34^th International Conference on Adolescent Medicine and Child Psychology March 20-21, 2023 Vancouver, Canada

Biography:

Leyi Zhuang has her passion in improving the health and wellbeing of adolescents, using a quantitative approach and a mixed-methods approach.

Abstract:

To investigate the mental health level of college freshmen during the COVID-19 pandemic, an online questionnaire survey was conducted among 8235 first-year students (50.70% female) in a university in Shandong Province, China in 2020, using the Chinese College Student Mental Health Screening Scale (CCSMHS) that assessed their psychotic symptoms, suicidal behavior and ideation, internalized psychological disorders, externalized psychological disorders and developmental problems. Descriptive analysis showed that during the period of COVID-19, there were 417 students with primary mental disorder, accounting for 5.06%; there were 1256 students with secondary mental disorder, accounting for 15.25%; there were 1,276 students with tertiary mental disorder, accounting for 15.49%. The results of independent-measures t-test showed that there was no significant difference in the detection rates of primary, secondary and tertiary psychological disorders between male and female students, but there were significant differences in hallucination and delusional symptoms, anxiety, inferiority, sensitivity and social phobia between male and female students. One-way analysis of variance showed that students with three different levels of mental disorder had significant differences in employment pressure and academic pressure, among which, compared with students with secondary mental disorder, students with tertiary mental disorder had greater employment pressure and academic pressure. The results of chain mediating model showed that the association between attachment and sleep disorder was independently mediated by interpersonal disturbance and anxiety and was also influenced by the chain mediating effect of interpersonal disturbance and anxiety [Figure 1]. These findings underscore the impact of the early stages of COVID-19 on the mental health of Chinese college students, as well as the role of interpersonal disturbance and anxiety in the process of attachment to sleep disorder.

Figure 1. The chain mediating effect of interpersonal disturbances and anxiety in the association between attachment and sleep disorder.

Biography:

Mehdi Dehestani is an Associate professor of clinical psychology at Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran. His major research interests include Storytelling, Anxiety, Depression, Preschool girls.

Abstract:

Objective: Determine the effectiveness of creative problem solving skills training on behavioral disorders and cognitive functions of girls who are in conflict with their parents.

Method: The research method was semi-experimental with experimental and control group. The statistical population of the study was female high school students in Khoy city in 1398. Sample size was selected by purposive sampling and were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was trained in creative problem solving skills of Isaxen and Treffinger (1987) model and the control group underwent intervention program. It didn't happen. The tools used in this study were the parent-child conflict questionnaire of Murray Strauss (1979), the Rutter Behavioral Disorder Questionnaire (NEQ) and the Neurological Cognitive Ability Questionnaire (2013). Data analysis method was covariance analysis using spss software version 21.

Findings: Findings indicated that teaching creative problem-solving skills in affective behaviors and cognitive functions of secondary school girl students was effective in conflict with parents.

Conclusion: Children who are in conflict with parents can reduce their behavioral disorders and improve their cognitive functions through training in creative problem solving skills.

Keywords: Creative problem solving skills, Behavioral disorders, Cognitive functions, Parent conflict.

Biography:

Marcella Leonard is Director of Leonard Consultancy and qualified as a social worker in 1989. She has specialised in assessment and treatment in the fields of sexuality, sexual deviancy and trauma with both victims and perpetrators. She co-ordinated the management of sex and violent offenders in Northern Ireland and has worked with several jurisdictions to establish their statutory management of sex and violent offenders. As Director of Leonard Consultancy, she works internationally including Abu Dhabi, Gibraltar, Australia, New Zealand, Norway as well as throughout UK and Ireland. She delivers specialist safeguarding training to sports, criminal justice, religious, educational, social care, voluntary and statutory organisations which includes assessing and managing sexual and violent risk, consultancy, strategic and safeguarding policy development. She undertakes Case Management Reviews for organisations, training safeguarding officers and assisting organisations strategically and operationally to have robust safeguarding for children and adults at risk. Her practice, as a therapist with victims and survivors, is grounded in a trauma informed humanistic approach which is also embedded in her training and consultancy work.

Abstract:

An effective assessment of a young person who has displayed, or is alleged to have displayed, harmful sexual behaviour requires the practitioner to assess the young person across all aspects of their life. Young people are in a state of developmental flux and therefore any harmful behaviour needs to be considered holistically, accounting for both risk and protective aspects across the different dimensions of the young person’s situation.

Traditionally assessment models have reduced the complexity of young people’s situations to categorisations such as labelling them as ‘high’, ‘medium’ or ‘low’ risk. Such categorisations have at times led to a view that young people’s behaviours are fixed and exist irrespective of the context in which their behaviours are expressed. Acknowledging the significant pace and growth of cognitive, physical, psychological and sexual development in adolescence means that fixed categorisations are unhelpful and have time limited validity.

AIM3 has been developed in recognition of the complexity of young people’s development and the importance of seeing their sexual behaviours in their developmental, familial, social and wider environmental context.

AIM3 provides a structure which aids professional analysis of a young person in terms of:

• Their sexual behaviours.
• Their broader non-sexual behaviours.
• The developmental influences on these wide-ranging behaviours.
• The effect of the environment and wider social and family context in which they live.
• How the young person functions, including their abilities to understand the impact of their behaviour and their self-regulation skills.

This workshop aims to consider the complexity of sexual behaviour in adolescence, the dynamic identification of sexual behaviour from normal (age expected) to inappropriate to harmful and how the AIM3 provides a holistic structure to assessing sexual behaviour.

Biography:

Jyoti Bhagia M.D. is a Consultant in the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry & Psychology at Mayo Clinic. She is director of the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Clinic at Mayo, Rochester, MN. At Mayo Clinic, she completed both a residency in adult psychiatry and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry. She is Board certified in Adult psychiatry and Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. As a psychiatrist, she has special interest in ADHD and comorbid disorders. She serves as the director of the ADHD Clinic at Mayo, where she oversees the treatment of pediatric patients (children and adolescents) diagnosed with ADHD.

Abstract:

ADHD is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, affecting 7-11% of school age children and 9% of children between ages of 13-18 in the United States. ADHD has significant impact on school, home, social relationships and quality of life. It is also associated with increased financial burden due to healthcare costs.

ADHD guidelines are available for diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. There are many patients with ADHD who get diagnosed correctly and respond well to treatment. On the other hand, there are patients with ADHD who have significant comorbid disorders and do not respond to traditional treatment. Comorbid disorders presenting with ADHD include oppositional defiant disorder, learning disorders, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder, tic disorder, communication disorders, etc. There are several treatment guidelines for ADHD including the AACAP practice parameters, NICE guidelines, Texas Algorithm and others.

Studies have indicated medication as a treatment of choice for children with ADHD along with parent training. However, randomized controlled trials show that about 30% of children with ADHD do not benefit from medication. This could be due to phenotypic or genotypic differences or comorbid conditions.

Thus, the management of ADHD depends on the severity of ADHD and comorbid disorders and involves combined treatment with medications, therapy, behavior management strategies, social skills training and individualized education plans at school. Treatment must be individualized based on response, tolerability and side effects as well as age. Comorbid conditions like mood disorders may have to be treated before ADHD if symptoms significant effect psychosocial functioning.

Biography:

Dr. Urmita Chakraborty have worked as Assistant Professor grade School Psychologist, and Research Scholar. Practiced at University Department. Overall work experience is 10+ years. have published 12 research articles.

Abstract:

Communication process is essential for all round development of any person. Speech and Language developmental delay disturbs normal and adequate growth of a child. Communication system helps human interaction process successful.  As parts of communication system language and speech sub systems serve various functions even from childhood stage. In this research paper author will show importance of psychogenic factors for speech language disturbances in children. Psychological intervention plan based on independent  care model will be explained. An exploratory research plan will be focused in this study. Action research design will explain contributory factors important for treatment success.  Intervention will be planned in order to improve metalinguistic, referential and phatic functions of speech language system. Specific psychological therapies namely parent child interaction therapy, play therapy, psychoanalysis for children, empathy focused counseling will be discussed in this regard. Past studies will be discussed to see relevance of current study’s significance. Present study will provide new treatment approach involving capacity aspect, mutual incorporation aspect, cognitive empathy, and  psychosocial stimulation.

Keywords

Empathy, Psychoanalysis, Metalinguistic Capacity, Language, Speech, Developmental Delay

Biography:

Marcella Leonard is Director of Leonard Consultancy and qualified as a social worker in 1989. She has specialised in assessment and treatment in the fields of sexuality, sexual deviancy and trauma with both victims and perpetrators. She co-ordinated the management of sex and violent offenders in Northern Ireland and has worked with several jurisdictions to establish their statutory management of sex and violent offenders. As Director of Leonard Consultancy, she works internationally including Abu Dhabi, Gibraltar, Australia, New Zealand, Norway as well as throughout UK and Ireland. She delivers specialist safeguarding training to sports, criminal justice, religious, educational, social care, voluntary and statutory organisations which includes assessing and managing sexual and violent risk, consultancy, strategic and safeguarding policy development. She undertakes Case Management Reviews for organisations, training safeguarding officers and assisting organisations strategically and operationally to have robust safeguarding for children and adults at risk. Her practice, as a therapist with victims and survivors, is grounded in a trauma informed humanistic approach which is also embedded in her training and consultancy work.

Abstract:

In families where there are concerns in relation to a risk of child sexual abuse or the impact of domestic violence on children well-informed assessments concerning the ability of a non–abusing parent or a Proposed Carer (PC) to keep a child or children safe from a Person Of Concern (POC) are essential to making appropriate decisions about whether children can be safely supported at home; whether they should be looked after while the PC increases their ability to supervise the person of concern’s interactions with the child; or whether they should be permanently placed away from home because the risk is unmanageable.

Accuracy is the goal. Yet, the reality remains that assessments often fall short of such aspirations because of limited knowledge and the need to work with probabilities rather than certainties. There is increasing recognition of the need for ‘structured professional decision-making’ which utilises data collected through evidence-based tools in addition, but not instead of, judgments that can be over-reliant on social workers’ intuition and experience.

The Capacity & Ability to Supervise and Protect-Risk (CASP-R) framework has been developed by drawing upon relevant international research and best practice decision making in cases of family constitution when concerns exist in relation to either sexual or domestic violence.

The CASP-R is a structured approach to assess the non-abusing mother’s or PC’s capacity and ability to supervise a person of concern’s interaction with a child at risk, her resilience to manipulation of potential vulnerabilities and her ability to meet the child’s needs for safety, security and appropriate development in order to determine her capability to apply multiple roles (i.e. parent, partner, protector and supervisor) within the family system.

‘Grounded in significant experience of direct practice with families who have experienced the sexual abuse of a child and supplemented by considerable knowledge and skills in supervising, training and mentoring professionals from a range of disciplines in this specialist area of practice, Gareth McGibbon and Marcella Leonard have distilled their expertise into this Framework. Clearly written and underpinned by the latest thinking and research in relation to sexual offending, child protection, domestic violence and multi-disciplinary working, this Framework is an essential and ground breaking piece of work. It seeks to empower a safe carer’s capacity and ability to supervise and protect a child at risk of sexual or domestic violence, while recognising that the carer needs support and direction based on a comprehensive and dynamic assessment of the risk a child and their carer may be at, the carers ability to acknowledge and understand this and their receptiveness to advice and direction’.

Biography:

Petunia Tsweleng is currently a fulltime doctoral student. she have a B. Ed. Educational Psychology honours degree and a psycho-socio masters' degree in Child and Family Studies. She is also a qualified Assessor and Moderator (registered with the HWSETA). She specialise in child, family and community development. She worked for three community-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), in Cape Town, South Africa. Her work focused mainly on Child and Family Psychosocial Wellbeing, Adolescent Development, and Community Health Wellness.

Abstract:

Adolescents orphaned through Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are at higher risk of poor developmental outcomes due to the trauma caused by the parent’s AIDS related illness and resultant death, lack of stable care and support, and financial difficulties among others. Research shows that high quality parental care is needed to nurture the development of these vulnerable youth. The current study explores the quality of caregiving relationships between AIDS-orphaned adolescents and grandmother primary caregivers, based on the narratives of stakeholders. Special focus was on finding out whether these relationships were perceived as promoting the emotional and psychosocial wellbeing of the orphans. A qualitative methodological framework with narrative inquiry approach was utilised. In-depth interviews were conducted with 6 purposefully selected stakeholders who provides psychosocial support services to orphans and primary caregivers. Stakeholders reported that, due to the grandmothers’ genuine love and care, most of these relationships were found to be nourishing to the development of the orphans. It was further indicated that, the orphans fared well socially, emotionally and cognitively, and performed highly at school. However, stakeholders have also identified the negative side to these relationships which appeared to be threatening to the orphans’ developmental outcomes. They reported that, grandmothers tend to be overprotective at times. For example, when it is raining the child is not allowed to attend school as she or he may fall sick from cold weather. It was also mentioned that grandmothers were often manipulated by orphans. For example, some orphans would compile and print out a letter, and claim it is a school notification for an outing -so that they may be permitted to spend some time away with friends. Interventions are needed to build on the strength of the grandmother caregiving. Grandmothers can be trained on adolescent behaviours and be equipped to provide adequate supervision.

Recent Publications

Tsweleng, P., & Roman, N. (2013). “My mother has AIDS”: Stories of adolescents living in Khayelitsha, South Africa. Journal of Community and Health Sciences, 8(1), 47-56.

Keywords

Adolescent orphans, AIDS, Caregiving relationships, Grandmothers