Internal representations: Predicting anxiety from children's play narratives

Objective: This research uses children's story-stem play narratives to exam ine whether certain specified internal representations of self and experien ces will predict later childhood anxiety Method: Thirty-five nonclinical ch ildren were studied from 5 to 5 years of age Narratives of the 5-year-old c hildren were coded for negative expectations of self, others, and experienc es. Parents and teachers completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher 's Report Form when the children were 5 and 6 years of age. Mothers complet ed the anxiety section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children wh en the children were 6 years of age. Parental anxiety and child temperament were also measured. Results: Five-year-old child negative expectations sig nificantly predicted mother/father/teacher reports of internalizing and anx iety symptoms and mother reports of separation anxiety overanxious, and soc ial phobia/avoidant: disorder symptoms in the children at 6 years of age, e ven when anxiety and internalizing symptoms at 5 years of age were entered first in the regression equations. Child negative expectations predicted la ter anxiety in these analyses better than parental anxiety and child temper ament. Conclusions: Child negative expectations may be a risk factor or a m echanism for the development of later anxiety. Children's narratives may be useful for examining such representations and identifying children at risk .