Internal representations: predicting anxiety from children's play narratives

This research uses children's story-stem play narratives to examine whether certain specified internal representations of self and experiences will predict later childhood anxiety.

Thirty-five nonclinical children were studied from 5 to 6 years of age. Narratives of the 5-year-old children were coded for negative expectations of self, others, and experiences. Parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher's Report Form when the children were 5 and 6 years of age. Mothers completed the anxiety section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children when the children were 6 years of age. Parental anxiety and child temperament were also measured.

Five-year-old child negative expectations significantly predicted mother/father/teacher reports of internalizing and anxiety symptoms and mother reports of separation anxiety, overanxious, and social phobia/avoidant disorder symptoms in the children at 6 years of age, even when anxiety and internalizing symptoms at 5 years of age were entered first in the regression equations. Child negative expectations predicted later anxiety in these analyses better than parental anxiety and child temperament.

Child negative expectations may be a risk factor or a mechanism for the development of later anxiety. Children's narratives may be useful for examining such representations and identifying children at risk.