Development of Anxiety and Mood Disorders in Children
What to Know and How to Help
The percentage of children and adolescents experiencing anxiety and mood disorders is surprisingly high—around 17%, with the likelihood that even more cases are going unreported. As family members and community leaders, how do you know when a young person in your life is experiencing the onset of an emotional, mental or behavioral disorder? It’s a crucial question since half of all mental health conditions typically begin at age 14, and many cases can be difficult to detect and treat.
More Information
In this Well Moment webinar, listen to Autumn Kujawa, Ph.D., a Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor in Psychology and Human Development, and director of the Mood, Emotion & Development Lab, as she discusses:
- The signs of anxiety and mood disorders in children and adolescents
- How to identify early risk factors for mood disorders in young people
- The treatment options for mood and anxiety disorders
About the Experts
Autumn Kujawa, Ph.D., is a Vanderbilt University Assistant Professor in Psychology and Human Development, and director of the Mood, Emotion & Development Lab.
Autumn Kujawa, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and director of the Mood, Emotion, & Development Lab. She earned her Ph.D. from Stony Brook University and completed her clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship in the neuroscience of mental health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. Kujawa’s research examines how children and adolescents process and respond to emotion, and the ways in which alterations in emotional processing may contribute to the development of mood disorders. Her work focuses on a range of emotions, including reward responsiveness, threat reactivity and regulation, and sensitivity to social feedback. Within these areas, she aims to:
- Refine measurement of these processes, integrating self-report, behavioral, physiological, and imaging methods.
- Chart the development of emotion in order to better understand the emergence of mood disorders within the context of typical development.
- Identify alterations in emotional processing that contribute to vulnerability for mood disorders in combination with stress, certain parenting styles, and neurobiological mechanisms.
- Improve long-term outcomes for children and adolescents by identifying more specific targets for treatment and predictors of treatment response.
Better Conversations. Better Health.
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