PERSONALITY-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ANXIOUS AND NONANXIOUS CHILDREN WITHIN A DIMENSIONAL FRAMEWORK

As part of a recent research protocol conducted at the Medical Univers ity of South Carolina Institute of Psychiatry, anxiety-disordered and nonanxious children (status determined by structured clinical intervie w) completed a number of questionnaires with the goal of assessing per sonality differences between groups within the two-dimensional persona lity conceptualization of Hans J. Eysenck (comprising neuroticism and extraversion) and within the closely related two-dimensional personali ty conceptualization of Jeffrey A. Gray (comprising trait anxiety and impulsivity). Neuroticism and extraversion were assessed via the Eysen ck Personality Questionnaire Junior. Trait anxiety was assessed via th e RCMAS, while an experimental adaptation of the Barratt Impulsiveness Questionnaire was used to assess impulsivity. As hypothesized, anxiet y-disordered children were significantly more neurotic and significant ly less extraverted (i.e., more introverted) than nonanxious controls. Also as anticipated, children diagnosed with anxiety disorders were h igher on bait anxiety (RCMAS) than nonanxious controls. Extraversion p roved a good predictor of presence of anxiety disorder, producing few false positives in a discriminant analysis. Results were in accordance with, and support, the theorizing of H. J. Eysenck and J. A. Gray and parallel recent findings in samples of anxious and nonanxious college students.