Annual Research Review: Conceptualising functional impairment in children and adolescents

Functional impairment is a key factor in the clinical importance of mental health problems in children. Yet, the nature of impairment and criteria for defining and assessing impairment in childhood disorders has been surprisingly overlooked in much of the literature. The current article examines the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child psychology and psychiatry 2012-05, Vol.53 (5), p.454-468
Main Authors: Rapee, Ronald M., Bőgels, Susan M., van der Sluis, Cathy M., Craske, Michelle G., Ollendick, Thomas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adolescent Psychiatry - instrumentation
Adolescent Psychiatry - methods
Adolescents
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child & adolescent psychiatry
Child Psychiatry - instrumentation
Child Psychiatry - methods
Childhood
Children
Clinical Diagnosis
Correlation
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Epidemiology
Evaluation Criteria
Functional impairment
Futures (of Society)
Gender Differences
Guides
Humans
Identification
Incidence
Medical diagnosis
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders
Mental Disorders - classification
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental Disorders - epidemiology
Mental Disorders - physiopathology
Mental Health
Prevalence
Psychiatric disorders
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
quality of life
Symptoms
Symptoms (Individual Disorders)
Techniques and methods
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Summary:Functional impairment is a key factor in the clinical importance of mental health problems in children. Yet, the nature of impairment and criteria for defining and assessing impairment in childhood disorders has been surprisingly overlooked in much of the literature. The current article examines the extant literature on the conceptualisation, nature and assessment of impairment in childhood disorders. Relations between diagnostic symptoms and functional impairment are discussed together with the influence of impairment on diagnostic decisions and prevalence rates. Several factors influencing impairment in childhood such as culture, development and gender are considered. This article concludes with a discussion of the utility of separating judgements of impairment from specific diagnoses, which is proposed for consideration in the forthcoming DSM‐5.
ISSN:0021-9630
1469-7610
DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02479.x