L. E. Montgomery

Multidimensionality of anxiety in children. Factor structure of the Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale

In order to investigate the multidimensional nature of anxiety in children, the responses of 125 emotionally disturbed and 120 normal children to the Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale were subjected to one principal components factor analysis using an oblique rotation. Three anxiety factors, Anxiety: Worry and Oversensitivity, Anxiety: Physiological, and Anxiety: Concentration, and 2 Lie factors, Lie: Social Impeccability and Lie: Over Self-control, emerged which accounted for 72.9% of the total variance. The clinical meaningfulness and the research implications are discussed.

Validity of two measures of anxiety in children

The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAICj and the Childrens Manifest Anxiety Scale (CMAS) were administered to 60 emotionally disturbed children and 60 normal children matched on mental age. Emotionally disturbed children obtained significantly higher scores on the A-State and A-Trait portions of the STAIC and the anxiety portion of the CMAS, while normal children obtained significantly higher scores on the Lie scale of the CMAS. Cutoff scores which maximized the discrimination between normal and emotionally disturbed children were established. Results are interpreted as demonstrating the potential usefulness of these measures for screening.

Reflection-Impulsivity and Locus of Conflict in Emotionally Disturbed Children.

Forty-four emotionally disturbed children were administered the Matching Familiar Figures Test by one examiner, and the 13 most impulsive and 13 most reflective children were chosen. The teachers of these 26 children were asked to fill out a Locus of Conflict Rating Scale by which each child was designated as either an internalizer or externalizer. Impulsive children were found to be externalizers, while reflective children were internalizers. The implications of these results for the etiology and treatment of maladaptive behaviors of emotionally disturbed children were discussed.

Individually tailored behavioral rating scales: a possible alternative

Individually tailored behavioral ratings were introduced as a possible alternative to time sampling or counting each occurrence of the behavior. Interrater reliability was found to be good for the more specific behavior categories and reliability between ratings obtained from direct observation and those based on unit records was acceptable. The usefulness of individually tailored behavioral rating scales in demonstrating behavior change is demonstrated through the presentation of a representative case.

REFLECTION-IMPULSIVITY: RELIABILITY OF THE MATCHING FAMILIAR FIGURES TEST WITH EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED CHILDREN

To investigate the reliability of the Matching Familiar Figures Test with emotionally disturbed children, 30 Ss were tested at the beginning and end of a 3-mo. period. Neither latencies nor errors were reliable. Possible explanations were discussed.