Our research can be divided into two principal axes: mental health (primarily depressive and anxiety disorders) in relation to the school context and school dropout. Each of these research axes is then divided into modules and subthemes (Figure 1). 

 

Axis 1 of the first component is divided into four research subthemes: 

 

1.1. The development of cognitive-behavioural predictive models of depression and anxiety.
1.2. The influence of the transitions from primary school to secondary school and from secondary school to college on the emergence of depression and anxiety
1.3. The study of gender differences in the emergence of depression and anxiety in adolescence and early adulthood
1.4. The study of the concomitance of depression, anxiety and conduct disorder. 

 

Axis 2 of the first component focuses on the development of explanatory and predictive models of school dropout among at-risk youth. It includes three research subthemes:

 

2.1. The study of associated and predictive factors for school dropout
2.2. Trajectories leading to school dropout
2.3. The development of typologies for at-risk students

 

The second module of our program involves the development of prevention and intervention programs addressing, on one hand, depression and anxiety and, on the other hand, school dropout. These two types of programs overlap since depressed youth is one of the four types of at-risk students we have identified in our typology. 

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Diane Marcotte, Laboratory Director