Annotated Bibliography 7

David Lee

Ms. Chawkat

Independent Research P.3

20 January, 2022

CDC. "Data and Statistics on Children's Mental Health." Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, cdc, 22 Mar. 2021, www.cdc.gov/
childrensmentalhealth/data.html. Accessed 20 Jan. 2022.

This source is a compilation of multiple surveys and studies related to children’s health. It begins by
discussing the statistics of mental disorders in US Children, and their relation with other mental disorders. For
example, how many children have anxiety, how many of those kids also have depression, etc. After this is
continues by going in-depth about potential factors that can affect these statistics, such as healthcare. It finishes
by talking about how access to mental health treatment makes a difference and comes to the conclusion that
mental health issues in the United State’s youth population are growing.
The author, the CDC organization, is qualified to discuss mental health issues in the youth population
because their credentials include being a national/federal public health agency under the Department of health
and human services, and their contact information is included in the article.
Written one year ago, this source is current on the topic of the growing mental health problems in the
children of the United States.
The author of this article thoroughly evaluated all sides of the issue. For example, they acknowledge that
the method that they collected the data with had several limitations and that the diagnosis potential inaccuracy
should be taken into account, and then address that opposing viewpoint by saying that that issue only affects the
rates, which is but one of the aspects of the article. Building on to this, it might mean that the issue is even
worse than predicted instead of better, with there still being undiagnosed people. This inclusion shows that the
article’s author acknowledges alternative viewpoints because they understand their own limitations and pros
and cons, and have taken them into account.
The information contained in the source can be verified elsewhere. For example, the author says
millions of American children suffer from various mental health issues, which can be corroborated by Perou R.
and his co-authors in his publication Mental health surveillance among children, in which he says that there are
millions of children living in the United States that live with depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism, Tourettes, and
other problems.
 The purpose of this article is to bring awareness to the growing population of those suffering from
mental issues. The audience is parents and teachers. The article is appropriate for this purpose and audience
because it enlightens children’s parents and teachers of potential problems their wards may be facing. For
example, the document explicitly says that early diagnosis is highly recommended and families should get in
contact with mental health treatment providers if possible.