Social and cognitive impairment in first-grade children with anxious and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Examined the degree of social and cognitive impairment in an epidemiologically defined sample of first-grade children with anxious symptoms alone, depressive symptoms alone, and comorbid anxious and depressive symptoms. For boys, both anxious and depressive symptoms alone were associated with statistically significant impairment in multiple domains of social and cognitive functioning. In girls, little evidence of associated impairment was found for either anxious or depressive symptoms alone. For boys, depressive symptoms alone was associated marginally with impairment in a greater number of domains of adaptive functioning than anxious symptoms alone. No such differences were found for girls. Finally, there was limited evidence that comorbid anxious and depressive symptoms were associated with greater social and cognitive impairment.