Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Royal Children's Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2012;41(4):417-32. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2012.680189. Epub 2012 May 2.
The present research employed a prospective, multi-informant design to examine precursors and correlates of differing anxiety profiles from late childhood to late adolescence. The sample consisted of 626 boys and 667 girls who are participants in the Australian Temperament Project, a large, longitudinal, community-based study that has followed young people's psychosocial adjustment from infancy to adulthood. The present research analyzes data collected from the first 12 waves of data, from 4-8 months to 17 years. Parents, primary school teachers, maternal and child health nurses, and from the age of 11 onward, the young people themselves have provided survey data. Trajectory analyses revealed three distinct patterns of self-reported anxiety from late childhood to late adolescence, comprising low, moderate, and high (increasing) trajectories, which differed somewhat between boys and girls. A range of parent- and teacher-reported factors was found to be associated with these trajectories, including temperament style, behavior problems, social skills, parenting, negative family events, and peer relationships. Compared with male trajectories, female trajectories were associated with a greater variety of psychosocial variables (including parenting and externalizing problems), which may partially account for the higher prevalence of anxiety in adolescent girls compared with boys. Findings shed light on gender-specific pathways to anxiety and the need for comprehensive, integrative approaches to intervention and prevention programs.
本研究采用前瞻性、多信息源设计，从儿童晚期到青少年晚期考察不同焦虑特征的前驱因素和相关性。样本包括 626 名男孩和 667 名女孩，他们是澳大利亚气质项目的参与者，这是一项大型的、纵向的、基于社区的研究，从婴儿期到成年期一直跟踪年轻人的社会心理适应情况。本研究分析了从 4-8 个月到 17 岁的前 12 波数据收集的数据。父母、小学教师、母婴健康护士，以及从 11 岁开始，年轻人自己提供了调查数据。轨迹分析揭示了从儿童晚期到青少年晚期自我报告焦虑的三种不同模式，包括低、中、高（递增）轨迹，男孩和女孩之间略有不同。发现一系列父母和教师报告的因素与这些轨迹有关，包括气质风格、行为问题、社交技能、育儿、负面家庭事件和同伴关系。与男性轨迹相比，女性轨迹与更多的社会心理变量（包括育儿和外化问题）有关，这可能部分解释了与男孩相比，青春期女孩焦虑症的发病率更高的原因。研究结果揭示了焦虑的性别特异性途径，以及需要综合、综合的干预和预防计划方法。
