Vidal-Ribas, Pablo;
Krebs, Georgina;
Silver, Jamilah;
Tseng, Wan‑Ling;
Ford, Tamsin;
Stringaris, Argyris;
(2025)
The hidden burden: self-reported irritability in adolescent girls signals higher psychiatric risk.
BMC Public Health
, 25
, Article 1832. 10.1186/s12889-025-23076-6.
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Abstract
Background: Most research on pediatric irritability focuses on children and/or relies on parent reports. We examined how self-reported irritability in adolescents influences the prevalence, sex distribution and correlates of irritability relative to children and parent reports. // Methods: Using data from Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey 2017 in England we contrasted the prevalence of irritability, encompassing irritable mood and temper outbursts, in 2,740 adolescents aged 12–17 (50.3% females), based on parent- and self-report, with that of 4,141 children aged 5–11 (49.4% females) based on parent-report. We examined associations of irritability with mental health problems and impairment. // Results: Parents reported similar prevalence of irritability in adolescent males (14–23%) and females (14–22%), but higher levels of irritability in males (20–25%) than females (15–19%) during childhood. In contrast, adolescent females self-reported more irritable mood (29%, 95%CI 26–31) than males (23%, 95%CI 20–25) and parents. Self-reported irritability in adolescent females was associated with greater emotional problems (irritable mood, b = 0.27, SE = 0.10, p = 0.011; temper outbursts: b = 0.25, SE = 0.11, p = 0.022) and impairment (irritable mood, b = 0.31, SE = 0.10, p = 0.001; temper outbursts: b = 0.31, SE = 0.08, p < 0.001) compared to males. Irritable mood in adolescent females was associated with a higher increase of psychiatric disorders (b = 0.35, SE = 0.15, p = 0.020) compared to males. // Conclusions: Age, sex, and informant are sources of heterogeneity in irritability reporting, and must be considered in the assessment and understanding of irritability-related psychopathology. Longitudinal design studies with comprehensive assessments of irritability across a broad age range are warranted to elucidate its developmental trajectory and causal relationships with other psychopathological symptoms.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The hidden burden: self-reported irritability in adolescent girls signals higher psychiatric risk |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12889-025-23076-6 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23076-6 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Irritability; Sex diference; Adolescent; Female; Informant |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208993 |
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