Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:802-808
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
School phobia and other childhood neuroses: a systematic study of the children and their families
S Waldron Jr, DK Shrier, B Stone and F Tobin
The authors developed reliable clinical rating scales to compare 35
children with school phobia and their families with a matched sample of
children with other neuroses and their families. Twice as many school
phobic children as children with other neuroses showed excessive separation
anxiety, dependency, and depression. Although a mutually hostile-dependent
interaction was found in most of the families of children with school
phobia, the development of school phobia appeared to be dependent on
defects in character development in the children as well. The authors
discuss the etiological significance of the almost universal parental
pathology and family malfunction for both groups of children.
