs. We conducted a preregistered study of the within-municipality effect of income inequality on adolescent depressive symptoms in Norway, covering ≈550,000 respondents nested within 863 municipality years and 340 municipalities. Using multilevel modeling and equivalence testing, the overall within-municipality effect of income inequality was neither statistically significant nor practically meaningful and did not significantly interact with family financial situation. A significant gender interaction showed that rising inequality predicted slightly higher depressive symptoms among females and slightly lower among males; however, the main gender effects were also probably too small to be meaningful. We conclude that changes in income inequality likely do not meaningfully predict nor help explain changes in adolescent depressive symptoms in Norway from 2010 to 2019.

Background: A new and growing body of research has studied bullying among children in early childhood education and care centers (ECECs). The Bernese Program (Be-Prox) is designed to systematically prevent and handle bullying between children in Swiss ECECs. However, the effectiveness of the Be-Prox intervention has not yet been explored in a Norwegian ECEC setting. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Be-Prox in preventing and handling bullying among peers in Norwegian ECECs. Methods: ECECs from 2 Norwegian municipalities were invited to participate in a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Be-Prox intervention on peer bullying in Norwegian ECECs. After baseline measures were taken, project ECECs were randomized to either an intervention or a control arm. The Be-Prox intervention was introduced to ECECs in the intervention arm through 6 modules over a 9-month period immediately after the randomization. ECECs in the control arm participated in the data collection and were offered the Be-Prox intervention the following year. The primary outcome of the effect evaluation is the mean sum of negative behavior between peers after the Be-Prox training is completed in the intervention arm. Secondary outcomes include child bystander behavior, teacher self-efficacy, and ECEC’s authoritative climate. An extensive implementation and process evaluation, as well as cost-effectiveness analyses, will be conducted alongside the RCT. Results: Baseline data collection was conducted in September 2023, and the postintervention data collection started in May 2024. At baseline, we collected data on 708 children and 413 personnel from 38 project ECECs in the 2 Norwegian municipalities. The results from the study will be available in late 2024 at the earliest. Conclusions: The proposed project includes a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of Be-Prox in Norwegian ECECs directly targeting the prevention and handling of bullying, including implementation and cost-effectiveness evaluations. The results from the project have the potential to fill in identified knowledge gaps in the understanding of negative behavior and bullying between peers in ECECs, and how these may be prevented. If proven efficient, our ambition is to offer Be-Prox to Norwegian ECECs as an evidence-based practice to prevent and handle bullying among preschool children. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06040437; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06040437 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/60626

Background: Whether the recent rise in adolescent self-reported depressive symptoms is influenced by changing reporting behavior is much debated. Most studies use observed sum scores to document trends but fail to assess whether their measures are invariant across time, a prerequisite for meaningful inferences about change. We examined whether measurement noninvariance, indicative of changing perceptions and reporting of symptoms, may influence the assessment of time trends in adolescent depressive symptoms.Methods: Data stem from the nationwide repeated cross-sectional Ungdata-surveys (2010–2019) of 560 712 responses from adolescents aged 13 to 19 years. Depressive symptoms were measured with the Kandel and Davies' six-item Depressive Mood Inventory. Using structural equation modeling, we examined measurement invariance across time, gender and age, and estimated the consequences of noninvariance on cross-cohort time trends.Results: Across most conditions, the instrument was found measurement invariant across time. The few noninvariant parameters detected had negligible impact on trend estimates. From 2014, latent mean depressive symptom scores increased among girls. For boys, a U shaped pattern was detected, whereby an initial decrease in symptoms was followed by an increase from 2016. Larger issues of noninvariance were found across age in girls and between genders.Conclusions: From a measurement perspective, the notion that changed reporting of symptoms has been an important driver of secular trends in depressive symptoms was not supported. Thus, other causes of these trends should be considered. However, noninvariance across age (in girls) and gender highlights that depressive symptoms are not necessarily perceived equivalently from early to late adolescence and across gender.

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP) is a comprehensive, school-wide effort to prevent and address bullying in elementary, middle, and high school environments. Since its first implementation in 1983, the OBPP has been embraced by thousands of schools in at least ten countries and it has undergone rigorous evaluation across diverse communities. This chapter provides an overview of the development of the OBPP, including its principles, goals, and program components; describes early research on its effectiveness; discusses the dissemination of the OBPP internationally; and summarizes recent evaluations in several different countries.

BACKGROUND A new and growing body of research has studied bullying among children in early childhood education and care centers (ECECs). The Bernese Program (Be-Prox) is designed to systematically prevent and handle bullying between children in Swiss ECECs. However, the effectiveness of the Be-Prox intervention has not yet been explored in a Norwegian ECEC setting. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Be-Prox in preventing and handling bullying among peers in Norwegian ECECs. METHODS ECECs from 2 Norwegian municipalities were invited to participate in a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effectiveness of the Be-Prox intervention on peer bullying in Norwegian ECECs. After baseline measures were taken, project ECECs were randomized to either an intervention or a control arm. The Be-Prox intervention was introduced to ECECs in the intervention arm through 6 modules over a 9-month period immediately after the randomization. ECECs in the control arm participated in the data collection and were offered the Be-Prox intervention the following year. The primary outcome of the effect evaluation is the mean sum of negative behavior between peers after the Be-Prox training is completed in the intervention arm. Secondary outcomes include child bystander behavior, teacher self-efficacy, and ECEC’s authoritative climate. An extensive implementation and process evaluation, as well as cost-effectiveness analyses, will be conducted alongside the RCT. RESULTS Baseline data collection was conducted in September 2023, and the postintervention data collection started in May 2024. At baseline, we collected data on 708 children and 413 personnel from 38 project ECECs in the 2 Norwegian municipalities. The results from the study will be available in late 2024 at the earliest. CONCLUSIONS The proposed project includes a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of Be-Prox in Norwegian ECECs directly targeting the prevention and handling of bullying, including implementation and cost-effectiveness evaluations. The results from the project have the potential to fill in identified knowledge gaps in the understanding of negative behavior and bullying between peers in ECECs, and how these may be prevented. If proven efficient, our ambition is to offer Be-Prox to Norwegian ECECs as an evidence-based practice to prevent and handle bullying among preschool children. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06040437; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06040437 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/60626

Beskrivelse: Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) ble publisert i 1999 av Ehlers, Gillberg og Wing og er oversatt til norsk av Anita Eriksson og Anne Mari Sund. Testen er utviklet for å være et screeningverktøy for å identifisere barn med mulig autismespekterforstyrrelse, beregnet på utfylling fra voksne informanter som kjenner barnet godt. ASSQ har en enkelt hovedskala og anbefalte grenseverdier (indikasjon på mulig autisme) for lærere og foreldre. Testen består av 27 ledd og det er ingen formelle kompetansekrav for bruk eller tolkning. Litteratursøk: Litteratursøk resulterte i 121 treff, hvorav 21 norske og 9 svenske eller danske artikler ble inkludert. Disse inneholdt dokumentasjon på interraterreliabilitet, begrepsvaliditet, kriterievaliditet, diskriminant validitet og normer for en avgrenset aldersgruppe. Det ble funnet middelverdier for ulike kliniske grupper (autisme, cerebral parese, nevrologiske tilstander, premature barn, barn av mødre med rusmisbruk eller røyking i svangerskapet). ASSQ har utmerket test-retest reliabilitet. Testens begrepsvaliditet synes å være tilfredsstillende, selv om det er behov for mer forskning på testens konvergerende og diskriminerende validitet. Konklusjon: ASSQ synes å ha gode egenskaper som klinisk screeningverktøy i den forstand at lærer- eller foreldrerapporterte skårer over grenseverdi indikerer mulig autismespekterforstyrrelse som bør utredes nærmere av en kliniker. Ved bruk i forskningsprosjekter er det usikkert hvor treffsikkert det er å bruke skåre over klinisk grenseverdi som proxy for diagnostisert autisme da det blir mange falske positive uten at testresultatene suppleres med en grundig diagnostisk vurdering. Validiteten til det å bruke totalskåren som et kontinuerlig mål på hvor en befinner seg på autismespekteret er også usikkert.