Citation

Trosper SE, Whitton SW, Brown TA, Pincus DB. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 2012; 40(4): 621-632.

Affiliation

NYU Child Study Center, 577 First Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA, sarah.trosper@nyumc.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10802-011-9582-7

PMID

22006349

Abstract

Investigators are persistently aiming to clarify structural relationships among the emotional disorders in efforts to improve diagnostic classification. The high co-occurrence of anxiety and mood disorders, however, has led investigators to portray the current structure of anxiety and depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, APA 2000) as more descriptive than empirical. This study assesses various structural models in a clinical sample of youths with emotional disorders. Three a priori factor models were tested, and the model that provided the best fit to the data showed the dimensions of anxiety and mood disorders to be hierarchically organized within a single, higher-order factor. This supports the prevailing view that the co-occurrence of anxiety and mood disorders in children is in part due to a common vulnerability (e.g., negative affectivity). Depression and generalized anxiety loaded more highly onto the higher-order factor than the other disorders, a possible explanation for the particularly high rates of comorbidity between the two. Implications for the taxonomy and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders for children and adolescents are discussed.

Language: en