The transition to college is a multifaceted challenge for many students, as they encounter new academic, interpersonal, emotional, and financial pressures. One third of undergraduates report feeling depression, and over half report feeling overwhelming anxiety. This course is grounded in the current understanding of adolescent and young adult development, neuroscience, and positive psychology. Our aim is to teach undergraduates both theoretical and empirically informed means to moderate risk and enhance resilience, by building knowledge and skills in key areas proven to enhance wellness, including communication, executive functioning, social support, self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and sense of purpose. Students will learn about healthy exercise, nutrition, and sleep habits, and develop skills in core components of cognitive-behavior therapy, mindfulness, and organizational skills.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 14 Weeks

Do parents always know what’s best for their kids? Should a child be allowed to refuse lifesaving treatment? Is it moral to include minors in research, or maybe morally necessary? When can a teen’s right to change gender outweigh parental permission? In this course, we study the doctor-patient relationship where the patient is a child – a child with family, a child with legal rights, and a child with a developing brain. We review the principles of medical ethics and the concept of informed consent, and focus on the child’s own development in her capacities to reason and make medical decisions in these contexts. We then join current debates on sexual health, psychiatric treatment, end-of-life care and research, and we raise new question about how doctor’s, kids, and families decide.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Have you ever wondered how society impacts mental health? In this class, we will take a public health approach to mental health, examining how social factors (e.g., discrimination, media, poverty, education, and trauma) influence mental health, and what it means to think about and measure a population’s health. We will consider the pros and cons of various methods to improve child, adolescent, and family mental health within the context of our current mental health system. Course readings mainly come from the field of public health, but also include popular media and Internet sources.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

What makes a person successful? What contributes to failure? What do these terms really mean anyway? This course is designed for students who want to learn about processes known to contribute to success (and failure) in a wide variety of domains. Students will be introduced to an exciting area of study called Systems Science that offers a powerful and useful perspective to understand how success (and failure) happen. Throughout the course, we will consider the occurrence of success and failure in a wide variety of systems including biological systems, ecologies, families, peer groups, business organizations, and societies. Human beings are comprised of systems, and we grow up, live, and work as part of systems. This course will particularly emphasize human development and encourage students to apply the concepts and knowledge they have acquired to those systems they most want to understand and/or within which they most wish to succeed.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

What memories do you have from before you were three? Probably not many, but your early experiences continue to shape who you are today. This course takes an intimate look at the trajectory of human development from before conception, through birth and infancy, and continuing up to early preschool for children and their parents. At each stage we will consider influences that can push development off track. We will employ a clinical mental health perspective to inform assessment of social and emotional problems in young children and present current approaches to treatment. Course readings are pulled from clinical early childhood mental health and parent mental health sources and supplemented by documentary videos.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Children and adolescents suffer worldwide from significant mental health stressors, but how mental health and illness are perceived and addressed varies greatly around the world. The first part of the course will provide a brief overview of human rights, child development, social determinants of mental health, trauma and resilience, and the global public health significance of mental illness. Using this framework, the impact of selected salient cross-cultural factors affecting mental health (i.e. poverty, war and conflict, and gender-based exploitation) on children’s development and wellbeing will be studied. Throughout the course, various perspectives will be considered, while dominant paradigms will be recognized and critically examined. Lastly, the course will conclude on a pragmatic level—deliberating specific settings, available resources, barriers, and preventative proposals. Selected case studies from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East will be used to illustrate key concepts. Through lectures, readings, documentaries, and active discussion this course will provide an engaging forum to consider and debate child and adolescent mental health issues globally.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Are 20-somethings really overeducated, afraid of commitment, self-centered, and spendthrift? It is a fact that people in most countries are marrying, having children, and becoming financially independent at a later age than in any previous generation. In the last 10 years a critical new developmental period between adolescence and adulthood has started to gain recognition. “Emerging Adulthood” has been characterized as the age of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling “in-between,” and infinite possibilities. This course will analyze whether this theory has validity, explore the factors that contribute to diverging developmental pathways, review the typical life of the American 20-something, and uncover the truth behind the stereotypes.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Sexual identity is central to our sense of who we are and how we relate to the world. The development of this identity is essential to becoming a well-rounded, effective, and high functioning adult, and failure to develop a cohesive sexual identity can lead to dysfunction. Sexual development involves a complex interplay of biological, psychological and sociological components. Sexual differentiation begins in utero, as the fetus is exposed to hormones and growth factors. As children age, their primary and secondary sex organs develop, and their ideas about the function, use and meaning of these organs change. At each stage the environment, social milieu, and hormones, among other factors, influence the direction of these changes. In this course we will explore the impact of sexual identity development on the mental health of children and adolescents.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Every childhood is fraught with complications, but some children are exposed to traumatic experiences that have a lasting impact on their development and health. Many children in New York City are still reeling from the effects of September 11, yet these numbers pale in comparison to the more than three million reported cases of child abuse and neglect in the United States annually, in addition to the many more cases that go unreported. This course examines the neurobiological and psychological effects of trauma on children, adolescents, and their families. We investigate the impact of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect, war, terrorism, natural disasters, bereavement, and medical illness. In addition, we explore the concepts of vulnerability and resilience to discover why most affected children successfully traverse their trauma. Finally, we discuss the treatment modalities commonly employed with traumatized children, adolescents, and their families.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Adolescence is a remarkable time of growth and development; in just a few years, children transition dramatically towards adulthood across multiple domains. While adolescence is physically the healthiest period of the lifespan, it is also marked by an enormous rise in morbidity and mortality. This seeming paradox can be explained, in part, by biological and psychological changes during puberty that affect emotion regulation, cognition, and consequent risk-taking behavior. At the turn of the twentieth century, adolescence was described as a developmental period inevitably filled with “storm and stress.” In what ways does this vision of adolescence still apply? How should current scientific findings inform our understanding of the propensity for risk-taking behavior during this period (including substance use, increasing sexual activity, and disordered eating)? In exploring the factors that shape emotions, behavior, and emerging identity during adolescence, this course will examine such questions from biological and psychosocial perspectives.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks

Approximately 72 percent of youth in the United States report using alcohol at least once and 47 percent report using illicit drugs at least once by the time they reach 12th grade. While the majority of youth who use substances will not develop a substance abuse disorder, substance abuse and addiction are major public health problems affecting approximately 9 percent of the U.S. population age 12 and older. The majority of individuals with substance abuse disorders began using substances during adolescence or even childhood. This course briefly reviews the classes of psychoactive substances, including alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs and their basic neurophysiological effects before exploring the historical, social, and psychological factors related to substance use and abuse in adolescents and children. The second half of the course considers substance abuse prevention, treatment, and policy related to children and adolescents.

Child/Adoles Mental Hlth Stds (Undergraduate)
4 credits – 15 Weeks