Social and economic determinants of disparities in professional help-seeking for child mental health problems: evidence from a national sample
Categories: Mental HealthConsiderable evidence exists that children’s mental health problems are undertreated, with fewer than half and as few as 11 percent of children who screen positive for some disorder actually receiving treatment (Zahner et al. 1992; Cohen and Hesselbart 1993; Leaf et al. 1996; Costello et al. 1997; Verhulst and van der Ende 1997; Farmer et al. 1999; Haines et al. 2002). Undertreatment for mental health problems is especially tragic, given that depression, attention-deficit, hyperactivity, and other mental health problems have been shown to interfere not only with children’s current well-being, but also with educational attainment and future job performance, and therefore with future psychosocial and economic well-being (Mannuzza et al. 1997; Velting and Whitehurst 1997, Caspi et al. 1998; Fergusson and Horwood 1998). The importance of these problems is heightened by the fact that over the last 50 years, the trend has been for ever earlier onset of mental health problems, now reaching well into childhood (Burvill 1995).