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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Social Isolation Model: A Noninvasive Rodent Model of Stress and Anxiety

Social Isolation Model: A Noninvasive Rodent Model of Stress and Anxiety

Published on: November 11, 2022

Separation anxiety in adulthood: dimensional or categorical?

Derrick Silove¹, Tim Slade, Claire Marnane

¹Psychiatry Research and Teaching Unit, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Randwick NSW, 2031, Australia. d.silove@unsw.edu.au

Comprehensive Psychiatry

|October 24, 2007

Summary

Adult separation anxiety may be a dimensional disorder, not a distinct category. This finding impacts how clinicians understand and diagnose separation anxiety in adults, suggesting it exists on a spectrum with other anxiety disorders.

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Area of Science:

Clinical Psychology
Psychopathology
Anxiety Disorders

Background:

Emerging evidence indicates a clinical form of separation anxiety in adults.
A key question is whether adult separation anxiety is distinct from other anxiety disorders or exists on a continuum.

Purpose of the Study:

To determine if adult separation anxiety is best characterized as a categorical or dimensional construct.
To assess the relationship between adult separation anxiety and other anxiety conditions.

Main Methods:

Employed two taxometric procedures: Mean Above Minus Below a Cut (MABC) and Maximum Eigenvalue (ME).
Utilized data from a separation anxiety symptom questionnaire administered to 840 adult patients at an anxiety disorders clinic.

Main Results:

Analysis of taxometric procedures yielded somewhat ambiguous results.
The overall findings predominantly suggested a dimensional, rather than categorical, pattern for adult separation anxiety.

Conclusions:

Adult separation anxiety appears to align more with a dimensional structure, indicating it may exist on a spectrum.
This dimensional understanding has implications for the nosological status and clinical definition of adult separation anxiety.