Symptoms of depression and symptoms of anxiety are reported at various levels of severity among children and adolescents. Various risk or vulnerability factors may contribute to the etiology of symptoms of depression and anxiety in childhood and adolescence. However, what renders some children and adolescents more likely to experience symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, and at different levels of severity, remains to be explored. Moreover, it is important to address the specificity of vulnerability factors in determining risk for depression and anxiety, which are often reported to co-occur. Temperament and its components have been posited to be vulnerability factors and to have a temporal association with the onset of symptoms of psychopathology during childhood and adolescence. In this study, temperament constructs of Negative Emotionality, Affiliativeness, and Effortful Control were examined in their association with symptoms of depression and anxiety, among children and adolescents. Negative Emotionality was consistently found to be associated with higher levels of symptoms of depression, and separately with symptoms of anxiety, particularly among older children and adolescents. Affiliativeness and Effortful Control were found to be associated with higher levels of symptoms of depression only. In summary, older ages of children/adolescents, higher levels of Negative Emotionality, higher levels of Affiliativeness, and lower levels of Effortful Control were associated with higher levels of symptoms of depression. Higher levels of Negative Emotionality were associated with higher levels of symptoms of anxiety, particularly among older children and adolescents. Therefore, Negative Emotionality may be a non-specific vulnerability factor for the association with depression and anxiety symptoms, while Affiliativeness and Effortful Control may be specific vulnerability factors for the association with symptoms of depression only. Implications of the current findings, limitations of the study, and future directions are discussed.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Psychology
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6223
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (viii, 57 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Depression in adolescence
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Anxiety in adolescence
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Emotions
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Irene Zilber
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.