Children's Co-occurring Research Articles

Anxious solitude and peer exclusion: a diathesis-stress model of internalizing trajectories in childhood.

A diathesis-stress model was proposed in which the joint forces of individual vulnerability (anxious solitude) and interpersonal adversity (peer exclusion) predict depressive symptoms in children over time. Children's (N = 388; 50% female) social behavior, peer exclusion, and emotional adjustment were assessed at kindergarten entry and every spring thereafter through 4th grade, primarily by teacher report. Results indicated that anxious solitude and peer exclusion co-occur in children soon after kindergarten entry and that anxious solitary children who are excluded early on, in comparison with their nonexcluded anxious solitary counterparts, display greater stability in their subsequent display of anxious solitude. As hypothesized, the joint influence of anxious solitude and exclusion predicted the most elevated depressive symptom trajectories.

Further Evidence of a Bidirectional Overlap Between Juvenile Mania and Conduct Disorder in Children

To investigate systematically the overlap between mania and conduct disorder (CD) in a sample of consecutively referred youths. It was hypothesized that neither CD nor manic symptoms were secondary to the other disorder and that children with the 2 disorders would have correlates of both. Subjects were consecutively referred children and adolescents meeting DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria on structured diagnostic interview for CD (n = 116), mania (n = 110), and CD + mania (n = 76). Of 186 children and adolescents with mania and of 192 with CD, 76 satisfied criteria for both CD and mania, representing 40% of youths with CD and 41% of youths with mania, respectively. Examination of the clinical features, patterns of psychiatric comorbidity, and functioning in multiple domains showed that children with CD and mania had similar features of each disorder irrespective of the comorbidity with the other disorder. The data suggest that when mania and CD co-occur in children, both are correctly diagnosed. In these comorbid cases, CD symptoms should not be viewed as secondary to mania and manic symptoms should not be viewed as secondary to CD.

Co-occurrence of conduct problems and depressive symptoms in early adolescent boys: I. Familial factors and general adjustment at Grade 6

AbstractClinical studies indicate that depression and conduct disorder frequently co-occur in children. Research on the correlates of depression in children has frequently failed to control for this co-occurrence, and little is known about the family background and characteristics of children displaying both problem behaviors. An at-risk community sample of 203 early adolescent boys in the Oregon Youth Study was divided into the following groups: (a) those showing elevated conduct problems and depressed mood, (b) those showing elevated conduct problems only, (c) those showing elevated depressed mood only, and (d) those with neither problem. Multimethod, multiagent assessments were conducted at Grade 6. The four groups were compared using multivariate analyses of variance. Demographic variables, parental characteristics, family-management practices, and boys' adjustment show some deficits in all three risk groups, and the patterns of deficits vary between groups. As hypothesized, the boys with conduct problems and depressed mood show the poorest adjustment. Results are consistent with a failure model, which hypothesizes that boys with conduct problems are at risk for failing to develop competence in areas such as academic skill and peer relations. In addition, their noxious behavior leads to poor relationships with parents and peers. These problems result in failures and rejection, which make them vulnerable to depressed mood.