Although several studies have recently assessed direct self-injurious behavior (D-SIB) among adolescents, it is still understudied in adolescents attending vocational schools: an educational setting generally associated with lower socioeconomic status. After extending the “Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe” (SEYLE) project to a vocational school population, we examined their D-SIB and life event characteristics compared to the high school population. SEYLE’s Hungarian randomly selected high school sample (N = 995) was completed with a randomly selected vocational school sample (N = 140) in Budapest, Hungary. Participants aged 14–17 years completed the SEYLE project’s self-administered questionnaires. D-SIB lifetime prevalence was significantly higher (29.4%) in the vocational school group compared to the high school group (17.2%) (Χ2(1) = 12.231, p< 0.001). D-SIB was associated with suicidal ideation in the vocational school group. Different life events were more frequent in the high school than in the vocational school group, and associations between D-SIB and life events differed in the vocational school group compared to the high school group. In conclusion, vocational school students are a vulnerable population with a higher prevalence of D-SIB compared to high school students. Life events and their association with D-SIB also differ in vocational school students compared to high school students. Taking all these into account might contribute to prevention/intervention designed for this population.

Several recent studies confirmed that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has a negative influence on peer relationship and quality of life in children. The aim of the current study is to investigate the association between prosocial behaviour, peer relationships and quality of life in treatment naïve ADHD samples. The samples included 79 children with ADHD (64 boys and 15 girls, mean age = 10.24 years, SD = 2.51) and 54 healthy control children (30 boys and 23 girls, mean age = 9.66 years, SD = 1.73). Measurements included: The “Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire” and the “Inventar zur Erfassung der Lebensqualität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen”. The ADHD group showed significantly lower levels of prosocial behaviour and more problems with peer relationships than the control group. Prosocial behaviour has a weak positive correlation with the rating of the child’s quality of life by the parents, both in the ADHD group and in the control group. The rating of quality of life and peer relationship problems by the parents also showed a significant negative moderate association in both groups. The rating of quality of life by the child showed a significant negative weak relationship with peer relationships in the ADHD group, but no significant relationship was found in the control group. Children with ADHD and comorbid externalizing disorders showed more problems in peer relationships than ADHD without comorbid externalizing disorders. Based on these results, we conclude that therapy for ADHD focused on improvement of prosocial behaviour and peer relationships as well as comorbid externalizing disorders could have a favourable effect on the quality of life of these children.

AimThe current study aimed to examine the association between long-term (36 months) multimodal (pharmacological and psychological) treatment and psychopathology and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from the perspectives of both the children and parents.MethodsThe sample consisted of 23 children with ADHD (21 boys, 2 girls, mean age = 13.46 years, SD = 2.36) and 23 healthy control children (11 boys, 12 girls, mean age = 12.49 years, SD = 1.75). The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI Kid) was applied to measure psychopathology and both parent and self-rated versions of the Inventory for the Measure of the Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents were used to assess HRQoL at baseline and at the 36-month follow-up visit. The ADHD group took part in multimodal (medical and behavioral) therapy. The healthy control group did not get any intervention.ResultsAt the baseline, the ADHD group was characterized with higher scores in nine MINI Kid scales and showed lower HRQoL than the control group according to both children and their parents. At the 36-month follow-up visit six scale scores (ADHD, social phobia, oppositional defiance and conduct disorder, major depressive episode, dysthymic disorder) showed statistically significant decreases in the ADHD group, while these scores were constant in the control group. Parent-rated HRQoL was significantly lower in the clinical group at baseline than at the end of the study, but there were no significant changes in the control group. Self-reported changes in HRQoL matched parent-reported changes.InterpretationMultimodal therapy is associated with decreased psychopathology and improved HRQoL over the long term.

These results call attention that clinicians should take special care for the possible development of dyskinesia during the treatment of their ADHD patients with methylphenidate.