Transcultural child development

About this book

Is the Asian child you're assessing suffering from introversion and lack of self-confidence, or is her quiet demeanor simply a reflection of strongly held cultural valuespiety, modesty, and respect for authority? Is your young Puerto Rican patient ADD, or are his aggressiveness and lack of attention a response to the chaotic, unsupervised, dangerous atmosphere at his school? How are mental and emotional disorders expressed among children from different cultural backgrounds, and how can they best be treated? In Transcultural Child Development, the nation's leading practitioners of transcultural child psychology address these and many other questions that surround this broad and under-researched field. The book begins with an examination of the social, cultural, and historical context of child psychiatry in America and a discussion of the changing complexion of America's children due to new patterns of immigration. This is followed by an overview of the impact of culture on both the incidence of psychopathology and the ways in which disorders are expressed, as well as an examination of children in special circumstances, such as refugees, illegal immigrants, and victims of severe emotional or physical trauma. Clinicians experienced in treating children of specific cultural backgrounds discuss each culture and its relationship to mainstream American culture in 14 chapters that comprise the meat of the book. The focus of these discussions is on how these cultural relationships may contribute to, alleviate, mask, or create a false impression of psychological disorders in children.