Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Character education linked with better GCSE results, new research finds.

University of Birmingham

Research from the University of Birmingham has found that schools recognised for their character education provision show stronger academic progress than those without this recognition.

A new study which reviewed data for over three million pupils in over 3,000 English secondary schools, found that schools awarded the Association for Character Education’s Quality Mark (QM) or Quality Mark Plus (QM+) consistently perform over and above expectations in GCSE exams relative to other schools in England (Non-QM).

The difference between QM+ and Non-QM schools over several years amounted to more than half a GCSE grade per pupil, averaged across subjects.

The research has been led by academics at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham. It has been published today in Educational Review.

Character education is the explicit and intentional education of a set of traits or dispositions that produce specific moral emotions, inform motivation, and guide conduct. This includes positive traits like integrity, self-discipline, responsibility, kindness, and perseverance.

The researchers used Progress 8 scores to compare academic progress in schools recognised for character education with progress in schools without this recognition. Progress 8 is a value-added measure used by the government in England to compare a secondary school pupil's GCSE results (Attainment 8) with their performance at the end of primary school (Key Stage 2). It covers multiple subjects, including English and Maths.

Tom Harrison, Professor of Education at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Jubilee Centre, said: “The idea of character education has been around for a very long time, but it is now much more obvious in inspection frameworks, through national initiatives, and increasingly defines the strategic priorities of schools and some of the largest academy chains in England. This recognition has catalysed a broader institutional shift. Schools are not merely encouraged but expected to attend to the moral, civic, and wider intellectual development of their pupils – not instead of academic progress, but alongside it. This research affirms what we have been saying since the Centre was established: that character and attainment are not rival aims.

“There is a consistent concern that embedding character education across a school’s culture and curriculum may compromise academic progress. We wanted to test that concern by examining whether schools recognised for substantial character education provision showed academic drawbacks or, instead, more favourable patterns of attainment.”

The researchers used Department for Education data to evaluate the association between character education and Progress 8 performance. By analysing the data for over 3,000 secondary schools from 2016 to 2024, the researchers found that schools with either QM or QM+ status exhibited higher Progress 8 scores than Non-QM schools.

Across the period, QM+ schools showed consistently stronger academic outcomes, especially from 2018–19 onwards. In 2022–23, QM+ schools were associated with an estimated 0.55-point advantage over Non-QM schools in Progress 8, which is equivalent to more than half a GCSE grade advantage across all subjects per pupil. The pattern is consistent over multiple years, suggesting that recognised character education provision forms part of a wider school culture associated with stronger academic progress.

Recognition for character education was also associated with stronger academic performance in schools serving higher numbers of socioeconomically disadvantaged pupils.

Dr Shane McLoughlin, Associate Professor of Character Education at the University of Birmingham, said: “Until this study, the evidence linking intentional character education with academic outcomes was generally considered limited. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine this question across an entire national school system, using data from thousands of schools and millions of pupils. The findings suggest that helping pupils wrestle with enduring and increasingly urgent questions about what it means to be both good and human does not need to displace academic achievement.”

The paper also shares results from national surveys completed by staff members at QM and QM+ schools to understand how character education might help explain these stronger academic results. Respondents generally felt that character education had positive knock-on effects for academic attainment, with 32% saying they perceived the effects to be ‘extremely positive’ and 65% saying ‘somewhat positive’.

Staff reported that the benefits of character education include:

Improved pupil behaviour and motivation.
Encouraging perseverance and focus.
Helping pupils manage setbacks and stress.
Strengthening wellbeing and belonging.
Improved staff wellbeing and pupil-staff relationships.
Creating better conditions for learning, rather than replacing academic teaching.

The study concludes that embedding character education across a school may support classroom climate, pupil resilience, and emotional wellbeing, suggesting that treating the age-old question of how to be a good person as an educational necessity can sit neatly alongside the academic priorities of schools.

ENDS

Journal

Educational Review

DOI

10.1080/00131911.2026.2669614

Article Publication Date

10-Jun-2026

Third-grade impulses linked to lower academic achievement and education into adulthood

Children who showed larger spikes in activity by the end of the school day were found to have lower math and reading scores in school and fewer years of education as adults

New York University

Can your behavior in third grade predict outcomes in high school and beyond? A new study, published in Developmental Psychology, says yes.

Using longitudinal data tracking individuals from birth to adulthood, researchers found that third-graders who were more active and impulsive during the school day (indicators of lower self-control) were more likely to have lower academic achievement in elementary and high school, and fewer years of education as adults.

“Being in the classroom requires some degree of self-control. Children are expected to walk instead of run, keep their hands to themselves, and stay in their seats when the situation requires,” says the study’s lead author Andrew E. Koepp, assistant professor of applied psychology at NYU Steinhardt. Applying this self-control takes effort and by the final ring of the school bell, children have been doing it for hours.”

“Our findings imply that, behaviorally speaking, most children tend to ‘lose it’ a bit by the end of the school day,” notes Koepp. “Interestingly, those who could ‘keep it together’ for longer tended to do better in school and were more likely to achieve educational success long-term.”

Researchers used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development’s Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development for outcomes on a cohort born in 1991 whose data were collected from birth to the age of 26. They analyzed information for 747 individuals whose gross motor activity (e.g., running, jumping) was collected in third grade, measured by accelerometer devices worn daily around their waists for up to seven consecutive days.

“We focused on third grade because it marks a transition to middle childhood and greater independent control of behavior,” the authors note in the study.

To assess children’s self-regulation, the researchers evaluated activity levels in addition to teacher assessments regarding hyperactivity, academic achievement measured by math and reading scores, and self-reported data on the highest degree earned by age 26.

They found that children’s activity tended to increase as the school day progressed. However, third-graders who showed greater spikes in daily activity were rated as more impulsive and disruptive by teachers, had lower math and reading scores in elementary and high school, and completed fewer years of education as adults. Children with more self-control had higher math and reading scores and 20% greater odds of completing a four-year degree.

“We know that self-control helps children ignore distractions and focus on learning. Our findings imply that self-control is not just a personality trait, but something that can wear out and also perhaps something that could be restored,” says Koepp. “As a society, we should value activities like recess that could let children blow off some steam and potentially recover some of this self-control. It might even benefit their learning.”

This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (2045095) and the National Institutes of Health (P2CHD042849).

Journal

Developmental Psychology

DOI

10.1037/dev0002212

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Keeping It Together: Hourly Dynamics of Children’s Behavioral Regulation at School in a Decades-Long Cohort Study

Article Publication Date

11-Jun-2026

High prevalence of poor sleep quality among Japanese esports players

University of Tsukuba

Tsukuba, Japan—Esports is a competitive activity that requires advanced cognitive functions and sustained concentration, making high-quality sleep essential for consistent performance. At the same time, esports players often train and compete late at night or overnight, raising concerns about irregular or insufficient sleep. Despite these concerns, only few studies have comprehensively examined the prevalence of poor subjective sleep quality among esports players, the differences between professional and amateur players, and the correlation of sleep with esports activity patterns.

This study conducted a web-based survey of 90 esports players in Japan (mean age: 22.4 years), recruited from one professional team and five amateur teams. Subjective sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Players were classified as having poor subjective sleep quality (a PSQI global score of ≥5.5). Results showed that 43.3% of all participants were classified as having poor subjective sleep quality, with no significant differences in prevalence between professional and amateur players. Nevertheless, evident variations in sleep patterns were observed: professional players generally had later bedtimes and wake-up times, and amateur players were more likely to have a shorter total sleep time. In addition, playing esports during the early-morning hours, particularly between 3:00 a.m. and 8:59 a.m., was associated with poor subjective sleep quality.

These findings emphasize the substantial burden of sleep issues among esports players and indicate the need for sleep-health support tailored to players' competitive status and life circumstances. The results also suggest that sleep health should be incorporated into team- and organization-level health management, including sleep-hygiene education, awareness campaigns promoting healthier play schedules, and targeted messaging to prevent early-morning play if possible.

###
This study was partially supported by joint research grants from REJECT Inc., NTT EAST Corp., and Meiji Co., Ltd.

Original Paper

Title of original paper:
Prevalence and factors associated with poor subjective sleep quality among electronic sports players: A cross-sectional study

Journal:
Sage Open

DOI:
10.1177/21582440261420180

Children improve their fraction skills by playing basketball in class

Combining fractions with a basketball improves pupils’ mathematical skills in primary school, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows. The researchers call for the approach to be integrated into primary and lower secondary education.

University of Copenhagen

A dribble and a jump shot – followed by a fractions task. That is what physical education classes looked like for a group of pupils and the pupils not only found the lessons more engaging than usual; they also became better at mathematics with a basketball in their hands. That is the conclusion in a new study from the University of Copenhagen.

The study involved more than 300 pupils aged 11 to 13 who took part in an eight-week teaching programme called BasketballMathematics. Here, fractions were directly linked to basketball activities during physical education classes. For example, pupils would take ten shots at the basket and then calculate what fraction of the shots were successful and convert the result into percentages.

Afterwards, pupils who participated in BasketballMathematics performed 15 per cent better in a fractions test compared with a control group that received standard physical education. The results please Jacob Wienecke, Associate Professor at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen and lead researcher on the study.

"I am convinced that sport and physical activity can open up mathematics for pupils who are not otherwise engaged by the subject," he says.

Basketball Mathematics consisted of one weekly lesson over eight weeks, during which mathematics was integrated into basketball drills. According to the researchers, the results show that even relatively small changes to teaching can make a difference.

"These are quite substantial improvements over a short period of time. This suggests that it is possible to strengthen pupils’ mathematical skills without having to find additional teaching time," says Jacob Wienecke.

More effort in the classroom

Fractions are an area that many pupils struggle with. But how well they understand fractions appears to matter. Several studies have shown that pupils’ fractions skills are a strong indicator of how they will perform in other areas of mathematics later in life.

In the study, pupils experienced the teaching as more engaging than traditional classroom instruction. To a greater extent than usual, they felt they mastered the tasks and took a more active part in the lessons.

This was also reflected in their results. In addition to improvements in fractions, pupils performed around five per cent better in other mathematical tasks.

"Our hypothesis is that the children get positive experiences with mathematics, and that this may encourage them to put more effort into math in the classroom as well," says Jacob Wienecke.

At the same time, the pupils also improved their basketball skills which shows that integrating academic content into physical education does not come at the expense of learning a new sport.

Small changes with a big impact

The researchers stress that the results should be interpreted with caution. This is partly because the pupils received slightly more mathematics teaching than the control group, and partly because the study was relatively short. Thus, it is unclear whether the effect will last in the longer term.

"But we know from other studies that pupils’ level of math at this stage is often linked to their later performance. So, if you can raise their level here, it may potentially influence their educational trajectory long term," says Jacob Wienecke.

More ball games in teaching

So, should schools start integrating more ball-playing activities into other subjects? Yes, says Jacob Wienecke, who is an advocate of this approach.

"Our research shows that you can easily invite other subjects into physical education and make it work. And it can actually make children experience that subject in a completely different way, while still preserving their motivation and enjoyment of learning," he says.

The researchers hope that more schools will work to integrate physical activity into teaching. They have developed a teaching compendium that teachers can use freely if they want to try the method in practice. Although the study is based on basketball, the principles can be transferred to other activities, such as volleyball.

"If it were up to me, one out of five math lessons each week would be active math. The most important thing is that the movement makes sense in relation to what the pupils are meant to learn, so that they are not just solving a task and then running a lap around the school," says Jacob Wienecke.

About BasketballMathematics

The study involved 309 pupils in Years 5 and 6 (aged 11 to 13)
An eight-week programme with one lesson per week (60 minutes)
Mathematics was directly linked to basketball teaching, with pupils using their performance (for example shots or dribbling) to work with fractions and percentages
There were two control groups: one received standard physical education, and the other only had basketball in physical education
The result was a 15 per cent improvement in fractions and a 5 per cent improvement in other mathematical tasks
Both pupils in BasketballMathematics and in the basketball control group improved their basketball skills
Pupils also reported higher motivation, engagement and a sense of mastery during the lessons
Participants in Basketball Mathematics received slightly more mathematics teaching than the control groups
BasketballMathematics has also been tested with 756 pupils in Years 1 to 5, although the focus there was not on academic improvement
Videos and descriptions of the method can be found on the BasketballMathematics site.

Journal

Educational Psychology Review

DOI

10.1007/s10648-026-10175-y

Article Title

Integrating Fractions into Physical Education classes can improve Mathematical Performance in 11–13-Year-Olds - The Basketball Mathematics project

Article Publication Date

6-Jun-2026

COI Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

How skilled soccer players outsmart defenders through coordinated motion

University of Tsukuba

Tsukuba, Japan—In soccer, dribbling extends beyond ball control; it is a dynamic behavior shaped by the continuous interaction between the attacker and defender, particularly through adjustments in movement speed, spatial distance, and timing. Despite its tactical importance, pre-existing research on dribbling relies on controlled experimental designs using static obstacles such as cones. As a result, the movement characteristics that emerge in realistic one-on-one encounters remain poorly understood.

To address this limitation, the researchers focused on the "scissors feint," a dribbling maneuver commonly used in soccer. The study involved university-level and junior high school players with varying skill levels, all of whom performed the feint while facing a live defender. Movements were captured using high-speed cameras, allowing precise biomechanical analysis. Key variables included center-of-mass velocity (body speed), joint kinematics, interpersonal distance, and changes in the relative speed between the attacker and defender.

The analysis revealed distinct movement characteristics among highly skilled players, defined as advanced university athletes with regional representative experience. Compared with less-skilled players, skilled dribblers demonstrated the following characteristics:
(1) Active distance regulation: They deliberately reduced the distance to the defender while maintaining a high body speed.
(2) Strategic modulation of relative speed: They initially minimized the speed difference with the defender, followed by a rapid increase in speed at a decisive moment.
(3) Efficient feint execution: Their step-over movements were characterized by minimal foot lift and pronounced trunk inclination, allowing for quicker and more deceptive actions.
(4) Explosive acceleration mechanics: Rapid acceleration was generated through coordinated knee flexion followed by powerful knee extension with their supporting leg.

Collectively, these findings indicate that skilled dribbling cannot be reduced to raw speed alone; it represents a sophisticated motor skill in which players continuously adjust their relationship with defenders by integrating spacing, relative speed, and acceleration. By analyzing dribbling behavior across distinct phases—approach, feint, and penetration—this study clarifies the underlying structure and biomechanical mechanisms that differentiate skilled performance in one-on-one situations.

From a practical perspective, these insights offer valuable implications for coaching and player development. Training programs that emphasize spacing, relative-speed, and acceleration may improve the development of effective dribbling skills in competitive soccer.

###
This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP19K19968.

Original Paper

Title of original paper:
Interpersonal motion characteristics of experienced and beginner university and junior high school soccer players in scissors feinting

Journal:
Taiikugaku kenkyu (Japan Journal of Physical Education, Health and Sport Sciences)

DOI:
10.5432/jjpehss.07-25031

New research helps understand how a long, healthy lifespan may be passed down across generations

European Society of Human Genetics

Gothenburg, Sweden: Understanding why some people stay healthy without developing disease until late in life (have an increased healthspan*), whereas others become infirm at a much younger age has important implications for the health of today’s ageing population. Life expectancy has significantly increased in the last two centuries, but healthspan has not kept pace. Survival into extremely old age (longevity) runs in families and is associated with a delayed onset of multiple chronic health conditions, yet its protective genetic basis remains largely unclear. Most studies to date have looked at the particular genetics of healthy long-lived individuals rather than those of families. However, new research to be presented today (Tuesday) at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Gothenburg has revealed that studying long-lived family members can help to identify some of the mechanisms that enable them to have a significantly longer healthspan.

The problem with studying individuals rather than families is that there are so many factors involved in having a long and healthy life. Apart from genetics, socio-economic position, lifestyle, and other behavioural and social factors determine longevity and healthspan, with the result that individuals from a family with an average age at death may still become long-lived; and others may die at well under average age. Presenting the results of the intergenerational ageing study today (Tuesday), Mr Pasquale Putter, a final-year PhD student in Prof. Eline Slagboom’s group at Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands, explains that their earlier research had shown that middle-aged family members with long-lived parents had a 13 years-later onset of cardiometabolic disease than did their partners with shorter-lived parents. “This made it clear that their longer healthspan was passed down to subsequent generations,” he says.

The researchers scanned the genomes of 212 groups of long-lived sibships (offspring with the same two parents) from the Leiden Longevity Study. They identified four genomic regions at which longevity genes were likely to be found. “This meant that we could restrict our focus to 350 genes rather than around 20 000,” says Mr Putter. After performing further analysis, they found 12 rare protein-altering genetic variants in these regions that might influence longevity.

Previous research has suggested that the CGAS (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase) gene plays a role in the ageing process, and one of these 12 genetic variants mapped to this gene and was identified in two long-lived families. This gene is involved in producing an inflammatory response when DNA is detected within the cell where it does not belong, either in reaction to a viral infection, or when cellular damage has occurred. “It is likely that members of these families had only one active copy of the CGAS gene, rather than two, and that this will have reduced the inflammatory response in their bodies, while still being sufficient to clear infections and repair damage, thereby contributing to the protective mechanisms that enable extended healthspan and survival,” Mr Putter says.

“We hope that taking this family approach will help us to untangle some of the environmental factors from those that are truly genetic, particularly those where rare mutations are involved. We have been surprised by the magnitude of the effect of the CGAS mutation in the in vitro experiments we have carried out to date.”

The direct implications of this research for human health have to be explored further, the researchers say, because the role of CGAS depends highly on context. Complete suppression of the CGAS pathway may increase susceptibility to infections and cancers, whereas chronic over-activation can lead to sustained damage caused by inflammation. They are now moving towards in vivo studies to determine whether the changes seen in vitro will translate to similar changes in a whole organism by introducing the CGAS mutation into killifish at the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany.

“Killifish are the shortest-lived vertebrates, with a natural lifespan of between three to nine months. Using them as a model will enable us to determine whether the mutation contributes to increased lifespan when compared with control groups, and also to investigate its health effects in tissues,” says Mr Putter. “We also intend to follow up on our research by investigating other promising candidate longevity variants that we identified in the Leiden Longevity Study through collaborations with other groups.”

Chair of the conference, Professor Alexandre Reymond, who was not involved in the research, said: “These findings allow our community to zoom in on factors tied to longevity and, more importantly, they point to what maybe are key elements to extend the healthspan of all.”

(ends)

*A person’s healthspan is the number of years they live free from chronic disease and cognitive decline

A single broken gene reads aloud in several dialects across one Portuguese island family

In a Genomic Psychiatry peer-reviewed article, researchers studying 173 multiplex families from the genetically isolated Azores and Madeira describe an ultra-rare loss-of-function variant in CHD2 that travels through a three-generation pedigree

Genomic Press

image:
When the family tree outsmarts the diagnostic manual
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Credit: Julio Licinio

PISCATAWAY, New Jersey, USA, 16 June 2026 — For most of a century, psychiatry has kept its disorders in separate rooms. Schizophrenia in one. Bipolar disorder in another. Autism somewhere down a different corridor entirely. The arrangement was orderly, and it organized clinics and insurance codes and the words that families carried home from the appointment. It was also, as anyone who ever sat with real patients understood, a little bit of a fiction at the edges. The diagnoses were tidy. The family histories were not.

A study published this week in Genomic Psychiatry walks back into those bloodlines and finds the walls thinner than the manuals would have us believe. Carlos N. Pato, Michele T. Pato, and a team spread across more than a dozen institutions returned to a place that geneticists prize and tourists merely photograph: the Azores and Madeira, the scattering of Portuguese islands that rise green and steep out of the open Atlantic. The cover of this issue looks down on one of them, the town of Horta on Faial, its red roofs crowded along a thin neck of land between two harbors.

Why These Islands?

The answer is in the soil and the centuries. Settlers arrived roughly six hundred years ago, a small founding population, almost entirely Portuguese, and then the place was largely left alone. The genetic deck, so to speak, was shuffled once and rarely shuffled again. That is the kind of quiet, contained ancestry that lets a rare mutation stand out from the noise the way a single lit window stands out on a dark hillside. From this population the researchers assembled the Portuguese Island Collection, a resource built patiently since the 1990s and followed across four generations of illness and recovery.

The Boxes Have Always Leaked

The current report examines 173 families in which at least two members carried a serious diagnosis. In 49 of them, just over 28 percent, the same family tree bore both psychosis and mood disorder: schizophrenia in one relative, a crushing depression or bipolar disorder in the next. In a smaller set, 12 families or roughly 7 percent, autism and intellectual disability folded into the same pedigree alongside schizophrenia or mood disorder. The categories, in other words, refused to stay in their lanes. The denser the family, the more the diagnoses mixed.

“We went back to the families because the families never honored the boundaries we drew on paper,” said Carlos N. Pato, MD, PhD, Executive Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and corresponding author of the study. “When you study an isolated founder population like this one, the shared ancestry and the shared environment let you see the inherited architecture that larger case-control studies tend to dilute.”

One Family, One Gene, Three Readings

What lifts the work above careful bookkeeping is a single family. In a three-generation pedigree, the team performed whole-genome sequencing and found an ultra-rare stop-gain mutation in CHD2, a gene that helps build chromatin architecture while the brain is still under construction. CHD2 is usually discussed in the vocabulary of childhood epilepsy and autism, and it carries the highest-confidence rating for autism risk. Here it does something stranger. It travels down three generations and surfaces, in most of the relatives who carry it, as schizophrenia. In one sibling it appears instead as autism with intellectual disability. The mutation is identical. The destination is not. A single broken gene, it turns out, can be read aloud in several dialects.

The variant itself is almost vanishingly rare. It did not appear at all in two large reference databases for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and it surfaced exactly once among more than 800,000 unrelated people in a global genomic catalog. The relatives across the second and third generations who were sequenced carry it and live with schizophrenia. The father of one affected grandson is an obligate carrier diagnosed with schizophrenia, though he himself was never sequenced.

“A rare variant with a large effect, sitting inside a family like this one, gives us something a database never can,” said Michele T. Pato, MD, co-first author of the study. “It lets us ask why the same mutation becomes one illness in one person and a different illness in their sibling. The answer to that question is where new treatment targets are likely to be hiding.”

The Woman Who Should Have Been Sick

There is a quieter figure in this pedigree, and she may matter most. The grandmother carries the same broken gene, and she is, by every account in the record, well. The variant did not spare her grandchildren. It did not spare a relative who meets full criteria for schizophrenia yet may not carry the mutation at all, a possible phenocopy that the authors deliberately keep in the frame rather than dismiss as an inconvenient asterisk. But it spared her. Three readings of one mutation in one family: illness with the variant, illness without it, and the variant carried in a body that never fell ill. The authors point to the work of Mayana Zatz on older people who harbor pathogenic variants and yet never develop the expected disease. Whatever held the line in that grandmother is, in a sense, the closest thing in this family to a medicine.

What the Authors Caution

The team is careful about what the work does and does not show. Autism was originally an exclusion criterion when the collection began, which means the 7 percent figure almost certainly undercounts autism and intellectual disability in these families. One key relative was sequenced but failed quality control, so whether that person carries the variant remains unknown, and the pattern of inheritance is therefore less than airtight. The proposed molecular consequences of the truncation, which clips the final seventeen amino acids from the protein near a site that other molecules may chemically modify, remain, in the authors’ own framing, speculative until they are tested in living cells. Pedigree size and the way families were ascertained may also shape the numbers. These are findings to build on, not verdicts to hand down.

A Map Drawn From Family Histories

An accompanying editorial in Genomic Psychiatry, by Julio Licinio, frames the study as a meeting point between two opposite approaches. Large consortium studies have been dissolving the old diagnostic partitions from the top down, finding that most genetic signal is shared across disorders rather than specific to any one. Pato and colleagues arrive at the same destination from the bottom up, one family at a time. The two directions meet in the middle, and the handshake is convincing. The stated hope is that a handful of these rare variants will converge on a few downstream biological pathways, and that those pathways might one day yield treatments useful across the diagnostic spectrum rather than locked inside a single box. It is a long road. This study is a reminder that the most modern insight sometimes arrives by the oldest method we have, which is to sit down with a family and listen to who got sick, and when, and how.

The peer-reviewed research article in Genomic Psychiatry titled “Multiplex Portuguese families as a lens into rare mutations and the shared genetic architecture of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders,” is freely available via Open Access, starting on 16 June 2026 in Genomic Psychiatry at the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/gp026h.0045

An accompanying Editorial in Genomic Psychiatry titled “When the family tree outsmarts the diagnostic manual,” providing expert perspective on this research, is freely available via Open Access on 16 June 2026 in Genomic Psychiatry at the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/gp026d.0048

The full reference for citation purposes is: Pato CN, Pato MT, Mulle J, Hart RP, Pang Z, Knowles JA, et al. Multiplex Portuguese families as a lens into rare mutations and the shared genetic architecture of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. Genomic Psychiatry 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61373/gp026h.0045. Epub 2026 Jun 16.

About Genomic Psychiatry: Genomic Psychiatry: Advancing Science from Genes to Society (ISSN: 2997-2388, online and 2997-254X, print) represents a paradigm shift in genetics journals by interweaving advances in genomics and genetics with progress in all other areas of contemporary psychiatry. Genomic Psychiatry publishes peer-reviewed medical research articles of the highest quality from any area within the continuum that goes from genes and molecules to neuroscience, clinical psychiatry, and public health.

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Affected individuals in Portuguese Island Collection families also segregates with severe autism spectrum disorder/intellectual disability.

Family Portuguese Island Collection (PIC)-9420.

Multiplex Portuguese families as a lens into rare mutations and the shared genetic architecture of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders.

Credit

Carlos Pato

Journal

Genomic Psychiatry

DOI

10.61373/gp026h.0045

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Multiplex Portuguese families as a lens into rare mutations and the shared genetic architecture of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders

Article Publication Date

16-Jun-2026

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

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Subject of Research

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Article Publication Date

Original Paper

Related Link

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More effort in the classroom

Small changes with a big impact

More ball games in teaching

About BasketballMathematics

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Article Publication Date

COI Statement

Original Paper

Related Link

Journal

DOI

Article Title

Affected individuals in Portuguese Island Collection families also segregates with severe autism spectrum disorder/intellectual disability.

Family Portuguese Island Collection (PIC)-9420.

Multiplex Portuguese families as a lens into rare mutations and the shared genetic architecture of schizophrenia, mood disorders, and autism spectrum disorders.

Credit

Carlos Pato

Journal

DOI

Method of Research

Subject of Research

Article Title

Article Publication Date