ABSTRACT
As noted in the previous chapters, anxiety disorders exist across all ages. Th e currently accepted diagnostic system, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (APA, 1994) considers childhood anxiety disorders as downward extensions of adult anxiety disorders (Schniering, Hudson & Rapee, 2000). In this most recent diagnostic system revision, only separation anxiety disorder is listed in the manual’s section on Disorders First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence, suggesting something unique about this disorder to the time of childhood. Otherwise, anxiety syndromes commonly diagnosed in children are found in the diagnostic manual’s general section on anxiety disorders, in recognition that the disorders exist across all age ranges. However, as an acknowledgment to children’s developmental immaturity, the criteria sometimes contain specifi c descriptors for how the disorder might manifest itself in children. Furthermore, as illustrated by the clinical vignettes that opened this chapter, even within childhood and adolescence, the clinical expression of a particular disorder may vary depending upon the child’s particular age. Both Sara and Charlie meet diagnostic criteria for social phobia even though their outward expressions are very diff erent. In this chapter, issues of
physical, cognitive, and behavioral maturation as they relate to the expression of anxiety disorders in children will be explored.
