Clinicians Discover Childhood and Adolescence

Early in the twentieth century, mental health professionals virtually ignored children. At best, they viewed them as small adults and treated their psychological disorders as they would adult problems (Peterson & Roberts, 1991). Today the problems and needs of young people have caught the attention of researchers and clinicians. Although all of the leading models have been used to help explain and treat these problems, the sociocultural perspective—especially the family perspective—is considered to play a special role.

Because children and adolescents have limited control over their lives, they are particularly affected by the attitudes and reactions of family members. Clinicians must therefore deal with those attitudes and reactions as they try to address the problems of the young. Treatments for conduct disorder, ADHD, intellectual disability, and other problems common among children and adolescents typically fall short unless clinicians educate and work with the family as well.

At the same time, clinicians who work with children and adolescents have learned that a narrow focus on any one model can lead to problems. For years, autism spectrum disorder was explained exclusively by family factors, misleading theorists and therapists alike and adding to the pain of parents already devastated by their child’s disorder. In addition, in the past, the sociocultural model often led professionals wrongly to accept anxiety among young children and depression among teenagers as inevitable, given the many new experiences confronted by the former and the latter group’s preoccupation with peer approval.

The increased clinical focus on the young has also been accompanied by more attention to young people’s human and legal rights. Clinicians and educators have called on government agencies to protect the rights and safety of this often powerless group. In doing so, they hope to fuel the fights for better educational resources and against child abuse and neglect, sexual abuse, malnourishment, and fetal alcohol syndrome.

As the problems and, at times, mistreatment of young people receive more attention, the special needs of these individuals are becoming more visible. Thus the study and treatment of psychological disorders common among children and adolescents are likely to continue at a rapid pace. Now that clinicians and public officials have “discovered” this population, they are not likely to underestimate their needs and importance again.