Abstract
Objective: Irritability is among the top reasons for youth mental health referrals worldwide. Cultural factors may affect how irritability manifests and develops; how it is experienced by youth and responded to by their caregivers; and how it is treated. However, the influences of cultural context on irritability have received little systematic investigation. Method: The Cross-Cultural Consortium on Irritability (C3I; https://m.yale.edu/c3i) is an international research network created to increase the limited evidence base on cross-cultural similarities and differences in irritability. By bringing together researchers worldwide, C3I provides an innovative and collaborative approach to address unmet needs and to explore novel research questions regarding cultural variation in irritability. In addition, combining resources and data around the globe helps to produce robust, reproducible, and generalizable results using large mega-data. One important initiative involves pooling existing datasets to support manuscript collaborations. The first 3 such projects focus on cross-cultural comparisons of the following irritability-related topics: boundaries of normative behavior; association with suicidality and self-harm; and informant effects. Another ongoing effort involves conceptualization of irritability across cultures. Other efforts include promoting projects of primary data collection using qualitative and quantitative methods, harmonization across measures, and facilitating/supporting community-based participatory research and engagement. Discussion: C3I is an innovative, collaborative research structure to build a robust, reproducible, and generalizable evidence base on irritability and its characteristics, including sociocultural influences. This evidence base will facilitate recognition and assessment of irritability and, ultimately, inform development of effective, culturally informed prevention and intervention to benefit the largest possible number of youth and their families. Plain language summary: This article describes the Cross-Cultural Consortium on Irritability (C3I), an international network aimed at understanding how culture shapes the presentation, experience, response to, and treatment of irritability in youth. By exploring these cultural influences, C3I seeks to improve recognition, assessment, and development of effective, culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies to benefit the largest possible number of youth and their families worldwide.