Children's concepts of the mentally ill

One hundred sixty-eight children in grades three through six were asked to read vignettes describing the problematic behaviors of mentally ill children and adults. The schoolchildren then labeled the characters, attributed causes and motivations to their behaviors, and suggested possible treatments. Although only 27% of the children labeled vignette characters as mentally ill and 11% recommended psychiatric interventions, all the children recommended some kind of intervention. While slightly fewer than one-third (29%) of the children suggested that an adult intervene in some nonpsychiatric manner, 60% recommended some kind of child-initiated activity as an intervention. A developmental trend was evident in children's attribution of mental illness labels and recommendations for both psychiatric and adult nonpsychiatric interventions.