Understanding Children's Mental Health

Mahjazee Ruiz, Verrazzano Class of 2025, completed major in Psychology and minor in Dance

For my capstone, I wanted to focus on an area that really aligned with my passions and interests, something I felt very strongly about. I've always been motivated to work with children and adolescents in my future career, and I have also always been a big advocate for mental health awareness in our society and communities. Focusing on the minimal attention that children's mental health receives would be very suited and important research for me.

My expectations for this capstone experience were pretty high, as I had never written or done this much research on my own, and that reality was a little daunting and overwhelming when I realized how big the project actually was. I think the hardest part for me was structuring all my information in the most relevant order and in a way that cohesively flowed, because there was so much information I had gathered.

At times, when working with my mentor, I found it hard to take out things I had written or edit and change them, because I believed every piece of information was important. Some things made more sense than others when developing the idea and structure for my research, so I had to make sure I was purposeful with the information I included to keep the goal of my research clear.

Finding the specific sub-topics I would include about children's mental health research was also quite challenging since many areas of children’s mental health didn't necessarily have that much research done on them, especially in terms of early diagnosis and interventions.

Not having a sufficient amount of research made the process take longer than I wanted and was a little frustrating. But the easiest thing for me about this entire project was writing it. It came so naturally to me to talk about something I would genuinely advocate for. When you speak from your heart, the words flow effortlessly, and that was one of the things that I most enjoyed from this research.

As someone who has struggled with mental health since a young age, this capstone hit close to home. I could relate to the need for identifying mental health needs in children, because when I was a kid having someone there and different outlets of expression helped me through a lot of difficult times.

As a child, it’s challenging to understand your emotions, especially if they are due to some sort of mental challenge. The environment that you come from can be evident in the way a child copes with their emotions and feelings. It was important for me to highlight the basis that there is not being enough care for specific groups, with emphasis on underdeveloped and marginalized communities.

One thing we fight for in this world is equality on all fronts. But how often is the need for children’s mental health advertised? Upon the completion of my capstone, I’ve noticed I have become much more aware of what society should do to navigate a healthier and more emotionally stable world for our children. Awareness and knowledge are where the growth begins, to help and nurture the minds of children for happier and more stable lives.