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Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Peer-reviewed research on the mental health of children and adolescents — development and mechanism, assessment and measurement, treatment and care, and the services through which care reaches a young person. Late-adolescent and transition-to-adult-care studies belong when an adolescent or developmental question remains central.

Read the current issue Aims and Scope

ISSN: 2643-6655
Access: Open access
License: CC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright
Publisher: Open Access Pub

Featured research

From the journal

One paper from the journal’s record, followed by the archive it sits in. Every summary below describes what its authors reported, in their terms.

The Importance of Mental Functions and Autobiographical Memory in the Development of Identity and Life Story in Adolescence: Their Role in Preventing Identity Diffusion, Aggressiveness And Depression Among Adolescents

Seri Lucia, Montebarocci Ornella

Seri and Montebarocci examine how mental functioning and autobiographical memory support the construction of identity and of a life story during adolescence. The review sets out three mental functions — differentiation and integration, mentalization and reflexive function, and meaning and directionality — together with self-defining memories, and relates them to the prevention of identity diffusion, aggressiveness and depression.

Article typeReview ArticlePublished3 February 2024IssueVolume 1, Issue 3Pages1–18DOI10.14302/issn.2643-6655.jcap-24-4898

A selection

Three more from the journal

Three papers chosen to show what the journal publishes across development, measurement and treatment. The complete published record is in the Archives.

Development and mechanismMaternal Behavior Affects Child’s Attachment-Related Cortisol Stress Response

Franziska Köhler-Dauner, Jörg M. Fegert, Anna, Buchheim, Sabrina Krause, Harald Gündel, Christiane Waller, Ute Ziegenhain

Köhler-Dauner and colleagues ask whether an infant’s cortisol stress response is shaped by the mother’s own history of childhood maltreatment or by the quality of her behavior during the first year of life. The question is transgenerational, and it is put to the pathway rather than to the exposure.

Research Article · 25 April 2019

Assessment and measurementSelf Determination and Quality of Life: a Comparison of the Measurement Scales for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Zappella Emanuela

Zappella compares nine published scales for measuring self-determination and quality of life in students with intellectual disabilities, examining which domains each instrument covers, whose account it collects — the student’s, or a teacher’s or parent’s in their place — and how its questions are put.

Research Article · 4 February 2019

Treatment and careFrom High-Risk Behaviors to Problem-Solving Strategies: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Effects on Addiction Susceptible Adolescents in Cyberspace

Zandkarimi Ghazal, Tagva Ebrahimi

Zandkarimi and Tagva report on acceptance and commitment therapy delivered online to sixty female high-school students in Iran aged 15 to 18, randomly assigned in equal numbers to an experimental and a control group, with eight sessions between pre-test and post-test and a follow-up two months later.

Review Article · 6 October 2021

Every issue the journal has published, by volume and issue, with dates, pagination and identifiers.

Browse the complete archive

Reading and submitting

Where to go next

The full statement of what the journal considers is on the Aims and Scope page; the preparation requirements, including the ethics documentation the journal needs for research involving minors, are in the author instructions.

All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal’s scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review.

Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.

Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.

Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal.

Editorial decisions are independent of fees, services, membership, and editorial or reviewer roles.

Aims and ScopeThe research the journal considers, in full.
Editorial PoliciesEthics, authorship and the published record.
Instructions for AuthorsArticle types, limits and preparation.
Submit PaperThe approved routes for sending a manuscript.