Return to search

Personality Foreshadows the Structure of Internalizing Disorders in Middle Childhood

The current investigation compared the fit of three models of internalizing in middle childhood: (1) a unitary factor model, (2) a two-factor model corresponding to the DSM-IV Anxiety/Depression distinction, and (3) a two-factor model corresponding to the Fear/Distress distinction observed in structural studies of adult psychopathology (Krueger, 1999; Slade & Watson, 2006). Mothers of 344 children (50.6% female, mean age = 9.97, SD = .82) reported on childhood internalizing symptoms and personality traits. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed acceptable fit indices for all three models. The unitary factor model provided the most parsimonious fit to the data. Although the structural analyses suggested that internalizing subfactors were not differentiated in middle childhood, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that personality dimensions uniquely predicted fear and distress disorders. These results suggest that personality foreshadows later psychopathology structure before it is manifest at the symptom level.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25737
Date07 January 2011
CreatorsKushner, Shauna Caitlin
ContributorsTackett, Jennifer L.
Source SetsUniversity of Toronto
Languageen_ca
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

Page generated in 0.0019 seconds