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Emerging Clinical Insights into Adolescent Behavioral Development and Mental Health

A special issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383). This special issue belongs to the section "Mental Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 2282

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Human Sciences, Guglielmo Marconi University, 00193 Rome, Italy
Interests: temperamental and personality profiles; personality and emotions; internalizing/externalizing symptoms; adolescents' health; adolescents' self-efficacy; online behaviors; cyberbullying and other online risks
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Guest Editor
Psychology Department, Elon University, Elon, NC, USA
Interests: child clinical psychology; emotion regulation; parenting; cross-cultural research; juvenile justice; psychological adjustment

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As we well know, adolescence is one of the most critical periods during the lifespan, characterized by a number of challenges. During this period, youths are exposed to many developmental demands and changes in many domains of functioning, such as biological, cognitive, emotional, and relational.

How adolescents face these demands sets the basis for different successful or unsuccessful developmental trajectories, and understanding the mechanisms, processes, and antecedents of those pathways is crucial for promoting youths’ and adults’ mental health, as well as for preventing psychopathology. Nowadays, there are many more challenges in this field for researchers and clinicians due to the substantial transformation of youths’ daily contexts, which implies further demands for their development.

Thus, the general aim of this Special Issue is to provide further examinations of the complex world in which adolescents live nowadays, with a particular lens on the mechanisms that can predict or influence their behavioral development and mental adjustment, especially in clinical contexts.

Dr. Ainzara Favini
Dr. Anne-Marie Iselin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adolescence
  • behavioral development
  • clinical maladjustment
  • adolescents’ mental health
  • innovative clinical approach
  • adolescents’ emotional problems
  • clinical settings
  • innovative developmental research
  • adolescents’ symptoms

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

38 pages, 6317 KB  
Review
Parental Mental Health and Suicidal Behavior as Predictors of Adolescent Suicidal Ideation and Attempts: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
by Elena Alexandra Bratu, Lavinia-Alexandra Moroianu, Oana-Maria Isailă, Cătălin Pleșea-Condratovici, Oana-Elisabeta Avram and Eduard Drima
J. Clin. Med. 2025, 14(19), 6860; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14196860 - 28 Sep 2025
Viewed by 1981
Abstract
Background/Objectives: The intergenerational transmission of suicidal risk is a major global health concern. Evidence on the role of parental psychopathology, including suicidal behavior, in predicting adolescent suicidality remains inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize recent findings and quantify these [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: The intergenerational transmission of suicidal risk is a major global health concern. Evidence on the role of parental psychopathology, including suicidal behavior, in predicting adolescent suicidality remains inconsistent. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to synthesize recent findings and quantify these associations. Methods: The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the Population, Intervention/Exposure, Comparator, Outcome (PICO) framework. Searches (2015–2025) identified observational studies on parental suicidal behavior, depression, or psychiatric disorders predicting adolescent suicidal ideation or attempts. Thirty-one studies met eligibility, including over 12 million adolescents. Random-effects meta-analyses estimated pooled associations. Study quality was rated with the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS), and evidence certainty with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE). Results: Both parental suicidal behavior and psychiatric disorders were consistently linked to increased adolescent suicidality. The pooled odds ratio (OR) for any parental psychopathology was 2.77 (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.22–3.47), indicating nearly a threefold higher risk of suicidal ideation or attempts in exposed youth. Subgroup analyses showed comparable risks for parental suicidal behavior (OR = 2.69, 95% CI: 2.30–3.14) and parental psychiatric morbidity (OR = 2.72, 95% CI: 2.05–3.60). Conclusions: Parental psychopathology, whether manifesting as suicidal behavior or psychiatric disorder, is a strong and universal risk factor for adolescent suicidal ideation and attempts. These findings underscore the need for family-centered prevention, early identification, and targeted interventions to disrupt intergenerational transmission of suicide risk. Full article
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