Childhood Depression Issues - Research Paper Example

Depression For many years, the society has viewed depression as an adult problem being the main reason why depression in children is not only neglected but also undertreated and overlooked. Children can develop depression from many societal settings that include their families especially if they live in families experiencing constant conflicts and schooling systems, which can be the main source of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse should be prevented by all means because it is the main reason behind the development of depression in children. All members of the society mostly including parents and schooling managements should play their part in creating a better developing environment for children. Depression is both preventable and treatable with better parentage and good schooling institutions. Keywords Mental development, postpartum depression and anxiety, childhood depression, neglect Introduction Depression can be described as a mental illness, which influences the functioning of individuals in day-to-day life activities. Depression mostly affects a person’s social activities because the infected individuals usually experience problems in coping with certain emotions. For many years, depression has been viewed as an issue that only affects adults. However, research in the contemporary world has proven otherwise. Children are also at a high risk of developing depression, mostly from neglect, abuse, and other life struggles that include poverty that may affect their subsequent stages in life. Depression can lead to other physical health problems such as heart diseases in later stages of life if not identified and controlled (Blumenfield et al., 2012). Children, who show withdrawal and anxiety at early age, have a high risk of developing depression at later stages of life. Depression, along with anxiety disorders, is among the ten main causes of disabilities globally. This implies that one in every ten children suffer from a certain type of emotional disturbance, which is severe enough to lead to other problems such as impairment (Shapero et al., 2014). Educational institution settings have also been blamed for playing a significant role in contributing towards the development of depression in children. However, these situations are preventable and treatable if children grow up in the most appropriate environments and given proper care when symptoms associated with depression start to develop. Literature review Early childhood events Early childhood is psychologically the most important stage of development where an individual’s mind develops. If the development is affected, the individual may develop long-term repercussions, one of these being depression. Childhood depression, as a disorder, is one of the most undertreated, debilitated, and overlooked disorder. The main reason behind this is that the contemporary world views depression as the result of adulthood stressful situations; therefore, overlooking its possibility in children. While the schooling system is intended to provide the required environment for children to develop properly with respect to social, emotional and academic functioning, they may also contribute towards the development of internalizing disorders that include but not limited to depression. Although school entry represents one of the most important milestones in development, certain aspects and activities in schools may lead to undesired response from the young minds (Herman et al., 2009). These aspects include but not restricted to peer influences and peer contagion. Schooling systems that tolerate bullying as well as peer victimization contributes to the development of negative long term effects that influence academic and emotional functioning of the victims. The easiest way to spot bullying is to assess educational performance and socializing behaviors of an individual. Bullying usually prompts children to begin viewing schools as less supportive and is associated with peer rejection and low self-esteem. This may, in the long-term perspective, lead to anxiety and depression or other life threatening situations such as the emergence of suicidal thoughts. This extreme is usually reached if the guardians fail to notice the pronounced symptoms or fails to act on the child’s concerns and is usually characterized with anhedonia, sadness and suicidal ideation (Herman et al., 2009). This is also related to the development of the Major Depressive Disorder. Peer contagion, which is excessive discussion of negative experiences in one’s life may affect the way the peers’ view life. This is because children learn through observations, thoughts and conversations. Negative thoughts may increase the occurrence of depressive situations because the children may spend vast amounts of time thinking about a negative experience that they heard. On the other hand, maternal depression has been highly linked to depressive and anxiety symptoms in school-aged children (Côté et al., 2009). This implies that a family’s characteristics present a major contributing factor to the development of depression and similar disorders in children. Such characteristics may include low income and high rates of conflicts in the family in addition to poverty. Emotional abuse and neglect While stressful life situations lead to depression in adults, children and adolescents also follow suit. In children, childhood emotional abuse and reaction to life stressors may lead to depressive symptoms. An individual’s response to stress determines the outcome. A person’s vulnerability plays a crucial role in this sense. Children who experience childhood abuse are four times more likely to develop a major depression at a later stage in life as compared to those who did not experience abuse. Additionally, the children who experience early childhood abuse have earlier onset of depression, which is characterized with more severity, greater impairment, and longer durations as compared to those who did not experience it. Specifically, emotional abuse is caused by being rejected, terrorized, teased, isolated, and degraded. Such aspects are related to internalizing symptoms as well as suicide more than physical and even sexual abuse is. Research also indicates that childhood emotional abuse is related to heightened reactivity to stress in later life stages (Shapero et al., 2014). Therefore, in view of the consequences resulting from childhood emotional abuse, this represents one of the worst forms of abuse that lead to depressive situations in most instances. Child neglect is also a main issue in the causes of depression in children. This is because most programs intending to reverse the effects of neglect have been focused on the parents who have neglected their children. The main causes of child neglect include the developmental history of the parent and the structure of the family. Parents with poor developmental history lack parenting characteristics either because of an emotional maturity or because of having grown up in non-nurturing families (Shapero et al., 2014). Additionally, such parents may have developed depression themselves, which may affect their reasoning when it comes to parenting matters. Moreover, the structure of the family with respect to composition and size affects the parenting capacity of the parent. For instance, single parent families mostly bring up parents who do not have the appropriate skills to become parents themselves. Having a large family may lead to neglect because the parents may be too busy trying to meet the basic needs of the family. At times, depression and anxiety usually affect most developmental stages. For instance, postpartum depression and anxiety has a strong link with delayed development on all subscales of children’s mental development (Ali et al., 2013). This therefore cements the idea that the developmental stage in children is one of the most important since it determines their future behavior and interaction with others in the society. Symptoms It is easy to spot the symptoms related to depression in children especially when the parents has been observing changes in their child’s behavior. Children developing depression begin by becoming withdrawn mostly due to low self-esteem (Herman et al., 2009). The individual may begin to show unreasonable anger following little provocation and is mostly unhappy and troubled. This is the result of issues that could be happening in school, which can be confirmed if the child repeatedly refuses to attend classes. Main symptoms of bullying may include the child’s failure to do the activities they were fond of with their friends and commenting that nobody likes them. Additionally, poor sleeping as the child contemplates on solutions to certain problems they may be facing in their life can also be a good indication that the child may be developing depression. Another effective and reliable indicator is continued deteriorating performance in school as compared to previous performance. The main reason behind this is lack of concentration since their mind is occupied with certain destructive forces such as being teased (Herman et al., 2009). Moreover, if the child shows a sudden disconnect and lack of interest in their most liked activities, they may be developing depression. Discussion and intervention While most authors agree that depression in children has a significant impact on their future, the most common causes tied to this problem include peer causes and poor parentage. The schooling institutions may contribute towards this through bullying and teasing of the children by their older counterparts. Poor parenting may include neglect and raising the child in a conflicting family, which may influence their development. The parents are the most essential determinants of the child’s mental health mostly through their mode of parenting. If the parents themselves have poor mental background, chances are that their children will acquire the same problems (Côté et al., 2009). Fortunately, it is possible to treat and prevent childhood depression. This can be prevented through positive child-parent attachment, which is associated with better mental development and a reduced risk of internalizing disorders. Since the main causes are events in childhood, all members if the society should play their part in establishing a better environment for the child to grow up starting with the family (Jakobsen et al., 2012). The family should ensure by all means that the child is not aware of any form of violence that may take place in the family. Additionally, the parents should have a high suspicion index because children have very limited ways of expressing the distress that they may be facing. Having suspected that the child may be developing depression, the parent can then include intervention measures such as seeking the intercession of a physician. Once the problem has been confirmed, the treatment options can then be determined. This may include medication or therapy. However, at other times, both therapy and medication are required. The schooling institutions should also step up their strictness with regard to bullying. Since the friendliness of the schooling systems determines both the academic performance of the children and their development, the school’s management should be more serious when dealing with issues concerning teasing and bullying. This would eliminate degradation and low self-esteem in the schooling systems and ensure better development and fewer suicide contemplation cases. Conclusion Understanding the main causes and issues related to childhood depression could play a monumental role in reducing the occurrence of depression related cases. The parents should be more careful about how they bring up their children and especially what the children are exposed to. Additionally, they should also have a high level of suspicion so as to help in treating depression before its effects escalate and lead to issues such as suicide. The schooling systems should also work towards elimination of issues related to emotional abuse, which is the main cause of depression. Therefore, depression is both preventable and treatable if the society has better parents who could observe its development and take appropriate steps. References Ali, N., Mahmud, S., Khan, A., & Ali, B. (2013). Impact of postpartum anxiety and depression on childs mental development from two peri-urban communities of Karachi, Pakistan: a quasi-experimental study. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1), 506-528. Blumenfield, M., Suojanen, J., & Weiss, C. (2012). Public awareness about the connection between depression and physical health: Specifically heart disease. Psychiatric Quarterly, 83(3), 259-269. Côté, S. M., Boivin, M., Liu, X., Nagin, D. S., Zoccolillo, M., & Tremblay, R. E. (2009). Depression and anxiety symptoms: onset, developmental course and risk factors during early childhood. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 50(10), 1201-1208. Herman, K. C., Reinke, W. M., Parkin, J., Traylor, K. B., & Agarwal, G. (2009). Childhood depression: Rethinking the role of the school. Psychology in the Schools, 46(5), 433-446. Jakobsen, I., Horwood, L. L., & Fergusson, D. (2012). Childhood anxiety/withdrawal, adolescent parent-child attachment and later risk of depression and anxiety disorder. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 21(2), 303-310. Shapero, B. G., Black, S. K., Liu, R. T., Klugman, J., Bender, R. E., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2014). Stressful life events and depression symptoms: the effect of childhood emotional abuse on stress reactivity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 70(3), 209-223. Read More