Perfectionism and anxiety sensitivity as risk factors for depression in children and young adolescents

Oppenheim, Anja. (2014). Perfectionism and anxiety sensitivity as risk factors for depression in children and young adolescents. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Lauri Korajlija, Anita].

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Abstract

Nowadays, it is considered that depression in children, with all of its important features, is similar to depression in adults. In order to prevent the occurrence of depressive symptoms at such an early age, it is important to understand what causes them - maladaptive aspects of perfectionism and anxiety sensitivity have been recognized as most frequent predictors. The aim of this study was to: a) identify gender and/or age differences in a level of depression in elementary school children; b) identify contribution of anxiety sensitivity and perfectionism to manifestation of depression symptoms in four groups of participants: girls and boys (10-12 years), and adolescent girls and boys (13-15 years). The study was conducted on a non-clinical sample of 874 children using three instruments: Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), Adaptive/Maladaptive Perfectionism Scale (AMPS) and Anxiety Sensitivity Index for Children (CASI). Main age effect indicates more depression symptoms in older than in younger participants. Anxiety sensitivity and perfectionism dimensions explain 21.8% of variance in girls, 24.9% in boys, 32.8% in adolescent boys and 35.4% in adolescent girls. Predictors' structure differs in these four groups.

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