| |||||||||
June 23, 2008Family stress and child's temper extremes contribute to anxiety and depression in children |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From EurekAlert! - Breaking News: Small children who grow up in a family where the mother has psychological distress, the family is exposed to stress or is lacking social support, are at higher risk of developing anxious and depressive symptoms in early adolescence. Girls are more vulnerable than boys, and very timid or short-tempered children are more vulnerable than others to develop emotional problems. This is shown in a new doctorate study from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Anxiety and depression are two of the most common mental problems for children and adolescents. Contributing factors to the development of symptoms of anxiety and depression while growing up is the key focus in the doctorate project by Evalill Karevold at the NIPH. Karevold has followed more than 900 families from when the children were 18 months old through to adolescence (data from the NIPH's TOPP-study). The findings are based on maternal and child report of the child's symptoms of anxiety and depression, plus reports from the mother about risk and protective factors in the family environment. Maternal distress symptoms, family stress and lack of social support in their children's growing-up environment in pre-school age leads to an increase in anxiety and depression symptoms when these children reach 12-13 years old. Another discovery shows that shy children generally have a higher risk of developing anxiety and depression than children who are not shy. Having pre-school aged children is believed to be a particularly vulnerable period to be exposed to maternal symptoms, so it is especially important to identify and help mothers who are struggling with anxiety and depression as early as possible.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
