CHILDRENS DEPRESSION

Review
Childrens Depression or Behavioural Problems?
Mara Del R. Coln University of Turabo at Gurabo

Department of Psychology, University of Turabo at Gurabo, Gurabo, Puerto Rico SOO520599 Prof. Mara Del C. Santos PSYC 500-400 September 22, 2011

CHILDRENS DEPRESSION

Childrens depression or behavioural problems?

It is common to pass by the symptom of depression when we are talking about children. Usually the symptoms of this disorder are mistaken with conduct problems. There is diagnosis scales for depression in adolescents, adults and geriatric level, but there are fewer researches, comparing to the previous developmental stages, than at children age; so, the diagnosis of depression in an early stage could be made easily. To have a clear definition of what a disorder means, we can say, according with (Farlex, 2011) that a disorder is a slight but often persistent illness that affects the function of mind or body. (p. 1). Characteristics of depression disorder in children Depression in children is difficult to diagnose. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), because normal behaviors vary from one childhood stage to another, it can be difficult to tell whether a child is just going through a temporary "phase" or is suffering from depression. The depressed child may pretend to be sick, refuse to go to school, cling to a parent, or worry that the parent may die. Older children may sulk, get into trouble at school, be negative, grouchy, and feel misunderstood. Some symptoms that we have to take in mind or to consider, are those that affect the performance of the children in some areas of their life. There is an abrupt change, a noticeable alteration of their habits, expressions of affection, entertaining interests, and/or often verbal expressions about death themes. Implications of a behavioural problem Behavioural difficulties in children are common and most of them are temporary expected. A behavioural problem that persists and develop into childhood can promote mental health problems, as depression, or other consequences (Kosterman et al., 2009). Some factors that contribute to the expression of behavioural problems as listed by Luangrath, A. & Hiscock, H.

CHILDRENS DEPRESSION (2011), are: inadequate sleep, low iron levels and developmental delays. Family and parental

factors can contribute also, they can include: pattern of psychopathology in the childrens family (Kopp. L. M. & Beauchaine, T. P., 2007), disadvantage background (Shannon eta al., 2007), family stress and trauma, parenting practices particularly harsh parenting or neglect (Williams et al., 2009), insecure parent-child attachment relationship and parental mental health problem. Common behavioural problems include oppositional behavior (refusing to comply with request), aggression and temper tantrums (explosions of frustration), and hyperactivity, inattention and socialization difficulties. Behavioural problems can be passed by intergenerational transmission, so these can vary from child to child according to the genetic of the family (DOnofrio et al., 2007). Influences in childrens depression Genetic influences Studies with genes showed that there is evidence to link genetic influences to depression in children. According with Gibb et al. (2009), a family history of depression is one of the strongest risk factors for depression in youth; and children of depressed mothers are 3-4 times more likely to experience major depressive disorder (MDD) by early adulthood than are individuals in the general population. There is a suggestion that this elevated risk is due to a combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental variables. Studies using genes also have been made

to establish relations between other disorders with depression, as sleep problems (Gregory et al., 2009). Although, according to Lewis et al. (2011), few studies have used genetically sensitive designs to estimate the influence of inherited factors and separate environmental from genetic effects.

CHILDRENS DEPRESSION Environmental influences

When we talk about environmental influences there are included all those external factors that can have an effect on an individual after having contact with it. We can consider some environmental influences that promote depression in children, as malnutrition. Galler et al. (2010) established that malnutrition early in life has been implicated in the subsequent development of cognitive and behavioral impairments in childhood and adolescence; decreased attention, conduct problems and decreased IQ. Although, Galler et al. studies confirms that depressive symptoms are elevated in old youth with histories of malnutrition in the first year of life relative to healthy classmates. When youth depression scores were subjected to a longitudinal multiple regression analyses, significant effects due to malnutrition were found. Other findings have suggested, that parents depression symptoms could play environmental risk effects on child depression symptoms. However, others studies have not ruled out the possibility that specific measurements of shared environmental adversity (affecting parents and offspring) contribute to this environmental link or account for the association between parents depression and child symptoms (Lewis et al., 2011). Other environmental influence is the exposure to potentially traumatic events in childhood. This can promote not only depression but other psychopathologies in adulthood (Brigs-Gowan et al., 2010). According to this, violence exposure was significantly associated with symptoms of depression, other disorders as ADHD and conduct problems. Consistent with clinical and basic science research suggesting early childhood as a period of particular vulnerability to adverse experiences (Jacobs et al., 2008), parents reported elevations in a wide range of symptoms and disorders among 2 and 3 year old children who had been exposed to potentially traumatic events. These associations were particularity evident in relation to family violence exposure, which was positively associated with symptoms and disorders of depression,

CHILDRENS DEPRESSION anxiety, and disruptive behavior (Brigs-Gowan et al., 2010). Conclusion Diagnostics instruments and treatment There is different diagnosis scales, instruments for evaluation, checklist, questionnaires, and other tests that can help to determine whether a child is experimenting depression or behavioral problems. According to Hernndez (2006), diagnosis instruments for depression in children vary in function of what they want to measure. For example, when the interest is to

measure the internal cognition it is used written tests that could be: standardized tests, inventories, scales, questionnaires, pictorics tests and others. Is the same, for treatment strategies. For example, treatment of depressive or conduct problems in traumatized young children may be enhanced by providing parents with treatment for their own affective distress (Brigs-Gowan et al., 2010). Depressive illness beginning early in life can have serious developmental and functional consequences. Therefore, understanding the disorder during this developmental stage is critical for determining or developing effective intervention strategies (Rao, U. & Chen, L., 2009). Treatments for depression in children must be focus on each particular individual case. Some treatments that can be used are: psychological therapy, pharmacotherapy (Taurines et al., 2011), or combined treatments.

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