Measuring Novel Antecedents of Mental Illness: The Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood
Publication Date
4-2019
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Risk factors, Human behaviour, Anxiety, Depression
Abstract
Increasing evidence indicates that, in addition to poverty, maternal depression, and other well-established factors, unpredictability of maternal and environmental signals early in life influences trajectories of brain development, determining risk for subsequent mental illness. However, whereas most risk factors for later vulnerability to mental illness are readily measured using existing, clinically available tools, there are no similar measures for assessing early-life unpredictability. Here we validate the Questionnaire of Unpredictability in Childhood (QUIC) and examine its associations with mental health in the context of other indicators of childhood adversity (e.g., traumatic life events, socioeconomic status, and parenting quality). The QUIC was initially validated through administration to a cohort of adult females (N = 116) and then further refined in two additional independent cohorts (male Veterans, N = 95, and male and female adolescents, N = 175). The QUIC demonstrated excellent internal (α = 0.89) and test–retest reliability (r = 92). Scores on the QUIC were positively correlated with other prospective indicators of exposures to unpredictable maternal inputs in infancy and childhood (unpredictable maternal mood and sensory signals), and accuracy of recall also was confirmed with prospective data. Importantly, the QUIC predicted symptoms of anxiety, depression, and anhedonia in the three study cohorts, and these effects persisted after adjusting for other previously established risk factors. The QUIC, a reliable and valid self-report assessment of exposure to unpredictability in the social, emotional, and physical domains during early life, is a brief, comprehensive, and promising instrument for predicting risk for mental illness.
Copyright Date
11-23-2018
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Rights Holder
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
7 pgs
File Size
458 KB
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Glynn, L. M., Stern, H. S., Howland, M. A., Risbrough, V. B., Baker, D. G., Nievergelt, C. M., . . . & Davis, E. P. (2019). Measuring novel antecedents of mental illness: The questionnaire of unpredictability in childhood. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44(5), 876-882. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-018-0280-9
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Publication Title
Neuropsychopharmacology
Volume
44
Issue
5
First Page
876
Last Page
882
ISSN
1740-634X
PubMed ID
30470840
Recommended Citation
Glynn, L. M., Stern, H. S., Howland, M. A., Risbrough, V. B., Baker, D. G., Nievergelt, C. M., . . . & Davis, E. P. (2019). Measuring novel antecedents of mental illness: The questionnaire of unpredictability in childhood. Neuropsychopharmacology, 44(5), 876-882. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-018-0280-9