Psychosocial Impairment Associated With Anxiety in Children

Children identified as highly anxious and withdrawn by their teachers were compared to nonanxious children on independent measures of adjustment. From a sample of 325 children, 24 were identified who received extremely high teacher ratings on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist (RBPC) Anxiety-Withdrawal factor. When contrasted with children receiving low teacher ratings on the RBPC Anxiety-Withdrawal subscale, teacher-identified anxious children were found to demonstrate a broad range of psychosocial difficulties. As assessed by peer, teacher, and self-reports, anxious-withdrawn children showed impairment in peer relations and in levels of depression, self-esteem, attention, school performance, and social behavior when compared to nonanxious children. Overall, the present findings lend empirical support to the forms of psychopathology purported to be associated with childhood anxiety disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1980).

[1]  G. Bernstein,et al.  School phobia: the overlap of affective and anxiety disorders. , 1986, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.

[2]  R. Forehand,et al.  Characteristics of children with extreme scores on the children's depression inventory , 1984 .

[3]  B. Lahey,et al.  Are attention deficit disorders with and without hyperactivity similar or dissimilar disorders? , 1984, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.

[4]  B. Lahey,et al.  Correlates of depressed mood in normal children , 1983, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[5]  K. Dodge,et al.  Dimensions and types of social status: A cross-age perspective. , 1982 .

[6]  K. Abe,et al.  Age-Sex Trends of Phobic and Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents , 1981, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[7]  R. Deluty.  Children's Action Tendency Scale: a self-report measure of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and submissiveness in children. , 1979, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[8]  L. Greenhill,et al.  Prepubertal major depressive disorder: a pilot study. , 1978, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry.

[9]  I. Berg,et al.  An Evaluation of Hospital In-patient Treatment in Adolescent School Phobia , 1978, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[10]  S. Asher,et al.  Coaching children in social skills for friendship making. , 1977 .

[11]  F. Richardson.  Dying for a Number , 1975 .

[12]  I. Berg,et al.  Educational Attainment in Adolescent School Phobia , 1975, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[13]  K. Nichols,et al.  School phobia and self-evaluation. , 1970, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[14]  D. Harris,et al.  Age and other correlates of self-concept in children. , 1964 .

[15]  M. Monk,et al.  An epidemiologic study of behavior characteristics in children. , 1958, American journal of public health and the nation's health.