Among the many things that affect children are mental health issues. As a result, some youth must seek mental health services. One mental health issue that adolescents act on or struggle with wanting to do is committing suicide. This behavior is the third well known cause of death among child and adolescents ranging from age 10 to 19 across the United States.

The attempts of suicide throughout adolescence turns into further morbidity such as consistent attempts causing a need for mental health services. Adolescence is a time period where you are encountering various changes. For example puberty. During puberty adolescents change mentally, physically, and emotionally. They often began to spend a lot of time focusing on how other view them, the way their body image may or may not be changing, and often find themselves of a n emotional roller coaster (Wu, Katic, & Bozena, 2010).

Once of the strengths of this article was the large sample size. Additionally, the authors noted that the subjects were of various racial-ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, perceived health status, gender, as well as family characteristics. All of these demographics were taken into consideration for the study.

A weakness of this article included the type of data collection. It was computer-assisted person interviews in the teens’ homes. I felt that if the teen had difficulty reading, they would have difficulty completing the information being asked. Since all of the information was obtained in this manner, the accuracy may be questionable. Also, although using both male and female participants is a strength, the weakness is that the majority of the individuals were female. In this study, 70% of the individuals described herself as female, however, the study did not state if the rest were male, or if some individuals described themselves as transgender. The study may not have given that as an option. Additionally, the authors noted that the measures of anxiety, depression, and disruptive behavior problems may not be adequate as they did not take into account the duration of symptoms or the impairment of the individuals. (Wu, Katic, Bozena, et al, 2010).

About 60 % to 80 % of adolescents have co-occurring mental health disorders. These adolescents are referred to treatment for substance abuse. Majority pf these children struggle with a combination of things such as family, school, and criminal involvement. Often these adolescents do not receive a level of support to prevent relapses.

According to the article about 20 billion per year is spent by Medicaid on mental health services and 1 billion for substance abuse for treatment. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration are two grants for substance abuse besides Medicaid. The downfall is that only half or little. This article showed strength in that it had a very large sample size for its study which can be generalized to larger population. The authors were able to show results with a significance of p <.001 due to the large sample size.

The subjects for this study all lacked private insurance. The authors broke down the subjects into the two categories of Medicaid eligible, and Medicaid non-eligible participants. They made no mention of individuals who were eligible, but had no coverage and for what reason. As part of secondary research, an ethical issue is providing relevant, useful information. Useful information in this article would have been to find out substantial reasons why those who are eligible were not obtaining the needed insurance.

Healthcare is definitely a battle these days. With the economy being at risk and people losing their jobs there are so many without healthcare for their families. Therefore the medical attention that children need to tackle some of these very issues continues to rise. As a result, certain issues go without getting the treatment they need which can affect other forms of development on down the line.

Depression and Internet Addiction in Adolescents
Children suffer with mental health issues. One to examine is the link between depression and internet addiction in adolescents. The country that has the highest internet infrastructures in South Korea. 98% of adolescents are using the Internet in South Korea has become a part of children and adolescent development. To add, trying to control the amount of time that youth may have to use something they enjoy can do a reverse affect causing them to desire it even more (Ha, J. H., Kim, S. Y., Bae, S. C., Bae, S., Kim, H., Sim, M. Cho, S. C., 2007).

Since the 1990s the use of internet has been observed. Research suggest that depression, substance related disorders, obsessive compulsive symptoms, low self-esteem, attention deflects, and psychotic delusion and impulsivity can be linked to the use of pathologic internet (Ha, J. H., Kim, S. Y., Bae, S. C., Bae, S., Kim, H., Sim, M, Cho, S. C., 2007). I have seen first- hand as a professional and as a parents how you taking something away can makes things worse as early as age three.

This article showed strength in that it had a sample size of 452 subjects were studied. This is a large number which can be generalized to large population of similar subjects within the same country. The researchers were able to determine that 98% of teens were currently using the internet, therefore, showing a strength in relevance of their subject matter. Subjects were given self-report inventories to determine the likelihood of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. These inventories are well known and substantiated.

Participants in this study were given as a self-reported questionnaire that took approximately 50 minutes to complete according to the authors. Given the average teenagers attention span, the accuracy of the last half of the questionnaire is considered a weakness as the participants may have rushed to complete it to get it done. Another weakness of this study is that it can’t be generalized to a population where internet usage by teens vary much beyond a 98% average. High internet usage would tend to correlate to a substantial length of time in which a population has been using the internet, thus increasing their overall use to that of a higher number, in this case, 98%. Rural communities with lower internet usage, or some in which there is limited use such as in northern Siberia, may tend to show opposite results from internet usage as they have limited time on the internet. That being said, another weakness of the study was that it didn’t show variance in the depression versus time spent on the internet.

As a parent I try to monitor the amount of internet use that my children have. For example, I allow a certain number of hours after school for educational purposes only, I block certain websites to ensure that their engaging in certain quality, and I remind her constantly about man are endangered through social networks. Adolescents today have become engaged in technology beyond computers. Some to include IPod on which they can text and use the internet, smart phones, and games such as the Wii and PlayStation which gives them access to shows that may also have inappropriate shows on them.

Although this article focuses on Korea. I am certain that adolescent in the United States suffer with some of these same issues. As a profession I strongly suggest that we tackle this issues to prevent it from spiraling into other forms of mental health issues. At times as adults we often look at certain types of behavior as a phase to find that it can definitely turn into an addiction.

• Deck, D., & Kelly, V. L. (2006). Medicaid eligibility and access to mental health services among adolescents in substance abuse treatment. Psychiatric Services, 57(2), 263-5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/213102377?accountid=27965
• Ha, J. H., Kim, S. Y., Bae, S. C., Bae, S., Kim, H., Sim, M., Cho, S. C. (2007). Depression and internet addiction in adolescents. Psychopathology, 40(6), 424-30. Retrieved from
  http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/233360520?accountid=27965
• Wu, P., PhD., Katic, Bozena J,M.P.H., M.P.A., Liu, X., PhD., Fan, B., M.D., & Fuller, C. J.,
  M.S. (2010). Mental health service use among suicidal adolescents: Findings from a U.S.
  national community survey. Psychiatric Services, 61(1), 17-24. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.library.capella.edu/docview/213075182?accountid=27965