Department of Psychology, Universität Basel, Switzerland. Kristen.Lavallee @ unibas.ch
Psychopathology. 2011;44(6):354-61. doi: 10.1159/000326629. Epub 2011 Aug 17.
The present study seeks to extend research on the etiology of separation anxiety disorder (SAD) in a German-speaking sample by examining differences between children with SAD and healthy comparisons, using a retrospective-reporting paradigm.
The sample included 106 children with SAD and 44 healthy children between the ages of 4 and 14 years. Parents completed questionnaires and structured clinical interviews to assess parental pathology, pregnancy variables and strong early stranger anxiety.
Children with SAD were more likely than healthy children to have had a phase of stronger stranger anxiety in infancy. Further, early stranger anxiety remained a significant predictor of SAD after controlling for maternal depression. Meaningful effects were not found for the influence of parental age at birth or other pregnancy factors.
This study provides beginning evidence of the potential predictive value of strong stranger anxiety in distinguishing children with SAD from those with no disorder, above and beyond the influence of parental pathology.
本研究旨在通过使用回顾性报告范式，在德语样本中扩展对分离焦虑障碍（SAD）病因的研究，比较 SAD 患儿与健康对照之间的差异。
该样本包括 106 名患有 SAD 的儿童和 44 名 4 至 14 岁的健康儿童。父母完成了问卷和结构化临床访谈，以评估父母的病理学、妊娠变量和强烈的早期陌生人焦虑。
与健康儿童相比，患有 SAD 的儿童在婴儿期更有可能经历过一段较强的陌生人焦虑期。此外，即使在控制了母亲抑郁的情况下，早期陌生人焦虑仍然是 SAD 的一个重要预测因子。
这项研究提供了初步证据，表明强烈的陌生人焦虑在区分患有 SAD 的儿童和没有障碍的儿童方面具有潜在的预测价值，超过了父母病理学的影响。
