logo

Child and Adolescent Mental Health

   

Added on  2021-04-21

22 Pages6737 Words67 Views
Running head: CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTHChild and adolescent mental healthName of the student:Name of the University:Author’s note

1CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most misunderstood and neglectedmental health condition that mostly affects school-age children and young people in UK. Veryfew people receive appropriate diagnosis or treatment leading to increase in prevalence of thecondition (rota.org.uk2013). ADHD is a type of mental disorder associated with symptoms ofinattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that persists for a long time and interferes with thedevelopment of children. (Tresco, Kessler and Mautone 2017). ADHD is a highly heritabledisorder as children have a higher chance of developing the condition if their parents arediagnosed with ADHD. Globally, the prevalence rate of ADHD is 5.29% (Smith 2017).Although genetic factors have been found to cause of ADHD, however, there are manyarguments regarding the factors contributing to ADHD and impact of the condition on childdevelopment. The disease is also regarded as a socially or culturally constructed conditionbecause of links between social factors and increase in risk of ADHD. Such kind ofinterpretation influences the process of managing the disorder and seeking services to treat themental health condition. To gain better idea about the way to manage the condition, the primarypurpose of this essay is to critically appraise ADHD prevalence in children and adolescents bydiscussion on theories of child development and identifying sociological and psychologicalfactors that contribute to the disorder in children. The essay also critiques existing initiatives thathave been implemented for supporting children with ADHD and discuss policy or ethicalimplications to improve child and mental services. The mental health issues of ADHD prevalence has been specifically chosen as a topic forthe essay due to the increase in rate of ADHD diagnosis in children, unequal representation inethnic group and increase in risk of behavioral issues in later life of children and adolescent. Thenumber of children diagnosed with the condition has increased by 5% per year from 2003 to

2CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH 2011 (Smith 2017). According to a recent survey done in the US in 2016, the number of childrendiagnosed with ADHD was 9.4%, and these children also suffered from other issues likebehavioural problem, anxiety and autism (cdc.gov 2016). The estimated prevalence rate of thecondition in the UK is 3.6% in children between 5-15 years because of DSM-IV criteria. Theprevalence of ADHD London’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community is alsoincreasing because of the prevalence of unfair and prejudicial experience in children (rota.org.uk2013). They are over-represented among diagnosed or mis-diagnosed cases of ADHD becauseof stigma around the condition and lack of public knowledge regarding the mental health issue(Rees 2016). Hence, critical understanding links about social and psychological factors thatcontribute to ADHD is necessary to change perception of people and improve mental healthservices for recovery of children and adolescent diagnosed with ADHD. As the main aim of the essay is to critical discuss the prevalence of ADHD in children,finding links between development theory and ADHD may help to identify individual at highrisk of developing the mental disorder. Mental health is defined as a state of emotional,psychological and social well-being. In contrast, mental illness is a condition that results innegative changes in thinking, emotion and behavior of an individual (Rogers and Pilgrim 2014).The transition from mental health to mental illness is understood from different developmentaltheories such as social learning theory, humanistic theory, psychoanalytical theory andattachment theory. The nature versus nurture theory is a debate on the role of nature or nurtureon mental illness. Nature refers to the role of hereditary factors and genetic factors on one’spersonality, whereas nurture is related to all environmental variables that has an impact ondevelopment of an individual (Coll, Bearer and Lerner 2014). Hence nature and nurture is linkedto explain the cause of mental illness. For example, a pregnant woman with major emotional loss

3CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH in the early stage of pregnancy is at high risk of schizophrenia. Large genetic influence on thedevelopmental course of ADHD symptom was proved by Pingault et al. (2015) and thedevelopmental interface between nature and nurture was explored by Harold et al. (2013) byinvestigating about biological and rearing mother influences on child ADHD symptoms. Thestudy proved the role of maternal parenting behavior on course of children’s ADHD symptomsand the role of early disrupted child behavior on children’s later ADHD symptoms. Hence,addressing parenting practices may be crucial to reduce development of ADHD symptom inchildren with time. Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theories canexplain the reasons for negative symptoms like poor concentration and poor focus in n childrenwith ADHD.For example, according to Piaget's cognitive development theory, children startdeveloping formal and organized thought during the concrete operational stage (7-11 years ofage). However, children are diagnosed with ADHD at this stage. Children and youths can useabstract thought and observational skills to understand people’s need. However, it can also leadto social and emotional challenges for youths if they use their cognitive abilities to comparethemselves with others. Such thought pattern leads to negative consequences for children. This isthe reason for poor learning ability and poor focus in children with ADHD (Yanagisawa 2016).Shoham et al. (2016) argues that children with ADHD may engage in risk taking behavior in thefuture because of their subjective experience. They find risk taking to be appealing for them. Thepsychoanalytic theory explains regarding the dynamics of personality development by explaininghuman behavior in terms of interaction with various components of personality. This theory findsapplication in the interpretation of inner world of ADHD children. It can shed light about thechild’s experiential world and the factors contributing to negative behavioral outcome in them

4CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH (Salomonsson 2017). Vygotsky’s theory concentrates on the impact of the social system on childdevelopment and this theory may be utilized to explain how social factors influence the severityof ADHD (Sawyer 2017). Diagnosis of ADHD in children and adolescent results in many challenges both the childand their parents. For instance, social functioning and academic performance of children issignificantly impaired and the stress level of parents increases. Another negative impact of thecondition is that ADHD significantly contributes to social challenges for children as thecondition worsens social skills and results in inattention from peers and poor parent-childrelationship (Keen and Hadjikoumi 2011). Identifying and looking for sociological orpsychological links contributing the disorder may help to better manage the condition andreduce risk of diagnosis in children and adults in UK. The etiology of ADHD is understooddifferently by different people. Some link it to clinical factors whereas others link thedevelopment of ADHD with cultural, social and psychological factors of an individual. As parental beliefs about the etiology of ADHD influence the help-seeking behaviour andservice uptake rate, Lawton et al. (2014) focused on evaluating the role of cultural values,traditional gender roles and spirituality to explain parental beliefs about etiology. The researchwas done with Latino parents and Latino children with ADHD were found to have a higherunmet need (Zimmerman 2005). Research in this area was necessary because their perceptioninfluences the response they take and the type of service they visit for the care of their child(Ahmed et al. 2017). From the statistical review of parent’s response, it was found that 69.08%of parents endorsed bio-psychosocial etiological beliefs whereas 32.5% supported spiritualbeliefs. Traditional gender role and Anglo orientation was the main reason for parents toconsider a child's friend to be contributing to ADHD (Lawton et al. 2014). These factors were

5CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH also the reason for parents to report about spiritual factor and nature disharmony as the cause ofADHD. The factors that influenced adherence to ADHD medication in adolescents includednegative attitude towards medications, stigma, experience of social withdrawal and issues relatedto treatment independence (Bhang et al. 2017). Gender wise differences in self-perception of ADHD have been found among childrenand adolescents too. Children and adolescent with ADHD are at high risk of emotional and socialproblems like risk taking behavior, suicide, depression and addiction due to pervasive nature ofsymptoms. Adolescent girls have lower self-efficacy and poor coping strategies than adolescentboys with ADHD due to more internalizing problems and diminished self-efficacy. Hence,school performance, peer relationship and acceptance to the condition influence self-esteem andself-concept in adolescent. Early intervention is needed to prevent such emotional injuries inadolescents with ADHD (Houck et al., 2011). The explanation by Lawton et al. (2014) shows that cultural values and traditional genderrole are strongly associated with parent's tendency to favor sociological factor as the cause ofADHD. Bussing et al. (2015) argued that racial and social demographic disparities in care existdue to parental social networks, which influence the help-seeking process. Hence reasons fordifferential help-seeking behaviour in parents to treat ADHD is understood and this provides theclinical implication to target parents to make them aware about etiology of ADHD and suggestmental health services for the child. Engaging parents in care process may also help to provideculturally competent care and improve parent’s satisfaction with mental health care service. Infuture, health care workers and staffs must focus on increasing knowledge about idea aboutethnic group differences in relation to the understanding of the cause of ADHD.

End of preview

Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.

Related Documents
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - Assignment PDF
|9
|2693
|60

ADHD
|3
|565
|299

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
|14
|4073
|145

Undiagnosed children with ADHD: the need to prevent them from failure in integrity and bullying in society
|26
|6250
|89

ADHD as a Risk Factor for Substance Use Disorder
|6
|1506
|155

ADHD: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, and Management
|12
|2024
|315