Child and Adolescent Mental Health

BackgroundInpatient child and adolescent mental health services are one part of a complex system, and exist to meet the needs of young people with the greatest mental health difficulties.ObjectivesThe research question was ‘What is known about the identification, assessment and management of risk (where “risk” is broadly conceived) in young people (aged 11–18 years) with complex mental health needs entering, using and exiting inpatient child and adolescent mental health services in the UK?’Data sourcesThe two-phase Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre approach was used. In phase 1, scoping searches were made using two databases with an end date of March 2013. Phase 2 centred on the search for citations relating to the risks to young people of ‘dislocation’ and ‘contagion’. Searches were made using 17 databases, with time limits from 1995 to September 2013. Websites were searched, a call for evidence circulated and references of included citations rev...

My bold suggestions in this paper, as an artisan-anthropologist-therapist, are as follows: (a) human manufacturing of objects brings about individual/collective (deep well-being) experiences of beauty and grace and (b)‘making artifacts’ represents an important ancient continuity in (social-cultural-biological) humanization. Combining these two assertions suggests a universal existence of ‘crafting in the world’. The argument was ignited by the termination of both my mother’s and father’s family blacksmithing workshops in the twentieth century. Being a technical engineer/craftsman in my first career, and being one of six sons, I was deeply puzzled about why and how our transgenerational arts and crafting family tradition would die out when my father closed down his metal construction workshop in 1986. My great-uncles from mother’s side had already closed down their smithy decades earlier.

One in eight children aged 5–19 years in the UK suffer from a psychiatric disorder, while fewer than 35% are identified and only 25% of children access mental health services. Whilst government policy states that primary schools are well-placed to spot the early warning signs of mental health issues in children, the implementation of early identification methods in schools remains under-researched. This study aims to increase understanding of the acceptability and feasibility of different early identification methods in this setting. Four primary schools in the East of England in the UK participated in a qualitative exploration of views about different methods that might enhance the early identification of mental health difficulties (MHDs). Twenty-seven staff and 20 parents took part in semi-structured interviews to explore current and future strategies for identifying pupils at risk of experiencing MHDs. We presented participants with four examples of identification methods selecte...

International literature has shown that adolescents represent the population most at risk of fatal and nonfatal motor vehicle collisions (MVCs). Adolescents’ alexithymic traits and significant use of immature defense strategies have been seen to play a key role. This study aimed to investigate the possible mediation role played by defense strategies use in the relationship between alexithymia and MVCs. Our sample consisted of 297 adolescents divided into four subgroups, based on the number of visits to the emergency department due to an MVC. We assessed adolescents’ alexithymic traits and defense strategies use through self-report instruments. Results showed that males reported a higher rate of MVCs than females. Higher rates of MVCs are associated with more alexithymic traits and maladaptive defense strategies use. Adolescents’ Acting Out and Omnipotence use significantly mediated the relationship between alexithymia and MVCs. Our findings suggest the recidivism of MVCs as an attem...

The tendency to keep secrets in adolescents has been studied in particular in their relationships with their parents and associated with psychosocial disadvantages. The current study focused on peer relationships and investigated the effects of friendship quality, loneliness in a multidimensional perspective, and self-esteem on secrecy from friends. Italian adolescents (N = 457; 47% male; 100% white) aged between 13 and 19 years (M = 16.11; SD = 1.53) reported their secrecy from friends, peer and parent-related loneliness, aversion and affinity for aloneness, their self-esteem and the quality of their relationships with their friends. The results showed that peer-related loneliness, affinity for aloneness and self-esteem in particular affect keeping secrets from friends, independent of the participant's gender. Moreover, peer-related loneliness and affinity for aloneness mediated the relationship between self-esteem and secrecy. The data were discussed in the light of adolescenc...

Contexts of poverty seem to magnify vulnerabilities in mothers, especially women who have few resources for coping and little support in parenting. Adding to the challenges of poverty are government mandates to move women off of welfare into the workforce. Focusing on the experiences of four mothers who moved from welfare into the low-wage workforce and then back to unemployment, this study offers a description of how these mothers and their adolescent children navigate and make sense of low-wage work, family life, and cumulative disadvantage.

The purpose of this article is to describe the subjective experience of the diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the cultural meanings that shape this experience. Based on interviews and discussion groups with diagnosed people and their families in Chile and France, this article show that ADHD can acquire multiple meanings. From a thematic analysis, we identified three registers or ways of living and thinking about ADHD. In the deficit register, the disorder is experienced primarily as a failure of certain abilities. In the disruption register, the disorder is experienced as disrupting the person’s life, personality and interactions, which must then be normalized. In the register of hidden potential, on which this article focuses, ADHD is simultaneously thought of as a difficult and valuable condition, a source of exceptional capacities that are often hidden in the ordinary functioning of social life. We therefore invite reflection that identifies the...

The fact that internet companies may record our personal data and track our online behavior for commercial or political purpose has emphasized aspects related to online privacy. This has also led to the development of search engines that promise no tracking and privacy. Search engines also have a major role in spreading low-quality health information such as that of anti-vaccine websites. This study investigates the relationship between search engines' approach to privacy and the scientific quality of the information they return. We analyzed the first 30 webpages returned searching 'vaccines autism' in English, Spanish, Italian and French. The results show that alternative search engines (Duckduckgo, Ecosia, Qwant, Swisscows and Mojeek) may return more anti-vaccine pages (10 to 53 percent) than this http URL (zero). Some localized versions of Google, however, returned more anti-vaccine webpages (up to 10 percent) than this http URL. Our study suggests that designing a se...

The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between Internet addiction andsocial anxiety and social skills difficulties in a sample consisting of 446 Spanish adolescents between 12 and 16 years old.Our results show thatadolescents with high scores in problematic use of the Internetpresent higher scores in social anxiety and social skills difficulties. Furthermore, the intrapersonal addiction showed a positive significant association both with the degree of social anxiety and with lack of assertiveness. On the other hand, the interpersonal addiction did more with social anxiety. Data from this study can help to design and implement prevention programs for a healthy use of the Internet at school and inhome settings.

... ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road PO Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Page 3. © Asa Brown, 2008 Page 4. Abstract This study examined traumatization in childhood and the potential effect upon the adult individual. ...

This research paper will seek to address the ensuing principal research question: “What has been the role of early childhood education for the mentally ill child?” The Montessori principles which can be found in the proposed research lies in the fact that relative research undertaken on the role of mentally ill children’s education still continue to be in its infancy stage. There are a number of academic publications which have focused on the identification of key areas in need of further study between students’ social, emotional well-being, mental health and their school success as well as academic achievement. This research aims to investigate to what extent Maria Montessori‘s argument could be significant for today’s educational policies for the mentally ill. Montessori studied her mentally disabled patients, listening and carefully noting their response to her attempts to implement Seguin's educational methods, as well as their progress in becoming increasingly independent a...

This paper reviews the current status of research on the phenomenology, etiology, maintenance, assessment, and treatment of childhood and adolescent social anxiety disorder (SAD). Despite being one of the most prevalent disorders of childhood and adolescence, SAD paradoxically stands as one of the least recognized, researched, and treated pediatric disorders. The small treatment outcome literature provides preliminary support to the

This Digital Childhood paper considers how growing up in the digital environment directly impacts on a child’s development trajectory. It concludes that a managed route from infancy to adulthood is as important in the digital environment as it is in the analogue world. The digital environment was conceived as an environment for adult users. Not even its inventors thought it might one day be a place where childhood would be spent. Nor did they make any design concessions for child users. On the contrary, the utopian vision was that all users would be equal. And if all users are equal, then a child user is treated as if they were an adult. This urgently needed report describes the narrative of children and the digital environment. It defines their needs as a series of opportunities and requirements that align with their age and meet their development goals, rather than the current emphasis on a narrow set of adult-identified harms. For many readers this will be the first time that they have considered how the design and purposes of the digital world impacts on children and young people’s ability to meet their childhood development milestones. The report takes each age group in turn, sets out what we know about child development, the major digital interactions of children at that age, and then considers the risks and opportunities. Where there is existing evidence, it is cited and where the authors have extrapolated from their professional practice, it is indicated. In order to gather the range of expertise necessary it was imperative to consult across a large number of professional disciplines. The conclusion across all disciplines was unanimous. We need to recalibrate how we treat children in the digital environment.

Negative emotions are usually avoided in daily life, yet often appreciated in artistic endeavours. The present study investigated emotional experiences induced by Death Metal music with extremely violent themes, and examined whether enjoyment of this genre of music is associated with personality traits. Fans (N=48) and non-fans (N=97) listened to 60-second excerpts of Death Metal music and rated their emotional experiences. Compared with non-fans, fans experienced a wide range of positive emotions including power, joy, peace, and wonder. In contrast, non-fans reported uniformly negative experiences, including tension, anger and fear. Fans and non-fans were also distinguished by personality traits, with fans lower in conscientiousness and agreeableness, and in their motivations for listening to music. Results suggest that individuals with certain personality and music-listening motivations are drawn towards aggressive music with violent themes, and their enthusiasm for this genre pro...

Resumen En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre una medida multidimensional del autoconcepto, el cuestionario de Autoconcepto Forma 5 (AF5), con un amplio conjunto de indicadores del ajuste psicosocial de los adolescentes. A partir de las respuestas de ...

"Background Emotional neglect can be characterized as cold or critical parenting and denotes a parent intentionally or unintentionally overlooking the signs that a child needs comfort or attention and ignoring its emotional needs. Parental emotional neglect is widely posited as an antecedent of anxiety disorder, with attachment researchers arguing for anxious–ambivalent attachment style as a mediating factor. Method Childhood experience of neglect and abuse, including antipathy (cold, critical parenting), attachment styles, and anxiety disorders were assessed in a high-risk sample of 160 adolescents and young adults by means of interview measures. Results Antipathy was associated with 12-month prevalence of anxiety disorders in the sample. Anxious–ambivalent attachment scores statistically mediated the relationship between antipathy and anxiety disorders. Conclusions Clinicians treating anxiety disorders in youth need to consider that emotional neglect in childhood in the form of antipathy could lead to anxious–ambivalent internal working models operating around fear of rejection and fear of separation."