Professor Mark Dadds of the School of Psychology was recently awarded a Principal Research Fellowship by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for 2008-2012. The research, supported by the Fellowship as well as specific ARC and NHMRC grants, is conducting the first test of how specific genetic risk relates to various emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. Children with behavioural and emotional problems are at high risk for ongoing mental health problems in our community. It is highly likely that within their numbers are heterogeneous subgroups that will take very different trajectories through life.

According to Professor Dadds, the current study builds on several years of developmental research in which methods have been developed for identifying different phenotypes within the group. The study will identify genetic markers of these subtypes and relate these to emotional processing as a general model of risk in the development of mental health problems and antisocial behaviour. Large and representative samples of children with behavioural and emotional problems are being recruited from Royal Far West Children’s Health Scheme, MH Kids NSW, the UNSW Child Behaviour Clinic, and NSW schools. Measures of genetic vulnerability, emotion processing, psychiatric diagnoses, family and parental health, neuro-cognitive functioning, and treatment outcomes are being conducted at 6 month intervals and analysed using longitudinal data modelling techniques. Findings will inform models of genetic vulnerability, and more importantly, the relationship of genetic risk to basic information processing styles in at-risk children, thus aiding methods for early detection, early intervention and prevention.