JCPP Annual Research Reviews 2026: Have You Seen Me Lately?
Introduction to the JCPP's 2026 Annual Research Review - Have You Seen Me Lately?
Transcript
[AUDIO LOGO]
We are the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, or ACAMH for short. And this is ACAMH Learn.
Hello. I'm Daniel Shaw, editor of the annual research review for the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. And today, I am excited to tell you about many of the pieces that are going into our annual research review edition. I entitled this year's annual research review "Have you seen me lately?" based on a 1990 song from the Counting Crows.
This year's annual research review revisits some familiar topics in child and adolescent psychopathology but views them through a novel and/or updated lens. The topics of the three papers you're going to learn more about today fitting under this theme are eating disorders, interventions for young children exposed to trauma, and early starting conduct problems.
The first of these is by Kelly Hagan and Associates, and it focuses on neural mechanisms of eating disorders. In this paper, the authors take full advantage of developments in neuroscience to examine their potential implications for the development and persistence of specific types of eating disorders in childhood and adolescence. As eating disorders often emerge during adolescence, when significant neural, structural, and functional changes also occur, it follows that these changes could lead to the development or exacerbation of eating disorders.
Dr. Hagan and colleagues propose a neuroscience-based mechanistic model that provides a novel lens for improving our understanding of the aetiology, developmental course, and treatment of multiple types of eating disorders. And whereas there has been significant progress made in studying and applying a neuroscience perspective to anorexia nervosa, other types of eating disorders are much less well studied, including avoidant restrictive food intake, disorder binge eating, and bulimia nervosa.
The second paper is by Katherine Guyon-Harris and Kathryn Humphreys. And this one is about interventions for young children facing trauma. Here, the focus is on interventions during early childhood, zero to three years, because of their rapid neurodevelopmental changes for these children, potentially leaving them more vulnerable to trauma than older children or adolescents.
All interventions include significant involvement of parents because of children's physical and psychological dependence on their caregivers. Three models show the most promise, all of which are tailored to the needs of young children. Now, as much progress has been made, the authors really emphasise all the work that's left to be done. For instance, there are few evidence-based interventions for children under three years of age.
There's a dearth of programmes targeting non-interpersonal trauma. And there's really just a lack of implementation research to optimise dissemination of these programmes in community settings. The third and final paper you're going to hear about today is by Luke Hyde and Associates, and it focuses on children's emerging conduct problems. This is a much needed update that describes developmental patterning of conduct problems from the toddler to school age periods, including their moderate to high level of stability.
When children live in the context of sociodemographic and psychosocial adversity. This paper really highlights the interplay among child, parent, contextual, and genetic factors, particularly gene by environment interactions. The other kind of novel piece of this paper is the incorporation of developments in neuroscience, which really broadens our previous understanding of how early conduct problems develop and persist.
Without further ado, I'd like to now introduce Dr. Hagan, Dr. Guyon-Harris, and Dr. Hyde. They will tell you a lot more about each of their review papers. [AUDIO LOGO]
JCPP Annual Research Reviews 2026: Have You Seen Me Lately?
This Learning Series brings together the 2026 Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP) Annual Research Reviews (ARR), offering an accessible overview of the latest evidence across three key areas of child and adolescent mental health. Introduced by JCPP Editor Dr Daniel Shaw, the series explores current understanding of early conduct problems, the neural mechanisms underlying eating disorders in young people, and evidence-based interventions for young children exposed to trauma. Across four sessions, leading researchers synthesise recent advances in developmental science, neuroscience and clinical intervention, highlighting implications for research, assessment, prevention and practice.
About this Learning Series
This learning series includes:
58 mins of on-demand video
Access on desktop, tablet and mobile
Details:
Level: All Levels
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Introduction to the JCPP's 2026 Annual Research Review - Have You Seen Me Lately?
In this presentation, Dr. Daniel Shaw introduces the broad goals of the Annual Research Review (ARR) and focuses on this year’s theme, “Have You Seen Me Lately?”, which highlights updates on three widely studied types of psychopathology viewed through novel lenses, alongside advances in understanding their etiology, development, and prevention or treatment.
He introduces three topic areas: Hyde and colleagues provide an update on early-emerging conduct problems, including their developmental patterning, stability, and the interplay of child, parent, contextual, and genetic factors. Hagen and colleagues draw on advances in neuroscience to re-examine the development and persistence of eating disorders and propose mechanistic models to inform etiology and treatment. Guyon-Harris and Humphries focus on behavioral treatments for young children exposed to trauma, emphasising developmentally sensitive interventions.
Overall, these reviews expand understanding of etiology, developmental course, and the effectiveness of assessment and treatment approaches.
Learning Objectives
A. To gain a greater appreciation of factors related to children's early-emerging conduct problems
B. To understand how neural process might increase children's and adolescents' risk for developing eating disorders
C. Gaining a stronger appreciation of evidence-based treatments for addressing young children's exposure to severe trauma.
Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh (USA) and Editor, Annual Research Review, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry