Chapter 9 discusses the importance of supporting your partner or co-parent and gives some suggestions for how this can be done. We also discuss how to access further help or support for yourselves if needed.

Attempts to objectively measure intelligence in Western societies date back to the mid-nineteenth century. From the start, some researchers were determined to demonstrate that intelligence is inherited, and some ethnic groups have relatively low intelligence. On the basis of intelligence test scores, some psychologists have argued that immigration from certain countries must be restricted because people in those countries have low intelligence and their coming to the United States and other Western countries would lower the host population intelligence level. It has also been argued that women with low intelligence are having more children, but women with higher intelligence are having fewer children, and this is causing a decline in the intelligence of the general population. In these discussions, the focus has been on traditional measures of intelligence, which use one indicator of intelligence (IQ score). But more recent research is demonstrating that intelligence is multiple, rather than singular. Second, IQ scores are increasing, not decreasing. These findings show the power of context to shape (what is assumed to be) intelligence.

As the science of human behavior and its global reach, psychology is perfectly positioned to address the major challenges facing humankind, including growing wealth concentration and inequality, the plight of the global poor, global warming, and intergroup conflicts and wars. But the causal-reductionist model monopolizing mainstream psychology does not allow for progress along these lines, which require attention to collective processes and a 'from societies to cells' approach. In order to make real progress, psychology must abandon causal-reductionism. The power of the context, and of poverty in particular, to shape human behavior must become central to psychology. Second, psychology must be extended to become the science of both causal and normative behavior. Not all behvaior is causally determined, and by also incorporating normatively regulated behavior psychology will become a far more effective and comprehensive science.

Chapter 22 discusses drug and alcohol difficulties and disorders in young people and examines the overlap of these problems with other mental health difficulties and disorders.

Poverty has an important impact on cognitive processes and decision-making, but this topic is neglected in mainstream psychology and almost completely absent from the standard introductory psychology textbooks. The causal-reductionist model of mainstream psychology leads to a focus on intra-personal characteristics. If this perspective is adopted to examine the psychology of poverty, the result is more 'blaming the victim,' in the sense that the characteristics of individuals (personality, intelligence, motivation, and so on) would be used to explain poverty. In this sense, psychology is ideology. That is, psychology serves to justify the status quo, depicting the poor and the rich as meriting their positions on the basis of intra-personal characteristics. The emerging research on psychology and cognition demonstrated that poverty in important ways shapes cognitive functioning.

Mainstream psychology has historically neglected group and intergroup processes, instead giving priority to individual and intra-individual processes. But individuals are socialized within collectives, and the normative system that regulates human lives is already in place and a powerful force before the individual arrives in this world. Each of us takes shape in large part through our environmental conditions, with social class being an central part of these conditions. Research on conformity and obedience demonstrated that most of us most of the time conform to group-established norms and obey authority figures. But the difference across social classes is extremely important: lower-class individuals live according to norms and rules largely put in place by higher-class individals. In short, the rich set the rules by which the poor have to live. Mainstream psychology is now giving some attention to ethnic groups and gender, but social class and poverty remain neglected.

Chapter 5 discusses some of the groups of children and young people who are most vulnerable to mental health challenges. These include children and young people with intellectual disabilities; children and young people with physical health difficulties; children and young people with gender identity difficulties and a range of sexual orientations as well as young carers.

The causal-reductionist approach of traditional psychology has resulted in the focus being only on System M (Micro) personality, which assumes intrapersonal characteristics to be the source of consisteancies in behavior. But there is an almost complete neglect of System E (Extended) personality, which sees contextual macro factors and particularly social class as a strong source of consistancy in behavior. Almost all of the data for personality assessment intruments in mainstream psychology are derived from expressed attitudes, not actual behaviors. This data has been used to argue that there are certain universal traits underlying personality; the number of these traits has changed over time, but the latest trend is to argue that there are five universal traits. On the one hand, the number and nature of traits is a reflection of the research methods and instruments used. On the other hand, the explanation of behavior as shaped by intra-personal personality traits derives from the causal-reductionist nature of mainsteram psychology, with social class and poverty neglected.

Chapter 2 explores lifestyle factors which have a significant impact on children’s and young people’s mental health, including sleep, nutrition, exercise and movement, technology, bullying and academic pressures and alcohol and drugs.

Chapter 1 examines a range of biological processes which affect mental health, including attachment, genes and inheritance, the developing brain and puberty.

Chapter 20 explains what neurodevelopmental conditions are. We describe the huge variability in presentation and severity of neurodevelopmental conditions. We give examples of common neurodevelopmental conditions and explain tics disorders (including Tourette’s) and autism spectrum conditions in more detail. ADHD is discussed in more detail in the next chapter. We discuss how autism is assessed and managed and what caregiving adults can do to help autistic children and young people.