Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anxiety And Depression During Childhood And Adolescence: Testing Theoretical Models Of Continuity And Discontinuity, Joseph R. Cohen, Arthur R. Andrews, Megan M. Davis, Karen D. Rudolph

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The present study sought to clarify the trajectory (i.e., continuous vs. discontinuous) and expression (i.e., homotypic vs. heterotypic) of anxiety and depressive symptoms across childhood and adolescence. We utilized a state-of-the-science analytic approach to simultaneously test theoretical models that describe the development of internalizing symptoms in youth. In a sample of 636 children (53% female; M age = 7.04; SD age = 0.35) self-report measures of anxiety and depression were completed annually by youth through their freshman year of high school. For both anxiety and depression, a piecewise growth curve model provided the best fit for the data, with symptoms …