NCJ Number
178188
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 38 Issue: 8 Dated: August 1999 Pages: 1024-1031
Date Published
August 1999
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The relationship between memory and anxiety symptoms in young urban males was studied using data from 111 boys ages 7-11 years in New York City.
Abstract
The youths were younger brothers of convicted delinquents and were assessed for their psychiatric and physical health shortly after enrolling in the study in 1992-93. They received standardized assessments of psychopathology and neuropsychological abilities, including verbal and design memory ability. The neuropsychological ability was rated at an initial study wave; psychopathology was rated at both an initial and a follow-up study wave approximately 18 months apart, using the parent version of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children. Anxiety symptoms were found to be more strongly related with poor memory ability than with reduced intelligence. In contrast, disruptive symptoms were more strongly correlated with reduced intelligence than with poor memory ability. Finally, the boys with an anxiety disorder exhibited reduced memory abilities relative to other boys in the sample. These relationships generally appeared strongest in longitudinal analyses, such that poorer memory ability at study intake predicted increased anxiety at follow-up. The analysis concluded that anxiety is associated with reduced memory ability in young urban boys at risk for disruptive psychopathology. Tables and 32 references (Author abstract modified)