title: Suspicious young minds: paranoia and mistrust in 8- to 14-year-olds in the U.K. and Hong Kong.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research on paranoia in adults suggests a spectrum of severity, but this dimensional approach has yet to be applied to children or to groups from different countries.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the structure, prevalence and correlates of mistrust in children living in the U.K. and Hong Kong.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children aged 8-14 years from the U.K. (n = 1086) and Hong Kong (n = 1412) completed a newly developed mistrust questionnaire as well as standard questionnaire measures of anxiety, self-esteem, aggression and callous-unemotional traits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Confirmatory factor analysis of the U.K. data supported a three-factor mode--mistrust at home, mistrust at school and eneral mistrust - with a clear positive skew in the data: just 3.4%, 8.5% and 4.1% of the children endorsed at least half of the mistrust items for home, school and general subscales respectively. These findings were replicated in Hong Kong. Moreover, compared with their peers, 'mistrustful' children (in both countries) reported elevated rates of anxiety, low self-esteem, aggression and callous-unemotional traits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mistrust may exist as a quantitative trait in children, which, as in adults, is associated with elevated risks of internalising and externalising problems.
authors.affiliation: Keri K. Wong, MA, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge; Daniel Freeman, PhD, DClinPsy, FBPsS, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford; Claire Hughes, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Keri K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Keri K. Wong, MA, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge; Daniel Freeman, PhD, DClinPsy, FBPsS, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford; Claire Hughes, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.affiliation: Keri K. Wong, MA, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge; Daniel Freeman, PhD, DClinPsy, FBPsS, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford; Claire Hughes, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D010379:Peer Group; D015995:Prevalence; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology