Despite the fact that the moods, symptoms, and disorders associated with anxiety and depression frequently co-occur in youth, very little is known about the developmental pathways leading to comorbid anxiety and depression. The common aetiology hypothesis proposes that anxiety and depression share common risk, vulnerability, and causal factors which increase the likelihood that they will co-occur. Such common aetiological factors are expected to temporally precede the onset of symptoms and to be uniquely associated with symptoms of each disorder, independent of the strong association between anxiety and depression. Previous research has identified vulnerability factors in the development of both anxious symptoms (e.g., behavioural inhibition) and depressive symptoms (e.g., pessimistic inferential styles) in children. However very little research has examined whether these vulnerability factors are specific to either anxious or depressive symptoms, or whether they are common to both. The purpose of the research presented in this dissertation was to examine the common aetiology hypothesis of anxiety and depression in children by evaluating the specificity of two well-established theories. In addition, the applicability of a diathesis-stress model to the development of anxious and depressive symptoms in children was examined. The research described in Chapter 2 examined behavioural inhibition and found that behaviourally inhibited children who experienced high levels of stress demonstrated increases in anxious, but not depressive symptoms across a six-week period. The research described in Chapter 3 examined the hopelessness theory and found that in the presence of high levels of stress, pessimistic inferential styles about causes, consequences, and the self predicted increases in hopelessness depression symptoms in children with low levels of initial hopelessness depression symptoms. Moreover, children with pessimistic inferential styles about either consequences or the self demonstrated increases in anxious symptoms across the six-week period, even after controlling for changes in hopelessness depression symptoms. These findings have several implications. In line with the common aetiology hypothesis, pessimistic inferential styles about consequences and the self appear to be common vulnerability factors. In contrast, behavioural inhibition and pessimistic inferential style about causes appear to be specific vulnerability factors for anxious symptoms and hopelessness depression symptoms respectively. Finally, vulnerability factors for both anxious and depressive symptoms appear to be amenable to a diathesis-stress framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.102481 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Brozina, Karen. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | © Karen Brozina, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002573523, proquestno: AAINR27757, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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