Emotional reactivity and the emergence of conduct problems and emotional symptoms in 7- to 11-year-olds: a 1-year follow-up study.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether individual differences in emotional reactivity predicted high levels of conduct problems and/or emotional (depressive and anxiety) symptoms at 1-year follow-up in a community sample of 7- to 11-year-old children (N = 659).


METHODS
The study used a prospective design with picture perception methodology at baseline to elicit emotional responses from children. Conduct problems and symptoms of anxiety and depression were evaluated using repeated measures from self-, teacher, and parent report questionnaires completed at baseline and 1 year.


RESULTS
Children who reported decreased emotional arousal to unpleasant (B = -0.069; p = .011) and pleasant (B = -0.134; p = .036) pictures showed higher levels of self-reported and teacher-reported conduct problems at 1-year follow-up, respectively. Conversely, children who reported increased emotional arousal to neutral pictures (B = 0.661; p = .030) at baseline showed higher levels of anxiety symptoms at follow-up. These findings held when baseline level of problems and symptoms, sex, age, socioeconomic status, and IQ were taken into account. Findings were nonsignificant for symptoms of depression at the multivariate level of analyses.


CONCLUSIONS
Although findings showed that symptom level at baseline remains the best predictor of symptom level at follow-up, these prospective findings extend previous reports in children and adults and provide predictive validity for decreased arousal correlating with high levels of subsequent conduct problems and increased arousal correlating with high levels of subsequent anxiety symptoms. Differences in emotional processing may constitute a risk process for the subsequent onset of conduct and anxiety disorder in middle childhood.
Sharp
Carla
C
Dr. Sharp is with the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Dr. Petersen is with the Medicine-Health Services Research, Baylor College of Medicine; and Prof. Goodyer is with the Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge.. Electronic address: csharp@bcm.edu.
Petersen
Nancy
N
Dr. Sharp is with the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Dr. Petersen is with the Medicine-Health Services Research, Baylor College of Medicine; and Prof. Goodyer is with the Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge.
Goodyer
Ian
I
Dr. Sharp is with the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Dr. Petersen is with the Medicine-Health Services Research, Baylor College of Medicine; and Prof. Goodyer is with the Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge.
D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D002648:Child; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors