兒童氣質與焦慮及憂鬱傾向之關聯

Temperament Associated with Childhood Anxiety and Depression Tendency

研究目的：探討兒童氣質與焦慮和憂鬱傾向的關係及不同焦慮和憂鬱程度的兒童其氣質之差異。研究方法：本研究於2012年8月至12月進行收樣，樣本為689位8至10歲兒童，男生319位，女生370位，以兒童氣質量表和貝克兒童青少年量表為研究工具。經家長同意後，家長於家中填寫兒童氣質量表，兒童於學校填寫貝克兒童青少年量表。研究資料以積差相關、多元迴歸及單因子多變量變異數分析資料。研究結果：兒童負向情感和外向性愈高，焦慮和憂鬱傾向愈高，而奮力控制中的注意力專注和知覺敏感度能共同預測焦慮和憂鬱傾向，至於四組兒童中低焦慮和低憂鬱傾向組的負向情感顯著低於其他三組兒童。研究結論：建議心理專業人員使用兒童氣質量表了解孩子氣質，協助父母、照顧者及師長教導兒童調節情緒、知覺敏感度、以及提升注意力之方法，並主動關心高負向情感兒童以預防焦慮及憂鬱傾向的出現。未來研究可建立兒童氣質量表之臺灣常模及檢驗其心理計量特性、長期追蹤以探討特定氣質對焦慮和憂鬱傾向的預測，以及研發調節氣質預防發展出情緒問題的方法。

Purpose: We investigated the associations between temperamental factors and anxiety and depression tendencies, and also compared temperamental differences between groups with various degrees of anxiety and depression tendencies. Methods: A total of 689 children (319 boys and 370 girls) aged 8 to 10 years were recruited for this study from August 2012 to October 2012. The measures included the Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire (TMCQ) and the Beck Youth Inventory-Second Edition (BIY-II). Parents completed the TMCQ at home and their children completed the BIY-II at school. Analyses were conducted using Pearson product-moment correlational analysis, multiple regression analysis, and one-way MANOVAs. Results: Children with higher level of negative affect and lower level of extraversion/surgency tended to have a higher tendency toward for anxiety and depression. Attentional focusing and perceptual sensitivity of effortful control could predict a tendency for both anxiety and depression tendency. Compared to the other three groups, children with a lower tendency for anxiety/lower depression tendency, showed a significantly lower level of negative affectivity. Conclusions: It is recommended that mental health professionals use temperament questionnaires as a tool to understand the characteristics of children. Parents, caregivers, and teachers can use them to identify ways to enhance children’s emotion regulation ability, facilitate their attentional focus, and reduce their perceptual sensitivity in order to mitigate the potential development of anxiety and depression. Future studies should establish Taiwan norms for the TMCQ and examine its psychometric properties. Longitudinal studies should be used to explore the predictive power of specific temperamental factors for childhood emotional problems with the goal of designing ways to help high-risk children regulate, adjust, or modify their temperament to prevent possible development of emotional problems.