Clinical child psychology

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The clinical child psychology emerged as a discipline of psychology at the interface between clinical psychology and developmental psychology . In contrast to developmental psychology, which deals with the normal development of children and adolescents, clinical child psychology examines the development and effects of mental disorders .

Clinical child psychology was decisively shaped by its neighboring disciplines, which include paediatrics , curative and special education , child neurology and child and adolescent psychiatry . Together with its neighboring disciplines, clinical child psychology turns to problems of diagnosis and therapy in children and adolescents. Compared to clinical psychology in adulthood, diagnosis and treatment in clinical child psychology are characterized by the orientation towards developmental psychological findings.

Description of clinical child psychology

Clinical child psychology can be described by the following five characteristics:

  • Based on a biopsychosocial etiology concept
  • Developmental psychopathological perspective , i.e. the integrative consideration of normal and deviating developmental processes, the empirical validation of development models of mental disorders with the consideration of risk factors and protective factors and the realization of a development-oriented classification , diagnosis and intervention
  • Resource orientation in the context of classification, diagnostics and intervention
  • Ecological , transactional perspective , i.e. the comprehensive consideration and inclusion of parents and family as well as other important reference persons and living environments of the child
  • Prevention and early intervention , i.e. prevention or the earliest possible detection of development risks / behavioral problems in children and adolescents, are the primary goals

Questions in clinical child psychology

Children and young people have to cope with age-specific tasks and requirements in their development process, and they are also dependent on their adult caregivers. These constellations give rise to specific questions that clinical psychology in adulthood does not have to deal with. According to Petermann, clinical child psychology deals with the following questions:

  • Which characteristics form early indicators for mental disorders and how early can such “precursors” be reliably determined?
  • Which developmental and age-related vulnerabilities ( vulnerabilities ) indicate the early development of a child and on what mechanisms are significant development differences?
  • From what conditions the mental resilience depends a child ( resilience ab) in the context of everyday life, illness and crisis management?
  • Which factors determine a child's feeling of stress and coping skills and how is this moderated by family processes?
  • What are the characteristics of mentally robust children and what are the mechanisms by which they are able to remain mentally “healthy” under particularly adverse circumstances?
  • In what way do early family interaction patterns and aspects of temperament development influence the socio - emotional development of a child and adolescent?
  • How can a change in social milieu have a positive influence on a child's development prognosis?
  • Which survey methods can be used to record the resources of a child and those of the family environment and in what form can they be used for the planning and implementation of interventions?
  • Which symptom-related development models can be used as a basis for development-oriented diagnostics and intervention planning?
  • How important are neurobiological and genetic findings to explain mental disorders in children and adolescents, and what results from this for prevention and treatment?

Application areas of clinical child psychology

A total of four important areas of application of clinical child psychology can be distinguished:

Child psychotherapy

Child psychotherapy, including the diagnosis of mental disorders, is the traditional area of ​​application of clinical child psychology. Strictly speaking, child psychotherapy cannot be separated from adolescent psychotherapy in terms of content. Both are carried out professionally by a licensed child and adolescent psychotherapist , a job that was created in 1999 and enshrined in law. In Germany, three areas are financed by the health insurance system: analytical psychotherapy , psychotherapy based on depth psychology and behavioral therapy . Some authors have attempted to outline approaches for general child psychotherapy. This includes multimodal child psychotherapy , which, according to Manfred Döpfner, can be characterized as "a problem-oriented, individualized, sequential and adaptive , development- and result-oriented therapy that uses evidence-based intervention methods on the basis of general principles, taking into account the specific context in which the problems arise and several levels of intervention are integrated ”. In multimodal child psychotherapy, children are actively supported in successfully coping with problems in the family, in school and in dealing with their peers . Examples of multimodal therapy programs are training with aggressive children , training with socially insecure children and the therapy program for children with hyperkinetic and oppositional problem behavior .

Prevention and health promotion in childhood

The prevention of mental disorders in children and adolescents is of great importance in practice and research . The aim of prevention is to prevent the development of a mental disorder in children by reducing risk factors and strengthening protective factors. Preventive measures can start directly with the child (child-centered measures; e.g. promoting socio - emotional competence and social problem solving) or with the parents or educators (context-centered measures; strengthening parenting skills ).

In addition, a distinction can be made between universal, selective and indicated prevention. While universal prevention is aimed at all children and young people (e.g. an entire school class) or all parents, selective prevention measures only involve children at risk or families at risk (e.g. children or parents from poor backgrounds). Indicated prevention is aimed at children and adolescents (or their parents) who already have signs of behavioral problems, but usually no diagnosis. Universal programs are mostly carried out by educators or teachers , selective and indicated programs outside of school by psychologists .

There are now numerous universal (child-centered) prevention programs for children and adolescents. Many of these programs focus on preventing violence , aggression and addiction . Examples include: Fit and Strong for Life , Behavioral Training in Kindergarten, Behavioral Training in Elementary School and Faustlos .

In the past few years, research into the effectiveness of prevention programs has increased significantly. In meta-analyzes , measures with cognitive-behavioral content are reported as having a satisfactory to good effectiveness.

Pediatric Psychology

In pediatric psychology, psychological knowledge and methods are applied to the treatment of chronically physically ill children and adolescents. A chronic physical illness (e.g. bronchial asthma , neurodermatitis ) has a major influence on the psychological and social development of the affected child and their family and can even lead to the development of a mental disorder if the illness-related demands are not adequately met. This in turn impairs the course of the disease and the coping with the disease.

The main goals of pediatric psychology are to promote understanding, acceptance and coping with the disease in the affected child and his or her family in order to enable long-term therapy cooperation ( compliance ) and improved quality of life , as well as to prevent the development of a mental disorder.

The three most important interventions in chronic physical illnesses include patient training (imparting disease-related knowledge and skills), family counseling and behavioral psychotherapy.

Clinical child neuropsychology

Clinical child neuropsychology is a relatively new field of application of clinical child psychology, which deals with the effects of brain damage on cognitive , psychological and social development. Brain dysfunction can be caused pre-, peri- or postnatally and relate, for example, to disorders of attention , memory , memory and language skills . But circumscribed developmental disorders of school skills as well as emotional and behavioral problems can be a direct or indirect consequence of brain dysfunction or damage.

Clinical child neuropsychology pursues three goals:

  1. Recording of neuropsychological consequences of brain damage in childhood,
  2. Therapy of the occurring impairments and disorders (e.g. with the help of memory training ) and
  3. Re (integration) of the affected children into an age-appropriate everyday life (= neuropsychological child rehabilitation ).

Particularly circumscribed developmental disorders such as reading and spelling disorder (dyslexia) and arithmetic disorder (dyscalculia) as well as attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could be reassessed by child neuropsychology and new approaches for diagnosis and intervention derived.

literature

Trade journals

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F. Petermann (Ed.): Textbook of Clinical Child Psychology. 7., revised. u. extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013.
  2. ^ F. Petermann: Basic terms and concepts of clinical child psychology. In: F. Petermann (Ed.): Textbook of Clinical Child Psychology. 7., revised. u. extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013, pp. 15–30.
  3. ↑ Manfred Döpfner : Psychotherapy. In: F. Petermann (Ed.): Textbook of Clinical Child Psychology. 7., revised. u. extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013, p. 824.
  4. ^ F. Petermann, U. Petermann: Training with aggressive children. 3rd, completely change Edition. Beltz, Weinheim 2012.
  5. ^ U. Petermann, F. Petermann: Training with socially insecure children. 11., completely change Edition. Beltz, Weinheim 2015.
  6. ↑ Manfred Döpfner, S. Schürmann, J. Frölich: Therapy program for children with hyperkinetic and oppositional defiant behavior THOP. 4th, completely revised Edition. Beltz / Psychologie Verlags Union, Weinheim 2007.
  7. ↑ F. Burow, M. Aßhauer, R. Hanewinkel: Fit and strong for life. 1st and 2nd school year. Personality development to prevent aggression, smoking and addiction. Ernst Klett primary school publisher, Leipzig 1998.
  8. ↑ U. Koglin, F. Petermann: Behavioral training in kindergarten. A program to promote social-emotional competence. 2nd, extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013.
  9. ^ F. Petermann, U. Koglin, H. Natzke, N. v. Marées: Behavioral Training in Primary School: A prevention program to promote emotional and social skills. 2nd, extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013.
  10. ↑ M. Cierpka (Ed.): FAUSTLOS. A curriculum for the prevention of aggressive and violent behavior in children in grades 1 to 3. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2004.
  11. ^ DP Farrington, BC Welsh: Saving children from a life of crime. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007.
  12. ↑ MC Roberts (Ed.): Handbook of pediatric psychology. 3. Edition. Guilford, New York 2005.
  13. ↑ M. Noeker, F. Petermann: Chronic physical diseases. In: F. Petermann (Ed.): Textbook of Clinical Child Psychology. 7., revised. u. extended Edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2013, pp. 535–552.
  14. ↑ M. Semrud-Clikeman, PA Teeter-Ellison: Child neuropsychology: Assessment and interventions for neurodevelopmental disorders. 2nd Edition. Springer, New York 2007.