Mental Health and Behavioral Intervention for Children at Risk
A Special Issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 June 2027 | Viewed by 5791
Editors
Interests: organizational behavior; human resource management; promote the assessment and planning of support needs from the perspective of organizational management
Interests: enhancing resilience promotes well-being; the acquisition of development rights and adolescent behavior assessment
Interests: depression and social anxiety; the efficacy; mechanism and promotion of cognitive behavioral therapy; qualitative psychology
Interests: health social psychology; positive psychology; child and adolescent development psychological measurement and assessment
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue focuses on the mental health and behavioral patterns of high-risk children, aiming to explore their underlying psychological mechanisms, effective intervention strategies, and long-term development outcomes from a multi-dimensional psychological perspective. Children at risk, including those without effective guardianship, children with autism spectrum disorder, orphaned children, and other high-risk groups, face unique challenges in emotional regulation, social adaptation and cognitive development due to long-term exposure to adverse environments or neurodevelopmental differences. These challenges not only affect their current sense of happiness but also their long-term development trajectory. Therefore, it is crucial to explore targeted psychological intervention measures based on scientific theories.
This Special Issue will reveal the dynamic interaction between individual psychological processes and environmental factors in shaping the mental health of these children, as well as advance evidence-based behavioral intervention strategies. Its scope mainly includes three inter-related aspects. Firstly, by using developmental psychology, we study the cumulative impact of intervention sensitive periods and risk factors at specific ages on psychological resilience. From the perspective of cognitive psychology, we explore the positive psychology of children under difficult circumstances, investigating potential mechanisms such as impaired social information processing in abused children or executive function deficits in children with autism, aiming to interpret the behavioral manifestations of at-risk groups of children. We give priority to empirical research on psychological intervention, including cognitive behavioral therapy, play therapy, and parent-mediated intervention for children. The Special Issue will analyze how these intervention measures are consistent with the theoretical framework. We encourage research on standardized psychological assessment tools to identify mental health risks and conduct longitudinal studies to track the long-term impact of intervention measures on development outcomes.
The existing literature in this field often has two limitations: First, most studies focus on a single risk factor and do not systematically explore the interaction of multiple factors. Secondly, some studies focus more on describing practical technologies, and there is still room for improvement in exploring theoretical foundations. This Special Issue will respond to these topics through open academic dialogue and encourage researchers to integrate theory and practice from multiple perspectives. We welcome the integration of insights from developmental psychology to explore the unique psychological needs and development patterns of at-risk children at different age stages. We look forward to analyzing the deep-seated psychological mechanisms behind behaviors from the perspective of cognitive psychology. Potential authors are also encouraged to apply the biopsychosocial model of health psychology to explore the dynamic interaction between mental states and physical health. We look forward to building a bridge to enable the integration of theory and practice through such academic exploration, on the one hand, promoting the scientific and standardized development of psychological assessment tools and intervention programs and on the other hand, providing a diverse scientific basis for policymakers to design more targeted support systems, jointly enriching understanding of mental health and behavioral intervention for children at risk.
We invite empirical articles and systematic reviews to advance this interdisciplinary agenda. We welcome relevant scholars to provide a bridge between theory, practice, and policy in this key area; enhance our understanding of how psychological science can offer more precise, culturally appropriate, and sustainable intervention measures for children at risk; promote the development of global knowledge and localized solutions; and, ultimately, contribute to their healthy development.
Dr. Yean Wang
Prof. Dr. Guanghuai Zheng
Dr. Xinfeng Tang
Prof. Dr. Kuo Zhang
Prof. Dr. Xiaokang Lyu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- children at risk
- mental health
- depression
- health promotion services
- prevention
- behavioral intervention
- positive psychology of children in difficult circumstances
- cognitive behavioral mechanism
- psychological resilience
- longitudinal intervention study
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
