The structure of negative emotions in a clinical sample of children and adolescents

The authors sought to define the latent factors associated with childhood anxiety and depression, using a structural equations/confirmatory factor-analytic approach involving multiple informants (i.e., parent and child report) of symptoms. A sample of 216 children and adolescents with diagnoses of an anxiety disorder or comorbid anxiety and mood disorders and their parents were: administered measures of childhood fear, anxiety, and depression. Results of comparative modeling best supported 3-factor solutions (fear, anxiety, and depression) that were consistent with recent conceptual models of anxiety and depression (e.g., tripartite model). Results also suggested that 3 widely used measures of childhood negative emotion are conceptually heterogeneous (containing item sets that loaded on different latent factors). Implications for the assessment of childhood negative emotions are discussed.