Assessment of anxiety and depression in young children: support for two separate constructs.
Validated the interrelatedness of depression and anxiety in young children by testing four latent factor models: dual construct, unrelated; dual construct, correlated; single construct; and second-order or higher order analysis to test that depression and anxiety are primary constructs under the higher order factor of general affective distress. Children (N = 86) were ages 6 to 11, with mothers who were HIV-symptomatic or diagnosed with AIDS. Depression and anxiety measures included the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1992), selected items from the Dominic-R (Valla, Bergeron, Berube, Gaudet, & St-Georges, 1994), and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (Reynolds & Richmond, 1985). Structural equation modeling was used to test the models. Model 2 (dual construct, correlated) fit the data better than did Models 1 and 3; results for the higher order model were identical to Model 2, suggesting the higher order model is equivalent to the dual-construct model.
Murphy
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Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles 90025, USA. dmurphy@mednet.ucla.edu
Marelich
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Hoffman
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D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D011594:Psychometrics