1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«[W]e evaluated the relationships between four distinct SA [separation anxiety] trajectories that we had previously identified between age 1.5 and 6 years […], and: internalizing and externalizing symptoms, academic achievement, physical health, and maternal anxiety symptoms, as measured by longitudinal [...] assessments between 8 and 13 years of age.» (p. 919)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
The study is based on «multi-informant (children, teachers, family), multipoint (at age 8, 10, 12, 13) assessments of 1,290 children of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, who had been categorized between age 1.5 and 6 into four specific separation anxiety trajectories (1, low-persistent; 2, low-increasing; 3, high-decreasing, and the less common: 4, high-increasing) […].» (p. 918)

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«In this study, most comparisons between participants with high-and-persistent separation anxiety in preschool years and participants who had followed milder/self-limiting trajectories, showed significant excesses of: a) internalizing behaviors, b) maternal panic-agoraphobia, c) worse academic achievement, d) worse physical health, in the high-increasing trajectory. The latter trajectory was associated with specific concentration of asthma-related conditions and headaches between age 10 and 13. Preschool high-increasing separation anxiety appears as a gateway towards multiple health and academic issues: this can inform the early deployment of clinical resources at the earlier signs of the more impairing manifestations.» (p. 925) «Our study also provided a unique opportunity for linking early childhood SA/SEPAD [separation anxiety disorder] to maternal anxiety longitudinally in a large population-based sample. Compared to mothers of participants in the other three SA trajectories, mothers of children in the high-increasing SA trajectory endorsed higher anxiety scores consistently over time. This was especially true for panic-agoraphobia, and to a lesser degree, obsessive-compulsive and generalized anxiety symptoms.» (p. 923)