Review of Behavioral and emotional disorders in adolescents: Nature, assessment and treatments.

Abstract

DAVID A.WOLFE and ERIC J. MASH (Eds.) Behavioral and Emotional Disorders in Adolescents: Nature, Assessment and Treatment Guilford Press, 2006, 719 pages (ISBN: 9781593852252, US$75.00 Hardcover) Reviewed by ANNA BETH DOYLE The primary goal of this edited volume is to capture the current state of knowledge about the important behavioural and emotional adjustment problems and disorders of adolescence. Through 20 chapters by foremost experts, the reader is apprised of the unique features of these disorders in adolescents in comparison with children and adults, and of the importance of developmental issues and a developmental perspective. Any thought that adolescent disorders are adequately addressed by upward extension of knowledge of child disorders and downward extension of knowledge of adult disorders is compellingly dispelled. The unique compilation of empirical findings specifically for adolescents is a boon to those pursuing research, teaching or evidence-based practice with this age group. Three overview chapters set the tone at the beginning of the volume. The first, by the editors, makes a compelling case for focusing specifically on disorders and problems of adolescence because of the great personal and societal cost of their consequences, in terms of violence, academic failure, and health compromise, their uniqueness at this time of transition in autonomy, relationships, sexuality, and experiential stressors, and the potential malleability of trajectories of development before they become firmly established. The editors take a developmental systems perspective, that the adolescent-context relationship determines the trajectory of change in adjustment across the period. This theme is continued in the second overview chapter, Development and Psychopathology in Adolescence by Holbeck, Friedman, Abad, and Jandasek, who systematically attempt to answer fascinating questions about developmental and contextual effects on adolescent psychopathology (e.g., school transitions) on the basis of the strongest empirical evidence. Via an example of equifinality of different trajectories to and from depression (i.e., to suicide versus from conduct disorder for girls), the implication that treatment and/or prevention will often need to be trajectory-specific is clearly delineated. Their discussions of resource, protective, risk, and vulnerability factors, and of behavioural genetic findings and problems is particularly elegant, setting a context for the content chapters to follow. The third chapter, Interventions for Adolescent Psychopathology by Kamon, Tolan, and Gorman-Smith, provides an excellent theoretical and empirical review of mediating and moderating factors of adolescent treatment and prevention outcomes. One only wishes they had been able to go into more detail with respect to mediator effects across time. The major part of the book consists of 15 chapters by renowned experts in the areas, covering the major disorders of adolescence. These are grouped into five sections: ranging from the classic topics of Externalizing Disorders (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder by Barkley; Conduct Problems by McMahon and Kotler; and Substance Use Disorders by Brown and Abrantes) ; Internalizing Disorders (Anxiety Disorders by Kendall, Hedtke, and Aschenbrand; Mood Disorders by Rudolph, Hammen, and Daley; and Suicide and Non-Suicidal Self-Harm Behaviours by Goldston, Daniel, and Arnold); and Developmental Disorders (Mental Retardation by Hodapp, Kazemi, Rozner, and Dykens; Learning Disabilities by Lipka and Seigel; and Autism Spectrum Disorders by Spector and Volkmar), through Personality and Health-Related Disorders (Personality Disorders by Johnston, Bromley, Bornstein, and Sneed; Eating Disorders by Lock and Ie Grange; and Health and Chronic Illness by Brown, Boeving, LaRosa, and Carpenter), to the more unusual topics of Gender-Identity and Sexual Disorders (Gender-Identity Disorder by Zucker; Sexual Risk Behaviours by Kotchick, Armistead, and Forehand; and Deviant Sexual Behaviour by Barbaree and Langten). …