Dr Simona Skripkauskaite

Background: Bidirectional and transactional models propose that parents and children have the potential to influence each other's mental health over time. While bidirectional associations have been widely studied, transactional processes involving parent internalising, offspring internalising, and offspring externalising symptoms remain underexplored. The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with marked changes in parent and offspring mental health, providing an enhanced opportunity to examine these dynamics across developmental stages and gender. Methods: We examined four waves of survey data from the UK-based longitudinal COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics (Co-SPACE) study collected between May 2020 and May 2021. Data from 2349 parent-child dyads (4-16-year-old children) were analysed using multi-group (for age and gender) random intercept cross-lagged panel modelling. Results: In the full sample, parent internalising symptoms significantly predicted increases in offspring internalising symptoms over time. Among primary school aged children (4-10 years), effects were parent-driven, with no evidence that changes in child symptoms predicted parent symptoms. In contrast, among secondary school aged children (11-16 years), we found bidirectional associations between parent internalising and offspring externalising symptoms, and some time-specific links with internalising symptoms. However, no sustained transactional loops (i.e., indirect effects forming a feedback cycle) were detected. Gender did not moderate any associations. Conclusion: These findings suggest that parent and offspring mental health symptoms may become more reciprocal as children grow older.

Research suggests that static depictions of social interactions preferentially capture our attention compared to non-interactions. Research also suggests that motion captures attention. To date, therefore, it is unknown whether social interactions preferentially capture attention relative to non-interactions, over and above motion cues. The present study captured 81 participants' eye-gaze when viewing 4-s video clips of social interactions compared to motion-matched non-interactions. We hypothesised that participants would spend more time looking at the two agents in the videos relative to the background when viewing social interactions compared to non-interactions. Results confirmed our hypothesis and demonstrated that this effect was stronger for individuals with greater empathy and lower autistic traits. These results add to the growing body of research investigating the processing of social interactions in complex, naturalistic stimuli and demonstrate that social interactions do preferentially capture attention, even when motion cues are present.

Sleep problems are common in young people. Yet brief screening measures to identify those most in need of an intervention are lacking. This study investigated the potential of the two-item Sleep Condition Indicator (SCI-02) for screening insomnia symptoms in children and adolescents. We sought to establish whether there are distinct subgroups with different sleep profiles and whether subgroup membership varied with gender and school year group. Students (school years 5-13; typical age 9-18 years) in England completed the OxWell Student Survey in 2021. Sleep measures included: SCI-02, sleep onset latency (SOL), sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, and worry disrupting sleep. Latent profile analysis and multinomial logistic regression explored sleep profiles and predicted class membership. In total, 29,304 participants answered sleep items. Of these, 95% provided binary gender (n = 27,802, 55% female) for analyses. Five sleep profiles emerged. The profiles, labelled "good", "moderate", or "poor" sleepers, vary by sleep quality - which includes time taken to fall asleep (SOL), amount of sleep (sleep duration), and the disruption of sleep due to worry. The profiles are then further differentiated by high levels of daytime sleepiness - labelled "sleepy". "Good Sleepers" (18,355, 66%), "Moderate Sleepers" (4825, 17.4%), "Moderate Sleepy Sleepers" (1250, 4.5%), "Poor Sleepers" (1037, 3.7%) and "Poor Sleepy Sleepers" (2335, 8.4%). Probable insomnia rates (SCI-02 ≤ 2) were high in both poor sleeper profiles (70-80%) compared with other profiles (0%) and the sample overall (9%). Compared with "Good Sleepers", all other profiles were mostly female. Daytime sleepiness - the defining characteristic of the sleepy sleeper profiles - was more common in secondary school participants than primary school. The SCI-02 is an efficient, two-question measure to screen for potential sleep problems in young people. Sleep disruption was high: one in ten were experiencing poor sleep. Females and adolescents appeared more vulnerable to poor sleep and daytime sleepiness. The SCI-02 has the potential for use in school and community contexts to identify children and adolescents who may benefit from support managing their sleep.

Background Play provides an important foundation for a healthy childhood but longitudinal data exploring how play experiences relate to children's mental health over time is scarce. In this study, data on preschool-aged children's activities and mental health during Covid-19 related restrictions was used to explore how where (inside/outside) and with whom children played related to internalising and externalising problems over time.Methods UK based parents/carers (n = 1028) of preschool-aged children (2-5 years) completed an online survey at four time points between April and July 2020. The survey asked how much time in the previous week their child had spent: Playing inside; Playing outside; Playing alone; Playing with a parent; Playing with another child in their household; and their child's mental health (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire internalising and externalising scales). Four hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to examine associations between where children play (inside/outside) and (1) internalising and (2) externalising symptoms, and with whom children play (with parent, other child, alone) and (3) internalising and (4) externalising symptoms. Effects of linear and quadratic time, and interactions between play and time were examined. Parent mental health, parent education, contact with nature and physical activity were included as covariates.Results Both inside and outside play was associated with less severe internalising problems (beta = -0.23 [SE = 0.10]; beta -0.54 [SE = 0.19]) and, in statistical interaction with time, less time playing inside was associated with a stronger improvement in externalising problems over time (beta = 0.77 [SE = 0.23]). Further, more time playing with other children was associated with less severe internalising problems (beta = -0.50 [SE = 0.13]) whereas playing alone was associated with more severe internalising problems (beta = 0.28 [SE = 0.10]).Conclusion Varied play opportunities are related to young children's mental health. Even during a pandemic response, children should be given opportunity to play with other children and play outdoors wherever possible.

Smartphone use has risen rapidly amongst adolescents over the last decade, as has the rates of common mental disorders. This has raised widespread concerns about direct links between adolescents' general screen time, social media use and their mental health. This study aimed to describe adolescents' online behaviours (e.g., time spent on social media) and how that relates to anxiety, depression, and loneliness. In a sample of 14,726 adolescents (aged 12-16 years) using data from the OxWell 2021 student survey, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) path analysis was conducted, exploring co-occurring associations between self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms (RCADS-25), loneliness (UCLA-SF3), and various screentime related activities. Moderation analyses per gender, age, and self-harm history were also conducted. Greater social media use was related to higher exposure to self-harm content online, seeking help online, regretting posting content online, meeting online strangers, frequency of social media use before sleep, and lower exposure to school night screen rules. Furthermore, exposure to self-harm content, seeking help online, and posting content online that was later regretted, in turn, related to higher anxiety, depression, and loneliness scores. Weak direct links between time spent on social media and anxiety and depression symptoms and loneliness were further moderated by age and self-harm history, respectively. These results suggest that what adolescents do online, rather than how much time they spend on social media, relate to anxiety and depression symptoms and loneliness. Although this study cannot infer the cause or direction of the examined associations, it highlights the importance of better understanding the context and content of social media use.

Data set accompanying the University of Southampton Doctoral thesis, Play and children's mental health in the face of adversity For data request use: http://library.soton.ac.uk/datarequest

The data set was used in the thesis entitled 'Examining the Relationship Between Children’s Screen Use and Externalising Behaviours' and includes data on the three primary outcome variables (child externalising problems, active and passive screen use) as well as data on the control variables (participant age, parental depression, anxiety and stress scores, parental educational attainment and child gender) at two time points.

The parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widely used child and adolescent mental health screening tool. However, challenging environments, such as public health crises, may influence the construct validity of measures. To assess this, we examine SDQ measurement invariance, internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity, composite, test-retest, and interrater reliability across parents from the United Kingdom (n = 9,001) and Japan (n = 365). We replicate the five-factor structure, which held across children's age, gender, and between parent- and adolescent-report. We provide new evidence of SDQ invariance for special educational needs (SEN), across 6- and 1-month reporting windows, over different periods of restrictions, and between English (UK) and Japanese versions. Taken together, our findings suggest that parents interpreted the SDQ items in similar ways to pre-pandemic norms. Yet relatively low reliability of the conduct and peer relationship subscales, in particular, indicates a need for caution and scale revisions, especially when used for screening and diagnosis.

This study investigated parental influences on preschool children’s healthy and unhealthy snacking in relation to child obesity in a large cross-sectional multinational sample. Parents and 3–5 year-old child dyads (n = 5185) in a kindergarten-based study provided extensive sociodemographic, dietary practice and food intake data. Parental feeding practices that were derived from questionnaires were examined for associations with child healthy and unhealthy snacking in adjusted multilevel models, including child estimated energy expenditure, parental education, and nutritional knowledge. Parental healthy and unhealthy snacking was respectively associated with their children’s snacking (both p < 0.0001). Making healthy snacks available to their children was specifically associated with greater child healthy snack intake (p < 0.0001). Conversely, practices that were related to unhealthy snacking, i.e., being permissive about unhealthy snacking and acceding to child demands for unhealthy snacks, were associated with greater consumption of unhealthy snacks by children, but also less intake of healthy snacks (all p < 0.0001). Parents having more education and greater nutritional knowledge of snack food recommendations had children who ate more healthy snacks (all p < 0.0001) and fewer unhealthy snacks (p = 0.002, p < 0.0001, respectively). In the adjusted models, child obesity was not related to healthy or unhealthy snack intake in these young children. The findings support interventions that address parental practices and distinguish between healthy and unhealthy snacking to influence young children’s dietary patterns.

For young people attending school, social jetlag (SJL) refers to discrepancy in sleep/wake timing between school days and weekends. This study investigated SJL in school-aged children and adolescents in England and whether this is associated with age, gender, and sleep habits including bedtimes and electronic media use. Students (school y 5-13; typical age 9-18 y) completed the 2021 OxWell Student Survey. In total 19,760 participants (55% female) reported on sleep/wake timing, rules concerning bedtime setting on school night/weekend, electronic media curfew, and frequency of social media use and video gaming before sleep intention. The mean SJL was 1 h 53 min (  = 1 h 7 min) and peaked at 2 h 7 min at age 15. Multiple regression analysis revealed SJL was positively associated with age and being male was associated with slightly lower SJL than being female. After controlling for age and gender, weekend bedtime setting (β = 0.21), frequency of social media use before sleep (β = 0.16) and video gaming before sleep (β = 0.12) were the strongest predictors of SJL. Findings suggest that household rules regarding weekend bedtimes and less electronic media use before sleep may be connected with lower SJL as well as more regular sleep timing across the whole week.

Previous research suggests that autistic individuals exhibit atypical hierarchical processing, however, most of these studies focused solely on children. Thus, the main aim of the current study was to investigate the presence of atypical local or global processing in autistic adults using a traditional divided attention task with Navon's hierarchical figures. Reaction time data of 27 autistic and 25 neurotypical (NT) adults was analysed using multilevel modelling and Bayesian analysis. The results revealed that autistic, like NT, adults experienced a global precedence effect. Moreover, both autistic and NT participants experienced global and local interference effects. In contrast to previous findings with children, the current study suggests that autistic adults exhibit a typical, albeit unexpected, processing of hierarchical figures.

ObjectivesThe prevalence of mental health (MH) disorders in neurodivergent (e.g., autistic or ADHD) children and young people (CYP) is high. Many neurodivergent CYP, at some point, engage with educational support, social care, and health services, each contact representing an opportunity for unmet MH support needs to be identified and addressed. MethodThe current research leverages the rich administrative data linkage by the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) project in the UK. It assesses whether, when, and where neurodivergent CYP who develop MH conditions engage with educational support, social care, and health services from birth until 12 years of age (focusing on CYP born in or after 2011). I will also assess how their pathways of service contact may differ from those of their peers, including neurodivergent CYP without a diagnosis of MH conditions and neurotypical CYP who have a diagnosis of a MH condition. ResultsThe current presentation will provide a first insight into the data and preliminary comparisons across the quasi-experimental groups including a general overview of differences in the type of services CYP are in contact with and how that varies based on demographic characteristic (gender and ethnicity). It will also discuss the benefits and challenges of making use of administrative data information on mental health diagnoses linked to educational, social care, and hospital episode data. ConclusionAdministrative data linkage provides an excellent opportunity to conduct careful longitudinal assessment of temporal precedence for first contact with different services in a large-scale dataset of service users.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to families' lives in many ways, including through lockdowns, social distancing, home learning requirements, and restrictions. This resulted in a rapidly changing situation where different pressures have arisen for children, young people and their families over time. Understanding the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people, through the collection of high quality data and in a way that could directly inform policy, was set out as an immediate research priority in a Lancet position paper ( Holmes et al., 2020 )  at the start of the pandemic.  The Co-SPACE study was launched on 30th March 2020, a week after the first national lockdown was implemented in the UK, with the purpose of using the findings to inform resources and support for families. The Co-SPACE project aimed to: track participating children and young people’s mental health throughout the COVID-19 crisis identify what protects children and young people from deteriorating mental health (over time, and at particular stress points) determine how this varies according to child, family and environmental characteristics. The Co-SPACE study, overall, involved an online longitudinal survey completed monthly by (i) UK-based parents/carers of children and young people (aged 4-16 years, at the start of the study), and (ii) their children (if aged 11-16 years, at the start of the study). To develop a richer understanding of people’s experiences, qualitative interviews were also conducted with parents/carers, young people, and people who work with them. The current data available includes parent/carer reported survey data only. The study was designed and conducted with rapid and meaningful stakeholder involvement, including through in-depth discussion with advisory groups of experts, young people, and parents/carers.  Parent/carer and young people's involvement was facilitated through the UKRI Emerging Minds Research Network Plus . In addition to the Principal Investigators, contributors to the study were as follows: Praveetha Patalay, UCL; Helen Dodd, University of Exeter; Pete Lawrence, University of Southampton; Simona Skripkauskaite, University of Oxford; Samantha Pearcey, University of Oxford; Adrienne Shum, University of Oxford; Amy McCall, University of Oxford; Olly Robertson, University of Oxford; Bettina Moltrecht, UCL; Eoin McElroy, Ulster University. Further information, including research reports, are available from the Co-SPACE project website.

Data from Co‐SPACE and Co‐SPYCE studies was examined using mixed‐effect modelling and latent class growth (mixture) modelling. Parental stress and depression, but not anxiety, were higher during the periods of restrictions. Around three quarters of parents reported consistently low symptoms. Yet, a substantial minority reported consistently high or increasing mental health symptoms, including parents who were younger, single, had a pre‐existing mental health diagnosis or had a child with SEN or a neurodevelopmental disorder.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to families' lives in many ways, including through lockdowns, social distancing, home learning requirements, and restrictions. This resulted in a rapidly changing situation where different pressures have arisen for children, young people and their families over time. Understanding the psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children and young people, through the collection of high quality data and in a way that could directly inform policy, was set out as an immediate research priority in a Lancet position paper (Holmes et al., 2020) at the start of the pandemic. The Co-SPACE study was launched on 30th March 2020, a week after the first national lockdown was implemented in the UK, with the purpose of using the findings to inform resources and support for families. It was then extended in 2022 under the project on 'Learning from the trajectories of mental health challenges for children, young people and parents over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic' in collaboration with the CORONA x CODOMO project in Japan (run by Dr Naho Morisaki at the National Center for Child Health and Development). The Co-SPACE project aimed to: track participating children and young people’s mental health throughout the COVID-19 crisis, identify what protects children and young people from deteriorating mental health (over time, and at particular stress points), determine how this varies according to child, family and environmental characteristics. The Co-SPACE study, overall, involved an online longitudinal survey completed monthly from March 2020 to July 2021 by (i) UK-based parents/carers of children and young people (aged 4-16 years, at the start of the study), and (ii) their children (if aged 11-16 years, at the start of the study). Additional, longer-term follow-ups were then completed 6-monthly in March/April 2022, October 2022, and March/April 2023 by parents who took part in the original Co-SPACE survey. To develop a richer understanding of people’s experiences, qualitative interviews were also conducted with parents/carers, young people, and people who work with them. The current data available includes parent/carer reported survey data only. The study was designed and conducted with rapid and meaningful stakeholder involvement, including through in-depth discussion with advisory groups of experts, young people, and parents/carers. Parent/carer and young people's involvement was facilitated through the UKRI Emerging Minds Research Network Plus. In addition to the Principal Investigators (PW, CC, & SS), contributors to the study were as follows: Praveetha Patalay, UCL; Helen Dodd, University of Exeter; Pete Lawrence, University of Southampton; Simona Skripkauskaite, University of Oxford; Samantha Pearcey, University of Oxford; Adrienne Shum, University of Oxford; Amy McCall, University of Oxford; Olly Robertson, University of Oxford; Bettina Moltrecht, UCL; Eoin McElroy, Ulster University; Lowrie Hilladakis (nee Burgess), University of Oxford; Ning Ding, University of Oxford; Martha Oakes, University of Oxford; Naho Morisaki, National Center for Child Health and Development . Further information, including research reports, are available from the Co-SPACE project website. Latest edition information For the second edition (January 2025), the study has been updated to include three new waves of data collection conducted between March 2022 and March 2023. The data and documentation files have been replaced with new versions.

Background: This study explored adolescent's mental health trajectories over the course of a school-based mindfulness-based intervention trial (MYRIAD). It examined whether intervention condition (mindfulness vs. teaching-as-usual), individual-level and contextual-level factors were associated with different trajectories. Methods: This pre-registered study used data from 11- to 14-year-olds who participated in the MYRIAD trial. We used growth mixture models to examine distinct trajectories in risk for depression, social-emotional-behavioural functioning, and wellbeing (co-primary outcomes), and anxiety (secondary outcome), across pre-intervention, post-intervention and 12-month follow up (ns = 7198-7727). We then used multinomial and binomial logistic regression models to examine factors associated with individual trajectory membership. Results: Distinct trajectories emerged for each outcome: A five-trajectory model best explained the changes in risk for depression, whilst four-trajectory models best explained changes in social-emotional-behavioural functioning, wellbeing, and anxiety. While 69%-80% of adolescents followed stable low-problem trajectories for each outcome, 11%-23% experienced stable high-problem trajectories, 2%-16% experienced increasing-problem trajectories and 1%-5% experienced decreasing-problem trajectories. Receiving the mindfulness intervention was not associated with any mental health trajectory in models adjusted for confounders. Several individual-level factors, including executive functioning difficulties and risk of mental health problems at baseline, and school-level factors, such as school climate, predicted adolescents' classification into different trajectories, but they did not vary according to intervention group. Conclusions: Individual differences in mental health trajectories emerged over the course of a 1-year mindfulness-based intervention, with most adolescents experiencing low-stable problem trajectories for each outcome. However, the intervention itself had no impact on individual trajectory membership, mirroring null results found in the main trial. Our findings suggest that universal interventions may not be sensitive enough to address the diverse needs of all students, however, tailoring interventions to address a range of different individual and contextual factors might maximise their impact.

Human visual attention is readily captured by the social information in scenes. Multiple studies have shown that social areas of interest (AOIs) such as faces and bodies attract more attention than non-social AOIs (e.g., objects or background). However, whether this attentional bias is moderated by the presence (or absence) of a social interaction remains unclear. Here, the gaze of 70 young adults was tracked during the free viewing of 60 naturalistic scenes. All photographs depicted two people, who were either interacting or not. Analyses of dwell time revealed that more attention was spent on human than background AOIs in the interactive pictures. In non-interactive pictures, however, dwell time did not differ between AOI type. In the time-to-first-fixation analysis, humans always captured attention before other elements of the scene, although this difference was slightly larger in interactive than non-interactive scenes. These findings confirm the existence of a bias towards social information in attentional capture and suggest our attention values social interactions beyond the presence of two people.

Background: The shift in the last decades to screen-based and increasingly web-based gaming activity has raised concerns about its impact on the development of children and adolescents. Despite decades of research into gaming and related psychosocial effects, the question remains how best to identify what degree or context of gaming may be a cause for concern. Objective: This study aimed to classify adolescents into gamer profiles based on both gaming behaviors and well-being. Once we distinguished the different gamer profiles, we aimed to explore whether membership to a specific profile could be predicted based on a range of personal characteristics and experiences that could then help identify those at risk. Methods: We explored gaming and well-being in an adolescent school population (aged 12-18 years) in England as part of the 2021 OxWell student survey. Self-report measures of time spent playing games on computers or consoles, time spent playing games on mobile phones, the Game Addiction Scale, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale were used to classify adolescent heavy gamers (playing games for at least 3.5 hours a day) using latent profile analysis. We used multinomial logistic regression analysis to predict the profile membership based on a range of personal characteristics and experiences. Results: In total, 12,725 participants answered the OxWell gaming questions. Almost one-third (3970/12,725, 31.2%) indicated that they play games for at least 3.5 hours a day. The correlation between time spent playing video games overall and well-being was not significant (P=.41). The latent profile analysis distinguished 6 profiles of adolescent heavy gamers: adaptive computer gamers (1747/3970, 44%); casual computer gamers (873/3970, 22%); casual phone gamers (595/3970, 15%); unknown device gamers (476/3970, 12%); maladaptive computer gamers (238/3970, 6%); and maladaptive phone gamers (79/3970, 2%). In comparison with adaptive computer gamers, maladaptive phone gamers were mostly female (odds ratio [OR] 0.08, 95% CI 0.03-0.21) and were more likely to have experienced abuse or neglect (OR 3.18, 95% CI 1.34-7.55). Maladaptive computer gamers, who reported gaming both on their mobile phones and on the computer, were mostly male and more likely to report anxiety (OR 2.25, 95% CI 1.23-4.12), aggressive behavior (OR 2.83, 95% CI 1.65-4.88), and web-based gambling (OR 2.18, 95% CI 1.24-3.81). Conclusions: A substantial number of adolescents are spending >= 3.5 hours gaming each day, with almost 1 in 10 (317/3970, 8%) reporting co-occurring gaming and well-being issues. Long hours gaming using mobile phones, particularly common in female gamers, may signal poorer functioning and indicate a need for additional support. Although increased time gaming might be changing how adolescents spend their free time and might thus have public health implications, it does not seem to relate to co-occurring well-being issues or mental ill-health for the majority of adolescent gamers.

During the most recent global crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic, mental health researchers globally were tasked with carrying out high-quality and responsive research to understand the changes and long-term trajectories in young people’s mental health symptoms. Comparative international longitudinal research has been recommended as a particularly promising avenue to understand pandemic impacts and facilitate global solutions. The Co-SPACE International Consortium comprises researchers from 14 sites who aimed to compare findings on the impact of the pandemic on young people and family mental health. This paper describes the process and challenges associated with the Consortium’s efforts to combine country-level data to produce global insights for research and clinical practice for the past three years. Several key challenges were identified, particularly about the conduct of international comparative research. These challenges concerned funding, ethics review, data sharing, variations in cultural and local contexts, lack of cross-culturally comparable or meaningful measures, research design, and dissemination. After considering these challenges, we provide a range of recommendations that provide a blueprint for the gathering of timely and robust evidence, the identification of global trends, the mobilisation of resources, and effective support to children and families in public health crises.

To be able to develop effective policy and targeted support for children and young people, it is vital to develop and validate measures that enable us to understand what aspects of pandemics are associated with anxiety and stress across a wide age range. We examined the psychometric properties of the Pandemic Anxiety Scale- Parent-report (PAS-P), which measures levels of child and adolescent pandemic-related anxieties. Factor structure, reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the PAS-P was assessed in a convenience sample of parents/carers (N = 8410) over at three time points in 2020 when COVID-19 case rates and restrictions varied. Factor structure was identified via two exploratory factor analyses (EFAs; n = 5601 and n = 1005) and then tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; n = 800), measurement invariance tests, and a longitudinal CFA (n = 1651). Two factors structure for disease and consequence anxiety were observed across both EFAs and were found to have good fit in the CFAs. The PAS-P demonstrated good internal consistency and discriminant validity, as well as partial scalar invariance in latent construct measurement across child age, gender, and time. The PAS-P is a robust parent-report measure of two distinct forms of pandemic-related anxiety, suitable for reporting on children and adolescents aged 4-16 years. Although the scale has been validated in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not limited to this specific pandemic and, with minor wording modifications, may be a reliable tool in other health epidemic contexts.

Atypical attention is considered to have an important role in the development of autism. Yet, it remains unclear whether these attentional difficulties are specific to the social domain. This study aimed to examine attentional orienting in autistic and non-autistic adults from and to non-social and social stimuli. We utilised a modified gap-overlap task with schematic images (Experiment 1: autistic = 27 and non-autistic = 26) and photographs (Experiment 2: autistic = 18 and non-autistic = 17). Eye-tracking data (i.e. saccadic latencies) were then compared across condition and type of stimulus (social or non-social) using multilevel modelling. Autistic adults exhibited mostly typical gap and overlap effects, as well as a bias towards social stimuli. Yet, autistic participants benefitted from exogenous disengagement when orienting to social information more than non-autistic participants. Neither a domain general nor social domain-specific account for attentional atypicalities in autism was supported separately. Yet, subtle combined domain differences were revealed in the gap condition. Lay abstract Previous research has shown that autistic individuals look at other people less and orient to them more slowly than others. Yet, it is still unclear if this represents general visual differences (e.g. slower looking at any new information, social or not) or a uniquely social difference (e.g. only slower looking to humans but not objects). Here, we aimed to examine how quickly autistic and non-autistic adults look to and away from social (i.e. faces) and non-social information (i.e. squares and houses). We used an attentional shifting task with two images where sometimes the first image disappears before the new image appears (makes it easier to notice the new image) and other times it stays on the screen when the new image appears. In Experiment 1, we showed schematic faces and squares to 27 autistic and 26 non-autistic adults, and in Experiment 2, we showed photographs of faces and houses to 18 autistic and 17 non-autistic adults. In general, autistic adults looked at the new non-social or social images similarly to non-autistic adults. Yet, only autistic adults looked at new social information faster when the first image disappeared before the new image appeared. This shows that autistic individuals may find it easier to notice new social information if their attention is not already occupied.

We examined the trajectories of 1520 UK pre‐school children’s mental health symptoms (conduct problems, emotional problems, and hyperactivity/inattention) in an intensive longitudinal study in the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. We found that symptom severity improved following the end of the first national lockdown, and worsened around the later national lockdowns. Crucially, symptom trajectories were moderated by attending childcare (with greater decline in severity for all symptom categories over time for children attending childcare compared to those who did not) and overall symptom severity was moderated by parent mental ill health (symptoms were less severe in all symptom categories for children whose parents did not have a mental health problem than for children whose parents did report a mental health problem).

This study used data from the Co‐Space Study to examine children and adolescents' mental health trajectories over 13 months of the pandemic and whether family, peer, and individual‐level factors were associated with trajectory membership. We found that most young people adapted well and experienced low stable symptoms, but nearly one third experienced high stable or increasing mental health difficulties. Young people with complex needs and parents with higher psychological distress were particularly vulnerable to high mental health difficulties while those with positive peer relationships were less vulnerable. This study offers insight into potential factors that can be addressed using targeted interventions to improve the wellbeing of parents and young people in the event of future lockdowns and school closures.