Psychology News

The Archives of Disease in Childhood (ADC), the leading publication in Child Health in the UK by the British Medical Association celebrates the 100^th Anniversary. As of 2025, ADC has published over 38000 documents. Celebrating this anniversary - they have looked back at the most influential papers over the decades by pointing out the most cited articles of the main ADC edition in every decade. First century: Most cited papers in Archives of Disease in Childhood | Archives of Disease in Childhood

Dieter Wolke is pleased that the ADC paper, co-authored with then postdoc Dr Tanya Lereya was the most cited in the 2010s. The paper focussed on the long term effects of bullying and the implications for public health. Doctors need to ask about bullying and consider it in their practice!

The full citation is: Long-term effects of bullying | Archives of Disease in Childhood. the paper is open access!

Furthermore, another research paper with Dieter's collaborators then in Basel made it in the top 5 most cited by ADC in the 2010s: Associations between problems with crying, sleeping and/or feeding in infancy and long-term behavioural outcomes in childhood: a meta-analysis | Archives of Disease in Childhood. Since completing his PhD thesis Dieter has been researching and lecturing on the long term effects of crying, feeding and sleeping problems in infancy and toddlerhood and their treatment.

Psychology students from the University of Warwick also participated, helping to lead activities and share insights into mental health awareness and the importance of looking out for others. The full-day interactive campus events, along with pre- and post-event sessions, featured workshops, group discussions, and activities designed to help pupils recognise and respond to mental health needs in themselves and others, and to explore how small, everyday actions can make a real difference to young people’s wellbeing.

New Study Maps 30 Years of Resilience Research
Systematic review highlights gaps and provides roadmap for future studies

Resilience is a powerful concept often used in science, policy, and everyday life. But what does it really mean, and how has it been studied over time?

The study, “A systematic review of conceptualizations and statistical methods in longitudinal studies of resilience”, led by Professor Dieter Wolke, Dr. Yanlin Zhou, and colleagues provides the most comprehensive overview to date of how resilience has been defined and measured over the past three decades.

This paper was recently published in Nature Mental Health. It systematically reviewed more than 190 longitudinal studies of resilience, covering over 800,000 participants across the life span. The key findings include:

• Only one in three studies clearly defined resilience, with varying interpretations as a trait, process, or outcome.
• Most research relied on variable-centred statistical methods and moderation models, with a strong focus on mental health outcomes following childhood or family adversity.
• Protective factors were often studied at the individual, family, and social levels, while genetics and neurobiological factors were rarely investigated.

The review calls for greater clarity in definitions and the use of multisystemic frameworks, and it provides methodological approaches to strengthen future resilience research. It offers a landmark for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to understand and promote resilience across the life course.

The authors commented “Resilience is an intriguing concept, but our review shows it has often been used inconsistently. We provide recommendations to help researchers design clearer, more robust studies that can ultimately improve resilience science, interventions, and policies to support vulnerable individuals.”

The full paper is available open access here: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00479-3Link opens in a new window