Child and Adolescent Mental Health Center "La Scarpetta", ASL RM/A, Rome, Italy.
Department of Developmental and Social Psychology-Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Compr Psychiatry. 2015 Apr;58:94-101. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.01.001. Epub 2015 Jan 8.
The aim of the present research was to identify profiles of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions associated with anxiety disorders, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and attention- deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in preschoolers.
The parents of 120 children (mean age=4.65 years; S.D.=.88) completed the Preschool Temperament and Character Inventory (PsTCI). The sample consisted of 4 groups (n=30 per group): ADHD, anxious, ODD and control children. To diagnose the different disorders, the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment and Child Behavior Checklist 1.5-5 was administered to the parents.
The discriminant analysis showed that three temperamental dimensions (Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking and Persistence) enabled the correct classification of 75% of cases within their own group, which demonstrated an adequate accuracy rate. The ADHD children showed a temperamental profile that was characterized by high Novelty Seeking, low Reward Dependence and low Persistence, while the anxious children obtained high scores in Harm Avoidance. The profiles of the ODD children shared some common features (high Novelty Seeking) with the ADHD children, but the ODD children were characterized by higher Persistence and Harm Avoidance compared with ADHD children.
The present results indicate that Cloninger's temperamental dimensions allow to differentiate the three most frequent psychiatric disorders in preschoolers.
本研究旨在确定与学龄前儿童焦虑障碍、对立违抗性障碍（ODD）和注意缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）相关的 Cloninger 气质和性格维度的特征。
120 名儿童的家长（平均年龄=4.65 岁；标准差=.88）完成了学龄前气质和性格量表（PsTCI）。该样本由 4 个组（每组 30 名儿童）组成：ADHD、焦虑、ODD 和对照组儿童。为了诊断不同的障碍，对父母进行了学龄前精神评估和儿童行为检查表 1.5-5。
判别分析表明，三个气质维度（回避、寻求新奇和坚持）能够正确分类 75%的自身组病例，表现出足够的准确率。ADHD 儿童表现出一种气质特征，其特点是寻求新奇高、奖励依赖低和坚持低，而焦虑儿童在回避危险方面得分较高。ODD 儿童的特征与 ADHD 儿童有一些共同特征（寻求新奇高），但与 ADHD 儿童相比，ODD 儿童的坚持性和回避危险程度更高。
本研究结果表明，Cloninger 的气质维度可以区分学龄前最常见的三种精神障碍。
