What can we learn from hunter-gatherers about children’s mental health?
Apr 11, 2023, 11:23 AM
In this Papers Podcast, Dr. Nikhil Chaudhary and Dr. Annie Swanepoel discuss their co-authored JCPP paper ‘Editorial Perspective: What can we learn from hunter-gatherers about children’s mental health? An evolutionary perspective’.
DOI: 10.13056/acamh.23572
In this Papers Podcast, evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Nikhil Chaudhary and consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Annie Swanepoel discuss their co-authored JCPP paper ‘Editorial Perspective: What can we learn from hunter-gatherers about children’s mental health? An evolutionary perspective’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13773).
The paper explores a possibility that some common aspects of hunter-gatherer childhoods could help families in economically developed countries.
There is an overview of the paper, methodology, key findings and implications for practice.
Discussion points include;
In this Papers Podcast, evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Nikhil Chaudhary and consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Annie Swanepoel discuss their co-authored JCPP paper ‘Editorial Perspective: What can we learn from hunter-gatherers about children’s mental health? An evolutionary perspective’ (doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13773).
The paper explores a possibility that some common aspects of hunter-gatherer childhoods could help families in economically developed countries.
There is an overview of the paper, methodology, key findings and implications for practice.
Discussion points include;
- The importance of comparing hunter-gatherer childhoods to the childhoods we see in economically developed countries (referred to as WEIRD countries).
- What the acronym WEIRD stands for.
- The caveats to be aware of when comparing hunter-gather childhoods to WEIRD childhoods.
- The types of different approaches to childcare that emerge from comparing hunter-gatherer childhoods to WEIRD childhoods.
- The potential implications of the different approached to childcare on child and adolescent mental health.
- The implications on education systems in WEIRD countries.
- The potential policy implications and implications for CAMH professionals.
In this series, we speak to authors of papers published in one of ACAMH’s three journals. These are The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP); The Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) journal; and JCPP Advances.