Factors Affecting Mental Health

An array of factors can affect the mental health of a child or young person; these factors can be put into three categories. Variables affecting the mental health of children/ youths includes; an individual’s biology and personality, social environments and the individual’s family. When a child is undergoing negative experiences in either 3 of these variables, their mental health is at risk and can be damaged (Claveirole, 2010). For example, bullying, bereavement or sickness (known as precipitating factors) can intensify or lead to mental illness (Carr, 2006). Furthermore, studies conducted by Ford et al, (2004) found that having a physical disability or low IQ is correlated with an increased likelihood to develop mental health issues. In addition, their studies showed that if a parent were to have a mental disorder, the chance of the child having a mental disorder is increased. The socio-economic background (the familial background) of the child also has consequences regarding the mental health of a child. For instance, Green et al (2005) found that boys, from a low socio

Indeed, it has previously been demonstrated that an accumulation of factors increase the likelihood of mental health issues developing (Sameroff, 2006). Therefore, a comprehensive approach is required to tackle mental illness involving an array of services. This paper identifies these services as the education system, social services and mental health services. These services have been chosen because of Claveirole (2010), illuminating three causal groups of mental health. For instance, education represents an aspect of social environments; social services examine the individual’s family and in some cases, the individual’s behaviour. Whilst finally, mental health services themselves examine the individuals psyche. Therefore, these three service types study the factors that have been identified to cause mental