Depression is a chronic, recurring disorder that impacts children’s academic, interpersonal, and family functioning. The heritability of major depressive disorder (MDD) is likely to be in the range of 31% to 42%. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the etiology of depression. It presents a description of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention designed to be delivered in a group format, an individual interpersonal intervention, and an individual behavioral activation (BA) intervention that includes a great deal of parental involvement. The ACTION program is a manualized program that is based on a cognitive behavioral model of depression. There are four primary treatment components to ACTION: affective education, coping skills training (BA), problem-solving training, and cognitive restructuring. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of universal therapeutic techniques to be incorporated into work with depressed youth regardless of the therapeutic orientation or treatment strategy.

Asthma, a pulmonary condition, is a chronic respiratory disorder typified by persistent underlying inflammation of tissues, airway obstruction, congestion, hyperresponsive airways, and the narrowing of smooth airway muscle. Asthma is one of the most common chronic medical conditions in children and is the leading cause of school absenteeism. This chapter describes childhood asthma, including its causes and triggers. It elucidates the extant research supporting treatment of the disorder and provides step-by-step empirically based interventions to ameliorate asthmatic symptomatology in children. The psychological underpinnings of asthma have been investigated in the field of psycho-neuroimmunology (PNI), which examines the interplay of the central nervous system, neuroendocrine, and immune system with psychological variables and their relation to physical health. Researchers have shown that relaxation and guided imagery (RGI), written emotional expression, yoga, and mindfulness therapy improve pulmonary lung functioning, decrease rates of absenteeism, and improve overall quality of life.

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the linguistic and cultural issues to consider when assessing children and adolescents from diverse backgrounds, with a major focus on immigrants and refugees. It addresses research on the typical developmental trajectory of language and literacy of children and adolescents who must learn in a language that is not the language of their home, and the implications of that research for distinguishing whether their learning difficulties are due to inadequate proficiency in the societal language or due to a learning disability. The book describes the methods for assessing children and adolescents’ oral language proficiency (OLP) in their first and second languages. It then discusses the issues involved and methods for assessing intelligence, academic achievement, and behavioral, social, and emotional functioning.

This chapter provides an orientation to the critical issues, history, trends, policies, programs, and intervention strategies of the juvenile justice system. It reviews the types, functions, and legal responsibilities of the various juvenile justice agencies and institutions. The chapter describes the case flow within the juvenile justice system. It also discusses systems of care in juvenile justice, and specialized assessment and treatment issues with adolescents, including sexually abusive youth. It explores the foundation and groundwork for the study of juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice system while delineating the legal definitions of juvenile status offenses and juvenile delinquency, examining the nine steps in the juvenile justice case-flow process. The chapter also gives attention to systems of care, the link between trauma and delinquency, as well as the assessment and treatment considerations for forensic social workers when addressing the specialized needs of juveniles in the justice system.

Assessment of intelligence and diagnosis of intellectual disability in culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children and adolescents are controversial and challenging. This chapter discusses some of these controversial and challenging issues, and describes methods of assessing intelligence in CLD children and adolescents, that is, individuals whose language and cultural backgrounds are significantly different from the normative group of most standardized Intelligence quotient (IQ) tests. It addresses several issues that psychologists need to consider when evaluating intelligence, including developing rapport; fluid and crystallized intelligence; adaptive behavior; using IQ tests to establish IQ/achievement discrepancies to diagnose learning disabilities; and determining when to use formal IQ tests. The chapter then turns to a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of assessment techniques, including several types of intelligence tests, and offers alternative approaches for evaluating intelligence that can help to overcome some of the difficulties, including modifying test administration, dynamic assessment, and ecological assessment.

This chapter presents an overview of intrapsychic theories, cognitive theories, behavioral and environmental theories, biological theories, and integrative theories. Past ideas about the nature of adolescent development serve as foundations for current adolescent developmental theories. In many ways, the adolescent years are the culmination of childhood; hence, in order to truly understand adolescence a review of what happens in the years leading up to adolescence can help clarify the nature of adolescents. Although the early biological process of puberty begins to develop several years before adolescence, in Freud’s theory puberty and adolescence are considered roughly equivalent. Adolescents experience a reawakening of and an obsession with sexuality. Studies indicate that occurrences of eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive patterns, and self-reports of same-sex attraction surface during the adolescent years as a result of the reawakening of the underlying subconscious conflicts.

Many clinicians and researchers who work with adolescents classify the adolescent problems into two general categories of difficulties: externalizing problems and internalizing problems. Externalizing problems are difficulties that affect the external world of adolescents, such as drug abuse, delinquency, and engaging in risky behaviors. The adolescent who is abusing drugs is likely to also be engaged in risky sexual behaviors and delinquency. The discovery of and experimentation with drugs are common for adolescents and vary primarily from socially acceptable and legal drugs such as caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol to socially rejected and illegal drugs, ranging from marijuana to heroin and cocaine. Unfortunately, adolescents often do not think that drug abuse is harmful, despite the fact that both alcohol consumption and marijuana use have short-term and long-term negative effects. However, sexuality during adolescence has the potential to become a serious health concern.

This chapter describes the overall health, sleep and diet and nutrition. The importance of focusing on health promotion during adolescence is apparent when considering that close to two-thirds of premature deaths in adulthood can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyle choices made in the adolescent years. The approach adolescents take to their overall physical health is driven by competing cognitive forces producing behaviors that sometimes seem contradictory. Boys tend to exercise more often than girls, and girls are more likely to engage in healthy eating habits in comparison to boys. The adolescent years are an opportunity to develop healthy eating patterns that can carry into adulthood. Family is also important in helping adolescents develop healthy eating patterns. Close to 80% of obese adolescents continue to be obese throughout their adult years, with many of them eventually having to contend with serious health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

This chapter describes Piaget’s formal operational stage, thinking in context, and educating adolescents. According to Piaget, during the formal operations stage adolescents advance in their ability to assess questions in scientific ways. Engaging in hypothetico-deductive reasoning does not just occur when adolescents are trying to solve complex questions about math and science. Adolescents have the ability to manipulate and talk about concepts such as love, the future, and God in very tangible ways. Adolescents develop perspective taking, which is the ability to understand the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others. In order for adolescents to be successful at social interactions, in which they will be engaged quite often, they need to understand other people. Adolescents value the ability to make independent decisions and consider this to be an integral part of the transition into adulthood.