Research Paper on "Oppositional Defiant Disorder"

Research Paper 14 pages (3841 words) Sources: 15

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Puberty in both males and females involves many biological changes. It is a hugely significant transition stage through which youth go as they grow into adults with legal age. Changes that occur during puberty identify mainly in four ways; (1) physically; (2) socially; (3) emotionally; and (3) cognitively. Some of the changes that occur are change in body shape, hormonal growth, and mental growth. The period of adolescence comes along with numeral predicted issues which might rather alter one's life if not properly natured. It is the duty of the counseling professionals, parents/guardians and the concerned individuals to counter the issues. Some of the challenges experienced include substance (drug) abuse, psychology depression, alcoholism, early pregnancies, just, but to mention a few. This paper discusses the details.

Current Issues Facing Adolescents Today

Adolescents encounter numerous challenges during their puberty period. Life changes that specialists define physically, emotionally, socially as well as cognitively, are the main causes of these challenges. Details of adolescent issues are as below.

Adolescent Depression

Psychology depression definitively is a disease that causes affliction to the psyche of a normal human. The reaction to such is that the afflicted party tends to counteract abnormally against others and sometimes themselves. This being factual, adolescent depression heavily connects to teen suicides all around the world. This case currently presents responsibility for more youth deaths victims being 15-19 years of age mostly. Such statistics are in comparison head to head with the likes of cancer and cardiovascular disease in the top most causes of death list. Considering this fact, depression in the subject age group is still considerably under diagnosed. This leads to other mishaps like work and school difficulties, and personal adjustment continuing into adulthood in some cases. Mood disorders in children are hard to clarify because the symptoms take on different forms compared to adults. Puberty is mainly a time of mood swings, emotional turmoil, and gloomy thoughts including heightened sensitivity. The concerned parties are mostly rebellious and always experimenting. Diagnosis of adolescent depression, therefore, should not only rely on the physician's credibility, but also those of their parents, guardians, and friends, individuals that interact with the patient. Attributes such as anxiety often come along with mood disorders (Lasko, 1996, pg 53).

Most cases of adolescent depression reported are mild a sequence of some psychotherapy session being an effective form of treatment. These sessions involve deep listening and issuance of encouragement and advice to the patient as well as the supporters. There are cases of comorbidity and possible pathology in teenagers including anxiety. Such should be tested for and treated in time. There are cases of depression that are otherwise serious and require medication without which can escalate becoming fatal to one's health. Despite the fact that most teenagers successfully overcome psychological and emotional obstacles, it is proper to seek professional advice as stress overwhelms others. Adolescents diagnosed with depression can receive help from a number of subjects during recovery. Such include school counselors, parents, teachers, and health professionals.

Adolescent Eating Behavior

Puberty as a life development stage has many changes that may be biological, socio-cultural or cognitive. Adolescents are much more vulnerable compared to adults as health behaviors kick in as a tremendously influential factor in shaping up their future lives. Today's adolescent is due to a number of unhealthy indulgences that would rather distort their bright future. Some of the behaviors include; smoking, unhealthy sex, and drug abuse just, but to mention a few. Such actions in life, especially at puberty, can lead to immediate and drastic consequences, but there exists other unhealthy mannerisms such as unhealthy eating habits and inadequate physical activity adding to the risk causative factors (Stevenson, 2007, pg 424).

The adolescents of today engage in "destructive" eating behaviors putting their lifelines on timelines considering the numerous diseases that might occur in their later life. These diseases and conditions include; cancer, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease among others. The habit of many adolescents today diminishes of supremely fundamental physical activity or exercise while engaging unhealthy diet habits. Such occurrences have highlighted nutritional issues as a precise, valuable discussion topic when it comes to adolescents (Bares, 2011, pg 227).

Recent research reports show that cardiovascular disease starts at the childhood stage. A compelling example is the study conducted by Krummel, Fitch, Neal, Gonzales, and Kelly as they examined a total of 279 children. The report stated that over 23% of children are vulnerable to cardiovascular disease. This was despite the fact that fat, fiber, cholesterol, and energy intake was the same. Children need to change their diets in order avoid cardiovascular disease. High risk individuals should seek proper medical guidelines with the aim of reducing risk for the disease.

Although most adolescents are knowledgeable of the importance of having a healthy diet, they still maintain destructive eating habits namely; irregular meals, meal skipping, fast food, and excessive snacking. Peer influence, employment, media influence, family influence are some of the causes of such habits (Mahan & Escott-Stump, 2008, pg 35). It is noteworthy that counselors, parents, teachers, peers and other caring adults sensitize the importance of observing one's nutrition to the adolescents whose concern is with "fitting in" and trying to take on adult-like life. Bad eating habits play a crucial role in development of obesity issues, which in turn contributes to diseases like the cardiovascular disease (Doomwaard et al., 2012, pg 1372).

Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

This is one of the commonest of challenges facing the10-19-year-old age group. It is prominent in developing countries compared to established states. This means that the prevalence of the argued case is higher in the sub-Saharan Africa compared to European states. The new communication systems all over the world expose most adolescents to widespread ways of thinking. Many adolescents engage in premarital sex before reaching the age of 18. This creates a leeway for the HIV / AIDS virus among the many sexual transmitted diseases in most states (Juarez et al., 2008, pg 241). Factors contributing to pre-marital sexual indulgence differ all wide round ranging from increased exposure period of the risk of engagement to increased rate of sexual initiation, in the case of African countries.

As adolescents engage in premarital sexual practices, there is the likelihood of high risk creation in terms of unintended pregnancies, unplanned or early births, and unsafe abortion. Adolescent girls are the most vulnerable parties to the risks arising from unprotected sexual activity. The latter applies mainly to the African countries still conservative. Hormonal changes that occur in the body of a teenage mainly trigger such behaviors. It is responsible for physical changes, which are mainly visible to the females i.e. The body of the female becomes voluptuous causative of attracting unwanted attention from the males (Bazargan, 2010, pg 288).

In order to guide interventions concerning adolescent sexual health, professionals apply Social and Cognitive-based models. Such models boost the intervention for comprehensive risk reduction. Counseling against irresponsible sexual behavior involves disseminating outcome information to the client and the target group at large (such information includes pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, etc.), skill development, personalization of skills, and enhancement of social support (Nickerson et al., 2006, pg 683).

Considering the area of risk prevention and reduction programs, interventions are seemingly the preferable means in promotion of condom use uptake. This rides along with the successful reduction of sexual partners in numbers. Promotion of abstinence interventions are less effective compared to those that promote the use of contraception. Most of the irresponsible sexual behavior promotion interventions seek the common ground of changing an individual's health behavior by altering their barriers and attitudes for the betterment of their lives. These interventions have proved to be effective in achieving sexual behavior change for many individuals. Strict follow-up is necessary to ensure that the subjects maintain the changes that develop during the intervention.

Substance Abuse

Adolescents and substance abuse is increasingly becoming a discussion issue all over the world. There are obvious and avoidable health issues that are a result of substance abuse with many people neglecting the long-term effects posed by the abuse of drugs and alcohol (Danielson, 2012, pg 628). This paper highlights some of the causes, effects, treatment, and the importance of treatment for youth engaging with substance abuse. Despite being able to obtain hard drugs such as cocaine with little strain, most statistics show that the current, crucial problem with most adolescents is wit alcohol abuse (Turkum, 2011, pg 128). Most parents in the current society deny the incidences that their children are victims of problems concerning substance abuse, preferably terming the case as a behavioral problem.

One of the commonest sign that will drive the parents to seeking help is deteriorating school grades. Most substance abuse patients reportedly come from disintegrated homes, meaning that they have endured poverty life for the better part of their lives. One of the main concern issues with adolescents engaging in substance abuse is that the trait might be inherent with the… READ MORE

How to Reference "Oppositional Defiant Disorder" Research Paper in a Bibliography

Related Research Papers:

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) Article Review

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), normal children are expected to whine, talk back, argue, disobey and occasionally defy their parents.… read more

Article Review 5 pages (1575 words) Sources: 5 Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Oppositional Defiant Disorder Essay

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (OCD) refers to a spectrum disorder on the low end of all those disorders linked to the general disorder group Conduct Disorder. In a sense ODD is… read more

Essay 5 pages (1338 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD Term Paper

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder



Theories of child development and guidelines for parents are not cast in stone.



They are constantly changing and adapting to… read more

Term Paper 17 pages (6369 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

Psychology Definitions Psychosis = Loss of Contact Research Paper

Psychology Definitions

Psychosis = Loss of contact with reality.

Downward drift = Lower achievement than parents or family members in terms of social class, employment, and financial stability.

Positive vs.… read more

Research Paper 2 pages (580 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD Term Paper

Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder-ADHD is considered to be a general psychiatric problem occurring in childhood and frequently continue into the adulthood. (Szymanski; Zolotor, 114) the… read more

Term Paper 20 pages (7308 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>