title: Understanding the latent structure of the emotional disorders in children and adolescents.
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.
authors: NYU Child Study Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. sarah.trosper@nyumc.org
authors: Sarah E
authors: SE
authors: Trosper
authors: Sarah W
authors: SW
authors: Whitton
authors: Timothy A
authors: TA
authors: Brown
authors: Donna B
authors: DB
authors: Pincus
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales