Muris P, Merckelbach H, Gadet B, Moulaert V
Department of Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
J Clin Child Psychol. 2000 Mar;29(1):43-52. doi: 10.1207/S15374424jccp2901_5.
Investigated anxiety symptoms in normal school children 4 to 12 years of age (N = 190). The percentages of children reporting fears, worries, and scary dreams were 75.8, 67.4, and 80.5%, respectively, indicating that these anxiety symptoms are quite common among children. Inspection of the developmental pattern of these phenomena revealed that fears and scary dreams were common among 4- to 6-year-olds, became even more prominent in 7- to 9-year-olds, and then decreased in frequency in 10- to 12-year-olds. The developmental course of worry deviated from this pattern. This phenomenon was clearly more prevalent in older children (i.e., 7- to 12-year-olds) than in younger children. Furthermore, although the frequency of certain types of fears, worries, and dreams were found to change across age groups (e.g., the prevalence of fears and scary dreams pertaining to imaginary creatures decreased with age, whereas worry about test performance increased with age), the top intense fears, worries, and scary dreams remained relatively unchanged across age levels. An examination of the origins of these common anxiety phenomena showed that for fears and scary dreams, information was the most commonly reported pathway, whereas for worry, conditioning experiences were more prominent.
对190名4至12岁的普通学童的焦虑症状进行了调查。报告有恐惧、担忧和噩梦的儿童比例分别为75.8%、67.4%和80.5%，这表明这些焦虑症状在儿童中相当普遍。对这些现象发展模式的检查显示，恐惧和噩梦在4至6岁的儿童中很常见，在7至9岁的儿童中更为突出，然后在10至12岁的儿童中频率下降。担忧的发展过程偏离了这种模式。这种现象在年龄较大的儿童（即7至12岁）中明显比在年龄较小的儿童中更普遍。此外，尽管发现某些类型的恐惧、担忧和梦境的频率随年龄组而变化（例如，与想象中的生物有关的恐惧和噩梦的患病率随年龄下降，而对考试成绩的担忧随年龄增加），但最强烈的恐惧、担忧和噩梦在各年龄层中相对保持不变。对这些常见焦虑现象起源的调查表明，对于恐惧和噩梦，信息是最常报告的途径，而对于担忧，条件作用经历更为突出。
