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Child and Adolescent Mental Health

Module description

This module outlines key concepts and evidence relating to child and adolescent (“young people’s”) mental health, paying particular attention to approaches relevant to public health. You will gain an understanding of a range of mental health challenges in childhood and adolescence, including population trends over time and the impacts of both good and poor mental-health during development on lifecourse trajectories. We will cover key areas of focus relevant to child and adolescent mental health, including epidemiology, factors that put a young person at risk of mental ill-health, mentally healthy systems and communities, and public health approaches to supporting, preventing and treating mental health problems.

Delivery will be a combination of recorded lectures and focussed examples, with self-directed learning tasks, as well as synchronous sessions to problem solve and consolidate knowledge.

Module aims - intentions of the module

In this module you will learn about core mental health concepts in childhood and adolescence, such as psychiatric disorder systems and classifications; mental ill-health and the role of the public sector (health, education and justice) in relation to young people’s mental health; public understandings of mental health and wellbeing, as well as expand your knowledge of the causes and consequences of child and adolescent mental health difficulties. We will explore the role of systems and individuals in promoting good mental health for young people from a public health and evidence-based perspective. Key components of a mentally-healthy childhood, adolescent mental health, and prevention, promotion, intervention and treatment relating to young people’s mental health will also be covered. The global and cross-cultural variation in conceptualisation and understanding of mental health, inequalities in young people’s mental health, and best-practice research and evaluation approaches will be woven throughout the module. Following completion of this module, students will have a solid foundational knowledge of the importance of young people’s mental health, awareness of common mental disorders and societal attitudes and responses to these, and be able to apply this knowledge to a range of professional public health contexts.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Identify what factors put young people at increased risk for child and adolescent mental health problems and relevant public health action to reduce risks
• 2. Describe the ways in which mentally healthy development can be supported across childhood and adolescence

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Justify the need to work to improve mental health among children and adolescents
• 4. Locate, interpret and explain evidence showing that multiple interacting factors can influence the development and maintenance of mental health problems
• 5. Discuss whether there is robust evidence that mental health problems are increasing over time and vary cross-culturally

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Understand how medical and psychiatric theoretical concepts of mental ill-health are culturally and socially-determined and influenced
• 7. Identify potential methods to translate academic knowledge and evidence into context-specific public health practice
• 8. Engage with peers in professional discussion of key concepts and topic-related challenges

Syllabus plan

The precise content of the module may vary from year to year. An example of the overall structure is:

1. Introduction to child and adolescent mental health: historical and global positions on the rights of the child, key concepts, theories and terminology
2. Nature vs nurture in child and adolescent mental health: e.g. adverse childhood experiences, the role of school and home contexts in mental health, genetic and biological influences, intergenerational cycles of vulnerability to mental-ill health.
3. Mentally healthy families and systems. The role of others in preventing and managing mental health
4. Healthy childhood and health protection, how the physical environment and social conditions can reduce risks of mental health challenges or deterioration of existing mental health problems
5. Adolescent mental health and risky behaviours. Emerging mental health issues in adolescence and evidence for prevention, promotion, intervention and treatment
6. Time trends in child and adolescent mental health: have mental health problems been rising?
7. Systems to support child and adolescent mental health: prevention
8. Systems to support child and adolescent mental health: treatment, intervention and postvention

Typically, each topic will be covered through 60 minutes of pre-recorded lectures, followed by a self-directed consolidation activity and an interactive group session where challenges and focus topics will be explored with fellow students and guest experts. Many students taking this module will have also taken Public Mental Health, and whilst this module can be taken as a stand-alone module, adult mental health will not be covered in detail here beyond the impact that adult mental health has on young people.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Taylor. E. et al. Eds. (2020). Mental health and illness of children and adolescents. Springer
• Andrews et al. (2022). Introduction: Mental Health Assessment, Prevention and Intervention- Promoting Child and Youth Wellbeing. In Mental Health Assessment, Prevention and Intervention

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://ele.exeter.ac.uk/

Key words search

Mental health, psychiatry, psychology, health promotion, treatment, child, adolescent, young person, public mental health, child public health