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The Epidemiology of Mental Disorders in African American Children and Adolescents

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Handbook of Mental Health in African American Youth

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Child and Family Studies ((SSCFS))

Abstract

One in five children and adolescents experience significant symptoms of emotional distress and approximately 10 % of youth suffer from emotional disorders, which impair their personal, school, and family lives. African American youth may experience even higher rates of some psychiatric distress due to a number of environmental challenges they face that place them at risk, including a lack of access to mental health services. Yet little is known about the mental health of African American youth and the risk or protective factors they may experience. In this chapter we provide an overview of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders among African American or Black youth, with special attention to within group ethnic (i.e., African American and Caribbean Black youth when available) and gender differences, along with an assessment of available data and consideration of what is known about mental health service use for African American children and adolescents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Cleopatra Howard Caldwell

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5295, USA

    Shervin Assari

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical Center, 2115 Wisconsin Avenue Suite 120, Washington, DC, 20007, USA

    Alfiee M. Breland-Noble

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  1. Cleopatra Howard Caldwell
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  2. Shervin Assari
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  3. Alfiee M. Breland-Noble
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Correspondence to Cleopatra Howard Caldwell .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgetown University Medical Cente, Department of Psychiatry, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Alfiee M. Breland-Noble

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School, RICHMOND, Virginia, USA

    Cheryl S. Al-Mateen

  3. Medical College of Georgia, Augusta Univ, Dept of Psychiatry & Health Behavior, Augusta, GA, Georgia, USA

    Nirbhay N. Singh

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Caldwell, C.H., Assari, S., Breland-Noble, A.M. (2016). The Epidemiology of Mental Disorders in African American Children and Adolescents. In: Breland-Noble, A., Al-Mateen, C., Singh, N. (eds) Handbook of Mental Health in African American Youth. Springer Series on Child and Family Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25501-9_1

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