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Conflicting findings exist regarding (1) whether anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a construct distinct from anxiety in children and (2) the specific nature of the role of AS in child anxiety. This study uses meta-analytic techniques to (1) determine whether youth (ages 6-18 years) have been reported to experience AS, (2) examine whether AS differentiates anxiety disordered youth from youth without diagnoses, and (3) ascertain whether AS distinguishes youth with panic disorder from those with other anxiety disorders. The weighted mean effect size analyses included 15 studies and 6,579 participants. Results suggested positive correlational relationships between AS and anxiety for children (r = 0.26) and adolescents (r = 0.36) and higher levels of AS for anxiety disordered youth than non-clinical youth (d = 0.64). Findings tentatively suggested higher levels of AS for youth with panic disorder than youth diagnosed with other anxiety disorders. Implications and future directions in the research of child AS are discussed.

Childhood parentification has been associated with both positive and negative psychosocial outcomes. While divergent effects of parentification have been documented, few studies have attempted to identify variables that may impact the relationship between parentification and later adjustment. In the present study, internal locus of control, a variable associated with positive adjustment, was hypothesized as a potential moderating variable in the relationship between parentification and outcome. Using an undergraduate sample, internal locus of control was found to significantly moderate the relationship between childhood parentification and current ratings of depression and happiness. Theoretical rationales for the findings are discussed.

Extensive research has linked youth depression symptoms to low levels of perceived control, using measures that reflect primary control (i.e., influencing objective conditions to make them fit one's wishes). We hypothesized that depressive symptoms are also linked to low levels of secondary control (i.e., influencing the psychological impact of objective conditions by adjusting oneself to fit them). To test the hypothesis, we developed the Secondary Control Scale for Children (SCSC), examined its psychometrics, and used it to assess the secondary controldepression symptomatology association. In a large adolescent sample, the SCSC showed factorial integrity, internal consistency, test-retest stability, convergent and discriminant validity, and accounted for more than 40% of the variance in depression symptoms. Consistent with evidence on risk and gender, depression symptoms were more strongly associated with secondary control in girls and primary control in boys. Assessing secondary control may help us understand youth depression vulnerability in girls and boys. KeywordsDepression; Adolescence; Gender; Secondary control; Primary control Theories spanning more than five decades have linked depression to low levels of perceived control (see e.g., Abramson and Sackheim 1977;Bibring 1953;Seligman 1975;Weisz et al. 2001). Numerous investigators have applied this notion to children and adolescents, with findings supporting the connection between youth depression and low perceived control, operationally defined in several ways. Research has linked youth depression to external locus of control and control beliefs (e.g., Herman-Stahl and Peterson 1999;McCauley et al. 1988), low perceived competence (e.g., Cole et al. 1999;Weisz et al. 1987), low perceived contingency between actions and outcomes (e.g., Weisz et al. 1993), perceived helplessness (e.g., Kazdin et al. 1985), attributions of failure to internal, stable, and global causes Gladstone and Kaslow 1995), and low levels of perceived competence, Correspondence to: John R. Weisz, jweisz@jbcc.harvard.edu. NIH Public AccessAuthor Manuscript J Abnorm Child Psychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 October 1. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript contingency of outcomes, and ability to achieve desired outcomes (e.g., Muris et al. 2003;Weisz et al. 2001).A common denominator of these models and findings is that they reflect one particular way of construing control, a construct labeled primary control in the two-process model of control (Morling and Evered 2006;Rothbaum et al. 1982; Weisz et al. 1984a,b). In that model, primary control entails influencing objective conditions to make them fit one's wishes. All the constructs noted above-external locus of control, low contingency, low personal competence, helplessness, and attributing failure to internal, stable, and global causes-are conceptually linked to a failure to achieve the objective outcomes and conditions individuals wish to achieve. The many research findings in...

A doubling of Australian expenditure on mental health services over two decades, inflation-adjusted, has reduced prevalence of neither psychological distress nor mental disorders. Low rates of help-seeking, and inadequate and inequitable delivery of effective care may explain this partially, but not fully. Focusing on depressive disorders, drawing initially on ideas from the work of philosopher and socio-cultural critic Ivan Illich, we use evidence-based medicine statistics and simulation modelling approaches to develop testable hypotheses as to how iatrogenic influences on the course of depression may help explain this seeming paradox. Combined psychological treatment and antidepressant medication may be available, and beneficial, for depressed people in socioeconomically advantaged areas. But more Australians with depression live in disadvantaged areas where antidepressant medication provision without formal psychotherapy is more typical; there also are urban/non-urban disparities. Depressed people often engage in self-help strategies consistent with psychological treatments, probably often with some benefit to these people. We propose then, if people are encouraged to rely heavily on antidepressant medication only, and if they consequently reduce spontaneous self-help activity, that the benefits of the antidepressant medication may be more than offset by reductions in beneficial effects as a consequence of reduced self-help activity. While in advantaged areas, more comprehensive service delivery may result in observed prevalence lower than it would be without services, in less well-serviced areas, observed prevalence may be higher than it would otherwise be. Overall, then, we see no change. If the hypotheses receive support from the proposed research, then implications for service prioritisation and delivery could include a case for wider application of recovery-oriented practice. Critically, it would strengthen the case for action to correct inequities in the delivery of psychological treatments for depression in Australia so that combined psychological therapy and antidepressant medication, accessible and administered within an empowering framework, should be a nationally implemented standard.