The Impact Of Social Support On Children's Mental Health - Case Study Example

WHY ARE OUR CHILDREN SO MISERABLE In recent years, British media has focused much attention on the perceived declining mental health of the nation'schildren and adolescents. A UNICEF report (2006) has reported that in Britain there are some of the unhappiest children and adolescents in the industrialised world. Through health promotion, health psychologists try to change the behaviour of individuals in order to understand why a person will carry on with a behaviour that is detrimental to their health. That is to understand the 'psychosocial determinants' of the person's behaviour (Glantz & Rimer, 1997). As Tudor (1996) states mental health should be seen as a 'positive concept', that must be seen as different from psychopathology. Good mental health is not only about not having difficulties which cannot be overcome, but also implies that the individual will develop in, an emotionally and intellectually, healthy way across their lifetime. These healthy skills will give the individual, child or adult, the strength to be able to manage when life's inevitable problems find them, as well as being able to form fulfilling interpersonal relationships (BMA, 2006; MHF, 2006). The term mental health covers a wide range of difficulties that individuals may encounter throughout their lives. These can range from everyday concerns, such as a homework deadline, to severe and crippling problems, such as depression (BMA, 2006). The ONS (2006) defines mental health disorders as a set of clinically recognised abnormal behaviour and symptoms, which cause the individual extreme distress and distortion to their everyday lives. These crippling problems cause great suffering for the individual, and severely affect their ability to function in everyday life. However, these disorders do not manifest over night. They are usually brought on slowly and have roots in childhood (Ahrons, 2004). Therefore, if British children are already suffering from mental health difficulties, then as an adult they will have a high chance of these problems continuing or reoccurring. As has been reported in the media (USAtoday, 2008; The Times, 2008; BBC, 2008) British society seems to be letting down their children, as they are reportedly 'the unhappiest children in Europe' (UNICEF, 2006). Other research has implied these same results (Alexander & Hargreaves, 2007; Porthouse, 2006). Research published in Porthouse (2006) stated that John Bradshaw has shown that British children were more unhappy than most of their European counterparts. This led to a flurry of research on the matter. Bradshaw's report (Porthouse, 2006) and later ones from UNICEF (2006) have suggested that Britain is one of the worst places for child health, that British teenagers have the second lowest score for their hopes and ambitions for their future careers and employment prospects. The UNICEF (2006) report covered six main dimensions including material wealth, family relationships and peer relationships, education, the child's subjective understanding of their well-being, all brought together to present an encompassing picture of British children's lives. Alexander & Hargreaves (2007) state that what was most striking from their research was the amount of agreement which the results showed, particularly in the main areas of 'educational purpose, curriculum and assessment, the condition of childhood and society, and the world in which today's children are growing up' (p.1). What was more striking though was the negativity and 'critical tenor' that these issues told the researchers. The researchers found repeatedly that the children felt under powerful or even extreme pressure from the schools they attended. However, Harris and Guten (1979) state an individual's health behaviour shows little consistency. They may go to the gym everyday to look after their bodies, and then eat fast-food burger on the way home. This makes applying theory difficult. In addition, health behaviour tends to change over periods of time, making conclusive assumptions of results from studies insignificant over time. Therefore, how a child acts and behaves at this moment in time may not be how they will react at a later date (Sturt, 2008). Research has also shown that documented family breakdown in society (Ahrons, 2004) is breaking down traditional communities as well (Alexander & Hargreaves, 2007). Outside of school, home life and community life of children has changed dramatically over the last years (Ahrons, 2004), children no longer have the support of the extended family as they once did, and 'respect' and 'empathy' between the generations has all but disappeared (Alexander & Hargreaves, 2007). Life is not a safe and uncomplicated place any more, children are exposed to seeing constant violence and feeling the insecurity of this lack of safety exposes feelings in a child that they may not be able to cognitively understand at their young age. Therefore, when faced with growing up in a society demoralised by its position in the world and its declining society, and with already low expectations of the professionals, especially in education, where children spend a majority of their time, it is no wonder children are reciprocating the negativity they see and feel around them, from their families and the media about how bad schools are meant to be. Ecclestrone (2008, p.1) suggests that 'unless challenged, declining faith in humanist purposes for education could turn education into a safe, comforting and therapeutic experience'. However, Alexander & Hargreaves (2007) applauded schools for sharing these characteristics in their report. They further suggest that primary schools were still a place of positivity for the children in which they can develop psychologically and emotionally in a safe environment. Though there have been concerns that trying to apply psychological theories to public health will not help the professionals to better understanding behaviour or how to change it positively, others disagree, stating that without theory there are no guidelines in which to ask questions and organise thoughts (Kok, 2008). In addition, Taylor (1990) states that in health psychology, psychological principles are needed in order to prevent illness and promote health. Four of the theoretical paradigms implemented within the field of health psychology are used here to explore why British children are so unhappy and to further understand this phenomenon, leading to better-quality assessment, research and treatments. Through these four paradigms; functionalism, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist, a critical analysis of why British children are deemed to be so unhappy can be looked at, and questions can start to be asked as to how best to solve these issues, resulting in a clearer understanding of how best to implement new interventions and treatment. From a functional paradigm, these findings would imply that the children who perceived themselves to be 'worst-off' than their European counterparts, are mirroring the attitudes of popular media, and from their families. As Alexander & Hargreaves (2007) state the children are influenced by the doom and gloom they see around them in their everyday lives. Some researchers feel that mental attitudes can be adequately explained without having to analysis the fundamental 'physical medium' behind it (Block, 1980), therefore suggesting that because this negativity is what they see reported in the media everyday, then this becomes their own attitude. Nevertheless, as Nagel (1975) points out, a popular objection to this view is a paradigm that holds these characteristics will be able to understand and access the qualitative nature of individuals, such as their perceptions, and emotions as the theory would leave out crucial properties. Katz (2008) defined functionalist theory as the attitudes that an individual takes are decided by the function it serves for the individual. Nevertheless, if individuals do hold given attitudes, because they help to achieve goals, then functionalism does not explain these results well. Unless of course these children live a life so socially narrow that their only goals are to stay at the bottom of the social scale, supposing that that is where they are. Within the functionalist paradigm an individual's attitudes are socially regulated, they recreate patterns or actions and behaviours, giving predictability, and therefore allowing the individual to know what to expect of others (Stanford Encyclopaedia of philosophy, 2008). If these children have already learnt from rhetoric from the media that their social situation cannot be changed, then why should they believe otherwise. This realist and deterministic paradigm does not encourage social change, therefore seemingly keeping these children stuck in a rut, as it holds no principle for self-determination, taking away the individual's ability to change their own behaviours, subsequently not improving there mental health (Wolf, 2002). The interpretivist paradigm, like functionalism does not focus on social change (Wolf, 2002). This in itself seems to imply that for assessing and implementing change in children's and adolescents' mental health, and health promotion, which heavily relies on social change, it is somewhat lacking, as is functionalism, to cover all aspects to help British children to be less unhappy. As Wolf (2002) states in the intepretivist paradigm concentration is centred on the individual, and not the social environment. This paradigm therefore disregards the effects that culture and beliefs, and social environment have on an individual. However as Alexander & Hargreaves (2007) reported in their study, the children were influenced by their social environments, both negatively and positively. Therefore, while some assessment must be based around the individual, so must their be assessment in the social environment the child lives in. As the UNICEF (2006) report states, areas that were assessed were the children's material well-being, in Britain, relative child poverty remained about fifteen percent and therefore one of the highest. This certainly implies the need for social change that neither the interpretivist nor the functionalist theory could respond adequately to. Another worrying statistic shown was that almost a third of young British people have been drunk one at least one occasion, and that more than thirty five percent have used cannabis. This is another huge indicator that social policies, new implementations and further research must be done. However, these two paradigms on their own will not be adequate to accomplish this. Radical humanism is concerned about individual change, from a subjective point of view. These theories imply that individuals cannot find a balance within themselves because of their repressive social environment (Wolf, 2002). This causes the individual to feel alienated. Though this paradigm does advocate social change, it still focuses mainly on the individual. On the other hand, the radical structuralist paradigm is a positive, realist and determinism viewpoint, similar to functionalism in that respect. Though radical structuralism's goal is social change, where as functionalism favours no change at all (Wolf, 2002). As in radical humanism, radical structuralism assesses social structures, but from a social not individual viewpoint (Cheng, Yang, Jung & Hutton, 2007). An individual's perception of their health is formed in 'association' with their interpersonal relationships and their perceived social well-being (Mechanic, 1997). Therefore social support or lack of, is seen as relevant in terms of how mental health difficulties can arise (Lin, Dean & Ensel, 1986). Studies (Ganster & Victor, 1988; Mitchell, Billing & Moos, 1982) show that individuals with better social support had a greater degree of health. If research in this area was done from a purely radical humanistic viewpoint, then while implementations put forward for new policy could be put in place to help the individual child, it will still have no real impact on the wider social world, as it would be entirely centred around changing the individual. Nevertheless, it would still be more effective in changing policies and therefore treatment for children suffering mental health distress than functionalism. Nevertheless, if using radical structuralism paradigm of thought along side it, then a more holistic view can take place. In regards to this, to create an eclectic approach of the two paradigms, radical humanism and radical structuralism, would enable a researcher to assess the social environment, the individual child and be able to arrive at a more complete piece of research. This research can then be used to implement issues and advise changes with the treatment and prevention of mental health distress in children and adolescents. By identifying behaviours and life experiences that promote an individuals mental health, or alternatively lead to illness, further research, particularly in the paradigms of radical humanism and radical structuralism, can be completed to ensure improved effectiveness of health promotion. It is clear that individuals, including children have many different reasons for health related behaviours (Mark, Evans, Willig, Woodell & Sykes, 2005). There are many factors, such as family and peer influence, environmental and economic reasons that shape a child and help them define their world. In a multi-paradigm approach to assessment, researchers and practitioners maybe able to more appropriately define areas of problems that need changing. 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