Date
8-20-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Human Services: Emphasis in Trauma, Resilience, & Self-Care Strategies
Department
Human Services
First Advisor
Jerrod Brown
Second Advisor
Ryan Chukuske
Abstract
Research has shown that mental health disorders can have their onset in the period of
childhood and adolescence. This is a relatively recent discovery, as most of history
has studied mental health conditions only in adults. Today it is known that the global
onset of first mental health disorder occurs before age 14 in one third of the cases and
before the age of 18 in almost half of cases across the world (Solmi et al., 2022;
Dragioti et al., 2022). Research has uncovered risk and protective factors for
psychopathology in certain mental health conditions, such as Autism Spectrum
Disorder (ASD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. (ADHD). While
it is considered fact that gene-environment interactions play a large role in the
development of psychopathology, only 10% of studies have investigated gene-
environment interactions in non-Western samples (Fonagy et al., 2024). The question
this thesis addressed is what is currently known about risk and protective factors for
psychopathology in children, what are the gaps in the literature, and what does the
literature say about addressing the mental health of children in early childhood. The
intent was to encourage addressing the mental health of children earlier in
life, during the preschool and primary years, in hopes of better outcomes for them.
Searches wereconducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, APA PsychNet, and Google Scholar for systemic reviews and meta-analyses for relevant material. Mental
disorders in children are anxiety and fear-related disorders, neurodevelopmental
disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, stress-related disorders, eating disorders,
substance use/addictive disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, and
schizophrenia-spectrum disorders/primary psychosis disorders. In the field
currently, there is realization of the many challenges with predicting developmental
pathways/trajectories/outcomes for psychopathology in children and adolescents, and
a need to include wider sociocultural viewpoints. Several risk and protective factors
were presented in this paper, with childhood adversity and trauma being a major risk
factor, and the most robust protective factor being physical activity. Risk factors were
discussed for some specific mental disorders in one section. Benefits and harms of
screening children and adolescents for psychopathology were explored. The
emergence of integrating behavioral health care with pediatric primary care was
presented.
Keywords: risk, protective, development, psychopathology, children, adolescents,
mental health