Goals of children entering child and adolescent mental health services: agreement with parents and the link between goal orientation, goal motives, anxiety and depression

This thesis consists of two major sections: a systematic review and an empirical paper. A brief description of each section, along with details of how the sections are linked, will be provided in this introductory chapter. Systematic Review Theoretical standpoints are increasingly implicating goal processes in affective disorders and wellbeing (Johnson, Carver & Fulford, 2010). Goal processes include how an individual orientates their goals or the motives driving goal pursuit. For example, an individual may “want to maintain friendships” (approach orientation) or “not want to lose friendships” (avoidance orientation) because “it is really important to them” (autonomous motivation) or because “they would feel ashamed if they lost friends” (controlled motivation). Research suggests that these aspects of goals have an impact on wellbeing and levels of emotional distress irrespective of the goal content, in this case friendships (Elliot, Sheldon & Church, 1997; Miquelon & Vallerand, 2008). This review uses systematic procedures to establish the current state of empirical research that investigates the relationship between goal processes and emotional distress and wellbeing in children and adolescents. There has been a paucity of research examining this link in children and adolescents. This is despite the potential that such knowledge could contribute to the understanding of the development and maintenance of mental health problems. This understanding is particularly important in children and adolescents due to the advantage of early intervention in treating mental health problems (Keiling et al., 2011). This review is intended for submission to Developmental Review and so is written in accordance with the author guidelines for this journal which broadly follow the American Psychological Association (APA) publication manual (2011). Empirical Paper The second major section of this thesis is an original empirical research project, again interested in the goals of children and adolescents. More ...