Editorial: Placing research in context – what participant and study characteristics should be routinely reported in studies of child and adolescent mental health?

Abstract

This editorial argues that research findings in child and adolescent psychopathology need to be contextualized with demographic information and location in order to help with interpretation of findings and implications for the services that are available and/or potentially effective. For developmental psychopathology and child and adolescent mental health treatment, the demographic information should include key factors known to influence etiology, treatment effectiveness and service availability. These factors include, but may not be limited to, sex and age, location including country (and city or urban area), socioeconomic class, culture and minoritized status. Including such information, in addition to helping us understand why findings might not generalize, can draw attention to the exclusion of certain groups from research and so drive attempts to increase the representativeness of research in child and adolescent mental health.