Children with co-occurring anxiety and externalizing disorders: family risks and implications for competence.
This study used data from 340 mother-child dyads to examine characteristics of children with co-occurring diagnoses of anxiety and externalizing disorders and compared them with children with a sole diagnosis or no diagnosis. Comparisons were made using 4 child-diagnostic groups: anxiety-only, externalizing-only, co-occurrence, and no-problem groups. Most mothers were characterized by low income and histories of psychiatric diagnoses during the child's lifetime. Analyses using multinomial logistic regressions found the incidence of co-occurring childhood disorders to be significantly linked with maternal affective/anxiety disorders during the child's lifetime. In exploring implications for developmental competence, we found the co-occurrence group to have the lowest level of adaptive functioning among the 4 groups, faring significantly worse than the no-problem group on both academic achievement and intelligence as assessed by standardized tests. Findings underscore the importance of considering co-occurring behavior problems as a distinct phenomenon when examining children's developmental outcomes.
Yoo
Joan P
JP
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, NC, USA. yoo.joan@gmail.com
Brown
Pamela J
PJ
Luthar
Suniya S
SS
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors