Synopses & Reviews
Childhood Stress It is surprising in a society so confident of its extraordinary concern for the health and well-being of its young, that so little attention is paid to the often devastating effects of stress on children and adolescents. While both the popular and professional media have been abuzz, over the past decade, with news about stress in adults, it is only recently that stress in childhood and adolescence has begun to receive the attention it deserves. Childhood Stress, therefore, represents a publishing event of the first order for all child helping professionals. It offers the most complete and timely coverage of the major stressors among children and adolescents and their role in a variety of psychological, physical, developmental, and educational problems. As a consequence, it also has the further virtue of being the only inter-professional guide available useful to psychologists and social workers, physicians, nurses, educators and all childcare professionals. It can even be an invaluable resource for attorneys and providers of pastoral care. Childhood Stress is divided into four sections, the first section covering the biological and psychosocial aspects of stress and their interactions. The effects of stress on the developing brain, the neuroendocrine substrate of stress reactions, and psychosomatic reactions to stress are discussed, as are psychological coping and symptom formation. The second section is devoted entirely to a detailed examination of stressors typically encountered at various developmental stages, as well as age-typical methods for coping with them. Section three goes into greater depth focusing on a number of specific stressorsincluding divorce, death or illness of a parent, abuse, poverty, social violence, and illness, injury and disability. The fourth section considers risk and protective factors in the assessment of stress as a basis for prevention and treatment. Extremely well-referenced and crafted for use by all helping professionals, Childhood Stress is an important contribution that is destined to become the standard to which all subsequent books will aspire. A "must read" for child psychiatrists, child psychologists, nurses, and social workers who treat children, it is also an important reference for other pediatric health professionals, educators, and pastoral caregivers.
Synopsis
Disorders of Learning in Childhood Archie A. Silver and Rosa A. Hagin The fruit of a working relationship extending more than thirty-five years between a child psychiatrist who also had training in neurology and psycho-analysis and a psychologist specializing in education, Disorders of Learning in Childhood offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary understanding of the subject. Up-to-date research is reported throughout and case examples support the clinical sections. It also has a section on clinical patterns and intervention recommendations for the various kinds of learning disorders and a final chapter dealing with future directions for service and research. 1990 (0 471-50828-4) 560 pp. The Preschool Child Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment Paul V. Trad "It is an impressive volume, complete with a reference list citing over 600 sources. For anyone dealing with at-risk children in this age group, it should prove to be an important aid for further study. Recommended for professionals." Early Intervention Offering a dynamic new approach to the diagnoses and treatment of psycho-pathology in preschool children, this book also offers a rigorous framework with which to comprehend the etiology of common disorders. It deals with developmental disorders, examines risk factors in the preschool child, and shows how to plan a pathology-specific treatment strategy. 1989 (0 471-61757-1) 658 pp. Handbook of Child Psychiatric Diagnosis Edited by Cynthia G. Last and Michel Hersen This handbook serves as a resource for making diagnoses in childhood psychopathology in accordance with the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Entire chapters are devoted to each of the DSM categories. Here, each disorder is discussed in relation to its definition, its clinical picture, course and prognosis, epidemiology, differential diagnosis, and clinical management. Attention deficit disorder, major depression, conduct disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorders are among the 18 disorders covered. 1989 (0 471-84887-5) 574 pp.
About the Author
About the editor L. Eugene Arnold, MD, MEd, is Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Neuroscience and Vice-Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Dr. Arnold received his medical degree from the Ohio State University and his Master's in Education from Johns Hopkins University, where he also took residency in psychiatry and child psychiatry. He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and a member of, among others, the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, the Society for Neuroscience, and the American Medical Association. His other books include Parent-Child Group Therapy, Preventing Adolescent Alienation, and Helping Parents Help Their Children.
Table of Contents
Partial table of contents:
THE TWO FACES OF STRESS: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL.
Psychological Aspects of Child Stress: Development and the Spectrum of Coping Responses (P. Trad & E. Greenblatt).
Biological Aspects of Stress: Effects on the Developing Brain (E. Burns & L. Arnold).
STRESS AT DIFFERENT DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES.
Prenatal Stress (L. Huffman & R. del Carmen).
Stress in the Preschool Years (M. Barton & C. Zeanah).
Stress in Adolescence (R. Hendren).
SOURCES OF STRESS IN CHILDHOOD (INCLUDING PUBLIC HEALTH ASPECTS).
The Stress of Violence: School, Community, and World (D. Christie & B. Toomey).
Stress from Parental Depression: Child Risk, Self-Understanding, and a Preventive Intervention (W. Beardslee).
Parent Death in Childhood (E. Kranzler).
ASSESSING, PREVENTING, AND TREATING CHILDHOOD STRESS.
The Adaptation of Children to a Stressful World: Mastery of Fear (N. Garmezy & A. Masten).
Case Illustration of Stress Assessment and Interprofessional Prevention Opportunities (L. Arnold).
Prevention and Treatment of School-Age and Adolescent Stress Disorders (J. Noshpitz).
Author Index.
Subject Index.