Child Psychopathology | EssayIvy.com

Running head: CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 1

Child psychopathology

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Institution of affiliation

Abstract

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Child psychopathology is a scientific study which targets the mental disorders that are

more prevalent in children and in some cases among adolescents. Child the most common

disorders are; autism, hyperactivity disorder and defiant disorders. However, there more focus on

the causes of psychopathology, prevalence and some of the preventive ways. According to

several researches that have been carried out in the past, it is established that child

psychopathology is caused by stress and temperament mostly at the level of child-parents

relationship which indicates that children poor parenting may lead to child psychopathology.

Additionally, it is established that the prevalence is high among female children mostly those

from poor backgrounds. Poverty and gender therefore are contributing factors to the rate of

prevalence of the condition of child psychopathology. Proper education can therefore, be used in

preventing child psychology.

Keywords: child psychopathology, female, children, prevalence, preventive, poverty,

stress, temperament.

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Child psychopathology is defined as the study that is scientific nature of the rate of

mental disorders among adolescents and children. Among the examples of psychopathology are

autism spectrum disorder, attention hyperactivity disorder and opposition defiant disorder.

Among the examples that I highlighted are the common disorders that are diagnosed only at the

childhood age. The mental health providers in their diagnosis and treatment of the

psychopathology are guided by the developmental psychology, family systems and clinical child

aid. The list of the child and adolescents disorders are in most are comprised by the International

Statistics Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problem, 10th Edition (ICD-10) that was

published by WHO and the DSM-5, which was published by APA (Wilmshurt, 2012).

Additionally, the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of

Infancy and Early Childhood (DC: 0-3R) that is used in the course of assessing the mental health

disorders and the disorders that are related to child development in children are majorly realized

in children at the age of 0-5 years.

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Etiology in relation to child psychopathology can be explained in many ways that in most

cases differ from time to time. Either physiological or genetic mechanisms cause most of the

psychopathological disorders that are prevalent in children. However, there are some of the

disorders that lack any physical ground in terms of the actual causes. Therefore, in the causes of

the compilation of the actual causes of the disorders is being undertaken, it is essential for there

to be critical research that is carried out. According to the course of diagnosing psychopathology

in children is a difficult course to undertake on the account that it is majorly influenced by

contest and development not considering that traditional causes of the situation (Wilmshurt,

2012). In this case, not even interviews with parents about their children and how they perform

in school is enough for the diagnosis. Similarly, either the explanations from both teachers and

the observations made by professionals are essential in the diagnosis.

Notably, the disorders that are either biological or physical are easier for diagnosis in

children in the event that course of diagnosis is undertaken during the childhood age. In some

cases, some disorders are complicated to the extents that they cannot be diagnosed at childhood

age until adulthood. Therefore, it is believed that is there are sufficient grounds to perceive the

disorder in terms of the possibility of co-morbidity of disorders (Ollendick, 2013). In this case, if

there is one disorder that is diagnosed, there is often another one that is more likely to be

diagnosed too.

Several types of research indicate that the study revolving child psychopathology is a

complex issue. However, despite the complexity, several causes have been established to cause

the disorder. One of the known causes of psychopathology is stress. In this regard, the emotional

trauma or stress that occurs in a parent-child relationship is a leading cause of

psychopathological on the account the anxiety of separation between in relation to parent-child

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relationship is a possible foundation possible future disorders in children. Similarly, there is a

direct correlation between child stress and maternal stress which is fashioned in both throughout

the stages of development. In the event that the mother is absent the prevailing caregiver to the

child is understood within the context of a possible maternal relationship. In this regard, the child

would easily bond with the primary caregiver, excluding some traits of the personality of the

caregiver.

Similarly, the studies that have been undertaken between two pregnancy age groups of

twenty, fifteen and two years that was carried out by Raposa and colleagues on the impacts of

child-maternal relationship and its impacts on mothers stress to the child who is affected. In

their study, the stress of the child was found to affect the mother of the child. The study which as

a result of the historical belief that mothers who had undergone through a post portum

development could be the possible reason as to why their children may suffer from mental

disorders either or both during their childhood or later in their adulthood. However, in their

findings, Raposa and colleagues found out that the victims of post portum depression had a

correlation to reflect on both child psychopathology as a result of maternal depression and the

case where child psychopathology could be a reflection of maternal depression.

Notably, children who are predisposed to psychopathology may lead to greater extents of

stress in their relationship with their maternal parent. On the other hand, the mothers who may

suffer from psychopathology may lead to extents of higher stress in their relationship with the

child. Some grounds are sufficient that have been established to support the account that child

psychopathology leads to the creation of stress during parenting which may lead to an increment

of the extent to which psychopathology is severe to the affected child. Put together, the

underlying factors leads to a push and pull in the relationship which later causes depression of

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higher levels, learning disabilities ADHD, and pervasive developmental disorder whose effects

spread to both child and the mother (Ollendick, 2013). The high levels of maternal stress and

mother to child relationship stress that occurs at the age of 15 which is predicted in the higher

levels of maternal depression which the person who is affected reaches the age of 20.

Other than the possible causes of the child psychopathology, it is equally essential to

consider the characteristics that predispose a child to higher risks of suffering from mental

disorder. To begin with, child’s intellectual functioning and temperament have high risks for the

development of psychopathology to the child. In this case, the temperament at early childhood is

described by irregular sleeping patterns, high levels of crying, irritability and to some extent

eating problems. The characteristics of the child in relation to temperament can be used in

predicting the externalizing the behavioral problems of the child at his or her later days of

childhood. In this regard, temperament impacts may be identified to internalize the disorders.

The behaviors that are associated with temperament include timidity, shyness, and distress,

emotional restraints that are exhibited when an individual is exposed to places that are unfamiliar

to him such as places, people and context (Lahey, 2013). In this regard, the behavioral pattern is

related to elevated physiological indices of the degrees of arousal which has been indicated to

have high degrees of the genetic component. The children who demonstrate high stable styles of

temperament in the behavioral inhibition have high probabilities of developing behaviors that are

anxious and anxious disorders in their childhood stages.

Despite most of the underlying evidence indicating that there is a significant extent of

childhood temperament diagnosed at an early childhood stage correlating with the development

of child psychopathology, other psychologists opine that not every child that show high levels of

temperament will suffer from psychopathology in his or her later stages of childhood. In this

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regard, there is a need to undertake a consideration of how the temperament exhibited at

childhood stages interacts with other personal and the characteristics of an environment in the

determination for the occurrence of psychopathology. Most importantly, the consideration of

parenting patterns which buffer the impact of a difficult extent of temperament at early childhood

has interactions with environmental and personal factors in the determination of the occurrence

of psychopathology (Lahey, 2013). Particularly, it is essential to make an identification of the

parenting patterns that buffer the effects of the temperament at an early childhood temperament

and the factors that will exacerbate the influence of the risks that are of high characteristics.

Learning difficulty and low IQ are also indicated to have the greater prevalence of the wide

range of behavioural and emotional problems that result in the conduct disorder, depression,

attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder. The mechanisms by which the learning difficulties and

low IQ have impacts to the extent of psychopathology are however not clear. In this regard, there

are chances that school failure and the school experiences that are negative may set in train a

trajectory towards the conduct of the underlying problems like depression and low self-esteem.

Notably, the factors that are biological in relation to learning difficulty and low IQ may be

responsible for the impulsivity and attention of problems temperament for some children. There

is another explanation that underlies in the characteristics that are heritable under which the

parents to the children with learning difficulties and low IQ may have restricted abilities that are

cognitive and consequently have parenting skills that are poor. In this regard, there is a need to

have deeper research geared towards the determination of the mechanisms under which learning

difficulty and low IQ have on child psychopathology. In the meantime, the underlying variables

need to be regarded as risk factors towards which the interventions that are preventive should be

focused on.

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Prevalence of child psychopathology

The rates for the overall rate of prevalence in the lifetime for the problems associated

childhood are estimated to be high and in the order of 14%-22% in all the children. Other

reports, however, indicate that the psychiatric disorders among children at the age of 9-11 are

about 6-8%. In London, the epidemiological study which is used in moderating severe behavior

problem for the 7% of the population, which has an additional 15% of children with mild

problems. Notably, in Ontario, the study that was carried out by the by the Ontario Child Health

indicated that boys have a higher prevalence of psychopathological disorders at the rate of 19%

while girls only have a prevalence of 17% (Matson, 2018). The preceding researches that have

been carried out in the similar topic to indicate that the rate of prevalence is almost the same as

indicated. Therefore, boys are exposed to higher prevalence compared to girls.

Similarly, despite the research indicating that most of the children who suffer from

mental health care from the middle-class stratum, mental health disorders are more prevalent

among the children in the lower class. Therefore, it can be estimated that on the account that

about 20% of children in North America have higher prevalence of the disorders, it is, therefore,

established that 20% or more children in North America are from low-income families.

Similarly, about 20% of the children are raised in inner-city poverty have mentally impaired

disorder to the degree in their social, academic and behavioral functioning.

Developing model

In this paper, I will focus on a protective factor that may be used as a moderator in

decreasing the risk of developing childhood psychopathology. Like this paper highlighted before,

there is a correlation between gender and the prevalence of childhood disorder. Therefore, the

model that I am going to use will use gender as an independent variable and particularly female

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gender. The outcome variable, on the other hand, will be developing child psychopathology. This

paper, therefore, proposes looking at how proper parenting skills to reduce the prevalence of

child psychopathology.

Parents, mostly those having the first child in their lifetime often do not have the right

parenting skills. As we have seen previously poor parenting skills has impacts that increase the

extent to which an individual is likely to develop child psychopathology. In this case, a child

who undergoes poor parenting is more likely to be exposed to conditions that will make him

develop stress that has a larger effect of leading to cases of psychopathology (Ollendick &

Hersen, 2013). However, it is worth noting that good or bad parenting skills to some extent are

not by the consent because some of them do not understand the extent to which they may expose

their children to stress. Similarly, some families do not have the right environment for child

growth. For instance, for parents who use drugs, the social environment is not appropriate for

child growth because the factors that lead to the development of child psychopathology are

therefore high.

In this case, therefore, the model that I propose in this paper indicates that children,

mostly female (IV), who are not accorded proper parenting at their time of growth (moderator),

are exposed at higher risks of developing the major depressive disorder (DV). Children of the

female gender (IV) who are taken through a good parenting environment, which means that their

parents provide an environment that ensures that they are not stressed are at lower risks of

developing child psychopathology (DV).

Other than just proper parenting I would also examine other ways of reducing the

prevalence of child psychopathology in children. For instance, it is not guaranteed that even the

children brought up in a good social environment will not develop child psychopathology

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because there are other factors such as poverty and temperament, low IQ and learning difficulty

that have their impacts in increasing the rate prevalence of child psychopathology. In this case,

proper parenting should be taught to mothers at the pregnancy stage so that they can understand

the best ways of raising the child in an environment that the child will not develop the condition

(Ollendick & Hersen, 2013). Similarly, because other parents bring up their children in an

environment that is not in a good environment, proper policies should be formulated to ensure

that all children are brought up in a good environment.

Similarly, psychological lessons and session should be taught to parents during the

pregnancy period. These prevention programs should not only target the parents and the

pregnancy period, but also to the public so that they can understand the best ways of preventing

psychopathology on the account that it is a condition more prevalent to children and mostly the

female children. Other than right parenting, parents and psychiatrists should too focus on early

detection of the mental disorder. In this regard, most of the conditions can be treated if they are

detected earlier. Therefore, early detection should be considered as one of the preventive ways of

child psychopathology.

In conclusion, child psychopathology is a condition that mostly affects children between

the ages of 0-5. However, research indicates that female children have higher prevalence

compared to male children. In this regard, one of the reasons for the high prevalence is stress and

temperament which are large because of poor parenting. Therefore, prevention of the condition

should mostly focus on ensuring that the children are accorded the right parenting right from the

pregnancy stage to the point when they are past the age of 5. Other than proper parenting

another preventive way that should be considered is the early detection of the disorder because it

can be easily treated. Similarly, it will prevent the case where the condition manifests itself later

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in adulthood. If the proper parenting is accorded to the child and also the right mechanism be out

in the place so that an event of early detection and treatment.

References

Lahey, B. (2013). Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, Volume 6. Berlin: Springer Science &

Business Media.

Matson, J. L. (2018). Handbook of Childhood Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities

Treatment. Berlin: Springer.

Ollendick, T. H. (2013). Handbook of Child Psychopathology. Berlin: Springer Science &

Business Media.

Ollendick, T. H., & Hersen, M. (2013). Handbook of Child Psychopathology. Berlin: Springer

Science & Business Media.

Wilmshurst, L. (2005). Essentials of Child Psychopathology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

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