Introduction Background Information Judd (2009) tells the story of a seven-year-old girl named Jani Schofield. When producers of Oprah Winfrey show lived with Jani’s family for one week, they realized just how hard the parents were struggling to bring her up together with her younger brother Bodhi. The parents told the producers how their daughter slips into ‘psychotic moments’ as a result of apparently harmless triggers such as calling her by her full name ‘January’. During such moments, the girl will instantly change from a sweet little angel to a shrieking and violent little girl. Michael and Susan Schofield narrate to the producers how they were forced to separate their two children to reduce the likelihood of the girl injuring the little boy during such moments. The children will spend the days together, but during the night, they will be boarded into different apartments each accompanied by one parent. Jani’s life is unlike that of any other seven-year-old girl. The parents narrate to the producers how their little daughter experiences many hallucinations and how she hears strange voices in her head. At times she will stare at one spot for a long time claiming to see things that are not visible to other people around her. Jani Schofield suffers from childhood schizophrenia. She is among the less than 1 in 30000 children under the age of eleven years who are diagnosed with the condition in the United States of America every year (Bender, 2010). The symptoms of this condition are not unlike those among adults suffering from the same condition. According to Maatai et al. (2011), approximately 1 percent of Americans suffer from this condition. They report hallucinations accompanied by irrational thoughts and at times, violent behavior like that reported in Jani above. Problem Statement Seese et al. (2010) define schizophrenia as a form of a mental disorder that is accompanied by breaking down of thought processes in the individual as well as other emotional disorders such as violence, extreme fear or withdrawal. Many patients suffering from this condition report incidences of auditory and visual hallucinations. Their speech and thinking processes are also disintegrated as indicated above. The patient also suffers from social and occupational dysfunctions as a result of their condition (Seese et al., 2010). This means that their social and occupational life is impaired as a result of the effects of the mental condition. Maatai et al. (2011) are of the view that most of the symptoms associated with schizophrenia appear during young adulthood. This is from the age of 12 and in some instances, even before. According to Bender (2010), about 0.3 to 0.7 percent of the world population suffers from schizophrenia. The condition can be diagnosed from behavioral observations made on the individual as well as from the experiences that are reported by the patient. The exact cause of this mental disorder is not well known. However, experts in this field are of the view that a combination of several factors may be the possible cause of the condition. This includes factors such as genetics, the social and psychological environment within which the individual is brought up as well as some other factors touching on the patient’s lifestyle such as abuse of drugs among others (Hardman, Drew & Egan, 2011). According to Maatai et al. (2011), childhood schizophrenia can also be regarded as early schizophrenia given the fact that it manifests itself during the early years of the patient’s life. As indicated above, the symptoms accompanying childhood schizophrenia are largely similar to those in adult schizophrenia, the only difference been the age of the patient. Schizophrenia occurring during the first 11 years of life is generally referred to as childhood schizophrenia although the age limit varies from one specialist to the other. On the other hand, schizophrenia occurring between 11 years and 18 years can be regarded as young adulthood or youth schizophrenia (Judd, 2009). Childhood schizophrenia is a topic that has attracted the interest of experts in youth affairs. This is given the fact that the condition has far reaching effects on the social and occupational life of the youth suffering from it. It is against this backdrop that this author is going to write this research paper. The research paper is going to address several issues surrounding childhood schizophrenia. The author is going to look at the probable causes of the condition, the effects it has on the child or young adult suffering from it, strategies to manage the condition among other issues. Causes of Childhood Schizophrenia As earlier indicated in this research paper, the exact cause of schizophrenia is not well known. However, experts agree that the probable causes of the condition among children are largely similar to the causes among adults. Another aspect of childhood schizophrenia that is little understood is why it develops early in life in some individuals while in others in develops later in life (Seese et al., 2010). A combination of biological and social factors is thought to be the major cause of childhood schizophrenia. This means that the child might inherit some schizophrenic genes from both or either of the parents and combine this with the social environment within which they are brought up. It also means that the schizophrenic genes may remain dormant in the child if the social environment within which the child is brought up is not conducive for their manifestation (Bender, 2010). Disruption of brain development in the child has been shown to arise from, among other factors, genetic disruptions and environmental stressors (Hardman et al., 2011). The genetic disruptions and environmental stressors can take place during pregnancy or early childhood, affecting the development of the child’s brain in that particular stage and later in life. The brain alterations arising from these factors may be subtle and in some cases negligible. However, they increase the likelihood of the child developing schizophrenia early in life. The environment to which the child is later exposed after birth interacts with the brain alterations to either increase or reduce the likelihood of the child developing schizophrenia. For example, the environmental factors may further damage the brain of the child increasing their likelihood to develo