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Evidence Based Practice

Denisa Llangos
02/25/14
Accessing& Using Evidence in SW Practice
Camp, SW 3810
Ey8514

Evidence Based Practice

Problem Description
As new social worker we have to work with a variety of populations and diversity. It is important
that we are open to many ideas and situations in everyday basis. An area that needs help indeed
is the aging population. That is the population that we all in some time in our lives have touched
on, weather it is at work or family members. What is also important is that we often forget other
populations as well, like childhood and adolescence. When searching for this topic it really
caught my eye that this particular population often gets ignored, let alone and a population where
patience isnt been used appropriately. Depression is one of the most commonly occurring
disorders in childhood and adolescence. Research from the past two decades has shown that
every young children gets clinically depressed and the rates of diagnosable depression in the
early adolescence years. Depression that begins in childhood and adolescent years is most likely
to be associated with later, recurring depressive episodes than depression beginning in adulthood.
Furthermore, episodes of depression in childhood and adolescence increase the chances of other
negative mental health outcomes and reduce the likelihood of attaining age appropriate of
cognitive, social and emotional level of development milestones. Depression in childhood and
adolescence is a serious disorder, worthy of our attention to be able to understand the nature of
such experience. (Allen-Meares, 2003). Often we miss these symptoms thinking that is nothing
but in reality focusing in childhood and adolescent depression is more important than anything in
todays era, as they are the future generation. Anything such as poverty, suicide, disorders etc
have something that has triggered it since when people were younger and their heritage in most
of the cases. So starting this early at a younger age may result in better professional help and a
better understanding depression at its early stages. Childhood and adolescence depression usually
links to adult depression which is dangerous and could be a lifetime issue if not controlled.

Evidence Based Practice

Summary of the evidence
In Early Childhood and Adversity and Adolescence Depression: The Mediating role of
continued stress by N.A. Hazel article explains a bit about, various conceptualizations of the
link between childhood adversity and later depression is been offered, most have not accounted
for the possibility that early adversity predicts continuing stress proximal to depression onset.
This, the present study tested the possible mediating role of recent stress in the association
between early adversity and depression in late adolescence. This is a very interesting article
because it does capture a bit about adolescence and early childhood and how the stress and
depression is passed on and continued anywhere from 5 years to 20 years of age without
differential cultural. The results of the study that was made in the children was that the total
youth stress burden at age 15 years mediated the effect of early adversity on depression between
ages 15 and 20 years, and none of the observed relationships were moderated by onset of
depression prior to age 15 years. (Hazel, 2014) I believe that stress and early ages in depression
start at any age there is no age limit for it but I strongly agree that it does start early and it does
become a much longer and a deeper process if left untreated. Furthermore, early adversity may
be a marker of continuing exposure to negative stressors, such that those with exposure to
childhood negative events and circumstances are more likely to continue to be exposed to
stressful events and circumstance especially adolescents who are still living at home. (Hazel,
2014) In the article Repeated Exposure to Stress across the Childhood
Adolescent Period Alters Rats Anxiety- and Depression-Like Behaviors in
Adulthood: The Importance of Stressor Type and Gender article continues of
explaining depression but in a whole different level including adulthood to be

Evidence Based Practice

able to point out the differences also in gender type which they tested on
rats.

In their study, chronic mild stress across the childhoodadolescent period led to depression-like
responses in adulthood, whereas severe sporadic stress was associated with increases in both
anxiety- and depression-related behaviors. Further, the depression-like responses were observed
in the female, but not male, rats, whereas the anxiety-like responses were observed in rats of both
sexes. Depression in the clinic is twice as common in women as in men, and this sex difference
emerges in late childhood. Of specific relevance to the present findings, prominent theories for
the gender difference in depression point to higher stress sensitivity in women as a primary
mechanism. Anxiety and most anxiety disorders are also more common in girls and women.
(Pohl, 2014) What I liked about this article is that the levels of stress and depression differ when
it comes to gender; females tend to have higher level of stress. Results are that the findings
underscore the importance of considering gender and stressor type when examining the impact of
prior chronic stress on behavioral responding. Of more importance, they raise the possibility that
chronic stress throughout the childhoodadolescent period leads to relatively long-lasting
changes in emotionality. Although it does not address ethical and cultural concerns it does have a
clear understanding of the experiment and the study. On this next article I choose was also
focused in childhood and adolescence depression but from also a family type of setting and its
health problems. Findings of the study in the article Effects of childhood conduct problems and
family adversity on health, health behaviors, and service use in early adulthood: Tests of
developmental pathways involving adolescent risk taking and depression show that conduct
problems predicted later conduct problems and risk taking, both of which were significant

Evidence Based Practice

Predictors of later health, mental health, conduct problems, health risks, and service use
outcomes. Family adversity predicted only adolescent internalizing, although internalizing
at age 14 was itself a predictor of poor health, depression, and greater use of services at age 27.
(Herrenkohl, 2014)
Intervention
Even though this articles and journals are very recent and peer reviewed I had a very difficult
time finding articles that did do intervention in the population that I did my population on. I
wasnt very interesting this subject and as I hear people they often focus on certain obvious in
need of help populations and maybe sometimes need to look and observe other options also and
so children and adolescence depression is another subject that now I am interested in. The
intervention that I would do for this particular population in very serious need is that I would
want to open more agencies that are more out there to help these children in need not only in
schools but also locally. I would like to investigate more into the family and the children free of
cost and raise charities that would help with children and adolescent depression. I was a teen
myself and so have been all of us and we know that is getting worse and worse and its time for
us to help before it is too late. I also believe that the government should be more included in this
topic as making the school counseling more effective and stronger to hire more social workers
not just one per school as she or him will not have time to focus in every child or teen that comes
to his or her door.
Summery
Evidence based practice in my population of interest is an advantage because not only you need
to face these issues and population face to face but you also need to be prepared on how to

Evidence Based Practice

handle and have more knowledge as a social worker to make a change with their amount of
research and as much study and evidence as we possibly can.

References
Hazel, N. A., et al. "Early Childhood Adversity and Adolescent Depression: The
Mediating Role of Continued Stress."Psychological medicine 38.4 (2008): 5819. ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Herrenkohl, Todd I., et al. "Effects of Childhood Conduct Problems and Family Adversity
on Health, Health Behaviors, and Service use in Early Adulthood: Tests of Developmental
Pathways Involving Adolescent Risk Taking and Depression."Development and
psychopathology 22.3 (2010): 655-65. ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
Pohl, Joanna, et al. "Repeated Exposure to Stress Across the Childhood-Adolescent
Period Alters Rats' Anxiety- and Depression-Like Behaviors in Adulthood: The Importance of
Stressor Type and Gender." Behavioral neuroscience 121.3 (2007): 462. ProQuest. Web. 25 Feb.
2014.