Child Health Psychology
A Biopsychosocial Perspective
- Julie Turner-Cobb - Bournemouth University, UK
Winner of the British Psychological Society Book Award 2017 - Textbook category
"A long overdue prioritisation of child and adolescent health psychology... Taking an interdisciplinary stance to a textbook can be a difficult task. However, despite introducing a variety of concepts, this text is very accessible and a joy to read. A use of both old and new case studies and examples helps to chart the progress in the field... an excellent book for health psychology modules and postgraduate teaching."
- The Psychologist
"This book is well evidenced, has a sound theoretical and scientific basis, and at the same time is insightful and readable – reflecting the author’s enthusiasm for the topic. It will stimulate the reader to find out more about this fascinating area."
- Vivien Swanson, University of Stirling
"Engagingly written in a style that draws the reader in, it covers all the bases and provides an excellent introduction to the area."
- Paul D. Bennett, Swansea University
Child Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Perspective is the first sole-authored textbook dedicated to the topic of health psychology as it applies to children and adolescents, drawing on research from several related disciplines including psychoneuroimmunology and developmental psychobiology.
With an overarching biopsychosocial lifespan perspective, Turner-Cobb examines the effects of early life experience on health outcomes, as well as covering the experience of acute and chronic illness during childhood. Lots of helpful aids are provided per chapter including key learning objectives, textboxes putting spotlights on key pieces of research, lists of key concepts to revise, useful websites and further reading suggestions.
With a perspective designed to both inform and to challenge, this stimulating textbook will introduce you to the central relevance and many applications of child health psychology. It will be of interest to final year undergraduate and postgraduate students in health and clinical psychology, as well as to students in health sciences, nursing, and childhood studies.
Provides a long overdue prioritisation of child and adolescent health psychology, relating this to later functioning in a lifespan perspective... An invaluable aspect of this book is its research methods section: providing accessible details on psychobiological assessment, including stress, neurotransmitter and endocrine markers... Discussion is highlighted throughout by helpful figures charting biological aspects that many psychologists may be new to, such as the biological life cycle of stress, as well as complex theories and cognitions, such as young children's experiences of pain... Taking an interdisciplinary stance to a textbook can be a difficult task. However, despite introducing a variety of concepts, this text is very accessible and a joy to read. A use of both old and new case studies and examples helps to chart the progress in the field... an excellent book for health psychology modules and postgraduate teaching, providing an introduction to both child-focused research and biological measurements.
BPS members can read the full review here.
A comprehensive overview of how health psychology relates to children’s health is long overdue. Many of the theories within health psychology have been developed in relation to adult populations, and it is unclear how they might apply to children and young people at different developmental stages. This book is well evidenced, has a sound theoretical and scientific basis, and at the same time is insightful and readable – reflecting the author’s enthusiasm for the topic. It will stimulate the reader to find out more about this fascinating area.
Health psychology has lacked a text book focusing on child health psychology, but has now found one with this excellent text by Julie Turner-Cobb. Engagingly written in a style that draws the reader in, it covers all the bases and provides an excellent introduction to the area.
This is a welcome book which meets a long-neglected need in the field of child and adolescent welfare. It will be an invaluable reference for academics and clinical practitioners alike, but given that Dr Turner-Cobb writes in such an engaging and lucid style the book should appeal to general readers wishing to gain an understanding of this important topic. Thoroughly recommended.
I really cannot praise this textbook enough. Written specifically from a child health perspective, this textbook means that children and young people's nurses no longer need to adapt and apply adult health psychology to the child and young person, which is not easy to do and often not that applicable. This text would also be of use to students and practitioners working in the field of child and adolescent mental health, health visiting, school nursing and midwifery, as well as children and young people's nursing. The chapters are easy to read, accessible and of particular note are the suggested resources at the end of the chapter. Julie Turner-Cobb's enthusiasm for her subject area is clearly evident. Quite simply one of the best textbooks I've reviewed this year!
I find the book insightful, evidenced based and relevant to current child development practice. It will therefore be a good resource for information when teaching health professional and students underpinning issues, they will experience in practice.
Great to have a textbook that specifically focuses on health psychology with children and adolescents specifically. This is of use for both personal research and student supervision.
This book is more suited to health and social care learners rather then childcare. It doesnt cover all aspects of child health for the childcare course.
Mental health is an area where we need to become more aware as practitioners on what to look for and how we can work with children. This book has been beneficial in providing an insight into child phsychology.
Students are currently looking at Health Psychology and its relevance within health and social care settings students found this text very useful as a reference of research within their assignments.
Sage College Publishing
