Anxiety and depressive disorders in fathers and mothers of anxious school-refusing children.
OBJECTIVE
To examine anxiety and depressive disorders in the mothers and fathers of children with anxious school refusal and to test for the existence of differences in familial aggregation between children suffering from school refusal related to separation anxiety disorder and those suffering from phobic disorder-based school refusal.


METHODS
Using a blind standardized diagnostic evaluation (Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Lifetime version, modified for the study of anxiety disorders; Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies; and Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children), the authors compared parental lifetime psychiatric illness for the 2 groups of anxious school refusers.


RESULTS
Relationships between specific anxiety disorders in children and their parents revealed increased prevalence of simple phobia and simple and/or social phobia among the fathers and mothers of phobic school refusers, and increased prevalence of panic disorder and panic disorder and/or agoraphobia among the fathers and mothers of school refusers with separation anxiety disorder. Simple and/or social phobia in the father, simple phobia in the mother, and age of the father were associated with the group of phobic school refusers.


CONCLUSIONS
The data show the high prevalence of both anxiety and depressive disorders in fathers and mothers of anxious school refusers. Significant differences were observed in familial aggregation considering the subgroups of anxious school-refusing children.
University of Bordeaux, France.
C
C
Martin
S
S
Cabrol
M P
MP
Bouvard
J P
JP
Lepine
M C
MC
Mouren-Siméoni
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D017678:Sex Distribution