No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

The present study investigated the use of the broad-band construct, negative affectivity, with children's self-report measures of depression, anxiety, and anger. A multitrait-multimethod analysis was conducted to intercorrelate scores from self-report measures with scale and subscale scores of the Child Behavior Checklist-Teacher Report Form (CBCL-TRF). The resulting matrix revealed significant correlations among the self-report measures of anxiety and depression and revealed that these measures correlated significantly with the Internalizing scale scores of the CBCL-TRF. However, correlations between the individual self-report measures and their corresponding CBCL-TRF scale scores were not significant. Regression analyses indicated that both depression and anxiety self-report measures were predictors of the CBCL-TRF Internalizing scale, but no self-report measures were predictive of the CBCL-TRF Externalizing scale. Findings suggest that the child self-report measures of anxiety and depression used in this study can best be conceptualized as measures of a broad-band construct rather than of the narrow-band dimensions of anxiety and depression.Over the past several decades, a considerable amount of literature has been developed around self-report measures of personality characteristics of both adults and children. In a recent article, Watson and Clark (1984) integrated the findings of a number of adult-oriented self-report measures purported to assess such constructs as anxiety, depression, and neuroticism. They concluded that despite their separate authors, the measures intercorrelated so highly that they were actually measures of the same construct. Watson and Clark proposed that this construct be termed negative affectivity. Because many of the self-report measures used with children were developed as counterparts to adult self-report measures (e.g., the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale was developed as a counterpart to the adult-oriented Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Children's Depression Inventory was modeled after the Beck Depression Inventory), similarly high intercorrelations may exist.Accordingly, the broad-band construct of negative aflectivity might be useful for conceptualizing personality dimensions of children.In accordance with the findings of Watson and Clark (1984),We would like to express our gratitude to David A. Wolfe for his editorial assistance in the preparation of this article and to Jean M. Griffin for her help in preparing the data for analysis. The preparation of this article was partially supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health.

No abstract