Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2011 May;39(4):501-12. doi: 10.1007/s10802-010-9476-0.
Childhood anxiety is impairing and associated with later emotional disorders. Studying risk factors for child anxiety may allow earlier identification of at-risk children for prevention efforts. This study applied an ecological risk model to address how early childhood anxiety symptoms, child temperament, maternal anxiety and depression symptoms, violence exposure, and sociodemographic risk factors predict school-aged anxiety symptoms. This longitudinal, prospective study was conducted in a representative birth cohort (n = 1109). Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized associations between risk factors measured in toddlerhood/preschool (age = 3.0 years) and anxiety symptoms measured in kindergarten (age = 6.0 years) and second grade (age = 8.0 years). Early child risk factors (anxiety symptoms and temperament) emerged as the most robust predictor for both parent-and child-reported anxiety outcomes and mediated the effects of maternal and family risk factors. Implications for early intervention and prevention studies are discussed.
儿童焦虑会造成损害，并与日后的情绪障碍有关。研究儿童焦虑的风险因素可以让我们更早地发现有患病风险的儿童，从而进行预防。本研究应用生态风险模型来探讨儿童早期的焦虑症状、儿童气质、母亲的焦虑和抑郁症状、暴力暴露以及社会人口学风险因素如何预测学龄期的焦虑症状。这是一项在具有代表性的出生队列中进行的纵向前瞻性研究（n=1109）。结构方程模型被用于检验假设的风险因素之间的关联，这些风险因素在幼儿期/幼儿园阶段（年龄=3.0 岁）进行测量，而焦虑症状在幼儿园阶段（年龄=6.0 岁）和二年级（年龄=8.0 岁）进行测量。儿童早期的风险因素（焦虑症状和气质）是父母和孩子报告的焦虑结果的最有力预测因素，并且中介了母亲和家庭风险因素的影响。讨论了对早期干预和预防研究的启示。
