Abstract
Investigators are persistently aiming to clarify structural relationships among the emotional disorders in efforts to improve diagnostic classification. The high co-occurrence of anxiety and mood disorders, however, has led investigators to portray the current structure of anxiety and depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, APA 2000) as more descriptive than empirical. This study assesses various structural models in a clinical sample of youths with emotional disorders. Three a priori factor models were tested, and the model that provided the best fit to the data showed the dimensions of anxiety and mood disorders to be hierarchically organized within a single, higher-order factor. This supports the prevailing view that the co-occurrence of anxiety and mood disorders in children is in part due to a common vulnerability (e.g., negative affectivity). Depression and generalized anxiety loaded more highly onto the higher-order factor than the other disorders, a possible explanation for the particularly high rates of comorbidity between the two. Implications for the taxonomy and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders for children and adolescents are discussed.
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Trosper, S.E., Whitton, S.W., Brown, T.A. et al. Understanding the Latent Structure of the Emotional Disorders in Children and Adolescents. J Abnorm Child Psychol 40, 621–632 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9582-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9582-7