discriminate between therapies grounded in science versus well-intentioned treatments that are ineffective or harmful.
Equally as important is the provision of psychological services to families in an ethically mindful manner. Parents and caregivers entrust their children to professionals, hoping that the treatment that they receive will be helpful. Therapists must rely on evidence-based interventions to maximize the likelihood that treatment will be successful and minimize the risk of harm. At the same time, therapists must respect the rights and inherent dignity of families, remain honest and faithful in their professional interactions with others, and promote justice and fairness in their practice and their communities.
Goal 4: Relevance to Your Life
Finally, I want to show you why an understanding of child psychopathology and its treatment might be important to you. Most students will not become psychologists or counselors. However, all students have multiple opportunities to influence the lives and developmental outcomes of children and adolescents. Maybe you will become a physician, nurse, teacher, daycare provider, or a speech, occupational, or recreational therapist or other professional who works directly with children. Perhaps you will volunteer as a coach, tutor, or mentor at a school or in the community. If you don’t have children already, it is likely that you will someday be a parent or caregiver and have the primary responsibility of raising the next generation of youths. Although you may not become a mental health professional, you can rely on psychological science and critical thinking to make informed decisions about your family, children, school, neighborhood, and society.
Organization and Key Features
A Developmental Structure
This book is organized developmentally. Disorders that typically emerge in infancy and early childhood are presented first, followed by disorders most commonly seen in later childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. This book is divided into five parts:
Part I. Evidence-Based Research and Practice
This section introduces students to the field of abnormal child psychology (Chapter 1), explains the developmental psychopathology perspective (Chapter 2), provides an overview of the research methods and designs most often used to study childhood disorders (Chapter 3), and illustrates common approaches to assessing and treating children and families (Chapter 4). These chapters also present professional ethics in child research and clinical settings.
Part II. Developmental Disorders and Disabilities
This section presents neurodevelopmental disorders that typically emerge in infancy and early childhood: intellectual disability and developmental disorders (Chapter 5), autism spectrum disorder (Chapter 6), and communication and learning disorders (Chapter 7).
Part III. Disruptive Disorders and Substance Use Problems
This section includes disruptive behavior problems shown by children and adolescents. These problems include attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Chapter 8) and oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder (Chapter 9). This section also includes a chapter on child and adolescent substance use problems (Chapter 10), which often emerge in the context of disruptive behavior.
Part IV. Emotion and Thought Disorders
Most of this section concerns the internalizing disorders: anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and related problems (Chapter 11); trauma-related disorders and child maltreatment (Chapter 12); depression, suicide, and nonsuicidal self-injury (Chapter 13); and bipolar disorders (Chapter 14). The final chapter in this section also covers pediatric schizophrenia.
Part V. Health-Related Disorders
The last section includes feeding and eating disorders (Chapter 15) and elimination disorders, sleep disorders, and pediatric health problems (Chapter 16). These conditions reflect an array of health-related disorders that illustrate the connection between physical and mental well-being.
A Biological, Psychological, and Social–Cultural Approach
Each chapter is organized thematically into subsections. For example, Chapter 6 on autism spectrum disorder is divided as follows: (6.1) Description and Epidemiology, (6.2) Causes, and (6.3) Identification, Prevention, and Treatment. Each subsection serves as a module that can be assigned and presented independently. Therefore, instructors can assign specific subsections on specific days or assign only those subjections they find most relevant to their course.
Each chapter begins with a description of the disorder, including a presentation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria, prevalence, and associated features. Then, the causes of the disorder are discussed from three broad levels of analysis: biological, psychological, and social–cultural. Each chapter ends by describing evidence-based treatments, using criteria established by the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Case studies illustrate each disorder and the From Science to Practice features show how clinicians apply research findings to help children and families.
Questions and Answers
Each subsection is organized by questions rather than by headings. For example, Chapter 6, on autism spectrum disorder, includes the following subsections: How Is Autism Spectrum Disorder Identified and Diagnosed? How Can We Use Applied Behavior Analysis to Treat Autism? and Is Medication Effective for Children With Autism? Questions like these serve three purposes:
1 They focus students’ reading. The questions are essentially learning objectives that are placed immediately before their relevant portion of the text. Consequently, they help students focus on salient topics regarding the description, causes, and treatments for each disorder.
2 They motivate students to read. Interesting, relevant questions prompt students to read the text and find answers. How common are childhood disorders? How does a child’s gender affect her likelihood of being diagnosed? Is the combination of medication and therapy more effective than either treatment alone? Questions like these spark interest and motivate
