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The Friendships and Recent Life Events of Anxious and Depressed School-Age Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ian Goodyer ,
Caroline Wright  and
Patricia Altham
Ian Goodyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ
Caroline Wright
Affiliation:
Booth Hall Children's Hospital, Charlestown Road, Blackley, Manchester
Patricia Altham
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, Mill Lane, Cambridge
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

The number of moderate to severe undesirable life events and the quality of friendships were compared between a consecutive series of 100 childen aged 7–16 years with emotional disorders and a series of community controls matched for age, sex, and social class. Undesirable events and friendship difficulties exerted independent direct effects of similar magnitude on the probability of developing emotional disorders; 33% of disturbed children experienced both adversities compared with 6% of controls. An additive interaction was found for the two factors. The results were uninfluenced by the sex or pubertal status of the subjects. There appears to be no greater probability of being anxious rather than depressed in the presence of life events, alone or in combinations with friendship difficulties. Recent undesirable life events and friendship difficulties arise through independent social pathways and may exert their effects through different psychological mechanisms.

Type
Lecture
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 156 , Issue 5 , May 1990 , pp. 689 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1990 

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