Edmund Sonuga‐barke
Biographic Data
| ID | 4890886 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edmund Sonuga‐barke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edmund |
| FAMILY NAME | Sonuga‐barke |
| SIGNATURE | BARKE E S |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6996-3935 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 74 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Within‐person level dynamics for the interplay between parental psychological control and adolescents' depressive symptoms: A differentiated, multidimensional approach
Parental psychological control (PPC) has long been proposed as a salient risk factor for adolescent depressive symptoms (ADS). However, findings from prior studies are inconsistent regarding how PPC and ADS may interplay with each other over time. They mostly treat PPC as if it is a monolithic entity rather than a collection of discrete elements with possibly different effects. A majority of them also fail to distinguish between‐person effects fr…
‘Until You Get the Diagnosis You're Forever in Limbo’—Parents' Experiences of Waiting for an Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Assessment With Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
BACKGROUND: Parents in the United Kingdom seeking an assessment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for their child experience a significant wait before receiving an appointment with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), yet little has been written on how parents experience this period. Through qualitative interviews, we sought to understand how the period of waiting from being accepted onto a service waitlist and r…
Exploring similarities and differences in how researchers and young people understand key terms in youth mental-health research
A lack of a shared understanding of key terms is acknowledged as a significant barrier to interdisciplinary research. This paper examines the ways in which a broadly interdisciplinary team of academics and youth co-researchers involved in mental health research interpreted a number of research and mental health terms that are central to their work in order to understand conceptual differences in how different stakeholder groups approach these ter…
The relationship between mindfulness, wisdom, and emotion dysregulation: A cross sectional survey study in healthy adults
Emotional dysregulation (ED), a hallmark of psychiatric disorders, is characterised by an impaired ability to regulate unpleasant emotions. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) reduce symptoms of mental health conditions with presence of ED. This has encouraged empirical research on mindfulness within the context of emotional difficulties. Mindfulness is defined as awareness cultivated through non-judgemental attention to the present moment. Wi…
Are ADHD trajectories shaped by the social environment? A longitudinal study of maternal influences on the preschool origins of delay aversion
BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly attributed to neuro-cognitive deficits of genetic and/or prenatal/perinatal environmental origins. Sonuga-Barke proposed an alternative formulation, suggesting that ADHD behaviors are functional expressions of delay aversion-a strong motivational disposition to avoid or escape negative affective states evoked by delay. It is hypothesized that the strength of this disposition,…
Emotional burden in school as a source of mental health problems associated with ADHD and/or autism: Development and validation of a new co‐produced self‐report measure
BACKGROUND: Mental health problems are elevated in adolescents with ADHD and/or autism. Emotion regulation deficits (ERD) have been hypothesised as a key driver of such difficulties. The Regulating Emotions - Strengthening Adolescent Resilience (RE-STAR) programme is examining an alternative pathway from neurodivergence to mental health problems, mediated by elevated emotional burden (EB) resulting from the interplay of increased exposure and an …
Research Review: Mechanisms of change and between‐family differences in parenting interventions for children with ADHD – an individual participant data meta‐analysis
BACKGROUND: Understanding the mechanisms of change and between-family differences in behavioural parenting interventions for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may help personalise interventions. Therefore, we examined whether improvements in parenting are associated with changes in child behaviour and functional outcomes, and how these associations vary based on parents' baseline parenting levels. METHODS: We collected…
Early childhood deprivation and the impact of negative life events on mental health in later life: A test of the stress sensitization hypothesis
There was no evidence that early severe institutional deprivation increased susceptibility to depression and anxiety following exposure to independent or dependent LE in general. However, it appeared to sensitize adolescents to the effects of peer-related LE specifically. We discuss possible mechanisms by which difficulties in peer relations might influence the emergence of depression and anxiety to already vulnerable individuals
Age-related differences in temporal discounting of different types of reward
Commentary: Health anxiety in youth during ‘Covid’ – some thoughts prompted by Rask et al. (2024)
Researchers continue to count the short‐ and longer‐term mental health costs for children and adolescents of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the associated exceptional restrictions imposed by governments on their lives in an attempt to control the pandemic and its impacts. Despite being at low risk of serious physical illness from COVID‐19 themselves, some studies have reported a decline in the mental health of many young people during the pandemic. So…
A framework for remotely enabled co-design with young people: Its development and application with neurodiverse children and their caregivers
We summarise key learnings and principles for fostering trust and sustaining participation with remote activities, and facilitating stakeholder design input through continuous collaboration, as well as highlight the potential benefits and challenges of utilising FREDY with neurotypical populations
Neurodevelopmental problems in adulthood following severe early deprivation: A qualitative analysis of clinical needs and service user experiences
Severe, prolonged early deprivation is associated with later neurodevelopmental difficulties. Despite elevated levels of contact with service providers, these problems often persist into adult life and are associated with impairment in adulthood (e.g., unemployment, higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms and poorer subjective wellbeing). Here, we aimed to explore the ongoing service needs and experiences of adoptees and their parents fro…
Social relationships in adults who were adopted following institutional deprivation
Research examining the effects of severe, prolonged early deprivation has shown elevated rates of neurodevelopmental symptoms, which frequently persist into adulthood and are associated with functional and social relationship difficulties, as well as elevated rates of mental health problems. The behavioural manifestations of these symptoms closely resemble those of ADHD and also ASD. Here, we used qualitative methods to explore and characterise t…
The adult outcome of childhood quasi‐autism arising following extreme institutional deprivation
BACKGROUND: Rutter and colleagues' seminal observation that extended early life exposure to extreme institutional deprivation can result in what he termed quasi-autism (QA), informed both our understanding of the effects of adversity on development and the nature of autism. Here we provide the first detailed analysis of the adult outcomes of the group of institutionally deprived-then-adopted children identified as displaying QA. METHODS: Twenty-s…
Paradigm ‘flipping’ to reinvigorate translational science: Outlining a neurodevelopmental science framework from a ‘neurodiversity’ perspective
For the most part the science of neuro‐developmental conditions, such as autism and ADHD, is conducted within a framework defined by a paradigm that assumes that these expressions of neuro‐developmental variation are disorders resulting from brain dysfunction. the translational goal being to identify, then target, the source of such dysfunction to reduce disorder and resolve impairment. By shifting this perspective to one that defines such condit…
Annual Research Review: Perspectives on progress in ADHD science – from characterization to cause
The science of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is motivated by a translational goal – the discovery and exploitation of knowledge about the nature of ADHD to the benefit of those individuals whose lives it affects. Over the past fifty years, scientific research has made enormous strides in characterizing the ADHD condition and in understanding its correlates and causes. However, the translation of these scientific insights into cl…
When people adopted from severely depriving institutions become parents: The experiences of young adult mothers from the ERA study and their adoptive parents
It has been reported that adult adoptees with histories of maltreatment face particular challenges when they become parents. Here we explore this issue using a qualitative analysis of the views of 14 adoptee mothers, who suffered severe institutional deprivation in the Romanian orphanages of the late 1980s before being adopted into the UK, and their adoptive parents. Following a thematic analysis, we report several perceived benefits of becoming …
Commentary: Are complex parenting interventions less than the sum of their parts? A reflection on Leijten et al. (2022)
Parenting interventions provide the backbone of professional support for children with behavioural problems and their families (Maughan et al., 2005). The overwhelming evidence for their value, at least in the short term, has prompted the field to move away from simply testing their efficacy to focus on issues of implementation. More and more studies are therefore addressing the interrelated goals of optimising outcomes, increasing scalability an…
How much impairment is required for ADHD? No evidence of a discrete threshold
BACKGROUND: A diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires the presence of impairment alongside symptoms above a specific frequency and severity threshold. However, the question of whether that symptom threshold represents anything more than an arbitrary cutoff on a continuum of impairment requires further empirical study. Therefore, we present the first study investigating if the relationship between ADHD symptom severit…
The World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement: 208 Evidence-based conclusions about the disorder
BACKGROUND: Misconceptions about ADHD stigmatize affected people, reduce credibility of providers, and prevent/delay treatment. To challenge misconceptions, we curated findings with strong evidence base. METHODS: We reviewed studies with more than 2000 participants or meta-analyses from five or more studies or 2000 or more participants. We excluded meta-analyses that did not assess publication bias, except for meta-analyses of prevalence. For net…
Commentary: “Harvest for the World”: Working locally to grow autism services globally – reflections on Divan et al. (2021)
Autism is associated with complex and diverse needs that vary from individual to individual. Those affected, and their families, often require specialist care and support. These involve educational and clinical skills which are demanding to implement effectively, and costly, in terms of time and money, to deliver. Early screening and intervention approaches, which can improve outcomes, sometimes dramatically, require government prioritisation of …
“School of hard knocks” – what can mental health researchers learn from the Covid‐19 crisis
Since the COVID‐19 pandemic took hold in the first quarter of 2020, children and their families across the world have experienced extraordinary changes to the way they live their lives – creating enormous practical and psychological challenges for them at many levels. While some of these effects are directly linked to COVID‐related morbidity and mortality, many are indirect – due rather to governmental public health responses designed to slow the…
Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children 1: A systematic and integrative review of evidence regarding effects on development
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Future preferences and prospection of future of outcomes: Independent yet specific associations with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder
INTRODUCTION: Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct problems have been associated with heightened temporal discounting of reward value resulting in a preference for immediate over delayed outcomes. We examined the cross-sectional relationship between future preference (including intertemporal choice) and prospection (the ability to bring to mind and imagine the experience of future personally-relevant events and …
Normality and impairment following profound early institutional deprivation: A longitudinal follow-up into early adolescence
Longitudinal analyses on normal versus impaired functioning across 7 domains were conducted in children who had experienced profound institutional deprivation up to the age of 42 months and were adopted from Romania into U.K. families. Comparisons were made with noninstitutionalized children adopted from Romania and with nondeprived within-U.K. adoptees placed before the age of 6 months. Specifically, the validity of the assessment, the degree of…
Communicative Openness About Adoption and Interest in Contact in a Sample of Domestic and Intercountry Adolescent Adoptees
Adolescent intercountry (n = 122) and domestic (n = 40) adoptees and their adoptive parents were asked about their views on communicative openness. The adoptees were also asked for their thoughts on birth parents and contact. A modest association between communicative openness and feelings about adoptive status and self-esteem was found. Girls were more interested in many aspects of their adoptions than boys. Compared with the situation at 11 yea…
The Experience of Adoption (1) A Study of Intercountry and Domestic Adoption from the child's point of view
Amanda Hawkins, Celia Beckett, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Emma Colvert, Jana Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Michael Rutter compared views about adoption for two groups of 11-year-old children (n = 180). The team's analyses compared the views of children according to their pre-adoption background: UK domestic adoptees placed before the age of six months versus intercountry adoptees who had experienced extreme deprivatio…
The Experience of Adoption (2): The Association between Communicative Openness and Self-Esteem in Adoption
A study of the views of two groups of 11-year-old adopted children (one adopted as babies within the UK, n = 47, the other adopted from Romania, aged between two and 43 months, n = 133) indicates that parents underestimate the difficulty that their children have in talking about adoption. Children who found this harder experienced lower self-esteem at age 11 and were also more likely to feel different from their adoptive families, and both these …
Service use by families with children adopted from Romania
Service use between six and 11 years of age is reported for children adopted from Romania into UK families, and compared with that for children adopted within the UK before six months of age. Between six and 11, there had been only one adoption breakdown, and about one in ten couples experienced a marital breakdown. Apart from continuing concerns over hepatitis B carrier status in a small number of children, physical health problems were not a pr…
Neurodevelopmental problems in adulthood following severe early deprivation: A qualitative analysis of clinical needs and service user experiences
Severe, prolonged early deprivation is associated with later neurodevelopmental difficulties. Despite elevated levels of contact with service providers, these problems often persist into adult life and are associated with impairment in adulthood (e.g., unemployment, higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms and poorer subjective wellbeing). Here, we aimed to explore the ongoing service needs and experiences of adoptees and their parents fro…
Social relationships in adults who were adopted following institutional deprivation
Research examining the effects of severe, prolonged early deprivation has shown elevated rates of neurodevelopmental symptoms, which frequently persist into adulthood and are associated with functional and social relationship difficulties, as well as elevated rates of mental health problems. The behavioural manifestations of these symptoms closely resemble those of ADHD and also ASD. Here, we used qualitative methods to explore and characterise t…
When people adopted from severely depriving institutions become parents: The experiences of young adult mothers from the ERA study and their adoptive parents
It has been reported that adult adoptees with histories of maltreatment face particular challenges when they become parents. Here we explore this issue using a qualitative analysis of the views of 14 adoptee mothers, who suffered severe institutional deprivation in the Romanian orphanages of the late 1980s before being adopted into the UK, and their adoptive parents. Following a thematic analysis, we report several perceived benefits of becoming …
The Importance of Cultural Identity in Adoption: A Study of Young People Adopted from Romania
This article by Celia Beckett, Amanda Hawkins, Michael Rutter, Jenny Castle, Emma Colvert, Christine Groothues, Jana Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Edmund Sonuga-Barke examines attitudes regarding cultural and national identity in a group of 165 young people adopted from Romania. The attitudes of their adoptive parents are also explored. The adoptive parents were interviewed over three or four time periods, when their children were 4/6, 11 and 15 …
Maternal Emotions and Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Relation to Boys and Girls with AD/HD
Teachers' emotional expression about disruptive boys
Objectives. To assess teachers' emotional expression about pupils using the Five Minute Speech Sample (FMSS) and coding procedures for parental expressed emotion (EE). To compare EE for disruptive and non‐disruptive pupils. Method. Twenty‐one teachers provided speech samples for both a disruptive and a non‐disruptive pupil in their class selected using standard behaviour rating scales. Results. Teachers' emotional expression was reliably measured…
Service use by families with children adopted from Romania
Service use between six and 11 years of age is reported for children adopted from Romania into UK families, and compared with that for children adopted within the UK before six months of age. Between six and 11, there had been only one adoption breakdown, and about one in ten couples experienced a marital breakdown. Apart from continuing concerns over hepatitis B carrier status in a small number of children, physical health problems were not a pr…
Communicative Openness About Adoption and Interest in Contact in a Sample of Domestic and Intercountry Adolescent Adoptees
Adolescent intercountry (n = 122) and domestic (n = 40) adoptees and their adoptive parents were asked about their views on communicative openness. The adoptees were also asked for their thoughts on birth parents and contact. A modest association between communicative openness and feelings about adoptive status and self-esteem was found. Girls were more interested in many aspects of their adoptions than boys. Compared with the situation at 11 yea…
The Experience of Adoption (1) A Study of Intercountry and Domestic Adoption from the child's point of view
Amanda Hawkins, Celia Beckett, Jenny Castle, Christine Groothues, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Emma Colvert, Jana Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Michael Rutter compared views about adoption for two groups of 11-year-old children (n = 180). The team's analyses compared the views of children according to their pre-adoption background: UK domestic adoptees placed before the age of six months versus intercountry adoptees who had experienced extreme deprivatio…
Normality and impairment following profound early institutional deprivation: A longitudinal follow-up into early adolescence
Longitudinal analyses on normal versus impaired functioning across 7 domains were conducted in children who had experienced profound institutional deprivation up to the age of 42 months and were adopted from Romania into U.K. families. Comparisons were made with noninstitutionalized children adopted from Romania and with nondeprived within-U.K. adoptees placed before the age of 6 months. Specifically, the validity of the assessment, the degree of…
The Experience of Adoption (2): The Association between Communicative Openness and Self-Esteem in Adoption
A study of the views of two groups of 11-year-old adopted children (one adopted as babies within the UK, n = 47, the other adopted from Romania, aged between two and 43 months, n = 133) indicates that parents underestimate the difficulty that their children have in talking about adoption. Children who found this harder experienced lower self-esteem at age 11 and were also more likely to feel different from their adoptive families, and both these …
The Importance of Cultural Identity in Adoption: A Study of Young People Adopted from Romania
This article by Celia Beckett, Amanda Hawkins, Michael Rutter, Jenny Castle, Emma Colvert, Christine Groothues, Jana Kreppner, Suzanne Stevens and Edmund Sonuga-Barke examines attitudes regarding cultural and national identity in a group of 165 young people adopted from Romania. The attitudes of their adoptive parents are also explored. The adoptive parents were interviewed over three or four time periods, when their children were 4/6, 11 and 15 …
Parents’ evaluation of adoption success: A follow-up study of intercountry and domestic adoptions
Parents of 165 children adopted from Romania and 52 children adopted from within the United Kingdom rated the success of the adoptions when the children were 11 years old. As was the case at two earlier study waves, satisfaction was found to be extremely high. Both positive and negative assessments were generally stable between ages 6 and 11, although for the children who had more problems there was an increase in negative evaluation, albeit with…
Assessing the Concept of the ‘Insecure‐Other’ Category in the Cassidy–Marvin Scheme: Changes Between 4 and 6 Years in the English and Romanian Adoptee Study
We set out to explore the meaning of the attachment categories in the Cassidy/Marvin strange situation procedure, as employed in the home, using data from a longitudinal study of children adopted into UK families up to the age of 42 months from Romanian institutions, and of adopted children without the experience of institutional care––both groups being assessed at 4 and 6 years of age. Inter‐rater reliability was found to be good. Security (mean…
I. Children in Institutional Care: Delayed Development and Resilience
Children exposed to institutional care often suffer from “structural neglect” which may include minimum physical resources, unfavorable and unstable staffing patterns, and socially emotionally inadequate caregiver-child interactions. This chapter is devoted to the analysis of the ill effects of early institutional experiences on resident children’s development. Delays in the important areas of physical, hormonal, cognitive, and emotional developm…
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a persistent neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 5% of children and adolescents and 2.5% of adults worldwide. Throughout an individual's lifetime, ADHD can increase the risk of other psychiatric disorders, educational and occupational failure, accidents, criminality, social disability and addictions. No single risk factor is necessary or sufficient to cause ADHD. In most cases ADHD arises fr…
Child-to-adult neurodevelopmental and mental health trajectories after early life deprivation: The young adult follow-up of the longitudinal English and Romanian Adoptees study
BACKGROUND: Time-limited, early-life exposures to institutional deprivation are associated with disorders in childhood, but it is unknown whether effects persist into adulthood. We used data from the English and Romanian Adoptees study to assess whether deprivation-associated adverse neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes persist into young adulthood. METHODS: The English and Romanian Adoptees study is a longitudinal, natural experiment in…
Discovery of the first genome-wide significant risk loci for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable childhood behavioral disorder affecting 5% of children and 2.5% of adults. Common genetic variants contribute substantially to ADHD susceptibility, but no variants have been robustly associated with ADHD. We report a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 20,183 individuals diagnosed with ADHD and 35,191 controls that identifies variants surpassing genome-wide significance in…
Institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation of children 1: A systematic and integrative review of evidence regarding effects on development
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Future preferences and prospection of future of outcomes: Independent yet specific associations with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder
INTRODUCTION: Symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct problems have been associated with heightened temporal discounting of reward value resulting in a preference for immediate over delayed outcomes. We examined the cross-sectional relationship between future preference (including intertemporal choice) and prospection (the ability to bring to mind and imagine the experience of future personally-relevant events and …
Why does early childhood deprivation increase the risk for depression and anxiety in adulthood? A developmental cascade model
BACKGROUND: Using data from the English & Romanian Adoptees (ERA) study, we recently reported that early time-limited exposure to severe institutional deprivation is associated with early-onset and persistent neurodevelopmental problems and later-onset emotional problems. Here, we examine possible reasons for the late emergence of emotional problems in this cohort. Our main focus is on testing a developmental cascade mediated via the functional i…
The World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement: 208 Evidence-based conclusions about the disorder
BACKGROUND: Misconceptions about ADHD stigmatize affected people, reduce credibility of providers, and prevent/delay treatment. To challenge misconceptions, we curated findings with strong evidence base. METHODS: We reviewed studies with more than 2000 participants or meta-analyses from five or more studies or 2000 or more participants. We excluded meta-analyses that did not assess publication bias, except for meta-analyses of prevalence. For net…
Commentary: “Harvest for the World”: Working locally to grow autism services globally – reflections on Divan et al. (2021)
Autism is associated with complex and diverse needs that vary from individual to individual. Those affected, and their families, often require specialist care and support. These involve educational and clinical skills which are demanding to implement effectively, and costly, in terms of time and money, to deliver. Early screening and intervention approaches, which can improve outcomes, sometimes dramatically, require government prioritisation of …
“School of hard knocks” – what can mental health researchers learn from the Covid‐19 crisis
Since the COVID‐19 pandemic took hold in the first quarter of 2020, children and their families across the world have experienced extraordinary changes to the way they live their lives – creating enormous practical and psychological challenges for them at many levels. While some of these effects are directly linked to COVID‐related morbidity and mortality, many are indirect – due rather to governmental public health responses designed to slow the…
Commentary: Are complex parenting interventions less than the sum of their parts? A reflection on Leijten et al. (2022)
Parenting interventions provide the backbone of professional support for children with behavioural problems and their families (Maughan et al., 2005). The overwhelming evidence for their value, at least in the short term, has prompted the field to move away from simply testing their efficacy to focus on issues of implementation. More and more studies are therefore addressing the interrelated goals of optimising outcomes, increasing scalability an…
How much impairment is required for ADHD? No evidence of a discrete threshold
BACKGROUND: A diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires the presence of impairment alongside symptoms above a specific frequency and severity threshold. However, the question of whether that symptom threshold represents anything more than an arbitrary cutoff on a continuum of impairment requires further empirical study. Therefore, we present the first study investigating if the relationship between ADHD symptom severit…
The adult outcome of childhood quasi‐autism arising following extreme institutional deprivation
BACKGROUND: Rutter and colleagues' seminal observation that extended early life exposure to extreme institutional deprivation can result in what he termed quasi-autism (QA), informed both our understanding of the effects of adversity on development and the nature of autism. Here we provide the first detailed analysis of the adult outcomes of the group of institutionally deprived-then-adopted children identified as displaying QA. METHODS: Twenty-s…
Paradigm ‘flipping’ to reinvigorate translational science: Outlining a neurodevelopmental science framework from a ‘neurodiversity’ perspective
For the most part the science of neuro‐developmental conditions, such as autism and ADHD, is conducted within a framework defined by a paradigm that assumes that these expressions of neuro‐developmental variation are disorders resulting from brain dysfunction. the translational goal being to identify, then target, the source of such dysfunction to reduce disorder and resolve impairment. By shifting this perspective to one that defines such condit…
Psychology (34 works) · Developmental psychology (26 works) · Psychiatry (18 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (16 works) · Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (14 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (13 works) · Medicine (13 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Clinical Psychology (12 works) · Mental health (9 works)