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Updated: Jun 1, 2025
08:09
Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Irritability as a Transdiagnostic Construct Across Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Miriam Chin1, Davina A Robson2,3, Hannah Woodbridge1
1School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
|January 20, 2025
Summary
Irritability in children and adolescents is linked to more severe mental health symptoms. This connection holds across various disorders, suggesting irritability is a key indicator of emotional dysregulation.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Irritability is a common symptom in childhood and adolescence.
- Its association with various mental health disorders requires further investigation.
- Understanding this relationship is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine irritability's association with mental health disorder symptoms in youth.
- To determine if this association varies by symptom domain (internalizing vs. externalizing, specific disorders).
- To explore potential moderators of the irritability-symptom severity relationship.
Main Methods:
- Meta-analytic review following PRISMA guidelines.
- Systematic search of five databases for studies on irritability and mental health symptoms in 2-18 year olds.
- Meta-analytic tests and meta-regression to analyze associations and moderators.
Main Results:
- A moderate, positive association between irritability and concurrent psychopathology severity was found.
- Small to moderate effect sizes linked irritability to later mental health outcomes.
- Significant variation in associations was observed across diagnostic domains and methodological factors.
Conclusions:
- Irritability is a transdiagnostic construct reflecting emotion dysregulation in youth.
- It is associated with both current and future mental health issues.
- Further research on risk mechanisms and early intervention strategies for irritability is warranted.
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