Discriminating patterns of emotions in 10- and 11-year-old children's anxiety and depression.

In a study of the emotions involved in children's anxiety and depression, children and teachers completed inventories assessing the children's emotions, anxiety level, and depression level. The results of the study indicated that distinct patterns of emotion variables are involved in these two syndromes, and these patterns confirm the hypotheses based on differential emotions theory. An attempt to predict future depression was successful when based on the children's self-reported emotions but not when based on the teachers' ratings of the children's emotions. In part, the failure of the latter may have been due to the high stability (Time 1-Time 2 correlation) of the depression measure over the 4-month interval.