Parent-dependent stressors and the onset of anxiety disorders in children: links with parental psychopathology.

Exposure to stressors is associated with an increased risk for child anxiety. Investigating the family origins of stressors may provide promising avenues for identifying and intervening with children at risk for the onset of anxiety disorders and their families. The aim of this study was to compare the frequency of parent-dependent negative life events and chronic adversities experienced by children with an anxiety disorder (n = 34) in the 12 months prior to the onset of the child's most recent episode, compared to healthy controls (n = 34).

Use of services and associated costs for young adults with childhood hyperactivity/conduct problems: 20-year follow-up.

Background: Although childhood hyperactivity and conduct problems are associated with difficulties in adulthood, little is known about later service use or public expenditure costs in the UK.

Aims: To describe the use of services and calculate recent (past 6 months) and early adulthood (since the age of 18 years) public expenditure costs incurred by young adults who had hyperactivity and/or conduct problems during childhood.

Method: A 20-year follow-up of a community sample of 6- to 7-year-old boys (n = 83) with hyperactivity only, conduct problems only, mixed hyperactivity and conduct problems, and no behaviour problems (control).

Parent-child and spousal relationships in families with a young child with end-stage renal disease.

Background: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) leads to the need for dialysis and renal transplantation (Tx). Peritoneal dialysis (PD) of young children is normally performed at home by the parents and affects the whole family. We studied the coping of families with a young child with ESRD by interviewing the parents of 19 children.

The impact of persisting hyperactivity on social relationships: a community-based, controlled 20-year follow-up study.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine whether persisting hyperactivity into adulthood was associated with impaired family, friendship, and partner relationships or poor coping skills in everyday life.

Method: A 20-year community-based follow-up of 6- to 7-year-old boys showing pervasive hyperactivity (n = 40) and unaffected controls (n = 25) was conducted. At age 27 years, participants were assessed with detailed interview techniques as well as self-report ratings.

[Somatization and somatoform disorders in children and adolescents].

The diagnosis of a somatoform disorder involves a continuum that ranges from common aches and pains to disabling functional symptoms. The currently available diagnostic classification systems can't easily be applied to children and adolescents. Whenever somatization is suspected, the clinician needs sufficient time to examine the child and to find out about his/her whole life situation.

Severe life events and chronic adversities as antecedents to anxiety in children: a matched control study.

The present study compared the number of severe life events and chronic adversities as reported retrospectively by mothers of children with an anxiety disorder (n = 39) prior to the onset of their most recent episode, with controls (n = 39) matched for age and sex. The parent version of the Psychosocial Assessment of Childhood Experiences (PACE) was used to assess chronic adversities (long-term experiences with negative impact on child) and severe life events (discrete life events with high long-term threat). A significantly greater number of severe life events and chronic adversities were assessed prior to onset for anxious children compared to controls.

Brief measure of expressed emotion: internal consistency and stability over time.

The study examined three methodological aspects of expressed emotion (EE) as assessed in the course of PACE (Psychosocial Assessment of Childhood Experiences) interviews with a parent. In a sample of 87 children, aged 6 13 years, enrolled in a prospective study examining the role of stress on the course of asthma, EE was assessed at three time points, 9 months apart. A high degree of agreement was found among the three concurrent measures of negative and positive EE (kappas from 0.

Testing the reliability of a new measure of life events and experiences in childhood: The Psychosocial Assessment of Childhood Experiences (PACE).

There are few well validated instruments for measuring the impact of life events and experiences in childhood and adolescence. This study examines the reliability of a new instrument, the Psychosocial Assessment of Childhood Experiences of PACE. Fifteen children and parents were interviewed on two cassions ten days apart for the main test-retest reliability study.

Psychosocial stressors: Concepts, causes and effects.

Key advances in life events research included recognition of the need to differentiate events that were independent of disorder; to take the social context of events into account; to assess life events in terms of the long term threat rather than degree of life change; to determine the temporal linkage between life events and onset of psychiatric disorder; to appreciate the importance of long term difficulties as well as acute events; and to examine the role of vulnerability and protective mechanisms in determining individual differences in response to life events. Stress effects in childhood are considered in terms of possible mediating mechanisms; of turning points in life trajectory; of individual differences in response; of difficulties in the concept and measurement of onset of psychiatric disorder; of possible additivity of negative life events; and of the origins of individual differences in exposure to negative life experiences.