Correlates of anxiety in psychiatrically hospitalized children and their parents

The authors separated 100 children hospitalized in a child psychiatry service into three groups according to their level of anxiety on the basis of the responses of the children and their parents to diagnostic interviews. Differentiation of the groups of children was validated by independent test instruments. Results of tests administered to the children and their parents revealed significant relationships between anxiety in the adults and in the children. In addition, parents of anxious children reported more SCL-90-R symptoms as well as more negative family relations than parents of nonanxious children and the more severely anxious children had higher rates of dysthymia and negative life events.