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This study aimed to (a) assess relationships between the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and "DSM"-oriented depression and anxiety scales of the Youth Self Report, (b) develop reliable norms for the CDI, and (c) determine CDI cutoff scores for selecting youngsters at risk for depression and anxiety. A total of 3,073 nonclinical and 511 clinically referred children and adolescents from The Netherlands and Belgium were included. Results showed that CDI scores were significantly related to "DSM"-oriented symptoms of both depression and anxiety. CDI scores correlated highly with depression symptoms and moderately with anxiety symptoms. Norms for the CDI were determined by means of multiple regression analysis and depended on sex, age, and country. CDI cutoff scores for selecting individuals at risk for depression and anxiety as measured by the "DSM"-oriented depression and anxiety scales of the Youth Self Report were determined by means of multiple regression analysis and receiver operating characteristic analysis. A CDI score of 16 was found to have the most optimal balance between sensitivity and specificity for depression, whereas a score of 21 provided the best sensitivity and specificity for anxiety in a subsample of children. We conclude that the CDI is an effective instrument for screening depression and to a lesser extent anxiety in primary and secondary care centers, before applying further assessment of high-risk individuals. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

The article discusses research which was conducted to investigate whether early maladaptive schemas are related to attachment anxiety, avoidance dimensions and symptoms of psychopathology. Researchers had 289 Flemish adolescents participate in a questionnaire study. They found that the association between attachment anxiety and psychopathology is fully mediated by cognitions regarding rejection and disconnection and other-directedness that are associated with early maladaptive schemas.

The current study investigated loss of control (LC) over eating and the role of anxiety, depression and emotional eating in a sample of both treatment seeking (N = 115) and non-treatment seeking (N = 73) overweight youngsters (aged 8–18) using a semi-structured clinical interview and self-report questionnaires. It was found that treatment seekers reported twice as much LC (40%) compared to non-treatment seekers (21%). Cross-sectional prediction models indicated that increased anxiety was associated with emotional eating and LC. Emotional eating tended to mediate the relationship between anxiety and LC. Increased depression was associated with emotional eating but not with LC. Especially overweight treatment seekers turn out to be at risk for LC. Because LC may develop as a result of inadequate coping with negative emotions like anxiety, obesity treatment should focus on teaching more effective coping strategies. Longitudinal research is recommended to further elaborate affect regulation and LC. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlabelled: Cognitive theory is a prominent framework to study depression in both adults and adolescents. This theory stated that dysfunctional schemas are moderators (known as diathesis) in the association of current stress and psychopathology. However, in adolescents, less evidence has been found so far to corroborate the importance of these schemas. This study aimed to investigate in a cross-sectional design the moderating role of adolescents' early maladaptive schemas (EMS) on depressive symptoms. This will be studied in relation to both important daily stressors (i.e., maternal, paternal and peer rejection) and stressful life events., Method: Adolescents (N = 228, age 12-18 years), selected from inpatient and outpatient clinical settings and a non-referred sample, completed questionnaires and interviews measuring psychopathology, cognitive schemas, peer rejection, maternal and paternal rejection, and stressful life events. Parents completed questionnaires about their adolescent measuring psychopathology, stressful life events and peer rejection, as well as their own parental behaviour., Results: Correlational analyses revealed significant associations between the study variables. Evidence was found for an interaction effect between the adolescents' EMS and peer rejection in explaining depressive symptoms, but only in late adolescents., Key Practitioner Message: Stress induced by maternal and, in lesser extent, paternal rejection is contributing to depressive symptoms primarily in younger and to lesser extent in older age groups. The quality of peer relationships becomes an increasingly salient source of distress as adolescence unfolds and is certainly an important mechanism affecting depression in adolescence. Maladaptive schemas only start functioning as a cognitive diathesis in late adolescence, increasing depression in response to peer-related distress. Since maladaptive schemas are not yet operating as cognitive vulnerability factors in early and middle adolescence, early interventions for depressive disorders may be more effective compared with treatment in later adolescence., (Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)